Game-changing new research, high-tech tools, unconventional initiatives are to be presented at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), a gathering of 1,000 experts, scientists, government officials, NGOs and change makers. According to the organisers, cross-cutting solutions to the conservation and restoration of land and natural resources worldwide are to be highlighted
President of Mauritius, Ammenah Gurib Fakim
Cultural instigator Scott Goodson, President of Mauritius Ammenah Gurib Fakim, yogi and spiritual leader Sadhguru, and UN Environment Director General Erik Solheim are headlining a gathering in Bonn, Germany of more than 45 organisations including the World Resources Institute (WRI), The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and others dedicated to the urgent global imperative to preserve and restore natural resources – from peatlands in Indonesia to glaciers in the Peruvian Andes.
They’re coming together at the end of a year marked by mounting threats on land – under pressure from the growing global demand for commodities, the need to feed a burgeoning population, and an escalation in natural disasters. In 2017 alone, significant forest and peatland fires ripped through Indonesia, violent land rights protests rocked Brazil, destructive hurricanes leveled Caribbean islands and drastic food shortages created a crisis in East Africa.
Seeking to solve these and other land-based crises, the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) will spotlight cutting-edge research and innovative projects across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific – leveraging everything from drones to traditional indigenous knowledge.
These include billion-dollar forest restoration projects in Latin America (Initiative 20×20) and Africa (AFR100); high-tech, real-time mapping and tracking tools that can monitor remote forests; and innovative solutions to the destruction of natural resources, such as the rebuilding of peatlands in Europe using sustainable building products.
Hosted and funded by the German government, the Global Landscapes Forum is said to be the only event of its kind devoted to treating landscapes in a holistic manner. By connecting “unusual bedfellows,” the event seeks to break traditional silos to generate novel ideas and accelerate action to ensure land use and distribution is more resilient, equitable and productive.
The GLF is the largest science-based platform on sustainable land use bringing together world leaders, climate negotiators, policy makers, development practitioners, private sector representatives, scientists, civil society and the media. Since its inception in 2013, over 25,000 stakeholders from 3,000 organisations and 110 countries have engaged with the GLF. More than just an event, it is a movement aiming to impact one billion people in the next five years.
President, Society for the Promotion of People’s Rights, Mr Williams Osaze, on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 appealed to members of the public to protect the environment for sustainable development.
Environment Minister of State, Ibrahim Usman Jibril
Osaze, who made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that preserving Nigeria’s environment was a collective responsibility.
“Therefore, resources can be used in a manner that they do not do excessive harm to the environment. Nigerians should work in oneness to tackle environmental challenges; nobody is immune to any negative impact of environmental violation.
“The efforts will ensure cleaner environment for our own survival and sustainable development; whatever we give the environment is what is given to us. The condition of the environment is increasingly affecting human health.
“If the environment is filthy, it will affect us; everything centres on the environment; when environmental health is not in a good condition, humans, animals and plants health are in danger.
“Poor environmental health can cause disease outbreaks, thereby number of people dying will increase in the society,’’ he said.
Osaze said that one of the ways to protect the environmental health was to avoid waste burning around residential areas.
He said that such attitude was illegal as it releases mould spores, soot and other contaminants that could aggravate allergy, leading to respiratory problems.
The president said that planting of tree was also protecting environment, adding that trees absorbed carbon dioxide and cutting of trees without replacement lead to global warming.
Osaze said that everyone had the right to a safe and healthy environment.
“The quality of our environment affects all of us no matter where we live. The environment is our home. If it is not healthy, we will not be healthy either.
“When people abuse the environment, this affects us all. If water is polluted, if the air is full of smoke and chemicals, if food contains poisons, people, plants and animals get sick,’’ he said.
The president, however, called on relevant stakeholders, including the media, to increase awareness on the importance of tree planting and the risks associated with open burning of waste and bush burning.
Environmental degradation has emerged as a major challenge of the 21st century, threatening communities and increasing poverty. Societies across the globe have continued to suffer from a persistently unfavourable environmental degradation leading to historical climate change disasters especially among vulnerable communties, experts say.
