Mountain Zebra National Park, in conjunction with the Inxuba Yethemba Municipality, celebrated World Environment Day at the Ncaca Primary School in Cradock last week. The day’s theme was “Think.Eat.Save” and the objective was to educate dozens of learners about the importance of the day.
World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, and has been celebrated on 5 June annually since.
The Park’s People and Conservation Officer, Mxolisi Fulumente, and the municipality’s Community Development Officer, Zonwabele Matseke, emphasised to the learners that the day is about celebrating achievements made towards protecting the environment and about reminding ourselves and others of the importance of caring for our environment.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted or lost every year. This volume of waste is more than the total net production of Sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, one in seven people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20 000 children under the age of five die daily from starvation.
During the presentation learners were asked to make a sentence around the theme Think.Eat.Save. With the help of their teachers they came up with “Think before you Eat and help Save our Environment”. The day’s programme ended by a clean-up in and around the school’s premises.
