NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - The UN has called for protection of journalists so that they are able to highlight environmental issues.
“UN Environment is taking a stand against the ongoing threats, intimidation, harassment, and murder of environmental defenders around the world, with the launch of the UN Environmental Rights Initiative in Geneva ,” said Erik Solheim, Head of UNEP, which is headquartered in Kenya.
Speaking in Nairobi, Solheim said journalists and other environment activists need protection because they help people to better understand their rights and how to defend them and assist governments to better safeguard environmental rights.
“Those who struggle to protect planet and people should be celebrated as heroes, but the sad fact is that many are paying a heavy price with their safety and sometimes their lives. It’s our duty to stand on the side of those who are on the right side of history. It means standing for the most fundamental and universal of human rights,” Solheim said.
He urged governments to prioritize the protection of environmental defenders from harassment and attack and to bring those who harm or threaten them to justice swiftly and definitively.
‘Killings, violence and threats often go unreported and unpunished. More journalistic coverage and stronger legal support at the local and national level are essential to defend the defenders,” said Jonathan Watts, Global Environment Editor, The Guardian.
Solheim said environmental rights are enshrined in over 100 constitutions and yet in January 2018 Global Witness documented that almost four environmental defenders are being killed per week, with the true total likely far higher.
“Many more are harassed, intimidated and forced from their lands. Around 40 -50 percent of the 197 environmental defenders killed in 2017 came from indigenous and local communities,” he said.
The UN noted that violations of environmental rights have a profound impact on life, self-determination, food, water, health, sanitation, housing, cultural, civil and political rights.
This comes at a time when the Kenya Government has imposed a 90-day moratorium on timber harvesting in public forests.
Deputy President William Ruto also unveiled a taskforce last week to investigate why Kenya is losing forest cover quickly due to illegal timber harvesting and settlements.
The 15-member team led by chairperson Marion Kamau will investigate why the country has 500,000 acres in water catchment areas that have no trees.
The taskforce will also look into existing legal frameworks, including the forest Act and others, to ensure punitive measures are put in place to address various environmental challenges facing the country.
The team which has two weeks to deliver its interim report and a month to give its final report is set to collect views from the public, religious groups, civil societies, diplomats and other interested stakeholders.
“I have told the taskforce that this is not a public relations exercise. In the past, we have had exercises that end up being photo opportunities. The taskforce has a very clear mandate,” Ruto said when he unveiled its members.
The call for protecting journalists and environment activists also comes at a time when the Sengwer indigenous people in Embobut forest has accused Government of violence, threats and eviction from the forest.
UN also called on the private sector to move beyond a culture of basic compliance to one where the business community champions the rights of everyone to a clean and healthy environment.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said two disturbing counter-trends are undermining both the environmental rule of law and human rights to participate and assemble.
“The first is the escalating harassment, intimidation, and murder of environmental defenders. Between 2002 and 2013, 908 people were killed in 35 countries defending the environment and land, and the pace of killing is increasing; 2017 was even worse,” Hussein said.
The second, he added, is the attempt by some countries to limit the activities of nongovernmental organizations.
“Between 1993 and 2016, 48 countries enacted laws that restricted the activities of local NGOs receiving foreign funding, and 63 countries adopted laws restricting activities of foreign NGOs,” he said.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - The UN has called for protection of journalists so that they are able to highlight environmental issues.
“UN Environment is taking a stand against the ongoing threats, intimidation, harassment, and murder of environmental defenders around the world, with the launch of the UN Environmental Rights Initiative in Geneva ,” said Erik Solheim, Head of UNEP, which is headquartered in Kenya.
Speaking in Nairobi, Solheim said journalists and other environment activists need protection because they help people to better understand their rights and how to defend them and assist governments to better safeguard environmental rights.
“Those who struggle to protect planet and people should be celebrated as heroes, but the sad fact is that many are paying a heavy price with their safety and sometimes their lives. It’s our duty to stand on the side of those who are on the right side of history. It means standing for the most fundamental and universal of human rights,” Solheim said.
He urged governments to prioritize the protection of environmental defenders from harassment and attack and to bring those who harm or threaten them to justice swiftly and definitively.
‘Killings, violence and threats often go unreported and unpunished. More journalistic coverage and stronger legal support at the local and national level are essential to defend the defenders,” said Jonathan Watts, Global Environment Editor, The Guardian.
Solheim said environmental rights are enshrined in over 100 constitutions and yet in January 2018 Global Witness documented that almost four environmental defenders are being killed per week, with the true total likely far higher.
“Many more are harassed, intimidated and forced from their lands. Around 40 -50 percent of the 197 environmental defenders killed in 2017 came from indigenous and local communities,” he said.
The UN noted that violations of environmental rights have a profound impact on life, self-determination, food, water, health, sanitation, housing, cultural, civil and political rights.
