YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Cameroon journalists have been enjoined to take interest in reporting climate information data and services, cardinal instruments in development planning for policymakers and other stakeholders. The call was made by officials of the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Advanced School of Mass Communication, ASMAC Yaounde , at a two day workshop, June 25-26,2018 to enhance the reporting skills of communicators on the use of climate information services in development planning.“The media has an important role to play in informing policymakers and end users on the use of climate services and data to better address environmental challenges,” says Professor Nana Nzepa, head of the Information technology department, ASMAC.The overarching goal of enhancing the uptake of Climate Information Services (CIS) is geared at providing people and organizations with reliable, timely, user-friendly information tailored to reduce climate risks related losses as well as in capitalizing on emerging opportunities for development noted ACPC.“Hence, factoring CIS into policy, planning and practices are crucial for Africa to achieve its development aspirations for enhanced trade competitiveness, reduced poverty and sustainable economic growth,” Journalists were told.According to Charles Muraya, Information Management Officer ACPC, the uptake and use of climate info of CIS in Africa is influenced by the lack of reliable historical observations, coarse scale of future climate projections, weak coordinated CIS delivery, among others. On the side of the users, the main obstacles for poor uptake and utilization of CIS include limited awareness about the existence of specific climate information, poor data accessibility, and lack of capacity to use climate information in decision making processes.“The media has not been very proactive in providing the correct information and in time for decision making. Engaging media in climate information dissemination is therefore an important step in ensuring that climate information is packaged in a form that can easily be understood and that it is also received in a timely manner,” he said.It is against this backdrop that the training of over 30 journalists in Cameroon was organised under the theme" the use of the e-learning platform on climate information and services mainstreaming in the planning and economic development processes".Participants were empowered using teaching tools and skills in the dissemination of climate information and services and the need to mainstream climate information in their different media content and programmes to better inform policymakers and end users.“We expect you communicators to better advocate and sensitize legislators, decision-makers, the private sector, investors and other stakeholders on the issue and role of Climate Information Services (CIS) in development planning processes,” says Professor Nana Nzepa. “But to do this you must first of all understand the basic notion of climate information services and data,” he said.The different participants from community radio, national and private newspapers, radio and television appreciated the training, acknowledging its importance amidst growing climate threats.“ It is time for the voices of Journalists to be heard in the fight against climate change, thanks to the two days…

CHIMANINANIi, Zimbabwe (PAMACC News) - Willard Zano, a smallholder farmer at Chakohwa Block E Irrigation Scheme west of Chimanimani district in Zimbabwe looks at water gushing through an irrigation canal and he smiles.Zano had every reason to smile as the recently rehabilitated irrigation scheme has brought hope to smallholder farmers in this drought ravaged region. Experts have linked the severity and frequency of the droughts to climate change. And according to the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, enhanced water use efficiency holds key to tackling water scarcity and food security issues. The rehabilitation of Chakohwa Block E Irrigation Scheme began in 2015 and was completed in 2017 as a collaborative effort of the local farmers, international humanitarian organisation, World Vision and various Zimbabwe government departments. Chakohwa and other areas along the western parts of Chimanimani district are among the most arid areas in Zimbabwe, characterised by low and erratic rainfall, making rainfed agriculture virtually unsustainable. And Chakohwa Irrigation Scheme was developed to enhance crop productivity and address food security and nutrition in the region.“This irrigation scheme (Chakohwa Block E) has brought hope to us all,” Zano said. “We are now ready to harvest our first crop of Michigan beans”.Chakohwa Block E Irrigation Scheme constructed with the support of World Vision Zimbabwe has 33 hectares benefiting 165 smallholder farmers.The current crop of Michigan beans was grown under contract farming with Zimbabwe’s food processing company, Cairns Foods. Under the contract farming initiative each farmer received 10 kgs of Michigan bean seed from Cairns Foods while World Vision supported the farmers with 100 kgs of Compound D, 12,5kg of Ammonia Nitrate and 200ml of bravo and 200ml of diathought chemicals. The farmers are assured of a ready market for their beans.Another farmer in the irrigation scheme, Eliah Machianga weighed in, adding that the farmers in the area had never dreamed of growing cash crops, but the scheme had changed the way farmers do their business.“We used to grow crops like millet and we never dreamed of growing cash crops like beans. The irrigation scheme has changed everything. We are expecting to grow tomatoes after harvesting beans,” he said.Machianga said he would now be able to pay school fees for his children after selling his beans.“Now I’m no longer worried about how I’m going to get school fees for my children and how I’m going to feed them because this irrigation scheme will bring money to us,” Machianga said.However, Zano was quick to express fear that with the droughts becoming frequent and severe, the river which supply water for the irrigation would also soon run out of enough water for all the farmers.“Our best option is to drill boreholes to supply water to the irrigation scheme. Harnessing underground water is the best way to go …we are not sure how long the water in the river will last,” Zano said.World Vision Zimbabwe operations director, Khumbulani Ndlovu said the irrigation project was developed to assist local farmers and ensure they start to produce and…

ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Hundreds of illegally imported mattresses confiscated by Ghana’s customs authority were recently burnt openly at a landfill site.The destruction of the impounded goods is in line with laws prohibiting the entry of used mattresses into the country.It is common place to see thousands of cartons of cigarette, canned food, drugs, wax prints and other restricted or unwholesome goods burnt openly.Environmental concerns have however been raised about the practice of burning such materials, due to the gases emitted into the atmosphere.Kwaku Abeeku, who manages Green Energy and Logistics Consults, says Ghana as a signatory to various international agreements on climate change, including the Paris Agreement, must reconsider alternatives to the burning of impounded goods as soon as possible.“In the case of these open burns, aside the issue of Carbon Monoxide, these imported mattresses are mainly synthetic foams containing petroleum based chemicals and sometimes even fire retardants,” he observed. “Aside emissions, people living in the immediate environments of these burn sites and the country at large are put in a rather bad situation as we commit to global moves in combating climate change”.Ghana, in its international obligations as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is guided by its own commitments in the nationally determined contribution (NDC) to climate change mitigation.As an obligation at the multilateral level, Ghana reaffirms its resolve to support global efforts to define a common future that seeks to safeguard the collective interest of all nations by supporting the 2015 Paris global agreement on climate change.The implementation of climate actions is expected to help attain low carbon climate resilience through effective adaptation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction.In 2017, Ghana at the UN Conference of Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, pledged the country’s commitment to help combat climate change and adapt to its effects.The destruction of contraband mattresses, clothing, food and pharmaceutical products through open burning is therefore regarded as negating the country’s commitment to climate mitigation.Kwaku Abeeku has challenged the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other institutions responsible for best environmental practices to help halt the open burning of materials.“I believe the time to make climate and environmental concern a culture and environmental responsiveness a mandatorily measured policy is now,” he said.

ASHANTI, Ghana (PAMACC News) - Timeabu, a farming community in the Ashanti region of Ghana, has in the past experienced levels of devastation of cocoa trees as a result of bad weather and poor rainfall with adverse impact on production. To protect dying cocoa trees and the local ecology, the Centre for Climate Change and Food Security (CCCFS), a Ghanaian-based non-governmental organization, has adopted the community to pilot a tree planting program. Since December 2017, the Centre has planted 200 trees on cocoa farms and other areas of the community, in addition to sensitization on best farming practices.A beneficiary, Nana Dasebere Boama Darko, says the farmers are excited the trees will relieve them of severe weather condition and help provide the needed shade to nourish their crops.The Centre plans to extend the exercise to other communities across the country.“Protecting the ecology is very important. We are likely to live a shameful life if trees continue to die everyday,” said Mahmud Mohammed-Nurudeen, Executive Director of CCCFS. “Planting of the trees is also to sequester carbon, and help remove carbon dioxide from the air, which cools the earth.”Despite their importance to life, humans have cut down half of the world's trees.“Every year we cut down over 50,000 square miles of forest worldwide for paper, agriculture, building materials and fuel,” observed Mohammed-Nurudeen. Several research have proven that carbon release from deforestation accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the four to five billion tons of carbon accumulating every year in the atmosphere from human activities. Ghana Bureau Chief of ClimateReporters, Kofi Adu Domfeh, who is among lead supporters of the tree planting exercise, emphasized the need to put the trees back “any way we can, as fast as we can”. “What you may not know is that trees also build soil and offer energy-saving shade that reduces global warming,” he said. “We want to create habitat for thousands of different species and also help to reduce ozone levels.” The initiative is also supported by the Economy for the Common Good and senior officers of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Fuad Mohammed and Asante Abednago, who have committed to the community outreach to help rural farmers contribute to the government's target of producing one million tonnes of cocoa. The CCCFS aims to provide enabling environment for all species, make issues of food security relevant and tackle climate change head-on to make Ghana a better place to live.