31 May 2012 - “Green
Economy: Does it include you?”is the pertinent
theme that South Africa will commemorate
national Environment Month under this June.
The celebration of National Environment
Month is an annual event on South Africa’s
environment calendar.
This year’s celebration
recognises the significance of the green
economy and celebrations are aimed at showcasing
the work South Africa is doing in the preservation
of the environment as well as the creation
of job opportunities- both of which are
central to the work of the Department of
Environmental Affairs.
According to the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the
Green economy is a system of economic activities
resulting in improved human well-being,
while ensuring the protection of future
generations against significant environmental
risks and ecological scarcities. The green
economy is driven by sectors such as water,
fisheries, waste management and policy,
research and governance. “The South African
government has identified the green economy
as one of the key elements in the new growth
path as well as in the industry policy action
plan,” said Minister of Water and Environmental
Affairs, Ms Edna Molewa.
The transitioning to
a green economy brings with it many advantages;
these include reduced carbon emissions,
energy and resource efficiency and real
sustainable economic growth. “A low-carbon,
resource efficient and sustainable economy
has the potential to create jobs across
many sectors of the economy and we can become
an engine of development,” said Minister
Molewa.
Other key events celebrated
during Environment Month include World Environment
Day on 5 June (WED), World Oceans Day on
8 June (WOD) and World Day to Combat Desertification
on 17 June (WDCD). This year the Department
will also focus on Bioprospecting, Access
and Benefit Sharing (BABS) as part of its
activities.
World Environment Day
was established by the United Nations General
Assembly in 1972 at the Stockholm Conference
on the Human Environment to create, educate
and raise awareness on environmental conservation.
WED is the biggest, most widely celebrated
global day for positive environmental action.
This year’s theme for WED, as set by the
UN is The Green Economy: Does it include
you? The Department has adopted this theme
for the duration of Environment Month.
World Oceans Day will
be celebrated under the theme, “Knowing
our Oceans, Safeguarding its Benefits.”
The theme emphasises the fundamental importance
of understanding our oceans and how they
impact on society, through science and technology,
thereby enabling us to manage our ocean
resources effectively. Our oceans provide
numerous benefits that can only be secured
and safeguarded through knowledge. The benefits
derived from the oceans include: climate
regulation, waste absorption, sustenance
(sea food), economic development (tourism,
seafood distribution), transportation (shipping),
medicine (Biomedical products from marine
plants and animals) and recreation (swimming).
World Day to Combat
Desertification is observed annually on
17 June.World Day to Combat Desertification
has been observed since 1994 to promote
public awareness relating to international
cooperation to combat desertification and
the effects of drought, and the implementation
of the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD). The theme, as set
by the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification is Healthy soil sustains
life, let’s go land degradation neutral.
During Environment month
all citizens and businesses are encouraged
to make environmentally friendly choices,
as every action counts. All South Africans
are urged to reduce, reuse and recycle.
+ More
Minister Edna Molewa
signs Vredefort Dome memorandum of agreement
(MoA) with landowners
26 May 2012 - The Minister
of Water and Environmental Affairs, Ms Edna
Molewa today signed the Vredefort Dome Memorandum
of Agreement with landowners from the Free
State and North West.
Minister Molewa explained
that the signing of the MOA signals the
start of a formal partnership between government
and the landowners of the Vredefort Dome
World Heritage Site aimed at ensuring that
the integrity and Outstanding Universal
Value of the site will be maintained in
perpetuity.
The Vredefort Dome was
inscribed on the prestigious United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) World Heritage list in 2005 on
the basis of having fulfilled selection
criteria for being of Outstanding Universal
Value to humankind. The intention to proclaim
the site in terms of national legislation
was gazetted in December 2007. However,
the Vredefort Dome has not yet been proclaimed
due to concerns raised by landowners.
Government has subsequently
addressed most of the concerns and established
a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee for
coordination purposes. Today marked the
outcome of four years of engagement and
negotiations between the Department of Environmental
Affairs (DEA), relevant provincial and local
government institutions and the landowners
towards the formal proclamation of this
breath-taking landscape as South Africa’s
eighth world heritage site.This will give
the area a formal status like other sites
such as Robben Island, iSimangaliso, Mapungubwe,
Cape Floral Region, Richtersveld, uKhahlamba
Drakensberg, and the fossil Hominid Sites
of South Africa encompassing the Cradle
of Humankind, Taung Skull and Makapan Valley.
Minister Molewa said,
“This ceremony could not have come at a
more opportune time as the State Parties
to the 1972 United Nations Convention for
the protection of the World Cultural and
Natural Heritage are celebrating 40 years
of the Convention’s existence. The theme
for the anniversary is “World Heritage and
Sustainable Development: the role of local
communities”.
