Culture
The official handover of the five vehicles that have been donated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), marks yet another milestone in the long-standing partnership between the government of Lesotho, particularly in the field of environment and natural resources management.
The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment (MOTCE), Ms. Lebohang Ntsinyi said the above statement when speaking at the occasion of the official handover of the five vehicles worth M1.2 million, and that were donated by UNDP to MOTCE in support of the" Project of Environmental Management for Poverty Reduction"., on Friday 16 August,2002. "The generous gift that we have just received from the UNDP today is a significant contribution to the efforts of Lesotho government towards addressing the problem of acute environment degradation which is one of the main sources of poverty in Lesotho." The Minister of MOTCE stressed.
Ms. Ntsinyi further explained that the government of Lesotho remains committed to the Principles of Agenda 21 of the Rio Conference and in particular the MOTCE appreciates too well the vital relationship between social, economic and environmental aspects as the three pillars of sustainable development. She showed that as one the countries that participated in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, Lesotho has both the duty and the moral obligation to fulfill her share of the commitments that were undertaken by the international community at that conference.
Speaking at the same occasion, the UNDP Resident Representative, Mrs. Scholastica Kimaryo said that UNDP and the government of Lesotho have a long history of cooperation to ensure sustainable management of the country's fragile environment and natural resources on which the majority of the people depend for their livelihood.
She indicated that since 1994, UNDP has taken the lead as Lesotho's most important partner for environmental management through several strategic interventions aimed at building national capacity for environmental management and the implementation of Agenda 21.