Award presentation to the Young Champions of the Earth
In a fragile global context, innovative ideas are needed more than ever to protect and conserve the environment and fight against the effects of climate change says Erik Solheim, Executive Director, UN Environment.
It is against this backdrop that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), organised a competition to select the best promising innovative environment projects by young people across the globe. Six projects were finally selected and the winners presented at the ongoing UN Environment general assembly on Tuesday, December 5, 2017.
The six winners dubbed “Young Champions of the Earth” according to UNEP officials are talented individuals between the ages of 18 and 30 with promising ideas to protect or restore the environment.
A press release from UNEP notes that the Young Champions were selected by way of an online public vote and the deliberation of a global jury. The six winners, selected from over 600 applicants are, Kaya Dorey(Canada), Eritai Kabetwei (Kiribati), Adam Dixon (UK), Liliana Pazmillo (Ecuador), Omer Badokhon (Yemen) and Mariama Mamane (Burkina Faso).
Each of the six winners will receive $15,000 in seed funding, mentoring, training to help them realise their environmental ambitions.
In a discussion at the award event, the 2017 Young Champions of the Earth shared their innovative ideas geared at creating positive environmental impact.
Panelists at the event highlighted the role of global youth in sustainable development and, more specifically, the ways and means to empower youth in decision making processes and harness their creativity to effect change and fight against growing poverty and youth unemployment.
Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment, and Ellie Goulding, UN Environment’s newest Goodwill Ambassador, joined the conversation with emphasis on what it means to be an environmentalist in 2017.
According to UNEP, the selection was very competitive with shortlisted applicants subjected to an online public vote before being considered by a global Jury comprising VICE Media Founder, Suroosh Alvi; She Leads Africa Co-founder, Yasmin Belo-Osagie; UN Environment Head, Erik Solheim; Covestro CEO, Patrick Thomas; and UN Youth Envoy, Jayathma Wickramanayake.
Apart from receiving seed-funding, the winners will also get intensive training, tailored mentorship and global publicity to help them bring their big ideas to life.
Among the winning projects is that of Mariama Mamane from Burkina Faso who wants to address the energy deficit in Africa and the devastating degradation of cropland caused by chemical fertilisers. Her project, “JACIGREEN”, offers an innovative eco-solution to the problem of water hyacinth, which, she says without controlled management, can be devastating for the environment.
Water hyacinth, she says, is an invasive alien species that grows very rapidly in the waterways of the Niger River. Although not inherently harmful, initially purifying the waterway in which it grows, water hyacinth becomes a problem once it reaches a certain maturity by suffocating aquatic life.
JACIGREEN, she says, will introduce a plant-based purification mechanism to help manage fresh water sustainably and improve access to drinking water. It will simultaneously implement a system to produce organic fertiliser (via anaerobic composting) and electricity (from biogas recovered from the water hyacinth transformation process).
Another winner, Adam Dixon, will use horticultural innovation to tackle food insecurity and habitat loss.
What began as an appreciation of gardening from joining his mother while she pottered in the backyard became a fascination with plant growth and a drive for innovation. Dixon’s Phytoponics technology enables food crops to grow in water encased in a 100 percent recyclable polymer film, improving irrigation efficiency and reducing the amount of land use needed for horticulture.
In just one year, Dixon has built his company up to the value of $2.6 million and is supplying Europe’s second largest producer of salad. Dixon’s cost-effective, rapidly deployable product is now being piloted by the World Food Programme in refugee camps to support the supply of fresh produce to thousands of people in what are often uncultivable, barren locations.
Canadian fashion designer Kaya Dorey’s unique apparel business not only delivers on sustainability but also an urban street style for a generation wanting to end wasteful consumerism of “fast fashon”. Her “conscious apparel company”, NOVEL SUPPLY Co., produces garments free from toxic dyes and synthetics, and seeks to source hemp and organic cotton as well as environmentally friendly inks. The business is based on the “closed-loop” philosophy of production, which strives for sustainability by improving economic and environmental goals simultaneously.