The theme calls upon
all of us to ensure that our world heritage
sites are not just established and preserved
as “islands of plenty in a sea of poverty”,
but claim their rightful place as reservoirs
of our heritage that contribute immensely
to local economic development. This is critically
important more so this year in the context
of the Rio+20 Conference which will take
place in Rio de Janeiro next month, where
the world will be assessing progress made
in implementing sustainable development
and redefining a new paradigm.
South Africa is proud
to have spearheaded the establishment of
the African World Heritage Fund through
the Department of Arts and Culture as an
initiative of the African Union and the
African member States of UNESCO. The Fund
is geared towards increasing the number
of sites and preserving the heritage of
existing ones on the African continent through
supporting maintenance of national inventories
of existing sites, their conservation, rehabilitation
of properties in danger as well as support
in preparing nomination dossiers for inscription
onto the World Heritage List.
South African government
was the first State to pledge R20 million
towards this course and I am happy to report
that, as from March 2012, the fund accumulated
R88 million from various countries, with
an additional R25 million in pending pledges.
Therefore, the sustainability
of sites like the Vredefort Dome depends
on the establishment of effective governance
arrangements, development of appropriate
management systems and provision of financial
and human resources to support socio-economic
development.
Hence the Department
of Environmental Affairs is working with
management authorities and relevant role
players throughout the country in developing
and implementing systems that will ensure
continued and effective management of the
World Heritage Sites and other protected
area systems for the benefit of the present
and future generations.
“It is for this reason
that as parties to this agreement with landowners,
I will be embarking on a consultation process
towards final proclamation of this area
as a World Heritage Site. The Management
Authority will be given full powers and
resources to manage the area in terms of
relevant policies in order to maintain the
highest management standards in terms of
an integrated management system and ensure
full compliance with UNESCO World Heritage
prescripts and South Africa’s World Heritage
Convention Act of 1999,” said the Minister.
The signing of this
Memorandum of Agreement will pave the way
for the proclamation of the area and appointment
of Management Authority which will serve
as a precursor for the development of an
Integrated Management Plan. The management
system will address issues relating to preservation
of archaeological sites, land use management
and zoning, pollution and waste management,
water resource and fire management.
As part of this management
system, tourism development will be ensured
in order to support local economic development.
Effective partnerships will therefore be
sought with relevant institutions and departments
such as National Department of Tourism and
Research Institutions, in order to ensure
that this area is not only preserved, but
presented to South Africans, Africa and
the World for both present and future generations.
“I am informed that
the process of developing an Environmental
Management Framework has already commenced
with a Project Inception Meeting held on
30 March 2012 and is due to be completed
by 30 June 2013. The Centre for Environmental
Management of the North West University
will assist government and landowners in
this project once facilitation is completed
at the end of June,” said the Minister.
Background information
The Vredefort Dome is
the oldest, largest, and most deeply eroded
complex meteorite impact structure in the
world. It is unarguably the world's greatest
single, known energy release event. It contains
high quality of and accessible outcrop sites
which demonstrate a range of geological
evidences of a complex meteorite impact
structure. The Vredefort Dome is located
in the Free State and North West provinces.
A comprehensive comparative
analysis with other complex meteorite impact
structures demonstrated that it is the only
example on earth providing a full geological
profile of an astrobleme(impact structure
or “star wound”) below the crater floor,
thereby enabling research into the genesis
and development of an astrobleme immediately
post impact. This makes the Vredefort dome
an excellent research site,it is therefore
no wonder that the area has been and continues
to be extensively studied by earth scientists
from South Africa, Africa and the rest of
the world since 1937.
Apart from its natural
heritage values, the Vredefort Dome is also
rich in ancient art forms. Evidence of early
human occupation can be seen in the caves,
rock shelters, pottery, rock engravings
and rock art. The late Iron Age Stone Walled
settlements built by Sotho and Tswana speakers
form part of the rich cultural heritage
of the Dome.
In the words of Dr Pallo
Jordan, former Minister of Arts and Culture
after the inscription of the site; “Vredefort
is rich in the symbolic representation of
our culture – it demonstrates the meeting
between scientific and cultural philosophy
and practice. At Vredefort, opportunities
exist to engage in geological research through
studying the existing rock art, explore
and understand the rich culture of the Basotho,
Batswana and Khoi San, and early evidence
of human cognitive and artistic endeavour
that their cultures boast – demonstrating
that heritage can be a tool for nation-building”.
