Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have expressed a strong commitment to addressing wildlife crime as a serious transnational organised crime, and to further scale up efforts to combat it. Flags of participating nations at the Special ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Illegal Wildlife Trade in Thailand They made the commitment on March 21 and 22, 2019 ...

A guide designed to help integrate biodiversity considerations into new sports venues, minimising their impacts on nature and delivering conservation benefits, has been released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The guide confirms that poorly-designed sports venues that alter landscapes, disturb wildlife and increase pollution often have long-lasting impacts ...

The Minister of Environment, Suleiman Hassan Zarma, has appealed for improved budgetary allocation to the environmental sector to facilitate the execution of more intervention programmes and projects for diverse ecological habitats across the country. Alhaji Suleiman Hassan Zarma, Minister of Environment He noted that additional budgetary funds would also enable the ministry carry out some of its core mandate effectively, ...

In 1973, following the publication of Dr Fritz Schumacher’s widely acclaimed “Small is Beautiful”, the world’s attention was drawn to Schumacher’s concerns that the prevalent “big is better” system/culture of industrial production, materialism, consumption and management of natural resources was problematic and unsustainable. Dr Peter Tarfa, Director, Department of Climate Change (DCC) in the Federal Ministry of Environment Energy resources ...

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says it has developed a Recovery Data-Base to fast track sustainable humanitarian interventions in Borno State. Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ms Eno Jonathan, UNDP’s Communication Analyst in the northeast, stated this in a statement in Maiduguri, the state capital, on Sunday, March 31, 2019. She said the data ...

The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), says no fewer than 150 children affected with lead poisoning in Zamfara State are still undergoing treatment. Men work in the mines where they dig deep to find the rock and then crush these rocks to find the gold ore. Inside the rocks there is also deposits of other metals, ...

Anambra State Commissioner for Works, Chief Marcel Ifejiofor, on Friday, March 29, 2019 disclosed that there were more than 1,000 active erosion sites scattered across the state. The Federal High Court in Awka is under serious gully erosion threat and faces imminent collapse Ifejiofor, who made the disclosure in Awka, the state capital, however, said the state Executive Council had ...

Just over a decade is all that remains to stop irreversible damage from climate change, world leaders heard recently at a General Assembly high‑level meeting on the relationship between climate change and sustainable development. L-R: Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa; Prime Minister of Fiji and President of COP23, Frank Bainimarama; Secretary ...

In continuation of its enforcement of the National Tobacco Control (NTC) Act which commenced in January 2019, the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) this week carried out a raid of lounges, bars and open markets in Port Harcourt and Lagos where cigarettes and shisha are openly sold. CPC officials during the enforcement exercise The nine provisions of the NTC Act that ...

The AGRHYMET Regional Centre of the Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) in a recent announcement concerning trends in rainfall for the season in Gulf of Guinea countries has warned of the possibilities of flooding and drought. Flooding in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State The special seasonal forecast bulletin for the Agro-Hydro-Climatic characteristics of the 2019 high rainy season ...