Ecuadorian biologist, Liliana Jaramillo PazmiñI, for her part is bringing back flora and fauna and reducing air pollution and vulnerability to natural disasters by encouraging more use of native plants in the green rooftops of the urbanised planet.
Beginning in her native city of Quito, Ecuador’s capital, a towering city with high rates of air pollution that causes inflammatory disease, Liliana has focused her research on identifying and cataloguing which native plant species are better adapted to urban environments and resilient to climate change.
As more of the world’s population inhabits dense urban environments, Liliana hopes her research into which plants can best save and serve the environment will be replicated across other urban settings.
She says she dreams of a future where the urban sprawl sees cities bursting with green life across their concrete structures.
Yemeni engineer, Omer Badokhon, is working on biogas plants which aims to improve thousands of rural livelihoods in his war-stricken homeland. Omer, who holds a degree from Hadhramout University, researched the production and purification of biogas from landfills to generate electricity as part of his studies. He quickly realised that such devices could be put to good use at a domestic level in his country, and set out to do this himself.
The devices, which will be constructed locally under Omer’s guidance, enable the rapid decomposition of domestic organic waste, thereby maximising the amount of biogas produced. He is working with a non-governmental organisation affiliated with the Green Projects Centre to build prototypes and pilot the biogas plants.
Kiribati citizen, Eritai Kateibwi, for his work on a hydroponics system that will improve human health and resilience to climate change on the low-lying island. He saw the problems caused by Kiribati’s reliance on imported, often unhealthy, food due to the challenges of growing fresh produce: diabetes, unhealthy children and a garbage problem from dealing with the packaging.
He realised that locally grown, nutritious food would reduce these problems, as well as provide entrepreneurial opportunities to the local communities. Eritai’s system, which relies on Kiribati’s abundant sunshine but uses only 10 per cent of the water of traditional crops, has already been used to produce lettuce, Chinese cabbage and tomatoes within 30 days.
He plans to use the seed financing from the award to build 200 units. Families will receive training and purchase these through micro-financing, the proceeds of which Eritai will use to build and make available more units.
Andrew Dunn of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) emphasises in this treatise that the Cross River gorilla, which now seems tolerated by enlightened locals, has survived by learning to avoid humans and rarely ventures out of its forest home, except maybe when a young male is in search of a mate
Camera trap photo of a silverback Cross River gorilla in Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary
Did you know that there are four different types of gorilla known from Africa and the rarest of them all lives in Nigeria? The Cross River gorilla is restricted to the mountains of Cross River State and adjacent areas of Cameroon.
Gorillas in Nigeria only occur at three different sites: the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, the Mbe Mountains and the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park. After decades of hunting and habitat loss, only 100 Cross River gorillas survive in Nigeria and a further 200 in Cameroon.
They are rarely seen, although they are sometimes photographed by researchers using camera traps. Gorillas have survived by avoiding humans and by living on the steepest most inaccessible mountain slopes. Imagine our surprise therefore when a large male gorilla was recently seen close to the villages of Ofambe and Okiro in Obudu LGA, at least 10kms outside of Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and far from any forest. Gorillas normally live in small groups composed of a large dominant male known as a silverback together with three to four females and their young.
When these young gorillas mature, they leave to join another gorilla group. Young male gorillas are known as blackbacks and their presence is not usually tolerated by the dominant silverback. Each blackback gorilla must roam the forest in search of a mate. These wanderings are very important for the long-term survival of the species, allowing for the exchange of genes between groups – provided he is successful in finding a wife!
“Roaming blackbacks do not represent a threat to humans, but may come close to villages as they attempt to cross between one forest patch to another. In the past these gorillas may have been killed, representing a significant loss to such a small population,” said Dr Richard Bergl of the North Carolina Zoo.
However, thanks to increased awareness, and to enlightened village chiefs in Ofambe (Chief Julius Ochui) and Okiro (Chief Augustine Bitte), the presence of this gorilla so close to the village has so far been tolerated by the community.
