MTPA hosts biodiversity workshop
The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) hosted a three-day workshop for women and youth on the biodiversity economy.
The workshop, held at Mercure Hotel from last Wednesday to Friday, aimed to introduce young women and the youth to the various aspects of nature conservation, careers in the sector, as well as various business opportunities that can be explored, such as wildlife, bioprospecting and ecotourism.
A total of 60 youth and women participated in the workshop.
The objectives of the workshop were to:
• Educate the youth and women about biodiversity and conservation
• Educate them about the economic and career opportunities within the sector
• Gather their views on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework
• Identify projects and interventions to be targeted for 2020 and beyond.
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The MTPA worked with various partners for this initiative, to ensure that the session was as informative as possible. The partners included, among others:
• CATHSSETA for tourism-related initiative
• People and Parks Youth in Conservation
• Department of Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries
• SANParks
• South African National Biodiversity Institute
• Kruger 2 Canyon
• National Empowerment Fund
• University of Mpumalanga.
“The MTPA’s aim is to continuously create awareness on the importance of conservation in our daily lives and to use this as a tool for economic development in our society. This workshop provided us with an opportunity to impart knowledge and skills to the women and youth of our province,” Marinda Marais, organiser of the event, told Lowvelder.
“This was a successful start of the project and it is making opportunities available to those who need it most. From here on, we plan to introduce the project to each of the districts and then, hopefully, the reservations.”
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