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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 1 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. 2 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 3 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. 4 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. 5 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 6 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. 7