Cross River Gorilla expert, Dr. Inaoyom Imong of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Calabar, explained: “As long as the gorilla is left alone it will likely find its way back to the forest, and hopefully a wife.”
A positive outcome for conservation and the future of Nigeria’s biological heritage!
The government of South Sudan – represented at the ongoing 3rd UN Environment Assembly by its Ministry of Environment – has taken up a campaign by a German civil society group for a clean-up of oil pollution of the country’s water.
A South Sudanese boy drinking polluted water
Spearheaded by Sign of Hope, the plea was made by Joseph Bartel, the Permanent Secretary at the Environment Ministry, who lamented that the country is facing an environmental disaster caused by oil pollution.
“Help us clean up this oil-caused environmental disaster,” Bartel pleaded.
Klaus Stieglitz, human rights expert and Deputy Chairperson of Sign of Hope, the Germany-based NGO, said: “For the last nine years, Sign of Hope and the scientists with whom it works have been persistently alerting the world to this enormous and growing crime against human rights and the environment. The government of South Sudan and its corporate allies have repeatedly denied the existence of this ravaging of people’s lives and livelihoods.
“That is why we especially welcome the government’s admission of there being a problem. We now look forward to the great clean-up. The first step: a full-scale investigation of South Sudan’s oil fields’ environments and environs.
“Ringing words now have to be followed by actions capable of helping the 180,000 victims of oil-caused water pollution. It is time to put an end to this human-made crisis.”
The UN Environment Assembly, the world’s foremost decision-making body in environmental matters, is being held in Nairobi. It has “#BeatPollution” as its slogan.
In a response to the recent flooding in Benue, Kogi, Lagos, and Niger states in Nigeria and hurricanes in the US and Caribbean, John Baaki Terzungwe of the Women Environmental Programme (WEP) expresses his feelings in this vivid, emotional poem
A view of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Sint Maarten Dutch part of Saint Martin island in the Caribbean, Sept. 6, 2017.
Millions of years ago you enjoyed absolute peace
Because no one gave you a reason to wail
No one even gave you a reason to frown
You were ever radiant and glowing
I was not there when you came to being
But our ancestors told us your story
How gentle, accommodating and reliable you were
You were reliable and predictable even in your busy schedules
Even as you were always journeying round about thyself through a void every 24 hours
And at the same time journeying round a big pot of hot fire every 365 days.
Any time you promised us water, you gave. Anytime you promised us warm breeze, we got. You never promised and failed. We knew exactly when to expect your gifts of water, flowers, crickets, milk, honey, warm and cold breeze etc. You never gave us anything in excess or in deficit.
But suddenly you have changed!
You are no longer calm, accommodating and reliable as you once were
You no longer bless us with gifts that we expect.
I swear you are no longer predictable.
Nowadays, anytime we expect your gift of milk and honey,
You unleash water in excess to carry away our barns
Bringing on us hunger and starvation and driving us away from our abodes
Yes we need water, but not in excess to drown us
We need drinking water, not drowning water
See what you have caused to Benue, see what you have caused to Kogi, see what you have caused to Niger, see what you have caused to Lagos, see what you have caused to Texas
Have you forgotten that you did this to Benue in 2012?
Have you also forgotten that for a decade you have unleashed excess water everywhere?
The Kingdom of Donald Trump has become used to your water even before his reign
You now bring excess water by different names
Katrina and Harvey are some of the excess water you have brought
Let me not lament too much as you may have your reasons for becoming wicked
Our ancestors told us that you needed to be treated with care to remain a good mother
They told us that if we give you any reason to wail, your tears will become a curse
They told us that to make you remain a good mother
We should always fan you cool to sustain your journey around the hot pot of fire
But we have stopped fanning you to keep you cool long time ago
The heat from the pot of fire around which you journey has made you to wail
We have failed in our responsibility to keep you cool hence your cry that has become a curse
Despite several decisions the gods have made to keep fanning
You continue to feel hot like someone standing close to where Songo has spit fire.
We are not fanning you as we should
Because the gods of our lands do not give us the fans.
