Cape Town Executive Mayor, Dan Plato urges resilience as World Environment Day is marked
05 June 2020
Statement by the Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato
The day was designated by the United Nations in 1974, with this year’s theme being Time for Nature, with a focus on its role in providing the essential infrastructure that supports life on Earth and human development. The Cape Floral Region is a World Heritage Site and one of the richest plants areas in the world, sustaining one-fifth of the continent’s total plant species.
We live in one of the most biodiverse cities in the world. We are also known as one of the most beautiful in the world.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having a profound effect on our daily lives, one theme comes to mind: resilience.
Through resilience, we will beat this pandemic; through resilience, we will be able to protect and preserve our precious environment.
At the end of 2019, the City of Cape Town launched its first-ever Resilience Strategy. It was aimed at charting a way forward for our city to adapt to a large number of global challenges. Our beautiful city, Cape Town, like all cities around the world, faces a number of resilience challenges, which we must address boldly and proactively.
Urbanisation, globalisation, rapid technological change and shock events such as climate change are all occurring at the same time.
The most prominent recent example of a shock that impacted all Capetonians and our economy, is the extreme multi-year drought. The lessons learnt during this shock, plus the collective effort of Capetonians with their dedication, helped shape this strategy aimed at enhancing our resilience.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest major shock that is not only impacting our daily lives and our economy, but those across the world. Through resilience, and a range of interventions implemented by the City of Cape Town, we will recover.
Across the globe, today’s celebration of our environments will be more low-key, as we grapple with fighting the pandemic and other pressing needs.
Healthy and diverse ecosystems help add to a city’s resilience, and I would like to encourage all of our residents to reflect on our connection to the environment, and the positive impact it has on our mental health.
Through perseverance we will emerge out of these trying times, stronger as #OneCityTogether .
Caption:
The first photo: Mayor Dan Plato planting trees to mark Arbor Month last year.
Close up: Mayor Dan Plato helps learners select shrubs to plant from the city’s plant nursery.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
