Keynote
Address by the Honourable Deputy Minister
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Ms
Rejoice Mabudafhasi at the Third National
Women and Environment Conference
14 August 2008 – Program
Director
Honourable Premier of Limpopo Province,
Ntate Sello Moloto
Honourable Minister of Tourism, Culture
and Environment in Lesotho, Mme Lebohang
Ntsiny
Honourable Minister of Environment and Communication
in Swaziland, Mme Thandi Shongwe
Honourable Deputy Minister of Trade and
Industry, Mme Elizabeth Thabethe
Honourable Ambassadors
Honourable MECs
Honourable Members of Parliament and Provincial
Legislature
Your worships, Councillors, Mayors and Executive
Mayors
The National Secretary of the Young Communist
League, Comrade Buti Manamela
Senior Gender Advisor for the United Nations
Environment Program, Mme Janet Kabeberi-Macharia
Director-General of the Department of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism, Mme Nosipho Ngcaba
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
1. Introduction
It gives me immense
pleasure to address you on this special
occasion of the Third National Women and
Environment Conference.
The main purpose of
this conference is to share experiences,
best practice and knowledge on initiatives
through which women and young people around
the world in general, and particularly in
South Africa are leading solutions for environmental
sustainability.
This conference bears
testament to the progress we have achieved
in ensuring that South African women take
charge of the environment and are truly
empowered to take environmental action.
This is in line with the resolutions that
we adopted during the First and Second National
Women and Environment Conferences which
were held in 2005 and 2006.
South Africa as the
Co-Chair of the Global Network for Women
Ministers and Leaders of Environment is
the first country in Africa to initiate
a national forum to create dialogue and
empower local women to deal with environmental
challenges. We have achieved this progress
in the context of the Beijing Platform for
Action that was adopted at the Fourth World
Conference on Women to emphasize the empowerment,
full participation and equality for women
as the foundations for peace and sustainable
development.
Our conference comes
at a time when the worlds poor are hit hard
by soaring prices of food, fuel and other
basic commodities. All of this is happening
at a time when we are gravely concerned
that current patterns of economic development
and globalization are increasing the gap
between the rich and poor, benefiting men
more than women, and leading to increased
environmental degradation.
Despite these challenges,
women and young people from all walks of
life have been doing their best to ensure
that development gives priority to the poor
through access to opportunities that will
make it easier for them to participate in
decisions that affect their lives. This
is of paramount importance given the background
that the majority of the worlds poor are
women and the number of rural women living
below the poverty line has increased by
50% since 1970.
Allow me to highlight
success stories of women who have been leading
solutions for environmental sustainability
and share with you some of the current challenges
and how we could overcome these. I will
particularly focus on biodiversity and food
security, climate change, waste management,
air pollution as well as alternatives for
affordable and clean energy.
As much as possible,
I also wish to account on how our department
has assisted women and young people through,
inter alia, its social responsibility program
which has to date contributed millions of
rands to fund projects that created thousands
of permanent jobs in the environment and
tourism sectors.
Numerous case studies
on successful environmental management and
sustainable development projects which are
benefiting ordinary women throughout the
country will be presented during the thematic
sessions of this conference. I am sure we
will all benefit from the interactive discussions
in these sessions.
2. Biodiversity, Land
Degradation and Food Security
Over the past years,
we have been making strenuous efforts to
demonstrate that when the rural environment
becomes unsustainable, it is women whose
livelihoods are most negatively affected.
It is now widely accepted that the protection
of biodiversity is critical in order to
ensure food security for rural women and
their communities. It is also acknowledged
that womens indigenous knowledge should
be integrated and utilized in order to effectively
conserve biodiversity and sustain rural
livelihoods.
The greatest threat
to biodiversity and food security in Africa
is land degradation and desertification.
Women throughout the world are involved
in land rehabilitation projects aimed at
reversing the negative impacts of desertification.
