UNEA has office bearers

The Malawi delegation that attended the meeting
At its first-ever meeting held on Monday June 23 2014 held in Nairobi Kenya, which is known as the “the environmental capital of the world,” United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) elected office bearers who will constitute the Bureau of the Assembly.

The Environment Assembly becomes the universal body and replaces the Governing Council, which had limited members.

In his welcome remarks, outgoing Governing Council President, Hassan Abdel Hilal who is Sudan’s Minister of Environment, Forests and Physical Development said UNEA represents a “ground-breaking platform for leadership in environmental policy and is set to make strategic decisions, provide political guidance and promote a science-policy interface.”

The first and newly elected UNEA president Oyun Sanjaasuren, reminded delegates at the conference of the grave global environment and development challenges that stem from an increasing global population which is now projected to hit 11 billion at the end of the century.

She highlighted UNEA’s position to deliberate on two priority areas which are sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the post-2015 development agenda and illegal trade in wildlife.

Illegal trade in wildlife and timber topped the discussions at the conference with many African countries facing dwindling numbers in wildlife related tourism.

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said that illegal trade in wildlife, a US$200 billion per year market is connected to human and arms trafficking and he stated that it not only threatens endangered species, but human livelihoods too.
Apart from the president of the assembly also elected eight vice presidents and one rapporteur.

Comments

Post a Comment

Leave a comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let’s embrace cultural, linguistic diversity

Last week as I was coming from   a friend’s wedding at Comesa Hall at Trade Fair in Blantyre, I was booed, threatened and called all sorts of nasty names by a group of men. They shouted and uttered almost every unprintable word they could. I was called hule, mfiti, chitsiru, wakuba (whore, witch, fool and thief) but that’s just the few words I can write, the rest were obscene utterances. One of the men blatantly told me that if he had a gun with him, he would have just shot me dead. Mtundu uwu ndiofunika kungowupha (this tribe should be killed). He continued: Ine kungokhala president ndikhoza kungowathamangitsa anthu amenewa. Amabowa (If I were president of this country, I would chase this tribe out of Malawi). The only crime I committed was to speak Chitumbuka which according to these men, disgusts them. I was told when in Malawi I should be speaking Chichewa which according to them is the only true local language. I was  told that Tumbukas are foreigners in Blantyre henc
Read more

PACJA launches climate change academy

Image
A cross section of the first TAAFA fellows--pic courtesy of Atayi Babs Sellina Nkowani, in Nairobi Kenya The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has launched Media academy for African Journalists reporting on Climate Change and environmental issues dubbed "The ACCER Awards Finalists Academy (TAAFA). The launch of the academy took place at Milele Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The first bunch of TAAFA fellows are the 21 African Journalists who have been shortlisted from 309 entries received from across Africa. The Secretary General for PACJA Mithika Mwenda, said that as part of the recommendations of the 2013 Judging Panel, they have redesigned the training and capacity building programmes to ensure that it does not end as an event but as a continuous process that will ensure that they truly build the capacity of journalists in Africa as well as keeping them glued to the climate change and environmental reporting. In their report during the inaugural edition of ACCE
Read more

Drinking from the Well of knowledge

Image
They may not look that bright because of the dust and also the dirt clothes they are wearing but for sure these pupils captured at Chisitu Primary School in Mulanje, Malawi, know that education is the key to a brighter future.Carrying exercise books and pencils in a packet of sugar--an improvised schoolbag, the sky is the limit, everything being equal. However 17 years since Malawi embraced the multi-party system of government and 47 years since it gained independence, many government schools are an eye-sore.Pupils still learn under trees-- that is if trees which have been cut-down due to population increase and need for more farming land, are available. Everyone says that education standards have gone down, but no-one wants to act to change the status quo.
Read more