Text of speech by Minister Ronnie Kasrils MP to IUFRO conference on “Forest genetics for the next millennium”

Abstract

I am pleased to see how many of you have travelled to participate in this conference, from so many parts of the world. It is good to see how many papers are to be presented by researchers from South Africa, a good sign ofhealth in the forest research community! I am also pleased to see a keynote paper on African Acacias. It is high time we developed the forest resources of Africa for the good of the continent and of the world. It also good to see several papers on social forestry, or community forestry as we term it here. Forestry for poverty alleviation as well as economic development is a vital requirement in the developing world.