Keynote address by Deputy Minister Ms Bernice Swarts during the launch of 2024 Arbor Month at Freedom Park, City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng Province

MEC for Environment, Ms Sheila Peters, 
Member of the Mayoral Council for Finance in the City of Tshwane, Cllr Jacqui Uys 
Councillors present here today 
Chairperson of the National Forests Advisory Council, 
Executive Director of the Forest Sector Charter Council, 
Chief Executive Officer, 
Freedom Park, Dr Jane Mufamadi Acting Chief Executive Officer, 
South African Forestry Company Limited Manager: Corporate Affairs and CSI of TotalEnergies Marketing South Africa, Ms Talitha Sachane, 
Miss Earth South Africa Delegate Ms Jessica Nel, 
Distinguished guests, 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Arbor Month awareness campaign comes as we have just concluded Women’s Month celebrations. I would like to acknowledge the role of women in all spheres of life including the role they play in the forestry sector.

We are gathered here today to officially launch the 2024 National Arbor Month campaign. This year we are celebrating the National Arbor Month under the theme “Celebrating 30 Years of Freedom: Promoting Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Forest Management” which resonates with the initiation of the Forest of Freedom here at South Africa’s Cultural and Heritage site, the Freedom Park.

The 2024 theme also aims to highlight key areas of forestry and tree planting in terms of their role in creating heritage wealth and sustaining healthy and resilient communities, through health benefits that are derived in forests including nutritious foods, medicine and rituals, fresh air, clean water and a place for recreation. One of the most important roles of forests is mitigation of climate change.

Amongst the key activities of the launch of the 2024 National Arbor Month campaign we have planted indigenous trees at the site earmarked for the Forest of Freedom in honour of the heroes and heroines who contributed to South Africa's liberation struggle. By planting these trees at the Forest of Freedom, we are also honouring the 30 years of democracy and freedom.

Freedom Park is the custodian of South Africa’s cultural and historic information. It has a wide variety of South African woodland tree species and because of its location and infrastructure it has become a home of many cultural events. The infrastructure builds together with the cultural and historical essence that Freedom Park symbolises makes it most suitable venue to host the Launch of the 2024 Arbor Month Campaign.

In recent times a major construction work took place to fit in a high-pressure water pipe from a reservoir situated in the Freedom Park precinct to supply City of Tshwane with water. In the preparatory work of laying the pipe, a significant amount of land clearing and deforestation was done. In order to reclaim the disturbed area, the Forest of Freedom was conceptualized.

The project involves planting and putting back some the vegetation including, trees that were removed in the process of clearing. Certain key woodland species were identified to be put onto the area. These include trees and shrubs, the first thirty trees that were planted in the area are dedicated to the 30 years of South Africa’s Freedom. The rest of other Trees and shrubs will be planted to complete the Forest of Freedom. In future, key individuals will be invited to plant trees in the Forest as symbol of remembrance of their visit to Freedom Park

Ladies and gentlemen, we have also planted trees at other community parks within the City of Tshwane, including at Kalafong Park in Atteridgeville, Springbok Park in Hatfield, and Fountains Valley Resort in the Groenkloof Nature Reserve, south of Pretoria. There are reasons why we choose to plant trees at these specific parks. For instance, we chose Kalafong Park because the Kalafong community is benefiting from the park through the provision of open recreational space as well as a fitness park. Before the intervention to establish a park, the area was used as a quarry to mine soil. It was a big hole that was excavated by the housing and construction developers to mine soil and sand.

Springbok Park is currently managed through an Adopt -A- Spot programme initiative. The initiative was established to encourage community, business organisations and other independent entities to partner with City of Tshwane in ensuring parks, open spaces and other public recreational spaces are well taken care of and beautified where possible. Thus far, the partners of the Springbok Park are doing very well. In their first year, they managed to erect a new fence and kept the park clean. It is important to retain the indigenous flora approach on this park to preserve its National Monument status for the coming generations because educational activities for both future generations and community.

The Fountains Valley was chosen to showcase the restoration work that the City of Tshwane is doing at the park. Due to old age the Celtis trees growing at the Fountains valley are dying. In the quest to preserve this Celtis trees, the City of Tshwane started on a restoration drive. Young Celtis trees are integrated within the existing Groenkloof Reserve and at the Fountains Valley. This is a continuous process that will take place until the diminishing Forest Celtis trees are saved.

Ladies and gentlemen, by the end of the National Arbor Month Campaign, our department would have planted 3500 trees at various parks within the City of Tshwane. The tree planting activities also seek to highlight the Ten Million Trees Programme, as announced by the President of the Republic of South Africa.

Ladies and gentlemen, I allow me to briefly talk about the history of the Arbor Month Campaign. The Arbor Month Campaign has its origins from the motivational force behind the work of John Sterling Morton of Nebraska in the United States, who proposed in 1872 that a public holiday called Arbor Day be celebrated by the State of Nebraska. In 1874, Arbor Day was celebrated for the first time in the United States of America, and officially adopted by South Africa in 1983 when the first celebration of the day took place. The importance of trees in our country has seen the campaign grow to where it is now where we celebrate the Arbor Month. Today, I am extremely honoured and privileged to join the community of Tshwane as we celebrate the launch of National Arbor month 2024.

