Tinyanga consulted on climate change
PIGG’ S PAPK – Tinyanga and other traditionalists had an opportunity of adding input into mitigating the impact of climate change.
The Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs yesterday held a workshop at the Pigg’s Peak Hotel and Casino, where about 50 representatives attended. They were from 10 different tinkhundla centres around the Hhohho Region.
Minky Groenewald, who is from the Ministry of Tourism, said the workshop was aimed at involving the people from the communities. She said among the participants included traditional representatives such as imisumpe, tinyanga and also youth representatives.
Executing
She said the ministry was executing a short-term project, with support from the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) global in partnership with International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to undertake a climate change outreach programme on adaptation.
Groenewald added that following the completion of the initial Adaptation Communication and the ongoing NAP process, the Government of Eswatini recognised the need for continuous public awareness on climate change and its impact, and how communities could build their adaptive capacity while elaborating their adaptation actions.
“In this regard, the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs seeks to implement an initiative to raise awareness and in turn take the opportunity to collate indigenous knowledge from local and grassroots levels using the NAP process as a vehicle and to build on the initial work under the Adaptation Communication with technical and financial support from the NAP Global Network,” she revealed.
Meanwhile, Nana Matsebula, who is an ecologist, said even traditional authorities could play a huge role in mitigating the impact of climate change.
He said one example was on how land was allocated. He said according to the law, one could not be allocated land very close to the river.
However, he said there were instances where people had built houses on the riverbed. He said when it rained and the river overflowed, this became a problem. Further, he said there should be proper planning when allocated land so that this can help in preventing disastrous landslides.
Matsebula also said another challenge was that there were illegal farming activities that happened very close to the rivers. He said such activities resulted in certain types of trees being removed and this was a huge impact to the environment.