I wish to encourage all of us to acknowledge
the sterling work which women throughout
Africa have been doing to protect biodiversity
and curb land degradation and desertification.
An admirable and courageous
but very painful experience is that of Ama
Ntowaa from Ghana who owned a cocoa farm
which also had indigenous Mahagony and teak
trees. Amas problems started when the Chief
in her area, who was looking for personal
profit, destroyed one third of her farm
when he illegally logged and sold timber
trees she had grown on her land.
Ama did not receive
compensation for her commercial cocoa trees
that were also destroyed in this process.
This loss was very devastating to Ama who,
as a single mother, was intending to sell
her cocoa to get money to feed her six children.
The Chief was due to be handsomely rewarded
as he had made a deal with logging companies
to sell timber trees which were planted
and nurtured by local women.
When the Chief came
to load the logs at Amas farm, she courageously
laid down in front of a bulldozer to stop
it from hauling away trees. To the Chief,
she said You will have to kill me first
before you can take the logs away. As a
result, the Chief abandoned the logs and
left her farm. This is a real story and
evidence to show that as rural women in
Africa, we are prepared to sacrifice our
lives in order to protect our biodiversity
and livelihoods.
Through its social responsibility
program, our department has invested millions
of rands to support the implementation of
community projects to combat land degradation
and esertification. Most of these projects
are implemented by women in our dry regions
focusing on combating soil erosion, rehabilitation
of wetlands, clearing of invasive and alien
species as well as the rehabilitation of
water catchments and coastal areas. In this
way, we have contributed towards poverty
eradication and created thousands of jobs
for local women.
3. Climate Change
Gone are the days when
the environment was considered a preoccupation
of the wealthy and rich. This is because
climate change and its profound implications
for developing countries have effectively
transformed the way decision-makers look
at environmental issues.
We now acknowledge the
reality of the negative impacts of climate
change on our lives as we experience less
rainfall, less supply of water, extreme
weather events, frequent droughts and reduced
agricultural production. When natural disasters
such as severe storms and floods strike,
rural women carry a heavier burden as their
traditional roles of securing food, water,
shelter and fuel are made more difficult
to fulfill.
Although international
instruments for addressing climate change
such as the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol have
so far failed to integrate social and gender-related
concerns, international and local gender
activists have long been calling for womens
increased roles on the implementation of
adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Adaptation programs
should specifically be targeted at women
as they are the majority of the 1.4 billion
rural people who depend on small-scale farming
in developing countries. Due to pre-existing
inequalities, women tend to have few options
for responding to the effects of climate
change as they have less financial, physical
and human resources than men.
A key factor in enabling
vulnerable women and their communities to
adapt to climate change and cope with its
associated disasters is the provisioning
of an early warning system to forecast impending
disasters in their areas. We are fortunate
that the South African Weather Service has
invested in technology and infrastructure
that is able to provide this service free
of charge to vulnerable communities.
It is also recognized
that rural women can play a major role in
mitigating climate change through the sustainable
management of land, forests and other natural
resources. This strategy would allow women
to access opportunities through which they
will be acknowledged and remunerated for
providing environmental services that benefit
us all.
We need to establish
partnerships between women, the business
community and the corporate world in order
to effectively bridge the gap between rhetoric
and practice on the fight against climate
change. An excellent example is the partnership
between the Green Belt Movement and the
World Banks Community Development Carbon
Fund that signed an Emission Reductions
Purchase Agreement in 2006 to reforest two
mountain areas in Kenya.
It is envisaged that
thousands of women will plant thousands
of indigenous trees on 2 000 hectares of
the Aberdares and Mt. Kenya. It is also
estimated that the trees to be planted will
have captured 375 000 tons of carbon dioxide
by 2017. This project will combat soil erosion
and support regular rainfall which is essential
to maintain hydro-power plants which are
Kenyas main source of electricity. Women
also stand to benefit from an income which
they will generate from this employment
opportunity.
