Date: 17/06/2010
Source: The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs
Title: SA: Mabudafhasi: Address by the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, at the commemoration of the world day to combat desertification, Upington

Program director

MEC for Environment, Tourism & Conservation: Ms Sylvia Lucas

Executive Mayor of Siyanda District:

Ms Nokhaya Mjila

Mayor of Kai !Garib Municipality: Ms G Cloete

Local councillors

HOD for Environment, Tourism & Conservation: Ms Elizabeth Botes

Officials from various departments

Members of the community

School learners

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

We are gathered here today in the Northern Cape Province to celebrate an important day in the history of the United Nations and the Department of Environmental Affairs The 17th of June was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1994 as the World Day to Combat Desertification and to mitigate the efforts of Drought.

The theme for this year's celebrations is, "Enhancing Soils anywhere, enhancing life everywhere". The theme emphasizes a close relationship between livelihood and ecosystem wellbeing, and soils that are rich in biodiversity..

This day was set aside for all of us to reflect on the effects of desertification and promote public awareness and the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in those Countries experiencing serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa.

South Africa through the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) ratified the UNCCD in September 1997, in those countries experiencing serious drought or desertification, particularly in Africa. The purpose of the UNCCD is to provide the framework for countries affected by desertification to address the problem of land degradation effectively on a national level.

As a party to the convention, South Africa developed National Action Programme (NAP) which is a strategy to address issues relating to desertification and land degradation as well as alleviating poverty at a national level. The Department of Environmental Affairs is the focal point of the UNCCD in South Africa.

Northern Cape is one of the provinces in the country that is severely affected by the impacts of land degradation, desertification and drought, and has the highest proportion of rural African households living in abject poverty. The Northern Cape is arid with 2% of the land used for crop farming, 96% used for stock farming (including beef cattle, sheep, goats, and game), and 1% for conservation. Mining activities utilise part of the remaining land in the Northern Cape.

Approximately 93% of the Northern Cape is classified as affected drylands, with 7.4% of the Province having a Mean Annual Precipitation (MAP) and a Potential Evapo-transpiration (PET) ratio below the limit for areas that are defined as affected drylands.

This is an indication that most of land in the Northern Cape is potentially susceptible to desertification and should be managed in such a manner as to prevent land degradation from increasing, and to protect the land resources from desertification.

Ladies and Gentlemen

As we commemorate this day in the Northern Cape we therefore heed a call to promote and support the biodiversity management as well as to encourage the participation of local communities in sustainable land management and livelihoods.

This year's commemoration also provides an opportunity to demonstrate the link between poverty and desertification, and provide a platform for the government to encourage partnerships among various stakeholders to combat land degradation and alleviate rural poverty.

Healthy soils produce life, and yet soil health depends a lot on how individuals use their land. What we do to our soils determines the quality and quantity of the food we eat and how our ecosystems serve us. Our increasing ecological interdependence also means enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere.

Degradation of biodiversity therefore continues to undermine the productivity of South African soils including the services we receive from the ecosystems.

UN has also declared 2010 an International Year of Biodiversity. To this end, UNCCD aims to sensitize the public to the fact that desertification, land degradation and drought dramatically affect the biodiversity resident in the soil.

With the theme focusing on soil biodiversity the intention is for public to note the soils that are vulnerable to degradation such that they protect, restore and prevent continuous degradation. The protection of top soil and maintenance of soil carbon is a key mechanism to the prevention of desertification.

Land degradation can weaken the soil's fertility, contributes to food insecurity and poverty as well as forced migration. In our country, soil has been and remains one of the most important assets for wealth creation through food production, mineral development, medicine extractions, and a security instrument for investment and among other uses. Soil is our living system. Under our feet lies a whole different world, with a lifecycle of its own.

Desertification, land degradation and drought continues to undermine the productivity of South African biodiversity reducing land resilience to natural climatic variability, gullies and cracks may appear, vital nutrients can be removed by wind and water.

We need to protect soil biodiversity from threat and decline in order to preserve rich and productive soils. Soil biodiversity can be enhanced through sustainable land management practices such as mixed farming that recover, rehabilitate and enrich the soil. The services rendered by soil biodiversity in the drylands are particularly sensitive to inappropriate soil management and loss of vegetation cover.

Let us jointly work together to implement UNCCD in the country. There are good programmes that we are implementing in the country, such as Working for Water, Clean Fires Campaign or Basa njengo Magogo, Working for Wetlands, Land Care, Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), People and Parks, Desert Margins Programme and other Cross Border initiatives. Let us continue to alleviate rural poverty,

create more jobs, provide more benefits to the poor, improve farming and food supply in the country, provide opportunities for training skills development, as well as to protect our land, soil, and all our natural resources.

This Year's commemoration also complements the establishment of the "Rehabilitation of Drylands for Poverty Alleviation Desertification Account". This account will serve as a mechanism for South Africa to house, utilise and manage contributions to fund the National Action Programme to combat desertification or land degradation.

The purposes of the account are the following:

v To identify and complement existing programmes in contributing towards enhancing the community livelihoods and eradicating poverty through the management and sustainable use of natural resources;

v Such programmes include the Expanded Public Works Programme, Landcare, Working for water among others, which are labour intensive but appear to lack the exit strategies;

v Benefits deriving from these interventions will include among other things relating to improved ecosystems services and wellbeing of the society through enhanced biodiversity and wildlife management by local communities;

v The account will enhance implementation of Department Environmental Affairs priorities such as National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.

Together we can do more through identification of the symptoms of degraded soils, promote effective working partnerships amongst specialists and other role players, and apply both our indigenous knowledge and scientific information on combating desertification.

Thank you