City’s Youth Environmental School (YES) hosts Wetlands Awareness Programme

MEDIA RELEASE
23 January 2008

The City of Cape Town’s Youth Environmental School (YES), co-ordinated by the Environmental Resource Management Department, will be hosting a Wetlands Awareness Programme from 28 January to 8 February.

The theme for World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2008, is Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People.

World Wetlands Day (WWD) was first celebrated in 1997, in celebration of the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Each year government agencies, non-governmental organisations and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits.

During World Wetlands Day this year, a few key topics that exemplify both the direct, positive effects on human health of maintaining healthy wetlands – such as the provision of food, clean water, pharmaceutical products etc. – and the direct negative effects of mismanaging wetlands that result in the impairment of our health and even the loss of life – such as through the effects of water-related diseases, burning peatlands, floods, and water pollution – will be highlighted.

The programme aims is to emphasise that the strong relationship between healthy functioning wetland ecosystems and human health underlines the importance of management strategies that support both the health of wetland ecosystems and the health of humans. And that the costs of poor management can be high. Wetland-related diseases, for example, claim the lives of more than 3 million people every year and bring suffering to many more.

The City will be supporting World Wetlands Day by hosting a Wetlands Awareness Programme in partnership with Metrorail’s Edutrain, the Western Cape Education Department’s Centre for Conservation Education, the Primary Science Programme (PSP), CapeNature and Century City Property Owners’ Association. The broader programme will comprise of the following:

Edutrain Programme:
Learners from the Urban Renewal areas of Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha will be travelling on the Edutrain to Zandvlei Wetlands Reserve where they will be learning and experiencing more about the importance of wetlands.

City of Cape Town Nature Reserves Programme:
Wetland education programmes will be running on several of the City’s Nature Reserves.

Edith Stephens Wetland Park Schools Wetlands Book Launch:
This guide to environmental activities for learners called: Learning about environment at the Edith Stephens Wetland Park for Grades 4 to 9 will be launched on 1 Feb at Edith Stephens Wetland Park. Learners will also use some of the activities in the book during their lesson on the day.

Delft Wetlands Programme:
CapeNature will be taking learners from Delft to the wetlands in their area to learn about the importance of wetlands and their uses and why we must conserve them.

Centre for Conservation Education (CCE) Programme:
Learners will be having lesson on the role of frogs in wetlands at the CCE.

Intaka Island Century City Wetlands Programme:
Learners will have a lesson and guided tour of the Intake Island Wetlands. Intaka, meaning ‘bird’ in Xhosa, is a unique example of nature conservation and property development co-existing in harmony and for mutual benefit.

ISSUED BY:
DIRECTORATE: COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING
CITY OF CAPE TOWN
TEL: 021 400-2201 FAX: 021 957 0023

MEDIA QUERIES:
CITY OF CAPE TOWN YES PROGRAMME
LINDIE BUIRSKI
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION COORDINATOR
ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
CITY OF CAPE TOWN
CELL: 084 629 9305

INTAKA ISLAND
ALAN LIEBENBERG
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGER
021 552 6889
alanl@ccpoa.co.za