Transcript of Speech of RSA Minister W & EA - Sep 12 2012

[Lisbeth]

Here below is a the transcript of the South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs specceh made at the opening of the SANPARKS week.
Please read the reference to colonial styled conservation and hotels.
Reading through this I have also just learnt that the KNP was closed for 10 months after the 2000 floods, it again proves one is never too old to learn.
Regards
Gerhard..

Subject: SPEECH BY MINISTER EDNA MOLEWA AT THE START OF NATIONAL PARKS WEEK AT THE GARDEN ROUTE NATIONAL PARK


12 September 2011



OPENING SPEECH


OF

MINISTER OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS

MINISTER EDNA MOLEWA


AT

NATIONAL PARKS WEEK

GARDEN ROUTE NATIONAL PARK, WILDERNESS SECTION

Programme Director

Director-General, Ms Nosipho Ngcaba and the Management of the Department

Executive Management and Senior employees at SANParks

Distinguished guests and members of the media

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is indeed a privilege for me to join you here in Garden Route National Park to celebrate the South African National Parks week – a chance to hike, learn, share, and give back in the nation’s 22 national parks!

However, just because National Park week is celebrated this time of the year, doesn’t mean we should only visit our parks during this time only. We are saying to people of South Africa, go out and discover the beauty of your country, re-discover the fauna and flora of our country’s most spectacular scenery, the historic landmarks and the cultural treasures that make us proudly South Africans.

We have been engaging in this kind of celebration since 2006 to show case our natural assets as well as the beautiful landscape of our country and ways to attract foreign and local tourist to this national parks.

Our national parks are amongst the key draw cards for tourism in South Africa and are a significant contributor to the Tourism generated global development programme of our country.

I have been reliably informed that after the floods of 2000 when Kruger National Park had to be closed for a period of about 10 months half the businesses in Limpopo and Mpumalanga suffered and some even had to close down because of their undeniable dependence on the success and contribution of the Kruger National Park.

The main reason to celebrate National Parks Week is steeped in acknowledging such and many other successes of our parks. It is a painful reality that the process of establishing parks before the advent of democracy in South Africa was characterized by the alienation of black people from their land and property.

The conservation strategies of the past failed to consider the interests of local people and disrupted existing indigenous management systems.

Therefore, the National Parks week is one of the strategies which represent a fundamental shift from the colonial approach and the government is ensuring that, through the programmes such as People and Parks, Kids in Parks and Kudu Awards which allows our people to visit these parks in order to connect to the very core of our nature.

Ladies and Gentlemen, National Parks face many challenges both within and from outside their vicinity. Many of these are associated with lack of education and impacts of global change such as climate change, desertification and competing land uses such as agriculture, mining, etc.

We are committed to the promotion of a society that lives in harmony with its environment. Therefore we must promote collaborations between the work done by our Natural Resource Management and SANParks to ensure that our approach to environmental management is integrated and responsive to our job creation efforts. This is at the heart of sustainable development agenda of government.

This morning, we will open an eco-furniture factory as part of the work we do through the Natural Resource Management Programme. The Eco-Furniture factory will assist our efforts to fight poverty in the creation of sustainable job opportunities and skills development for the poor.

The main wood supply is from the invasive alien vegetation within SANParks land and on private land adjacent to it largely dominated by blue gum and black wattle.

Whilst we remove the alien vegetation to conserve our water resources and enhance biodiversity, at the same time we are also creating jobs for our people while developing their skills.

We use blue gum that is cleared from our parks for the manufacturing of furniture while wattle we use for poles, walking sticks and related products.

Through this factory, we have been able to create about 52 jobs with school desks and benches to be produced for various government departments. Initiatives of this nature will particularly target the poor and simultaneously help with the control of invasive alien plants on our parks.

If we work for the environment, the environment will work for us.

In recognition of that reality, South Africa will be hosting the 17th meeting of the Climate Change negotiations or COP 17/COMP7 in Durban between the 28th November 2011 and the 9th December 2011.

COP 17 will, among others, offer an opportunity for the biodiversity and conservation sector to highlight the role that national parks can play in mitigating the effects of climate change

So, let us use the upcoming COP17 to communicate the importance of national parks in mitigating climate change.

We also realize and recognize that the role of parks has changed over the decades since 1962 when the first World Parks Congress was held in the United States of America.

Sustainable utilisation of natural resources is at the forefront of South Africa’s approach to development as articulated in the National Strategy Sustainable Development. The sustainability of parks requires funding. In fact, the Achilles heel of Protected Areas across the globe is a lack of adequate funding to meet their mandate.

In South Africa alone it is important to point out that our parks have never been 100% funded by the government.

The latest developments including the notion of hotels in national parks is done in the context of the long history of creating own revenue streams, product diversification to accommodate new markets and to achieve sustainable development for national parks.

We have pioneered the concept of building a hotel inside a national park through the Golden Gate Hotel that we officially opened on World Environment Day this year and no ecological damage has been recorded yet.

We are empowering our communities by ensuring that they take equity of between 20-30% of these hotels as part of our corporate social investment programme and a commitment to sharing benefits beyond boundaries.

I declare the start of 2011 SA National Parks Week and invite all South Africans to go and enjoy their national parks during this Week.

The open access offered by government from today until Friday must be taken full advantage of. The elderly people who have lived all their lives next to a national park without ever seeing what is on the other side of the fence must be taken in their thousands to go and visit their neighbouring national park.

Though SANParks has a running Kids in Parks programme that encourages school going children to visit national parks and learn about nature we need to beat the 100 000 pupils per year achievement by taking our school children in their thousands to the nearest national park.

SA National Parks Week 2011 is officially opened. Enjoy your national parks.

Thank you.

For media queries, contact Mr Albi Modise on 083 490 2871

[Richprins]

This is marvellous!

Although clueless, she has at least apparently followed some media or Forum, and refers to the hotels and wood-cutting!

Mentioning alien vegetation shows they are deflecting from the naughty chopping down of indigenous giants where she is!