News
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visit Cape Town
5th November 2011
The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall carried out another busy day of engagements today, this time in Cape Town as part of their tour of South Africa.While The Duchess visited a township in Cape Town, The Prince attended a reception to highlight the benefits of using wool in clothes and furniture. In 2010 His Royal Highness launched the Campaign for Wool, which aims to demonstrate the use of wool as a sustainable fabric.
One of the themes of this Commonwealth tour, during which Their Royal Highnesses will also visit Tanzania, is climate change.
The Prince has been an environmental leader for over 20 years.
In a speech at Cape Town University to hundreds of people in the Jameson Hall, His Royal Highness said: "With the Durban Climate Conference, COP17, only a few weeks away, you have been kind - or perhaps rash - enough to ask me to share with you some of my thoughts on the challenges that lie before us in tackling climate change and international sustainability.
"My wife and I are seeing how a diverse range of rural and urban communities are facing up to these challenges during our current visits to South Africa and then to Tanzania next week."
The Prince said Cape Town was an appropriate place to talk about the environment
and sustainability, as it is "one of the most biologically diverse places on earth" and it sits at the tip of the continent of Africa, which has had to cope with the impact of climate change.
He said the demand for land, coupled with climate change, fluctuating food supplies, increased migration and the demand for biofuels amounted to a huge problem.
"This unholy combination can pose significant threats to national security, though the issues are rarely if ever seen through that prism," he said.
The Prince added: "It seems to me, ladies and gentlemen, that we have a range of approaches that could make a very big difference indeed and create a more resilient and sustainable food system, both on land and at sea.
"I believe that we can do this while, at the same time, conserving the natural capital - the entire, complex, often delicately balanced ecosystems that are the ultimate source of all our wealth.
"And that includes the incredible biological diversity that makes areas of the world like South Africa so beautiful and so uniquely precious for our future survival."
Earlier The Prince and The Duchess took a walk around the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, which is overlooked by Table Mountain.
Their Royal Highnesses were shown three different model gardens which were among the 31 gold and four silver winners from the past 36 years of the Chelsea Flower Show.
The most recent winning garden was awash with tiny versions of the
Protea, the red and pink cup-shaped national flower, and another showed
the ravaging effects of climate change, with only the hardiest and least
thirsty plants thriving.
"It's a major exercise in planning, isn't it? To put all of this in," The Prince said.
"I always think the people who make these models are brilliant."
The Duchess added: "They're works of art in themselves."
The Prince was asked to plant an indigenous milkwood tree to mark his visit to Kirstenbosch.
As he approached the pre-prepared plot alongside a spade balanced
against a tree, he joked: "I hope I don't fall into the ditch."
After their morning at the gardens, The Prince and The Duchess each went to visit different parts of the city.
The Duchess visited the Masiphumelele township, where she went to a creche, while The Prince went to a sustainable fisheries project and the wool meeting.
Meanwhile, The Prince saw two projects that were recently undertaken by the Responsible Fisheries Alliance - the development and implementation of a Responsible Fisheries training course for fishers and compliance officers, and a reduction in the accidental capture of seabirds.
The Prince went to a township himself later in the afternoon, and saw how solar heater systems have been installed on many of the tin-roofed shacks.
He then climbed up to a vantage point to look out over the sprawling Khayelitsha township, which houses more than one million people.
Keep up-to-date with the latest from inside the tour with the daily multi-media blog: www.storify.com/clarencehouse