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Date : 01/02/2003
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Title: Moosa: World Wetlands Day event


SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM, MOHMMED VALLI MOOSA, AT THE WORLD WETLANDS DAY CELEBRATIONS, Verloren Vallei Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga Province, 1 February 2003

It is significant that we hold the main national World Wetlands Day celebrations here at the Verloren Vallei Nature Reserve, which has just been registered on the Ramsar list of Wetlands of International Importance.

There are presently 1235 wetland sites worldwide, totalling 106.6 million hectare, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar list. The sites are used as flagships for demonstrating conservation, good management and sustainable use of wetlands.

Celebrating World Wetlands Day - which marks the birth of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar - helps raise awareness of the value of wetlands as key components of our biodiversity and their benefits for human well being. With the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) still fresh in everyone's minds, it is especially appropriate this year to highlight the role that the sustainable use of wetlands can play in contributing to food and water security and poverty alleviation.

This year's theme, which is "No wetlands - No water!" is therefore appropriate and recognises the designation by the United Nations of 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater.

The theme is designed to highlight the alarming statistics brought to the fore during WSSD, which listed 1,1 billion people as living without access to safe freshwater, 1,7 billion living in water-scarce areas, and 1,3 billion living in extreme poverty. The focus will be maintained this year as the 3rd World Water Forum in Japan in March takes over from WSSD in searching for solutions to freshwater issues.

Although there are now seventeen Ramsar sites in South Africa, Verloren Vallei is the first in Mpumalanga. It thus has the potential to act as a focal point for wetland conservation efforts in the province. Many land owners and communities around the site may not have realised the tremendous value of the natural asset in their midst, which has now achieved international recognition.

Verloren Vallei was designated partly on the basis of the role of its wetlands in the hydrological functioning of the upper catchments of two economically important rivers, the Olifants and Crocodile. Both of these rivers flow through the recently established Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) and into Mozambique, meaning that the Verloren Vallei wetlands are truly of international importance.

Despite our technological advances, the reality is that we still depend on our natural ecosystems to sustain us. We all need water to survive, and in this quest for survival we are relying on finite water resources that are becoming increasingly diminished, unpredictable and polluted.

Emerging from WSSD, the challenge for South Africa and the rest of the world is clear: we need to achieve food and water security without compromising the integrity of those ecosystems that we depend on for our survival. In an indirect way, we are all dependent on wetlands, through the multitude of functions and products that they provide to us.

When we celebrate WWD, we are thus not only acknowledging the natural beauty and unique biodiversity of these systems and the opportunities they provide for tourism and recreation. Nor do we focus exclusively on their products such as fish, fibre, medicines and grazing that many communities depend upon. We also celebrate the less visible, but no less valuable, services that wetlands provide people, free of charge. For example, the way wetlands purify water, by removing sediment and many harmful substances, and by reducing flood peaks and slowly releasing the water during periods of low flow.

As a result, conserving our wetlands and using them sustainably must be a key component of our response to the sustainable development challenge that we face, and can no longer be considered a luxury or a purely biodiversity issue.

Simply put, maintaining healthy freshwater wetlands translates to securing water supply. Without a steady and predictable supply of clean water from our water-based ecosystems, our water-scarce country cannot hope to grow and develop, or to ensure that people's basic rights to clean water and sanitation are fulfilled. This is what we mean when we assert the WWD 2003 theme: No wetlands - no water!

Wetlands have another key role to play in delivering on the agreement reached at WSSD with respect to poverty. These ecosystems play a vital role for the rural poor in terms of health, livelihood and economic growth. Above all, it is the rural poor who are directly dependent on natural ecosystems such as wetlands for their survival. Although poverty certainly exists in urban areas, it is the rural poor who are the most vulnerable when ecosystems become degraded.

Indeed, our understanding of the link between poverty and the environment has progressed to the point where many people now identify environmental degradation as a primary cause of poverty and not simply a consequence of poverty.

On a positive note, government has recognised the interdependence between environmental health and human well-being. An example of the way in which this understanding is being manifested is the Working for Wetlands partnership between the departments of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Agriculture, and Water Affairs and Forestry; Working for Water and the Mondi Wetlands Project.

Working for Wetlands recognises the role that rehabilitating degraded wetlands can play in securing our precious water supply and biodiversity, and the jobs and skills that can be provided during the actual rehabilitation activities. Through labour intensive wetland rehabilitation projects, supported by poverty relief funding from Treasury, Working for Wetlands dedicates itself to facilitating the conservation, rehabilitation and sustainable use of our wetland ecosystems, in order to optimise the contribution of wetlands to ecological integrity, water security and social development. In so doing, Working for Wetlands seeks to optimise opportunities with respect to poverty alleviation, food security and human health.

With an annual budget of R30 million and the vast capacity and experience of the Working for Water programme behind it, Working for Wetlands is returning degraded ecosystems that were once considered worthless wastelands back into productive natural assets capable of playing their rightful role in the sustainable development challenge.

In recognition of the exceptional natural value of Verloren Vallei and its subsequent registration on the Ramsar list, Working for Wetlands is currently implementing a rehabilitation project in the reserve, in partnership with the Mpumalanga Parks Board. The far sightedness of those staff of Mpumalanga Parks Board who initiated the process of Ramsar designation and the rehabilitation project is commendable.

Another illustration of the recognition of the value of healthy wetlands in supporting sustainable social and economic development is the inclusion of wetland conservation as one of the eight themes identified for priority interventions under the Environment Initiative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). South Africa played a leading role in the inclusion of wetland conservation and sustainable use in NEPAD. This inclusion indicates recognition, at the highest political levels, of the direct relevance of wetlands to the well-being of current and future generations of Africa's people.

Through NEPAD, the profile of wetland conservation will be significantly enhanced across the continent and opportunities for cooperation between countries will be facilitated. Indeed, the 8th conference of the parties to the Ramsar Convention in November 2002 in Spain recognised the value of NEPAD and urged all contracting parties to support the wetland initiatives it contains.

In conclusion, I wish to urge that all of us to make a personal pledge for greater commitment to our environment, and to ensure that in 2003 we improve on the great strides made in the past year. Let us, indeed, re-commit ourselves to environmental protection for the sake of this and future generations.

Thank you.

Source: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (http://www.environment.gov.za)

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