In South Africa, we
are at the initial stages of negotiations
for similar partnerships that could assist
in curbing the scourge of climate change
through carbon sequestration. We are exploring
partnerships that will enable us to invest
in sustainable protection of forest and
rural ecosystems, integrated infrastructure
and ecotourism in order to participate in
the development of new markets for environmental
services including the sequestration of
carbon dioxide and avoided deforestation.
4. Turning waste into
wealth
Waste management in
our country requires urgent attention as
we increasingly observe that too much garbage
is lying uncollected in the streets, causing
inconvenience and pollution, and being a
health risk to the public.
Gender issues on waste
management should be considered from a variety
of perspectives as women and men view things
differently. What looks like junk to women
may be motorcycle parts to men. What looks
like dirt to men may be compost or fertilizers
to women.
In some cases, the subordinate
status of women may affect their general
access to resources such that waste materials
may be the only resources available to them.
Waste management strategies which are ignorant
of womens activities may end up disrupting
fragile livelihoods. As waste collectors,
women are more reliable than men as they
usually make a greater effort and a long-term
commitment as compared to men who will leave
at the earliest opportunity to move to lucrative
jobs.
Waste minimization should
start at our homes where we generate most
of our waste. Ideally, all waste should
be reduced, re-used and recycled at source
including our own homes, factories and work
places. This practice could also avoid unhealthy
and demeaning situations where poor people,
especially women and children are seen scavenging
for waste materials in waste dumps, landfills
and factory sites.
Our government has on-going
clean-up campaigns targeted at cleaning
cities, towns, informal settlements and
townships and international borders. The
primary aim of these campaigns is to raise
public awareness on the importance of a
clean environment to peoples health and
tourism development.
These campaigns are
achieving excellent results in terms of
empowering and motivating women and young
people to take care of the environment.
An important partner in these campaigns
is Indalo Yethu which is a non-profit organization
created as to raise public awareness on
environmental issues.
In order to sustain
the impact of these clean-up campaigns,
our department has entered into a partnership
with Buyisa e Bag, which is a non-profit
waste recycling organization established
by national government, industry and organized
labour. After each clean-up campaign, we
establish buy-back or recycling centres.
The value of this initiative
is that we are able to assist members of
the public, especially women and young people,
to create business and employment opportunities
for themselves. These opportunities are
in the form of entrepreneurs owning and
managing recycling centres or waste collectors
supplying these centres with waste.
To date, we have invested
R10 million on the establishment of 20 multi-recycling
centres, most of which are owned and managed
by women and young people. For example,
recycling centres at Hammanskraal, Sekhukhune,
Fetakgomu, Motherwell and Orange Farm are
exclusively owned and managed by women and
young people. Each recycling centre has
a potential to create 15-30 permanent jobs
and benefit up to 100 collectors who could
sell recyclable materials such as plastics,
cans, paper, bottle and glass.
Our government is proud
to be in partnership with institutions such
as Buyisa e Bag. On this note, I would like
to invite all women and young people in
this conference to contact Buyisa e Bag
to obtain more information on how to access
support to start their own recycling centres.
5. Air pollution and
alternative sources of energy
Air pollution is ranked
amongst the worst environmental problems
in the world. Indoor air pollution is responsible
for the premature death of many women and
children who inhale poisonous fumes as they
cook and heat their homes using unclean
fuels such as wood, paraffin, cow dung,
coal and crop residue.
Women in rural areas,
informal settlements and townships are compelled
to burn dirty fuels for cooking and heating
as they cannot afford cleaner sources of
energy such as electricity and gas. To alleviate
this situation, our department has recently
resuscitated the Clean Fires Campaign, know
as Basa Nje ngo Magogo, aimed at promoting
a top down methodology of making clean fires
and raising awareness on the health implications
of indoor fires to communities.
This campaign will also
promote various ways through which communities
can access and use clean, reliable, affordable,
efficient as well as safe cooking and heating
practices to meet their basic needs. Where
stoves are used, we encourage communities
to fit chimneys to reduce exposure to harmful
smoke form open fires.