The gods of our land have joined the gods of the white man for 22 times to hold meetings about your welfare
This year too, the gods of our land we join the gods of the white man in Germany
To see how we can wipe your tears.
Why we don’t blame you for shedding tears
We blame the gods who knoweth all but fail to remove us from the path of your tears.
We hope that the gods will do more by offering sacrifices to take away your curse on us
And help us to wipe your tears
And you will again become the good mother you once were.
The UN Environment Assembly has acknowledged the importance of partnership in driving development actions across the globe.
Jochen Flasbarth, Head of German Delegation and State Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety of Germany. Photo credit: EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
To this end development stakeholders have decided to walk the talk against pollution with a joint $35 million financial support to the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE). The financial support came from European Union, Finland, Germany, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Switzerland.
The partnership of the five UN agencies is geared at supporting countries in greening their economies and tackling environmental challenges, while promoting better jobs and stable economic growth, according to a statement by the UN Environment.
The announcement came at the third UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, attended by over 4,000 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, UN officials and civil society representatives to drive efforts towards a sustainable and pollution free future.
The success of the drive the leaders however noted, hinges on a global alliance of the different development stakeholders, working together for the common good.
“In order to move towards a sustainable and pollution-free future, we need a broad alliance of all stakeholders, one that transcends the traditional divides between industry and environmentalists,” said Jochen Flasbarth, Head of German Delegation and State Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety of Germany.
Delegates echoed their resolve to transform economies into a vehicle for sustainable development through solid alliances.
The EU is committed to cooperating with developing countries, but also to take action domestically, as shown by the ongoing implementation of the circular economy action plan,” said Mr. Daniel Calleja, Director-General for the Environment, European Commission.
The release notes that more than 90 countries have so far benefited from PAGE’s policy reforms at global and national level especially in capacity building.
Accordingly PAGE is supporting policy reforms on sustainable development and a pollution-free planet calling on leaders to increasingly champion growth that reduces and reliance on finite resources.
“As this partnership grows and helps more nations green their economies, we will see leaders increasingly champion sustainable growth that reduces emissions and reliance on finite resources,” said Erik Solheim, Executive Director of UN Environment.
The funding he said will help expand other works that have been done so far. “This new funding will help expand the great work that has been done so far, and move us closer to a pollution-free planet.”
Report from UNEP says environmental degradation overall causes nearly one in four of all deaths worldwide, or 12.6 million people a year, and the destruction of key ecosystems. The ongoing assembly is expected to to examine over a dozen resolutions on the table, including new approaches to tackling air pollution which claims 6.5 million lives annually.
“Making our planet free of pollution could be a new engine of growth, a net generator of green jobs, a new investment opportunity for the finance sector, and a vital strategy for addressing persistent poverty,” said Asad Naqvi, Head of the PAGE Secretariat.
The UN Environment General Assembly accordingly is the world’s highest level environment forum, attended by heads of state, environment ministers, CEO’s of multi-national companies, astronauts, NASA scientists, NGOs, environment ectvisits and other stakeholders to discuss and make global commitments to environmental protection.
It also provides the opportunity to track the latest development in environmental policy and actions by the different actors and exchange on experience.
A wildfire driven by California’s dry, seasonal Santa Ana winds rapidly expanded to more than 12,500 hectares overnight outside Los Angeles, forcing widening evacuations on Tuesday, December 5, 2017.
Firefighters work to put out raging flames in California. Photo credit: Ventura County Fire Department
Authorities in Ventura County, on the Pacific Coast just north of Los Angeles, declared an emergency and said they planned to use fixed wing aircraft and helicopters against the “fast moving, active brush fire.’’
The fire started north of Santa Paula and burned into the Ventura city limits, pushed by strong east winds.
The Ventura County Fire Department said that thousands of homes were being evacuated overnight in East Ventura.
“The fire is still out of control and structures continue to be threatened throughout the fire area,” county emergency officials said in statement.
“Due to the intensity of the fire, crews are having trouble making access and there are multiple reports of structures on fire.”
