The Sudan Sustainable Natural Resources Management Project (SSNRMP), which is currently being implemented in three states, is to be extended to three more states.

The disclosure was made by Dr Hassan Hilal, the Sudanese Minister of Environment, Natural Resources and Physical Development, in Khartoum on Monday, May 7, 2018 while declaring open the Workshop on Planning and Implementing a Communication Strategy, organised under the Building Resilience through Innovation, Communication and Knowledge Services (BRICKS) Project.

Dr Hilal described the SSNRMP as one of the Great Green Wall Initiatives (GGWI) projects being implemented in 19 villages in Kassal, Gezira, and White Nile states. According to him, the project, which was launched August 13, 2014, “is in the right track to achieve it is development objective by working in an integrated manner to achieve future sustainability”.

While stressing that the focus of the workshop underlined the importance of communication, the minister pointed out that the effective communication of any issue will result in “excellent results”. He added that communication mainly depends on collecting of correct information and the use of best tools or mechanism to convey the message to different audiences.

His words: “Here in Sudan, our project, the SSNRMP, pledged to give priority to communication. They conducted as an intensive communication study in which all stakeholders are included and this appears in the main action plan of the study, wherein 27 journalists were trained in line with an advice from the consultant. We achieved very good results such as the creation of on task force of environmental journalists.”

He disclosed that the best practices gained from SSNRMP were documented and disseminated, adding that one of the main outputs generated is that the project will now be extended to add three new states in the coming period.

On Wednesday, May 9, workshop participants visited the SSNRMP project sites. Initially, they were received at the Albutana University where a short video allowed the delegation to immerse themselves in the different components of the project and the impacts induced in the communities of the areas covered.

Under the leadership of the National Coordinator of the SSNRMP, Ibrahim Doka, and the Gezira State Coordinator, Madam Eiman Adawi, the participants visited the forest rehabilitation zone which covers four villages in the state of Gezira. On the spot, the delegation saw first-hand the degraded state of the forest and as well as the soil.

According to Doka and Adawi, the degradation, which dates back 20 years, is due to climatic variability exacerbated by the uncontrolled logging of forest resources and non-resilient agricultural practices.

“But, today, the awakening of conscience of the communities through the implementation of the project augurs a better tomorrow,” they stated, adding that the participatory rehabilitation process involves planting the Acacia Senegal, a tree species adapted to arid zones.

They added that, if weather conditions allow, the forest would regenerate within five years where rational management will be planned.

The second site visited was the Taybeen Village Community Garden located a few miles from the Wadbugul Forest. On-site activities consist of nursery production (forest rehabilitation plants and fruit trees), and other income generating activities.

According to Areeg Ali Ibrahim, community facilitator, the project’s activities have improved the living conditions of the population, who now have access to drinking water resources and financial empowerment.

Revenues generated by the sale of nurseries and other related activities, he added, enabled the construction of school buildings and the opening of a bank account, which ensures the sustainability of the project after the closing of the financing partners.

Community leaders, however, asked for the extension of the project beyond its five-year (2014-2019) period.

Costing $7.73 million and falling under the Sahel and West Africa Programme in Support of the Great Green Wall Initiative (SAWAP), the SSNRMP is being funded by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Other organisations involved in the SAWAP initiative are the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Sahara and Sahel Observatory, and the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS).

Sudan is a landlocked nation in northeast Africa comprising 18 states.

On Tuesday, May 15, 2018, the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation (known as Nigerian Federation) and evictees from Otodo Gbame took their demonstration to the Lagos lagoon to commemorate one year since the final stage of the eviction of the community and six months since the violent crackdown on their last peaceful protest.

The evictees, along with sympathisers, marched from the Freedom Park, Ojota, to Lagos Government House, Alausa on November 15, 2017 to protest the forced eviction of April 9, 2017.

EnviroNews learnt that, on November 7, 2016, the Lagos State High Court restrained any eviction of the waterfront communities, including Otodo Gbame, an Egun fishing community, located around a prime real estate in the Lekki area of Lagos.

On June 21, 2017, the same court reportedly pronounced the forced evictions unconstitutional and ordered resettlement for those evicted. But the Akinwunmi Ambode administration seems to be foot-dragging on the matter.

Re-enacting the moment they became internally-displaced “boat people” during the final and most brutal stage of the eviction, thousands of the evictees – who remain homeless and in squalor till date – pushed out their canoes into the Lagos lagoon.

The evictees had gathered in solemn commemoration, joined by their peers from other waterfront communities and the Nigerian Federation, in a flotilla of boats between University of Lagos (UNILAG) Waterfront and Third Mainland Bridge in the early morning hours.

The event was marked with traditional Egun music and an on-water procession from UNILAG Waterfront past Makoko and Oko Baba Waterfronts to the headquarters of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), where evictees called for support from religious and other leaders in their continued struggle for justice and to end forced evictions.

In company of local and international media coordinated by Megan Chapman, co-founder/co-director of Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (JEI) – Nigeria, the homeless evictees, after demonstrating on the lagoon, headed for the RCCG headquarters at Redemption Way, Ebute Metta, to deliver a letter to the church.

Taiwo Murtala, who coordinated the evictees, told EnviroNews their mission to RCCG.

“We want Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to understand that we deserve justice.

“With the opportunity of the procession, we are telling the governor, whose wife is a senior pastor of RCCG, to give us justice,” he said, adding that about 90 per cent of the evictees are Redeemers.

Elijah Atinkpo, media coordinator of the event, corroborated Murtala that they were at the RCCG to submit letter to the church leaders, as “Mrs. Ambode is a senior member of the church.”

“We feel that people like Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, who is a Redeemer, can help sit Ambode down and talk to him on our behalf, to see how we can arrive at a consensus that will favour both sides,” he said.

He was optimistic that the church can get justice for them because religious organisations are for the well-being of humanity.

The community’s demand, according to him, was for government to reinstate them at Otodo Gbame because they were living there for good reasons, one of which is their occupation, which is fishing.

On April 9, 2017, the final 5,000 evictees were chased into wooden boats on the lagoon and their homes set on fire.

Reports have it that over 30,000 people have been displaced and over 13, including Daniel Aya, killed, while 158 peaceful protesters have been arrested due to the eviction.

By Chika Onwuji

The world’s regions should act together to protect the environment, rather than complain about the state of the climate, action film star and former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said on Tuesday, May 15, 2018 in Vienna, Austria.

“Stop whining,” he told an environment conference called the Austrian World Summit.

The Austria-born politician also issued an appeal to U.S. President, Donald Trump, who has pulled out of the Paris Agreement on climate protection.

“Which side will you choose?’’ Schwarzenegger asked.

He said: “We choose to make the planet great again and healthy again, playing on Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.’’

Schwarzenegger appeared in Vienna only weeks after heart surgery.

He joked that his surgeon had promised to take good care of him for political reasons.

“The doctor had said we are the only Republican with a heart, we are an endangered species,’’ Schwarzenegger stressed.

The former governor told the 1,200 attendees including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that they should adopt an athlete’s mindset when it comes to fighting climate change.

“We will keep winning, too often, we play defence instead of offence,’’ he said.

Report says the Vienna conference is linked to Schwarzenegger’s R20 initiative, which supports regions in developing green infrastructure.