Where feasible and affordable,
we encourage women to use clean and renewable
energy sources such as biogas digesters,
solar water heaters and micro hydropower
generators. We also encourage communities
to keep windows and doors closed during
winter and vice versa in summer so as to
preserve energy.
Poor women who reside
close to industries and factories emitting
poisonous gases are also exposed to further
health risks. In this way, women experience
a double burden of indoor and outdoor pollutions.
Our enforcement and compliance team, the
Green Scorpions, are working around the
clock to ensure that industries comply with
emission standards set by the Air Quality
Act. We have already installed air quality
monitoring network stations in the Vaal
and High Veld priority areas in order to
generate reliable data on levels of emissions
in these areas.
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, we note,
acknowledge and commend important roles
played by various structures such as community-based
organizations, political organizations,
government departments and non-governmental
organizations in advancing the empowerment
of women and young people to deal with environmental
issues at national, provincial and local
levels.
Furthermore, we have
observed that programs of work for these
structures require improvement in terms
of co-ordination and integration to share
resources and maximize benefits. As delegates
to this conference, I wish to call upon
you to give direction on how we can overcome
these challenges.
I am very glad to notice
that delegates at this conference include
people with disabilities. I therefore wish
to make a special request for this conference
to come-up with clear and coherent outcomes
on how we can strengthen the role of people
with disabilities on all aspects of environmental
management in this country.
I eagerly await receiving
your outcomes at the end of this conference.
I wish you a fruitful, informative and enriching
conference.
Thank you
For more information on the conference please
visit the following link http://www.environment.gov.za/HotIssues/2008/WEC/wec.html
Moses Rannditsheni
+ More
Speech by Deputy Minister
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Ms
Rejoice Mabudafhasi, MP at the Media Launch
of the National Tourism Career Expo in Durban
on 12 August 2008
12 August 2008 – Speech
- Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism - Programme Director
MEC: Arts, Culture and Tourism - Head of
Department: Arts, Culture and Tourism -
Chief Executive Officer: SAT
Chief Executive Officer: KZN Tourism
Chief Executive Officer: Theta
Chairperson TOMSA
Members of the media
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Programme Director,
it is with great excitement and enthusiasm
that I engage journalists from different
media houses on the preparations for the
launch of the first ever National Tourism
Career Expo 2008.
The Department of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), the Department
of Arts, Culture and Tourism (DACT-KZN)
and the Tourism, Hospitality & Sport
Education & Training Authority (THETA)
will be hosting the 2008 National Tourism
Careers Expo at the Durban Exhibition Centre
from October 14 to 16, 2008.
This Expo serves as
a platform to encourage school learners,
students and unemployed youth to pursue
a career in tourism. Even though the tourism
sector is one of the largest and most diverse
industries in the world, it remains a largely
untapped sector when it comes to attracting
young individuals to choose it as a career.
Programme Director,
a key focus of the Expo is to showcase,
to young people, the vast potential, great
opportunities and rewarding jobs within
the tourism sector. It will also offer an
unforgettable experience that will stimulate,
inspire and encourage young people to explore
tourism as a career.
The expo also presents
an opportunity whereby employers will be
able to meet their future employees. The
tourism educators will also be able to interact
with the champions of the industry and will
get to know more about Tourism. An opportunity
will also be presented to industry players
especially those that wishes to allocate
bursaries and learnership opportunities
to students.
There is a range of
initiatives which DEAT has under taken to
address skills development within the industry
and these will also be unveiled during this
event. These include the following:
Launch outcomes of survey
on the intake of tourism in schools
Launch Social Tourism Policy pilot project
for South Africa
Introduce opportunities for international
placement
Award and reward excellence in tourism education
and training
Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries
globally and the second largest sector in
the world in terms of turnover, it is an
industry that currently offers a lot of
opportunities to individuals who not only
have a passion for working closely with
people, but are keen to be part of an industry
that is a key contributor to the SA economy.
