Download 13.04.22 Earth Day 2013 (GMD Atchia - Mr Baya)

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
&SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
EARTH DAY 2013
ADDRESS BY
HON DEVANAND VIRAHSAWMY
MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
GMD ATCHIA STATE COLLEGE
22 APRIL 2013
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The Ag Prime Minister and Minister of Renewable Energy and Public
Utilities, Hon Dr Rashid Beebeejaun
My colleague the Minister of Education and Human Resources, Hon
Vasant Bunwaree
Hon Satya Veyash Faugoo Minister of Agro-industry & Food Security
The Private Parliamentary Secretary, Hon Abdullah Hossen
Mr Jhugroo, Permanent Secretary, MoESD
The Rector, GMD Atchia State College
Students, Teaching and Non-teaching Staff
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to be in your midst today to commemorate the Earth Day
2013 which is celebrated on the 22nd of April each year. The essence of
celebrating this international event is to pay tribute to Mother Earth.
Each Year, Earth Day is celebrated under a specific theme. This year’s
theme which is “The Face of Climate Change” is of particular importance.
If I were to choose this year’s theme, I would have rather opted for “The
Ugly Face of Climate Change” in view of the unprecedented occurrences
of extreme weather, resulting in intense cyclones, prolonged droughts,
flash floods, as well as loss of species and pollution driven mainly by
climate change. In fact, this year’s theme sounds like a serious threat to
mankind. It’s as if we were dealing with a multi-headed monster engaged
in a long term destructive process.
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You will certainly concur that mankind has been the root cause of climate
change with the extensive use of fossil fuels, deforestation and intensive
agriculture. These activities have been contributing for long to the release
of greenhouse gases such as carbon-dioxide and methane in the
atmosphere, thus causing global warming thereby leading to drastic
changes in climate such as unusual temperature rise, heavy rainfall,
droughts and desertification among others.
Such occurrences will have a direct bearing on our food security, our water
security, and our land security. Even our energy security will be at stake.
To put it bluntly, our agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, marine and coastal
systems, and our rich biodiversity will be severely affected in the long run.
More frequent and prolonged floods, droughts, storms and other unusual
climatic conditions are already exacerbating poverty by causing shortage of
food, and affecting livelihood of populations, especially in Africa and in
Small Island Developing States where major sectors of the economy are
still heavily dependent on nature and on the climate.
Mauritius has not been spared from the impacts of climate change and the
following trends have been observed during the past years:
 Sea level has been rising by about 3.8 mm a year in Port-Louis over
the last five years and the local mean sea level has risen by 2.1mm
per year between 1998 and 2007
 According to the Meteorological services, the decrease in annual
rainfall over Mauritius has been around 8% since the 1950’s.
 We have also experienced an increase in the frequency of extreme
weather events, heavy rains and storms
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 The average temperature has risen by 0.74 Celsius when compared
to the 1961-1990 mean
To mark this year’s Earth Day, my Ministry, in collaboration with various
stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education and Human Resources
and the Forestry Services of the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food
Security, is organizing a series of activities among which:
 Tree planting in 10 primary and 10 secondary schools in each of the
four Education zones for greening of their compounds. This tree
planting project will be and extended to all schools during the year;
 Talks on radio and on television to sensitise the population;

Nature discovery tours for the general public at discounted prices
during the last weekend.
Many people have thus been able to
discover the nice sceneries and the richness of our biodiversity at the
following places :
(i) The Crocodile Farm & Nature Park in Rivière des
Anguilles
(ii) La Vallée des 23 Couleurs at Chamouny
(iii) The Casela Nature Park at Cascavelle and
(iv) The Vallée de Ferney
 Embellishment of Poudre D’Or Hamlet Village through cleaning and
tree planting activities, free distribution of plants to the general public
and donation of two composting units to the Village Council.
As you may have noticed many activities undertaken for the Earth Day
2013 are focused on tree planting for a greener and healthier environment.
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Our forests have always been under heavy pressure from land based
activities. During the past three centuries our native forests have been
cleared for sugarcane and food crops, livestock rearing, construction of
roads, urban development and other land intensive activities. As a result,
we are left with less than 2% of our native forests. The original forest
ecosystems have almost disappeared and the remaining ones are heavily
threatened, hence many endemic species of our flora and fauna are
critically endangered.
Moreover, it is difficult to restore our forest area due to limited space. This
is why Government is encouraging the planting of trees all around the
island.
The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development is
actively engaged, since 2011, in the distribution of medicinal plants. Last
year, my Ministry distributed more than 20,000 medicinal plants throughout
the island and this year we have planned to distribute around 30,000 more
plants.
Trees play a very important role in our environment for the following
reasons:
 They purify our air by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide while
giving us oxygen in return;
 They help to increase moisture in air and prevent excessive
evaporation from the soil;
 They help to keep the environment healthy and beautiful;
 They help to maintain the ecosystem as they provide food and
shelter in the natural habitat and for wildlife;
 They help conserve soil and prevent soil erosion.
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 They also minimize risks of flooding by preventing rapid runoff of
water after heavy rain and;
 They offer a sound barrier thus reducing noise pollution.
The modernization process of our society has significantly modified our
consumption and production patterns. We have developed a craze for new
technology namely for items such as mobile phones, laptops, ipods, ipads,
LCD screens etc. The production of these luxurious goods not only deplete
our non-renewable resources at a rate ever recorded before, but also
generate huge amount of wastes because of their short lifespan.
Unfortunately, we keep on innovating at the expense of our environment
and natural resources as we are geared in satisfying our wants rather than
our needs.
Dear students,
It is high time for us to act responsibly before it is too late! It is in this
perspective that the Prime Minister coined the ‘Maurice Ile Durable’
concept in 2008. The MID is a societal project whose ultimate aim is to
prompt every Mauritian in adopting a sustainable lifestyle and become an
eco-friendly citizen. Adopting a sustainable lifestyle does not imply
consuming less. It rather means consuming differently and efficiently.
Some of the eco-practices which we should all adopt include:
 saving energy by switching off lights whenever leaving a room
 unpluging electronic devices when not in use
 composting domestic green waste
 avoid using plastic bags and replacing them by long lasting bags
 printing materials only when they are needed
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 walking or jogging for short distances
The list of such simple actions is un-exhaustive and they can be easily put
into practice by every one of us.
In this endeavour, my Ministry is
encouraging our fellow countrymen to adopt eco-friendly practices through
numerous initiatives such as:
 providing solar water heaters to reduce electricity consumption;
 encouraging rain water harvesting system to save water
 encouraging recycling and promoting composting in schools through
the waste segregation project
 setting up of endemic gardens in schools
 distributing decorative and medicinal plants to promote greenery and
discover virtues of medicinal plants
 implementation of a programme on Sustainable Consumption and
Production in various sectors of the economy such as the
construction industry, the hotel sector, the textile factories, among
others
Before ending, I would like to make an appeal to each and every one. I
would like to invite you to adopt eco-friendly practices. With a view to
encourage you to do so, we are providing each of you to-day with a cloth
bag as an alternative to plastic bags and plant which you will put in the soil.
This symbolic gesture will be your first contribution to combat climate
change.
I wish you all plenty of success in your studies and rely on your
cooperation.
I thank you for your attention.
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