BuaNews (Tshwane)
Clive Ndou
6 June 2006
Cape Town — The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism took this year's National Environmental Week celebrations to a higher level when it launched the Indalo Yethu Campaign here Monday.
Indalo Yethu (Our Heritage) campaign is a partnership between the department and Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (WESSA).
The Environment Week from 5-11 June is being commemorated under the theme "An Age of Hope in a Protected Environment".
Speaking during the launch, Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the objective was to step up environmental law enforcement, reducing biodiversity loss and encouraging responsible environmental activities.
"We are launching this initiative on World Environment Day to reinforce the message that everyone has a significant role to raise awareness and act for the environment," he said.
World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment.
This also resulted in the establishment of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), through which the international community addresses environmental concerns.
"We must take the people with us in this campaign to prove that a sustainable world with equality, freedom and equal access to natural resources is not only possible but achievable as well," said the Minister.
The Indalo Yethu campaign, which was conceived during the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, will be spearheaded by a trust.
Chaired by former SAA spokesperson Onkgopotse Tabane the trust has as its board members high profile personalities such as Nzandile Nzalo and Vuyo Mbuli.
Mr Tabane said the campaign would seek to link issues of environmental sustainability with those of economic development.
"The call that Indalo Yethu Campaign needs to make in order to succeed is to call fro the deliberate link between economic activity and environmental awareness so that our people can begin to derive economic value to take care of their environment," he said.
He said it would be wrong to advocate issues of environmental awareness and ignore the communities' call for a sustainable livelihood.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism will fund the campaign to the tune of R20 million for the next two years.
Mr Okgopotse said that he was confident the campaign would be able to finance itself thereafter.
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