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Natural Resources Management Programme aims to protect forests.
Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, has launched the Natural Resources Management Programme at Nqadu Great Place in Willowvale in the Eastern Cape.
The programme seeks to balance the sustainable use and protection of natural resources such as forests, land, water, animals and ecosystems with human development needs.
Nzimande says this will assist in preserving the nature, prevent over exploitation, while also detecting natural disasters such as floods. He says the programme, which is an initiative of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), is also aimed at encouraging rural youth to take up careers and opportunities in the industry.
“ Amongst the people we have brought here are some of the emerging companies that have come with additional technologies to manage the work that is being done by the National Space Agency to say to the rural children, the world is at your feet, you no longer have the obstacles to take you through school, we take you through universities and technical and vocational colleges and become what you want to be. Because our main aim also is to say all South African children should have access and know and understand and aspire to handle or even develop these technologies.”
The AmaXhosa Kingdom believes the programme will bring solutions to some of the challenges faced by rural communities.
AmaXhosa monarch, Vulikhaya Sigcawu, says they also hope to curb youth unemployment through this initiative.
“ This is going to be a benefit program for the youth, for the farmers and also for the municipality of Amathole in terms of monitoring everything that is happening in our land and also in trying to curb something that is so big which is stock theft which is a big problem in this area. We also say that we are going to sign a partnership with the department so that we make sure that this initiative will last long for this kingdom.”
