building workshop on Values of Heritage sites
18 May 2007
The Director-General in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
, Ms Pam Yako, will welcome young African conservators from the West Indian
Ocean Islands, Eastern and Southern Africa on Sunday, 22 May 2007 in Cape Town
to a 5-day regional capacity building workshop on Biodiversity in World Natural
Heritage Sites, coinciding with the International Day for Biological
Biodiversity.
The workshop, which is the first of its kind in the region, is aimed at
building capacity to carry out environmental awareness campaigns and improve
capacity in world natural heritage management.
It will further focus on:
* empowering the core group of young people of environmental non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and government who will then transfer this knowledge in
their respective countries
* empowering youth through their leaders with skills in public outreach and
advocacy for the World Heritage related issues they identify as crucial for
sustainable development
* improving understanding by young people of Africa of the international
environmental instruments such as the World Heritage Convention and their
processes and their use in relevant national and local processes
* strengthening the youth community as a whole by increasing its
professionalism and effectiveness in the conservation and protection of World
Natural Heritage sites
* strengthening local and regional networks among NGOs for mutual support and
developing common positions about heritage issues
* enabling youth to adequately prepare for participation in international
meetings as well as in the follow-up phase of monitoring and implementation of
recommendations from these meetings as relates to World Heritage
* providing policy packages on key issues to youth leaders to enable them to
understand the present state of international negotiations regarding the
conservation and sustainable development and the role of World Heritage sites
in these efforts
* bridging the information and communication gap between NGOs themselves, and
between these with the site managers and the local communities.
The workshop is jointly hosted by the Department of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism and the South African Biodiversity Institute. The countries that
will be represented at the workshop include South Africa, Kenya, Madagascar,
Comores, Seychelles, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Mauritius.
All media is invited to the official welcome ceremony which will be held at
the Simon's restaurant in Constantia, Cape Town at 17h00.
Enquiries:
Molefe Molamu
Cell: 082 561 6261
Mava Scott
Cell: 082 411 9821
Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
18 May 2007