The blaze was being driven by what the National Weather Service called “potentially the strongest and longest duration” Santa Ana wind event of the current season.
The so-called devil winds blow out from Southern California’s inland deserts toward the coast, typically during autumn, causing very low humidity and raising the risk of wildfires in the heavily populated coastal regions.
Power company Southern California Edison tweeted that about 180,000 households were blacked out in and around Ventura County, with another 83,000 without power further north in Santa Barbara County, with no estimate of when service could be restored.
Several school districts in the area cancelled classes, and the Ventura County Red Cross opened two shelters.
Chairman, Cross River Forestry Commission, Mr Bette Obi, says uncontrolled tree felling for fuelwood by people is increasingly threatening the survival of forests across the country.
Dr Alice Ekwu, Cross River State Commissioner for Climate Change and Forestry
Obi said this in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 at a workshop on “Sustainable Fuelwood Management’’, organised by the Cross River Government in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
He said that forest exploitation for fuelwood had become a serious challenge that many countries had to face squarely, objectively and purposefully.
He said that the workshop, which drew participants from the 18 local government areas of the state, was organised to create awareness and sensitise the citizens to the benefits of the Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project.
He said that it was disheartening that most of the mangrove forests of the state had been degraded, as the trees were continuously felled and used as firewood for cooking and other forms of heating.
He said that, in view of this development, UNDP selected Cross River, Delta and Kaduna states for the commencement of the project.
“The Sustainable Fuelwood Management Project aims at promoting sustainable community-based forest management through incentives-based, structured fuelwood production and utilisation.
“The project also seeks to promote the establishment of private, community-based woodlots for fuelwood supply and introduce the prospects of producing and utilising fuel-efficient cook stoves.
“We have to thoroughly look at this because our mangroves and other forests are increasingly threatened by their unsustainable exploitation for fuelwood by local consumers,’’ he said.
Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River, who was represented by his deputy, Prof. Ivara Esu, said that the state had over 50 per cent of the country’s forest reserves.
Ayade, who described the workshop as “apt and timely’’, said that the government had started the planting of five million trees across the 18 local government areas of the state, with a view to restoring the forests lost to deforestation.
He urged the focal team of the workshop and development partners to come out with recommendations which would stem the growing depletion of forests in Cross River and other states of the country.
The UNDP Country Director, Mr Sam Bwalya, said that the UN agency was executing the project in partnership with the Cross River Government due to the large forest reserves of the state.
In her speech, Dr Alice Ekwu, the state Commissioner for Climate Change and Forestry, said that the ministry was working with relevant agencies to commence the planting of trees that would be specifically earmarked for fuelwood.
“Through that strategy, our forests would be left alone and duly preserved,’’ she added.
A National Youth Service Corp member in Benue State (name withheld ) suspected to be infected with monkey pox have been confined at Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi.
Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Cecilia Ojabo
Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Cecilia Ojabo, who disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 in Makurdi, said the corps member was suspected to have contracted the disease after having sex with a girl from Gboko who was earlier diagnosed positive with monkey pox.
According to her, the corps member, who is posted to do his primary assignment in the place, has also accepted to have had a relationship with the girl.
She said, “When we leant of the case of the monkey pox in Gboko, we swiftly moved and confirmed the lady at BSUTH Infections Unit, and the blood sample from her was sent to Senegal. Few weeks ago the result came back positive.
“The girl told us that she got the disease from a driver who spent a night with her, but when we called him the man denied visiting Benue.
“However, there is another case of a corps member serving in Gboko, who also had an affair with her, both of them are now confined at the teaching hospital and will remain there until we are sure they are properly healed, ” she noted.
She said the third case of monkey pox in the state was reported of a boy schooling in Taraba State who came home at Katsina Ala, with symptoms of the disease, but vanished when a medical team was dispatched to the place to verify his case.
Dr Ojabo said when the parents of the boy with a suspected case were contacted, they also feigned ignorance of their child’s whereabout.
She advised members of the pubic to report any suspected case of the disease in their localities and maintain good hygiene to avoid infections.
