A sustainable living festival will take place in Hoedspruit from Thursday May 15, until Saturday May 17, 2008. Central to the activities will be the hosting of the International Biodiversity Day to start at 17h00 on the Friday and finish at 15h00 on Saturday. Also on the programme are workshops covering farming for the future looking at soil, water and fair trade in the industry, as well as fair trade in tourism, sustainable design in architecture and green gardening. The day will overlap with celebrations of International Biodiversity Day all over the world under the theme "Biodiversity and Agriculture".
The activities will focus on the interface between biodiversity and agriculture, and ecosystem services (eg water provisioning, climate regulation, purification), within the biosphere. The International Biodiversity Day activities will be funded by BfN and GTZ (German funding organisations) and Geo-media, an international media company.
Arrangements for celebrating the 110th year of the Kruger' National Park (KNP)'s existence are under way. Regional celebrations are planned for Phalaborwa on May 26, Satara on May 28 and Skukuza on May 30. The main event will take place at Skukuza on June 14. Raymond Travers, spokesperson for the park, says the festivities will include "speeches by key people and a variety of cultural activities."