This industry, which
provides employment directly to millions
of people worldwide and indirectly through
many associated service industries includes
careers in Government tourism departments,
immigration and customs services, travel
agencies, airlines, tour operators, hotels
and many associated service industries such
as airline catering or laundry services,
tour guides, interpreters, tourism promotion
and sales.
Travel and Tourism enterprises
include major international organisations
with a workforce of thousands, to small
private travel agents with a handful of
employees. Like many industries, some entry-level
positions in tourism pay minimum wages.
However, there are opportunities to supplement
one’s income with commissions, gratuities
or other benefits such as free or discounted
accommodation. Tourism positions above entry
level often pay well in comparison to other
industries. Many factors will determine
what one will earn, such as the kind of
job you do, location, type of operation,
your education and training.
Most entry level positions
in the tourism industry do not require a
university degree although other forms of
education and/or training are usually necessary.
Technikons, technical colleges, and private
colleges offer courses in Tourism Management,
General & Retail Travel and Cabin Crew.
One needs to make sure
that private colleges are accredited with
the proper training authorities before enrolment.
THETA, the Tourism, Hospitality and Sport
Education Training Authority has a system
of learnerships and skills programmes available
where one can gain credits on the National
Qualifications Framework (NQF) while one
is working in the industry.
However some occupations
require skills that must be learned and
practiced. There are many routes to learning
and depending on the occupation one chooses,
one may achieve a management position through
on-the-job training and experience, a college
or university diploma and/or through an
apprenticeship programme. Most industry
leaders want their employees to gain practical
experience on-the-job so that they can move
up the corporate ladder and eventually take
on more senior roles.
Programme Director,
in conclusion I would like to take this
opportunity to thank all journalists who
have availed themselves and wish to extend
an invitation to the Career Expo in October.
Moses Rannditsheni
+ More
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE
HONOURABLE DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL
AFFAIRS AND TOURISM, MS REJOICE MABUDAFHASI
AT THE THIRD NATIONAL WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT
CONFERENCE
ALL HANDS ON DECK: WOMEN
LEADING SOLUTIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Program Director
Honourable Premier of Limpopo Province,
Ntate Sello Moloto
Honourable Minister of Tourism, Culture
and Environment in Lesotho, Mme Lebohang
Ntsinyi
Honourable Minister of Environment and Communication
in Swaziland, Mme Thandi Shongwe
Honourable Deputy Minister of Trade and
Industry, Mme Elizabeth Thabethe
Honourable Ambassadors
Honourable MECs
Honourable Members of Parliament and Provincial
Legislature
Your worships, Councillors, Mayors and Executive
Mayors
The National Secretary of the Young Communist
League, Comrade Buti Manamela
Senior Gender Advisor for the United Nations
Environment Program, Mme Janet Kabeberi-Macharia
Director-General of the Department of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism, Mme Nosipho Ngcaba
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
1. Introduction
It gives me immense
pleasure to address you on this special
occasion of the Third National Women and
Environment Conference.
The main purpose of
this conference is to share experiences,
best practice and knowledge on initiatives
through which women and young people around
the world in general, and particularly in
South Africa are leading solutions for environmental
sustainability.
This conference bears
testament to the progress we have achieved
in ensuring that South African women take
charge of the environment and are truly
empowered to take environmental action.
This is in line with the resolutions that
we adopted during the First and Second National
Women and Environment Conferences which
were held in 2005 and 2006.
South Africa as the
Co-Chair of the Global Network for Women
Ministers and Leaders of Environment is
the first country in Africa to initiate
a national forum to create dialogue and
empower local women to deal with environmental
challenges. We have achieved this progress
in the context of the Beijing Platform for
Action that was adopted at the Fourth World
Conference on Women to emphasize the empowerment,
full participation and equality for women
as the foundations for peace and sustainable
development.
