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Date : 31/05/2004
Source: Ministry for Environmental Affairs and Tourism
Title: M van Schalkwyk: Remarks at launch of National Environment Week


EXTRACT FROM REMARKS BY MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM, AT LAUNCH OF MARINE FOCUS FOR NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT WEEK ON A VISIT TO BIRD ISLAND, OFF THE COAST OF THE EASTERN CAPE, 31 May 2004

National Environment Week is both a celebration and a loud call to action. As communities and people in every part of South Africa come together over the next week, we will celebrate the real progress we have made, and at the same time raise awareness of how much remains to be done to ensure the protection of our single most important shared interest - our environment.

We have reason to celebrate. There are few better examples of how South Africa has changed in the last ten years than the changes in our approach to the environment. Our First Decade of Freedom has seen us advance from resource management and conservation that was elitist and that regarded people as an environmental threat, to the perspective of ensuring greater access for all South Africans to our natural resources. We are putting people back into the environmental equation - and both communities and the environment are benefiting.

Globally, World Environment Day is on 5 June every year, but in South Africa we choose instead to extend that focus to a week of events and activities. This decision reflects the reality that South Africa is moving to the forefront of international environmental management.

This is evident not only through our leadership role in major global events like the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), but also in our ground-breaking community-based natural resource management - linking conservation, entrepreneurship, and poverty relief.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has chosen a marine theme for World Environment Day: "Wanted! Seas and Oceans Dead or Alive". This links closely to our national theme: "A Decade of Sustainability - our environment, our Future".

Few people realise that by 2010, eight out of every ten people will live within 100 kilometres of a coast. More than 3,5 billion people depend on the ocean as their main source of food - and this number is set to double in the next twenty years. UNEP has estimated that more than 70% of our marine fisheries are either fished up to or beyond their sustainable limit, yet less than half of one percent of marine habitats are protected - compared to 11,5% of global land areas.

In line with the twin themes of marine protection and sustainability it is very appropriate that we launch this National Environment Week on Bird Island - part of the Bird Island group that will be one of our new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

The protection of the Bird Island group is one of the steps in the expansion of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park. Home to a number of red-data listed species like the Cape gannet, roseate tern and the African penguin, it is also surrounded by reefs that teem with linefish and abalone.

Other focus issues for the week will include the signature of major environmental grant agreements, the launch of our new Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, and our main celebration of World Environment Day on Friday at the new uShaka Marine World in Durban.

It has been said that no people ever own their environment, they simply hold it in trust for their children. From the man or woman who stops to pick up a plastic bag dropped in a river, to the major corporation that helps to reduce the more than 21 million barrels of oil that run into our oceans every year - every action counts. This is the real message of National Environment Week. It is our call to action for every person in every community to help us preserve and sustain our natural resources.

Enquiries: Rob Spaull
Cell: 083 777 8563
Issued by: Ministry for Environmental Affairs and Tourism
31 May 2004

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