National arbor week launched
Arbor Week was launched at the Durban Botanic Gardens last week.
THE Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in partnership with Total South Africa, the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, eThekwini municipality and Food & Trees for Africa launched Arbor Week at the Botanic Gardens on Thursday, 3 September. National Arbor Week Campaign is celebrated annually from 1 to 7 September, and is a joint venture of various stakeholders which seeks to promote awareness for the need to plant and maintain indigenous trees throughout the country. This programme highlights the value of trees including those that are threatened by extinction.
This year’s theme Forests and People: Investing in a Sustainable Future was adopted from the World Forestry Congress, which is being hosted by South Africa from 7 to 11 September. This launch is a platform to promote the congress and highlight the value and importance of forests. The congress is a convergence of scientists, policy-makers, government officials, technicians, civil society organisations and other role players to discuss and debate challenges, solutions and new innovations affecting the forestry sector globally. It commenced in 1926 and will be hosted for the first time on Africa soil in Durban. The launch day kicked off with a handing over of trees to the community of KwaMakhutha. This was followed by a walk-about by the Minister and his delegation through a rehabilitated forest and the clearing of alien invasives, where 400 indigenous trees have been planted.
During his address at the launch event at Durban Botanic Gardens, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Mr Senzeni Zokwana said: “As a department we are saying that tree planting should not be restricted to the celebration of Arbor Week only, but the campaign should be regarded as a culmination of what has been done throughout the year, regarding the greening of the country through the planting, care and maintain existing trees. Every day should be treated as a tree planting day.” A total of 115 households, seven community projects and five schools will benefit through agricultural support in terms of production inputs, garden tools and fruit trees in the areas of KwaMakhutha and Adams with the aim to distribute over 3000 trees comprising of two fruit and one indigenous tree per household.
The highlight of the event was the awarding of prizes to the winners of the Arbor City Award. This award is given to cities or townships that go an extra mile to green their areas of jurisdiction. The awards went to Hessequa Local Municipality (Western Cape), which was first in the local municipality section, with second place going to Emnambithi Local Municipality (KwaZulu-Natal), and in the metropolitan municipality section, Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality (Gauteng) was first, followed by eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in second place.
