Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon chairperson of the portfolio committee, members of the portfolio committee, our former Minister, Mama Sonjica, with whom I share a mother - they share a birthday and I share a mother with her - distinguished chairpersons, the executives of public entities, distinguished guests, our environmental ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, environment is a catalyst to economic growth and development. Biodiversity is our wealth and we need to conserve it. We will do our best to enhance the indigenous knowledge of our communities of the conservation of our biodiversity.
We are implementing the Social Responsibility Programme, which not only addresses conservation issues, but also eradicates poverty and creates jobs. This programme created 16 840 work opportunities and accredited training. We have enrolled 480 youth in the Environmental Youth Service.
Last year, we launched project Buyisela, which has an integrated approach as it includes greening, waste management, recycling, water conservation, and rehabilitation of degraded land. This programme is being implemented in Mthatha, Nkandla, Ladybrand, Bushbuckridge, Butterworth and Thohoyandou, and the remaining municipalities will be implemented this year.
Last year we also contributed to the 2010 Fifa World Cup by implementing greening programmes in all host cities. We are planning to take the lessons learnt from this programme into the hosting of the 17th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, COP 17, in November 2011, this year.
This year, we will create 17 154 work opportunities. We will also enrol 600 young people in our Environmental Youth Service Programme. We will intensify our local government support in order to ensure that all our departmental programmes are integrated into the provincial and local government plans. This will enable an integrated approach, ownership by all spheres of government, and effective and efficient service delivery.
Our legislation and policies for waste management are in place and we will strengthen our local government support to ensure its implementation by municipalities by ensuring that waste is institutionalised in the integrated development plans with a dedicated budget and human resources. We will strengthen the existing initiatives of "Buyisa-e-Bag" to create more job opportunities and establish entrepreneurships, and that will realise our vision: Waste is wealth.
Medical waste has been a challenge, and we will therefore adopt a multipronged approach, which will involve the Department of Health and other sector stakeholders in establishing norms and standards. We are also exploring the public-private partnership model with Treasury to respond to adequate infrastructure, and we will develop a joint programme of action to address this challenge. We cannot allow industries to pocket millions of rands at the expense of our people's health. Our Green Scorpions from the compliance and enforcement unit will deal with noncompliance accordingly. We are finalising site assessment regulations and norms and standards for the remediation of contaminated land; thereafter, the contaminated land provisions of the Waste Act will come into effect.
Chairperson, the meteorological work carried out by the SA Weather Service continues to play a critical role in issues of climate change adaptation and mitigation. This will also be of benefit to economic sectors, such as maritime transport, aviation and agriculture, to enable them to plan in advance. South Africa is a country that is prone to weather-related disasters that are generally related to thunderstorms and lightning, mostly in KwaZulu-Natal. In addition to the existing meteorological work, we have started education and awareness programmes.
With regard to our oceans, we all know that our oceans cover three quarters of the earth; thus the importance of protecting them. A year ago the world experienced marine oil spillages, an example of which is the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill. This caused environmental degradation of marine ecosystems. As we understand the risks that are inherent in this, the department recently hosted its first National Storm Surges Workshop, which brought together all interested parties in order to share knowledge and best practice in coping with natural disasters linked to the marine environment, and in enhancing preparedness.
We have launched the buoy oceans monitoring system, which will provide us with information on the state of the oceans. We are also reviewing the Recreational Water Quality Guidelines for Coastal Waters. I call on all stakeholders to intensify their awareness campaigns. The ultimate intention is to develop effective early warning systems to pre-empt the catastrophic impacts of such possible hazards.
During the 10th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, COP 10, which was held in Nagoya last year, we adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits. The department has progressed very well in ensuring community-based natural resource management in order to achieve fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of indigenous biological resources. We awarded our first bioprospecting permit to a pharmaceutical company in the Western Cape in collaboration with the San community at !Khwa ttu. Collaborations of this nature between indigenous communities and commercial or private parties will focus on enterprise development and sharing with local communities the benefits from indigenous biological resources.