Our conference comes
at a time when the worlds poor are hit hard
by soaring prices of food, fuel and other
basic commodities. All of this is happening
at a time when we are gravely concerned
that current patterns of economic development
and globalization are increasing the gap
between the rich and poor, benefiting men
more than women, and leading to increased
environmental degradation.
Despite these challenges,
women and young people from all walks of
life have been doing their best to ensure
that development gives priority to the poor
through access to opportunities that will
make it easier for them to participate in
decisions that affect their lives. This
is of paramount importance given the background
that the majority of the worlds poor are
women and the number of rural women living
below the poverty line has increased by
50% since 1970.
Allow me to highlight
success stories of women who have been leading
solutions for environmental sustainability
and share with you some of the current challenges
and how we could overcome these. I will
particularly focus on biodiversity and food
security, climate change, waste management,
air pollution as well as alternatives for
affordable and clean energy.
As much as possible,
I also wish to account on how our department
has assisted women and young people through,
inter alia, its social responsibility program
which has to date contributed millions of
rands to fund projects that created thousands
of permanent jobs in the environment and
tourism sectors.
Numerous case studies
on successful environmental management and
sustainable development projects which are
benefiting ordinary women throughout the
country will be presented during the thematic
sessions of this conference. I am sure we
will all benefit from the interactive discussions
in these sessions.
2. Biodiversity, Land
Degradation and Food Security
Over the past years,
we have been making strenuous efforts to
demonstrate that when the rural environment
becomes unsustainable, it is women whose
livelihoods are most negatively affected.
It is now widely accepted that the protection
of biodiversity is critical in order to
ensure food security for rural women and
their communities. It is also acknowledged
that womens indigenous knowledge should
be integrated and utilized in order to effectively
conserve biodiversity and sustain rural
livelihoods.
The greatest threat
to biodiversity and food security in Africa
is land degradation and desertification.
Women throughout the world are involved
in land rehabilitation projects aimed at
reversing the negative impacts of desertification.
I wish to encourage all of us to acknowledge
the sterling work which women throughout
Africa have been doing to protect biodiversity
and curb land degradation and desertification.
An admirable and courageous
but very painful experience is that of Ama
Ntowaa from Ghana who owned a cocoa farm
which also had indigenous Mahagony and teak
trees. Amas problems started when the Chief
in her area, who was looking for personal
profit, destroyed one third of her farm
when he illegally logged and sold timber
trees she had grown on her land.
Ama did not receive
compensation for her commercial cocoa trees
that were also destroyed in this process.
This loss was very devastating to Ama who,
as a single mother, was intending to sell
her cocoa to get money to feed her six children.
The Chief was due to be handsomely rewarded
as he had made a deal with logging companies
to sell timber trees which were planted
and nurtured by local women.
When the Chief came
to load the logs at Amas farm, she courageously
laid down in front of a bulldozer to stop
it from hauling away trees. To the Chief,
she said You will have to kill me first
before you can take the logs away. As a
result, the Chief abandoned the logs and
left her farm. This is a real story and
evidence to show that as rural women in
Africa, we are prepared to sacrifice our
lives in order to protect our biodiversity
and livelihoods.
Through its social responsibility
program, our department has invested millions
of
rands to support the implementation of community
projects to combat land degradation and
desertification. Most of these projects
are implemented by women in our dry regions
focusing on combating soil erosion, rehabilitation
of wetlands, clearing of invasive and alien
species as well as the rehabilitation of
water catchments and coastal areas. In this
way, we have contributed towards poverty
eradication and created thousands of jobs
for local women.
3. Climate Change
Gone are the days when
the environment was considered a preoccupation
of the wealthy and rich. This is because
climate change and its profound implications
for developing countries have effectively
transformed the way decision-makers look
at environmental issues.
