The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Barbara Creecy will virtually address the opening segment of the 18th Ordinary Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) on Thursday, 16 September 2021.

Minister Creecy addresses AMCEN as its outgoing President after she presided over this august conference for the past two years and will take this opportunity to handover the baton to her successor.

The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) was established in December 1985, following a conference of African ministers of environment held in Cairo, Egypt. Its mandate is to provide advocacy for environmental protection in Africa; to ensure that basic human needs are met adequately and in a sustainable manner; to ensure that social and economic development is realized at all levels; and to ensure that agricultural activities and practices meet the food security needs of the region.

The 18th Ordinary Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment will also provide progress on the African Green Stimulus Programme (AGSP) and launch the Programme’s Online Platform. The programme intends to provide an overarching framework that will support the “green recovery” from the COVID-19 Pandemic, bringing together existing environment and sustainable development initiatives in Africa in a coherent and coordinated way, whilst identifying new areas requiring strategic interventions.

Source: Government of South Africa