We will be exploring partnerships with other relevant institutions to work out a viable formula that allows us to process some species for medicinal purposes; hence we will develop a plan that will regulate the degree of utilisation of species, such as pelargonium and syringa. Pelargonium is used as medication.
Game farming or wildlife ranching, which is very important, is an important provider of employment in the provinces of Limpopo, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga and in other provinces, and it is a rapidly growing sector in the Eastern Cape. In this financial year, 2011-12, we will develop regulations relating to the hunting industry to ensure a national system is implemented in terms of the regulation of the sector.
The conservation of our biodiversity in our protected areas and national parks system is one of the key focus areas of our department. Last year we successfully hosted the fourth People and Parks Conference in KwaZulu- Natal. Amongst some of the deliverables of that conference was a National Co-Management Framework that was launched to provide harmonised uniform guidelines for conservation authorities and successful restitution claimants. Whilst in the past communities were excluded from playing a role in protecting the environment, today they are shareholders and play a critical role under co-management agreements in support of rural development.
We work closely with land owners to ensure their participation in our Stewardship Programme which allows land owners to use their land for biodiversity and conservation purposes.
In discharging our responsibility in the management of marine biodiversity, we are also actively and consistently engaging with our regional and international stakeholders with whom marine ecosystems and species are shared to promote and protect biodiversity. The use of marine protected areas is working well in the department through collaboration with provincial conservation agencies and local authorities.
We will continue to see to it that we have clean air in South Africa. We are aiming to ensure that the air our people breathe is clean enough and at an acceptable level which does not pose any danger to the health and wellbeing of our people. We have been monitoring the ambient air in the Vaal Triangle Priority Area for a while and need to conduct a mid-term review to check if we are achieving that.
In an effort to expand the national ambient air quality monitoring network and also to support air quality monitoring activities in the areas declared as air quality priority areas, the department is in the process of installing and managing three additional air quality monitoring stations in the soon-to-be-declared Waterberg Priority Area.
The department will be proactive in developing and implementing programmes to empower women, young people and people with disabilities. In tandem with our commitment last year in our Budget Vote speech, the department hosted the 2010 Women and Environment Conference under the theme: Towards a green growth path - women at the forefront of poverty eradication. The conference was also used to focus on enhancing the role of South African women in leveraging economic opportunities from ecosystems.
With regard to public awareness and education, the department, in collaboration with lndalo Yethu, will intensify the public awareness and education programme to include climate change, in order to ensure that our people understand the phenomenon of climate change, and in turn solicit their views and inform them of the opportunities generated by the emerging green economy. It will also include messages about conservation of our oceans and coast, proper waste management practices, and conservation.
This programme targets communities and religious groups, employing relevant methods of engaging these communities, and it will also be extended to schools. We will ensure that all parts of South Africa are reached by our message for, unless we work together with our different communities, our efforts as the government may not make a significant impact. We want our communities and youth to participate actively in environmental management and be environmental ambassadors.
Hon members, allow me to introduce our young ambassadors who are seated there. Please stand up, Hulisani and Mukovhe from Tshiluvhi Primary School in Thulamela Municipality in Limpopo, which is one of the pilot municipalities. They came with their project co-ordinator. [Applause.] Please be seated. These ambassadors are implementing a waste management project at their school. They have reused plastics from the waste stream and created the most beautiful art. The garments they are wearing are of plastic. Some of them seated there have many.
In conclusion, I wish to thank the premiers, MECs, mayors and all sector stakeholders for supporting the department in ensuring that we build a society that lives in harmony with its environment.
I particularly want to thank the Minister for providing leadership and the departmental management led by our Director-General, Nosipho Ngcaba, and the staff for the sterling work and co-operation towards fulfilling our constitutional mandate. Let's continue with this team spirit. Working together we will deliver on our mandate.
I also want to thank the chairperson of the portfolio committee, Adv Johnny de Lange, members of the committee, and all our stakeholders and entities who are here with us. Please continue the good work. Let's have a clean and healthy globe. Of course, hon Holomisa will be in the forefront of doing that, as he used to do that. I thank you. [Applause.]