We now acknowledge the
reality of the negative impacts of climate
change on our lives as we experience less
rainfall, less supply of water, extreme
weather events, frequent droughts and reduced
agricultural production. When natural disasters
such as severe storms and floods strike,
rural women carry a heavier burden as their
traditional roles of securing food, water,
shelter and fuel are made more difficult
to fulfill.
Although international
instruments for addressing climate change
such as the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol have
so far failed to integrate social and gender-related
concerns, international and local gender
activists have long been calling for womens
increased roles on the implementation of
adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Adaptation programs
should specifically be targeted at women
as they are the majority of the 1.4 billion
rural people who depend on small-scale farming
in developing countries. Due to pre-existing
inequalities, women tend to have few options
for responding to the effects of climate
change as they have less financial, physical
and human resources than men.
A key factor in enabling
vulnerable women and their communities to
adapt to climate change and cope with its
associated disasters is the provisioning
of an early warning system to forecast impending
disasters in their areas. We are fortunate
that the South African Weather Service has
invested in technology and infrastructure
that is able to provide this service free
of charge to vulnerable communities.
It is also recognized
that rural women can play a major role in
mitigating climate change through the sustainable
management of land, forests and other natural
resources. This strategy would allow women
to access opportunities through which they
will be acknowledged and remunerated for
providing environmental services that benefit
us all.
We need to establish
partnerships between women, the business
community and the corporate world in order
to effectively bridge the gap between rhetoric
and practice on the fight against climate
change. An excellent example is the partnership
between the Green Belt Movement and the
World Banks Community Development Carbon
Fund that signed an Emission Reductions
Purchase Agreement in 2006 to reforest two
mountain areas in Kenya.
It is envisaged that
thousands of women will plant thousands
of indigenous trees on 2 000 hectares of
the Aberdares and Mt. Kenya. It is also
estimated that the trees to be planted will
have captured 375 000 tons of carbon dioxide
by 2017. This project will combat soil erosion
and support regular rainfall which is essential
to maintain hydro-power plants which are
Kenyas main source of electricity. Women
also stand to benefit from an income which
they will generate from this employment
opportunity.
In South Africa, we
are at the initial stages of negotiations
for similar partnerships that could assist
in curbing the scourge of climate change
through carbon sequestration. We are exploring
partnerships that will enable us to invest
in sustainable protection of forest and
rural ecosystems, integrated infrastructure
and ecotourism in order to participate in
the development of new markets for environmental
services including the sequestration of
carbon dioxide and avoided deforestation.
4. Turning waste into
wealth
Waste management in
our country requires urgent attention as
we increasingly observe that too much garbage
is lying uncollected in the streets, causing
inconvenience and pollution, and being a
health risk to the public.
Gender issues on waste
management should be considered from a variety
of perspectives as women and men view things
differently. What looks like junk to women
may be motorcycle parts to men. What looks
like dirt to men may be compost or fertilizers
to women.
In some cases, the subordinate
status of women may affect their general
access to resources such that waste materials
may be the only resources available to them.
Waste management strategies which are ignorant
of womens activities may end up disrupting
fragile livelihoods. As waste collectors,
women are more reliable than men as they
usually make a greater effort and a long-term
commitment as compared to men who will leave
at the earliest opportunity to move to lucrative
jobs.
Waste minimization should
start at our homes where we generate most
of our waste. Ideally, all waste should
be reduced, re-used and recycled at source
including our own homes, factories and work
places. This practice could also avoid unhealthy
and demeaning situations where poor people,
especially women and children are seen scavenging
for waste materials in waste dumps, landfills
and factory sites.
Our government has on-going
clean-up campaigns targeted at cleaning
cities, towns, informal settlements and
townships and international borders. The
primary aim of these campaigns is to raise
public awareness on the importance of a
clean environment to peoples health and
tourism development.
These campaigns are
achieving excellent results in terms of
empowering and motivating women and young
people to take care of the environment.
An important partner in these campaigns
is Indalo Yethu which is a non-profit organization
created as to raise public awareness on
environmental issues.
