 Thank you very much, program director. I'm still waiting for the money that they promised with all awards, but I heard there's no money, you know? I'm always looking for a check, so when I win an award, I was thinking that it was going to be in Pound Sterling, and Pound is the only currency that has a name and a surname, so I thought, okay, they can pay me in Pound Sterling. Could you please motivate that I get an award in Pound Sterling, program director? So when the program director started this exercise, I generally grouped you into three groups. Those of you who are the novices, those of you who are the veterans, and those of you who are the geriatrics. So welcome geriatrics, all the veterans, and like me, welcome to the novices. Your Excellency, Ms. Caroline Spellman, the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, the kind participants who have honored us with their presence. Thank you very much for being here today. Your presence and your contributions are certainly very warmly welcomed. To the speakers, the organizers of the event, congratulations to a very well-organized event, and before you actually receive my evaluation, please do know that you deserve a warm round of applause for a very excellently organized conference. Hello attendees, honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen. Former President Nelson Mandela once said, and I was there when he said this, that a good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. I then only thought with my head, but I was forced by President Mandela to start thinking with my heart again. By then, the ravages of apartheid had forced us to stop believing with our hearts that one day we would smell freedom. We are gathered in this room as good people with good heads and good hearts. We are gathered here with ones who are like-minded in wanting to do good things for the good world we live in. At the very same day, President Mandela was speaking to a small group of us. We were young, we were energetic. He had not yet been released from prison. We had this penchant for making long speeches and giving long explanations. President Mandela sat there and listened to us. Some of us just watched him in awe. And when we had finished, we came in this long explanation, believing that his 27 years in prison made him ignorant of what was happening in the world. To our surprise, he said, my children, for me, you need a spoonful of words and a bucketful of thought. So let do not give me a bucketful of words with only a spoonful of thought. So when I welcome you today, I hope I'm going to give you a bucketful of thought with a spoonful of words. I'm not here to waste your time. Welcome to the land of founding father of our democracy. Welcome to the land of Nelson Roly-Slatlan Mandela. Welcome to the land of Khosi Albert Lutuli. This is the origins of our founding father of our African National Congress, Khosi Albert Lutuli. On behalf of the South African government, our president, Jacob Ketli Klikisal Zuma, I would like to welcome you along with the Center for International Forestry Research on behalf of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. It is once more my honor to address you on this auspicious Forest Day Five. The question we need to ask ourselves today is simple. Can we make profits without cutting trees? As the host of the UNF triple C COP 17, in this, the International Year of Forests, the South African government recognizes the importance of forests and the role they play in sustaining commercial industries, providing utilizable natural resources and conserving our biological diversity and mitigating against the effects of climate change. In saying this, Forest Day Five will without doubt highlight the urgency to guarantee the survival of the world's forests, the biodiversity and the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on them. South Africa, as many other countries represented in this gathering, is both a contributor to and potential victim of global climate change, given that it has an energy-intensive, fossil fuel-powered economy and is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and change. South Africa regards climate change as one of the greatest threats to sustainable development and believes that climate change, if unmotivated, also has the potential to undo or undermine many of the positive advances made in meetings of Africa's own development goals and the millennium development goals. The socioeconomic impacts of climate change are predicted to range from severe to disastrous for all and we require extensive action to adjust and adapt to a changing climate. We, as a collective, must therefore deliver a comprehensive international program on adaptation that provides access to significantly upscaled finance, technology and capacity building for all developing countries recognizing the particular vulnerability of countries in Africa. In order to address these challenges, we need to ensure that forest planning tools take into account carbon sequestration in a way that could provide necessary planning information. We need to recognize that the two-degree Celsius goal cannot be achieved by one part of the globe on its own. The globe requires a decline in emissions relative to business as usual. Although we all have committed to do so, we need to strive to reduce our emissions using our own limited resources. However, in order to undertake increased levels of mitigation effort, must be supported and enabled through technology, finance and capacity building. We must therefore deliver a framework for nationally appropriate mitigation action by developing countries, supported and enabled by finance, technology and capacity building, all of which are measured, reported and verified. Climate change threatens to undermine many of the development objectives of countries in Africa in particular and in the rest of the developing world. In order to enable lower carbon and resource efficient sustainable development in the developing world, it requires developed countries to comply with their obligations on provision of finance as well as development transfer and diffusion of technology. Many concerns and issues surround the use of forestry as a carbon sink. Nevertheless, forestry remains an effective, low-cost method of removing carbon from the atmosphere in a sustainable manner. Progress has been made on solving the problems, issues and concerns surrounding forestry and carbon sinks. The science behind carbon sinks is well understood and established in many of the issues and concerns around technical details with misunderstanding existing between scientists and non-scientists. Because Red Plus communities recognize that agriculture is critical in dealing with deforestation and degradation in relation to land use and planning. I invite you to join me as I host a side event on climate smart agriculture on Wednesday, 7th of December. We will continue with our hard work to get a working program on agriculture in the text of COP 17 leading up to Rio Plus 20 next year. Let me again allow to quote from President Nelson Mandela. The great Madiba, our teacher and our leader say that there is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. Madiba said to us, when you get into a room and it is extremely neat, leave it exactly the way you found it. But if you get into a room and it is extremely chaotic, leave it better than you found it. My challenge to you as delegates is in this chaos, leave the room better than you found it. I thank you.