| News
in Brief
a) Forestry National Action
Plan
The National Forestry Programme
Drafting Committee hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture has been convening
stakeholder consultative meetings on the National Forestry Programme and
Action Plan. The purpose of the Programme is to address prevailing and
emerging problems of deforestation and degradation of indigenous forests
and woodlands as well as constraints that exist in the development of industrial,
community and urban forestry. Yonge Nawe is participating in this process.
For more information about the National Forestry Programme contact; Mr.
Solomon Gamedze, Email: fplp@africaonline.co.sz
b) Biodiversity Programme
and Implementation Committee (BPIC)
Responsibilities of this committee
include among others overseeing the preparation and implementation of the
Biodiversity Conservation and Participatory Development Project (BCPD).
The committee has been convening a number of consultative meetings. BCPD
aims to help achieve the primary goal of the Swaziland National Biodiversity
Strategy, which is to create an effective, sustainable institutional framework
for coordinating and facilitating the management of biodiversity in Swaziland
and for the formulation and implementation of appropriate policies, strategies
and laws. A Pilot project looking at Protection of Worthy Areas (PWA) has
been concluded. For more information about the PWA Project contact; Kim
Roques, (BCPD) Coordinator at Tel: (+268) 4163351, Fax: (+268) 4161875,
Cell: +268 6050640, email: ecology@sntc.org.sz
c) UNCCD Information Exchange
Workshop
The participatory exchange
of experiences amongst delegates on the preparation and implementation
of UNCCD National Action plans and Programmes among SADC countries was
held from 2 to 21 April 2002 in Cape Town and Namibia respectively. The
conference highlighted UNCCD expectations, obligations, sharing experiences
on National Plans/Programmes and constraints. This conference afforded
Swaziland as a signatory to the UNCCD to exchange her experiences and establishing
networks with her counterpart signatories.
d) National Civil Society
Strategy Workshop on Health Care Waste and Incineration
Southern Africa civil society
organisations represented by Yonge Nawe, (Swaziland), groundwork (South
Africa) and Livaningo (Mozambique) met in Durban, South Africa from 5-8
April 2002 at the invitation from groundWork to develop a National Civil
Society Strategy on Health Care Waste and Incineration. In addition to
developing guidelines for a National Civil Society Strategy, a position
was issued calling on Governments from the three countries represented
to phase out the use of incinerators because of the effects they cause
to human health and the environment. Further, participants at the workshop
signed support letters lobbying against proposed incinerators in South
Africa. South Africa has committed herself to ratify the POPs Treaty before
the WSSD, to be held in Johannesburg, August 2002.
e) World Asthma Day
Yonge Nawe celebrated World
Asthma Day on the 7th May at Bhunya. These celebrations were with a group
of school children that presented the ‘Bucket Brigade’ to the media and
had several talks on asthma and its relationship to poor air quality with
local residents. Factsheets on asthma were distributed to the community.
As a result of Yonge Nawe’s intervention, a thirty minutes TV broadcast
was shown on Swazi TV and a response from SAPPI Usuthu on investing 10.5
million Emalangeni in rebuilding the electrostatic precipitators on the
mills boiler stacks was published in the Times of Swaziland.
f) World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) Column
As part of the initiatives
towards the WSSD, Yonge Nawe is supporting and highlighting local efforts
towards sustainable development. Yonge Nawe launched the Sustainable Development
Column, which is appearing every Wednesday in the Times of Swaziland. The
column highlights sustainable development challenges faced by Swaziland.
In addition, to sensitising people about sustainable development challenges
faced by Swaziland, it is also sensitizing people on the WSSD conference
to be held in Johannesburg from 26 August to 4 September 2002. Yonge Nawe
ran two competitions namely the "Cleanest School competition" and "Rio+10
Competition" which is appearing in this column. The column has a
set of questions in each article and readers send their answers to Yonge
Nawe. Weekly prizes of t-shirts are awarded to winners who get correct
answers. The big prize is a ticket to attend the conference. Winners in
the "Cleanest School competition "will be awarded the following money prizes:
E10 000 and runners up E5 000.
g) International Children’s
Conference on the Environment
Zama Bhembe, Nonjabulo Mlangeni
and Simphiwe Stewart attended the International Children’s Conference on
the Environment in British Columbia, Canada from the 21st –25th May 2002.
Yonge Nawe ensured that "The Swazi Stars Towards A Brighter Future" had
the opportunity to interact with over 800 child delegates from 115 different
countries at this global event. The Swazi Stars had the opportunity to
present their project entitled "Air Quality Monitoring Within the Community"
with the aid of the "Bucket Brigade" a simple yet effective method of air
quality monitoring.
h) World Environment Day
Yonge Nawe celebrated World
Environment Day on the 5th June 2002 at the Mbabane Theatre Club.
The theme of the celebrations was "Give Earth A Chance." Representatives
from various schools in Mbabane attended the conference and presented topics
on, littering problems, HIV/AIDS, land degradation, population growth and
its impact on sustainable development. Yonge Nawe administered an environmental
quiz on the day. There was also fun filled drama presented by Siphila Nje
Drama Society. The day was a huge success as participants were informed
of the challenges facing planet Earth and the importance of "Giving Earth
A Chance"
i) NGO/Peoples forum,
Jakarta, Indonesia
The negotiations during the
Bali meeting failed to include three major aspects including the timebound
commitments, means of implementation on financing and trade, and the principle
of "Common but Differentiated Responsibilities" as part of the agreed draft
of commitment.
Among the agreed programs
are poverty eradication; changing unsustainable pattern of consumption
and production; protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic
base of economic and social development, health and sustainable development;
and sustainable development for Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and
the Carribbean.
The three aspects, timebound
commitments, means of implementation and the principle of "Common but Differentiated
Responsibilities" have been the most critical issues during the negotiations.
Timebound measures focus on
targets and timetables for several programs including the increasing share
of renewable energy sources. In the issue of means of implementations,
many developed nations have objected to the establishment of numerical
targets for increased amounts of official development assistance (ODA).
A draft action plan proposes the developed countries take every action
to achieve the target for ODA -- 0.7% of gross national product. The "Common
but Differentiated Responsibilities" is the basis for North-South partnership
and implies that there is a need to address the unequal power relations
between the two poles, particularly economic power relations.
The draft of the so-called
Bali Commitment will be the major element of the WSSD where nation heads
around the globe will pledge to cut poverty and save the environment. The
10-day U.N. Summit in Johannesburg, dubbed Earth Summit 2 from August 26
to September 4, will be held 10 years after Rio, where a framework was
agreed to balance the world's economic and social needs with its environmental
resources.
In Bali, many delegates including
NGOs have been pessimistic about the negotiations, saying the process stipulated
by the UN General Assembly to ensure civil society participation in contributing
to the formulation of the document was vague and not reflective of genuine
participation. They also accused developed nations the U.S. and some oil-exporting
countries of trying to scale down the action plan on fears it will negatively
affect their businesses by not sending ministerial-level officials to the
Bali meeting.
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