In order to sustain
the impact of these clean-up campaigns,
our department has entered into a partnership
with Buyisa e Bag, which is a non-profit
waste recycling organization established
by national government, industry and organized
labour. After each clean-up campaign, we
establish buy-back or recycling centres.
.
The value of this initiative
is that we are able to assist members of
the public, especially women and young people,
to create business and employment opportunities
for themselves. These opportunities are
in the form of entrepreneurs owning and
managing recycling centres or waste collectors
supplying these centres with waste.
To date, we have invested
R10 million on the establishment of 20 multi-recycling
centres, most of which are owned and managed
by women and young people. For example,
recycling centres at Hammanskraal, Sekhukhune,
Fetakgomu, Motherwell and Orange Farm are
exclusively owned and managed by women and
young people. Each recycling centre has
a potential to create 15-30 permanent jobs
and benefit up to 100 collectors who could
sell recyclable materials such as plastics,
cans, paper, bottle and glass.
Our government is proud
to be in partnership with institutions such
as Buyisa e Bag. On this note, I would like
to invite all women and young people in
this conference to contact Buyisa e Bag
to obtain more information on how to access
support to start their own recycling centres.
5. Air pollution and
alternative sources of energy
Air pollution is ranked
amongst the worst environmental problems
in the world. Indoor air pollution is responsible
for the premature death of many women and
children who inhale poisonous fumes as they
cook and heat their homes using unclean
fuels such as wood, paraffin, cow dung,
coal and crop residue.
Women in rural areas,
informal settlements and townships are compelled
to burn dirty fuels for cooking and heating
as they cannot afford cleaner sources of
energy such as electricity and gas. To alleviate
this situation, our department has recently
resuscitated the Clean Fires Campaign, know
as Basa Nje ngo Magogo, aimed at promoting
a top down methodology of making clean fires
and raising awareness on the health implications
of indoor fires to communities.
This campaign will also
promote various ways through which communities
can access and use clean, reliable, affordable,
efficient as well as safe cooking and heating
practices to meet their basic needs. Where
stoves are used, we encourage communities
to fit chimneys to reduce exposure to harmful
smoke form open fires.
Where feasible and affordable,
we encourage women to use clean and renewable
energy sources such as biogas digesters,
solar water heaters and micro hydropower
generators. We also encourage communities
to keep windows and doors closed during
winter and vice versa in summer so as to
preserve energy.
Poor women who reside
close to industries and factories emitting
poisonous gases are also exposed to further
health risks. In this way, women experience
a double burden of indoor and outdoor pollutions.
Our enforcement and compliance team, the
Green Scorpions, are working around the
clock to ensure that industries comply with
emission standards set by the Air Quality
Act. We have already installed air quality
monitoring network stations in the Vaal
and High Veld priority areas in order to
generate reliable data on levels of emissions
in these areas.
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, we note,
acknowledge and commend important roles
played by various structures such as community-based
organizations, political organizations,
government departments and non-governmental
organizations in advancing the empowerment
of women and young people to deal with environmental
issues at national, provincial and local
levels.
Furthermore, we have
observed that programs of work for these
structures require improvement in terms
of co-ordination and integration to share
resources and maximize benefits. As delegates
to this conference, I wish to call upon
you to give direction on how we can overcome
these challenges.
I am very glad to notice
that delegates at this conference include
people with disabilities. I therefore wish
to make a special request for this conference
to come-up with clear and coherent outcomes
on how we can strengthen the role of people
with disabilities on all aspects of environmental
management in this country.
I eagerly await receiving
your outcomes at the end of this conference.
I wish you a fruitful, informative and enriching
conference.
Thank you
For more information on the conference please
visit the following link http://www.environment.gov.za/HotIssues/2008/WEC/wec.html
For Media Enquiries/Interviews contact:
Moses Rannditsheni, Spokesperson for the
Deputy Minister
