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Chairperson;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to celebrate with you today the launch of the inaugural African Botanic Gardens Congress. This day has been spoken about and planned since African delegates attended the World Botanic Gardens Congress in Asheville, North Carolina, USA, in June 2000.

With the theme of 'Partnerships and Linkages', this Congress is the ideal opportunity for African and international delegates to discuss and charter the way forward for botanical gardens in Africa, amidst all the social, environmental and economic challenges facing this continent, and the many continental and international environmental initiatives that have been adopted over the last couple of years. These include the launch of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation, various conventions and the recently adopted Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.

This Congress complements the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) Africa Regional Workshop held at Kirstenbosch in February 2001, from which emanated The Kirstenbosch Declaration, a call for greater international support for taxonomic research initiatives and projects in Africa.

Three months ago, South Africa successfully hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the biggest United Nations conference ever held and the first time it was hosted in Africa. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, which was adopted by consensus, includes, amongst other targets, reversing the trend of biodiversity loss by 2010. The challenge for botanical gardens in Africa is the extent to which they can, both individually and collectively, through their actions and programmes, contribute to reducing the loss of our continent's plant diversity, upon which millions of Africans depend. Botanical gardens must contribute to the implementation of these various international initiatives and conventions. In many cases this will require individual gardens to re-evaluate and perhaps refocus their programmes, policies and conservation efforts.

South Africa's National Botanical Institute, with its network of eight National Botanical Gardens and three research centres, participated in the Summit by hosting a parallel event entitled Africa's Plants and People, where the two Gauteng-based National Botanical Gardens (Pretoria and Witwatersrand) showcased the NBI's involvement in the conservation and sustainable use of South Africa's indigenous flora. The NBI has also, over the past six years, made significant contributions at a regional level, towards addressing the various needs of botanical institutions, both herbaria and botanical gardens, within 10 southern African countries. The Southern African Botanical Diversity Network (SABONET) Project stands as a model of regional co-operation, and has been the precursor to various regional biodiversity and networking initiatives in other parts of the African continent. Major regional outputs from the project over the past few years have been the Southern African Botanical Gardens Needs Assessment and the Action Plan for Southern African Botanical Gardens.

This is the first time in history that representatives from botanical gardens throughout the African continent and surrounding islands have come together to address matters of mutual concern, and I trust that lasting partnerships and collaboration will result from your deliberations this week.

According to the International Agenda, botanical gardens have been defined as institutions holding documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education. Amidst the many challenges facing African countries today, from poverty, conflicts, the impact of HIV/AIDS, insufficient investments, globalisation, unsustainable debt burdens, the digital divide, limited market access opportunities and supply-side constraints, botanical gardens have extremely important roles to play in addressing some of Africa's many challenges.

Botanical gardens worldwide should become the shop-windows of botany and embassies of biodiversity and culture. Botanical gardens have the responsibility for educating our future leaders about the need for sustainable use of natural resources as well as the need for conserving our threatened plants. They are also in the unique position where they can showcase the immense diversity of, and threats facing, our continent's rich and unique flora.

Africa is home to more than 50,000 known plant species, including half of the world's known succulent plants. Of these, an estimated 5,300, or just over 10%, are, according to the IUCN's Species Survival Commission, regarded as being at some risk of extinction.

Efforts must be made to develop partnerships with national, provincial and local governments, tourism agencies and surrounding communities, and for these botanical gardens to become significant tourist destinations.

Probably the greatest challenge facing botanical gardens today is, on the one hand, the need to become financially more viable, and on the other hand, the need to serve the public and make significant contributions to the research and conservation of the country's indigenous flora. This is the unique challenge that each botanical garden on this continent must face. There will be no generic solutions that will apply to every garden on our continent. Each garden must evaluate its own position and determine the needs and expectations of its supporting agency as well as those of its various stakeholders.

Partnerships - local, regional and international - must play a key role in addressing the needs of botanical gardens of Africa. Marketing strategies and the sourcing of sponsorships must also become an important activity for botanical gardens if they are to survive into the next century.

One of the major outcomes anticipated from this Congress are the establishment of an African Botanic Gardens Network and an Action Plan for African Botanic Gardens. I trust that these outcomes will provide an important impetus to collaboration between individuals and botanical gardens across the continent and surrounding islands. A key role of the Network will be to promote and support the work being done by botanical gardens in plant conservation and the sustainable use of the Continent's diverse flora. Integration and collaboration with existing networks and projects across the Continent and networks in other developing and developed countries around the world must also be encouraged. The Action Plan will provide a much-needed focus for many botanic gardens in Africa and should include issues such as training and capacity building, public education and awareness, information technology and dissemination as well as integrated conservation projects and initiatives.

The African Botanic Gardens Congress makes a major contribution to the various environmental activities associated with National Environment Month being celebrated across South Africa during November this year.

The Congress being held this week was made possible through the generous support from international donor agencies (through the SABONET Project), individuals (with particular thanks to Dr Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden in the USA), the Winslow Foundation, various botanical gardens and Conservation International's Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. I also acknowledge the support provided by Botanic Gardens Conservation International for facilitating the African Botanic Gardens Network Bulletin, launched in October 2000, and planning meetings leading up to this important Congress.

In closing, I would like to congratulate the members of the steering committee who have worked so hard to put this Congress together, and applaud your efforts to establish closer collaboration amongst Africa's botanical gardens. I trust that the fruit of your labour will be a continent where botanical gardens play key and meaningful roles in the conservation of Africa's flora for the benefit of both current and future generations.

Thank you.

Issued by Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism

25 November 2002