Nobel winner may visit SA
2004-10-27 08:31
Hoedspruit - Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai will be invited to address a "Women in Conservation" conference in South Africa in February next year.
Deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, made the announcement at the annual People and Parks workshop, which is being held in Limpopo.
"She will be an inspiration and motivation to many of South African women who have made conservation and the environment a priority in their lives," said Mabudafhasi at the conference, which started in Hoedspruit on Monday and ends on Wednesday.
"Thereafter we will have a similar conference for the Southern African region, and then for the African continent," she added.
Maathai is the first woman in Africa to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
It was awarded to her earlier this month for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.
She founded the Green Belt Movement and, for nearly 30 years, has mobilised poor women to plant 30 million trees.
Mabudafhasi believes many women, especially those from the rural areas, are a treasury of indigenous conservation knowledge that should be recorded and so preserved for future generations.
"Many traditional healers that harvest plants in nature are women," she said.
She believes many of these women know where, how and when to harvest these plants to ensure their survival, and that this data should be captured for children.
The People and Parks workshop follows the World Parks Congress held in Durban last year.
The aim is to establish a forum where stakeholders, specifically communities, can raise issues that affect them, regarding protected areas, land restitution, and specifically the Durban Accord and Action Plan and Cape Vidal Memorandum.
Livingstone Maluleke, representative of the Makuleke community bordering the Kruger National Park and also spokesperson for communities represented by the Cape Vidal Memorandum, said there was hardly any progress with land reform and proposed that a full time facilitator be appointed to assist each community with this process.
"Communities must attach themselves to NGOs (like the World Conservation Union) to gain information and help," he urged.
He spoke on behalf of the communities of the Richtersveld, Riemvasmaak, Makuleke, Mbila, Nibela, Mnqobokazi, KwaJobe, Banghazi, Sokhulu, Mabibi and Mabaso.
Maureen Sithole, head of department of Land Affairs in Mpumalanga, undertook to check the validity and verification of local claimants give them feedback.
The conference divided into six working groups to deliberate on specified issues such as co-management of parks, the implementation of the new Biodiversity Act and the expansion of existing Parks.
The organisers hope to formulate an action plan from these discussions.