The Arbor Month has found a permanent place in our events calendar as a way of celebrating and increasing awareness on the importance of trees, whilst recognising their contribution in managing deforestation and biodiversity.

Ladies and Gentlemen, September is also Heritage Month. As we celebrate Arbor Month, we would like to highlight our champion trees which include some of the oldest, largest, and culturally significant trees.

The oldest tree in South Africa is the Sagole Baobab, also known as “Big tree,” located in Limpopo province in Musina Local Municipality. Carbon dating has assisted to determine the age of the tree to around 1 200 years old. This is the largest of all recorded five baobabs listed on the champion tree list in the country and is the largest indigenous tree in South Africa. It has the second thickest trunk in the world (a Mexican Cypress called the Tule Tree in Mexico holds the record). The tallest tree in South Africa is the Sydney Blue Gums (Eucalyptus saligna) known as 'Magoebaskloof giant' is found in the area of Woodbush Forest Estate, Haenertsburg in Limpopo with a height of 81.5m.

These trees are part of our heritage.

While Arbor Month Campaign is more on tree planting, the emphasis is more on the role of trees and forests in food security. We are gratified and indeed proud of three decades of tree planting that has produced the tree-lined streets in many parts of our cities. We are more than happy to see that such activities have been introduced in other township and rural areas.

The President of the Republic of South Africa, Honourable Cyril Ramaphosa gave this Department the responsibility to lead in the planting of ten million trees. It is a confirmation and recognition of the work that the greening partners have done in the past where different stakeholders in the greening space were brought to collaborate and plant trees. This is an initiative that aims to green our cities, towns, townships and reclaim the degraded areas. The Department has developed a plan which among other issues reflects on the creation of sustainable settlements, addressing household food security, climate amelioration, as well as a contribution towards the provision of recreation facilities for communities in urban and rural areas. A greater component of the greening function is aligned to the work done by Municipalities, the Department of Human Settlements and various greening organisations. This is a result of the notion that a building without some greenery is not complete in terms of the quest to create sustainable and dignified settlements for our people. The Ten Million Trees programme is in its fourth year of implementation.

Programme Director The department has put the following measures to ensure that the target is achieved:

The clarion call to the public to participate in the Greening Programme 
The Department through its stakeholders and media platforms has launched the clarion call to the public to participate in the greening programme. In this initiative, a link is provided to the public to register their tree planting activities including pictures and location of the tree-planting activity, online. These are uploaded and the participants are honoured with a certificate for civic duty in contributing towards the greening of the country. The Department seeks to heighten awareness on this intervention and the will be going all out to mobilise more partners to play their part in this programme.

National Greening Forum 
The Department, working with key greening stakeholders, has established the National Greening Forum. The objective is to provide a platform where stakeholders can plan and account for greening interventions towards the achievement of the Ten Million Trees Programme. The forum meetings are attended by Municipalities and other greening stakeholders. I know for a fact that the number of trees reported are far less than what was actually planted. I therefore intend to participate in one of the forum meetings to find ways on how the reporting can be improved. The department has finalised the e-tool system which will be used to monitor and account for the trees planted.

National Arbor City Awards 
Despite our efforts in the past few years, our township and rural areas have not enjoyed the benefits of tree planting. In 2002, the department introduced the National Arbor City Awards which were formed as a partnership initiative between the Department, TotalEnergies, the Institute for Environment and Recreation Management (IERM), the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), with a purpose to encourage Municipalities to green their areas of jurisdiction.

Programme Director

In terms of the contribution of forests in the economy, the Forestry Sector Masterplan has been developed as a growth, transformation and investment plan for the sector which is a collaborative effort between government, industry and labour. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and then Environment (DFFE) is the lead department overseeing the Forestry Sector Masterplan and its implementation which is now in its fourth year of implementation.

Key issues in the masterplan include:

Investment: the Masterplan had set a minimum investment target of R16.5 billion, with a maximum target of R30 billion for the year 2025/26. Currently, the rand value of private sector investment has reached R33.2 billion, clearly indicating that the sector has well exceeded the R30 billion target set for the 2025/26 financial year.

Employment creation: through the targeted investments, the Forestry Master Plan has prioritized job creation. The sector through the DFFE and Forestry South Africa as a representative of the industry are in the process of reconciliating the job numbers. The job creation objective should also be considered against the backdrop of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Recapitalisation of Category B and C State Plantations – ensuring that the plantations under the management of the Department are brought back into production is high on the agenda of the Masterplan. Currently, about 6213,58 hectares have been transferred to communities through the Community Forestry Agreement Model in line with Section 29 of the National Forests Act, 1998. This translates to 27 plantations transferred to communities by signing of 23 Community Forestry Agreements. Plans are in place to continue with this process including the leasing of the remaining plantations in the Western Cape. As these transfers take place, it is important for the industry to work closely with the Department in ensuring that post settlement support is provided for these communities so that they can thrive in the sector.

Lastly, I would like to thank our stakeholders Freedom Park and City of Tshwane for collaborating with the Department in hosting this wonderful event. In addition, I want to sincerely thank our corporate sponsors Total Energies for their continued sponsorship for the Arbor Month Campaign, National Greening Programme and the Arbor City Awards competition.

I thank you

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