Date: 13/09/2005
Source: Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment
Title: Mosunkutu: Launch of Provincial C-Plan


Keynote address of Mr Khabisi Mosunkutu, Gauteng MEC for Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, at the official launch of the Provincial C-Plan, at the Walter Sisulu Botanic Gardens, Johannesburg

Programme Director: Mr Thabo Ndlovu
Leaders of political organisations present
Executive Mayor of the host City: Councillor Amos Masondo
Members of Mayoral Committees and Councillors present
Members of Ward Committees present
Officials from the various spheres of Government
Representatives of community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations and the business sector
Invited guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today and to say a few words on the launch of a plan whose value is absolutely critical to humankind and to all biodiversity, especially within our Province.

Science informs us that land-based life, including the embryo of modern human beings, our flora and fauna, first staggered onto the world surface about 440 million years ago. Paradoxically, the same scientific studies soberly inform us that our own activities as human beings, offspring of life that emerged over 440 million years ago, have over the past fifty years, produced such spectacular changes to the inherited blueprint of our ecosystem that modern civilisation as we know it, together with all its biodiversity, is under real threat of extinction. In other words, studies suggest that, antagonistically, we have been at our worse - destroying the very foundation of our existence and of life on earth.

These scientific studies further predict that more than 95% of tropical forests and two out of every three terrestrial species that exist today may die out, or be reduced to populations too small to ensure their long-term survival. Reflecting on our own Province, you would perhaps know that our Gauteng has very rich biodiversity. Covering an area of some 17 800 km