This comes at a time when the Kenya Government has imposed a 90-day moratorium on timber harvesting in public forests.
Deputy President William Ruto also unveiled a taskforce last week to investigate why Kenya is losing forest cover quickly due to illegal timber harvesting and settlements.
The 15-member team led by chairperson Marion Kamau will investigate why the country has 500,000 acres in water catchment areas that have no trees.
The taskforce will also look into existing legal frameworks, including the forest Act and others, to ensure punitive measures are put in place to address various environmental challenges facing the country.
The team which has two weeks to deliver its interim report and a month to give its final report is set to collect views from the public, religious groups, civil societies, diplomats and other interested stakeholders.
“I have told the taskforce that this is not a public relations exercise. In the past, we have had exercises that end up being photo opportunities. The taskforce has a very clear mandate,” Ruto said when he unveiled its members.
The call for protecting journalists and environment activists also comes at a time when the Sengwer indigenous people in Embobut forest has accused Government of violence, threats and eviction from the forest.
UN also called on the private sector to move beyond a culture of basic compliance to one where the business community champions the rights of everyone to a clean and healthy environment.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said two disturbing counter-trends are undermining both the environmental rule of law and human rights to participate and assemble.
“The first is the escalating harassment, intimidation, and murder of environmental defenders. Between 2002 and 2013, 908 people were killed in 35 countries defending the environment and land, and the pace of killing is increasing; 2017 was even worse,” Hussein said.
The second, he added, is the attempt by some countries to limit the activities of nongovernmental organizations.
“Between 1993 and 2016, 48 countries enacted laws that restricted the activities of local NGOs receiving foreign funding, and 63 countries adopted laws restricting activities of foreign NGOs,” he said.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Rural communities are the biggest losers in Africa’s war against poaching, scientists have revealed.
In most of the countries where resources are being channeled to fight poaching, marginalized communities are getting zero benefits from the conservation revenue stream, according to the Africa Wildlife Foundation (AWF).
“When a lot of resources are being used to fight poaching, benefits to the communities and the economy go down or are no-existent,” says Philip Muruthi, the vice president, species conservation at AWF.
As a professor in ecology, Muruthi, recommends that communities must be wholly involved in conservation, if Africa is to significantly reduce poaching and trafficking of wildlife trophy.
Lack of cross border cooperation against poaching has also undermined Africa’s efforts to fight wildlife crime.
For instance, he says, it has been proven that criminals are coordinating their operations from countries which are not friendly to Africa’s anti-poaching call, to raid neighboring countries’ wildlife.
“Poaching and trafficking is like an amoeba,” says Muruthi. “You push it in one corner, it simply moves to another.”
But the cloud should not obscure the silver lining, Muruthi told a gathering of conservation detectives and officers working at transit stations in Africa, in a Nairobi meeting.
New technologies and innovations like the use of drones and sniffer dogs are giving the crackdown on wildlife crime a facelift.
For instant, sniffer dogs are able to detect illegal wildlife products, track the scent of a poacher, and even lead the charge in areas where weapons are used heavily by criminals.
“Dogs are incorruptible, accurate, efficient and are even feared by poachers and traffickers,” says Mark Kinyua, an expert in canine handling.
About 35,000 elephants are poached every year in Africa, out of a population of 415,000.
“At this rate, in 15 years Africa will have no elephants,” says Muruthi.
PAMACC News, Nairobi - KENYA With the global car fleet due to triple by 2050 and greenhouse gas emissions from transport growing faster than any other sector, West African states have set sights on 2050 to phase out dirty and inefficient fuel.
Bernard Koffi of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) disclosed this today at the ongoing African clean mobility week taking in Nairobi, Kenya.
West Africa is believed to be Africa’s sub-region with the least fuel efficiency and economy levels as 80% of the vehicles across the sub-region are used vehicles while 72% of the vehicles used in ECOWAS countries are imported.
The challenges of attaining fuel efficiency and economy in West Africa, according to Koffi include absence of policies and strong fiscal measures against the importation of vehicles that are over the age limit; and high age limits for the importation of used vehicles. Age limit for the importation of used light duty vehicles (LDVs) in most West African states hover between 8-15 years.
Other extant challenges include poor fuel quality, and road congestion leading to high carbon emissions.
These challenges notwithstanding, ECOWAS is confident of achieving fuel efficiency and economy at least by 50% by the year 2050 through the implementation of its Air Quality Agreement signed by ECOWAS ministers in 2009, and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of all ECOWAS member states to the Paris agreement.
Mr. Koffi believes that the sub-region can achieve the target even before the target year by harmonising carbon emission standards and fuel specification, promoting clean vehicles and fuel economy, and strengthening institutional and regulatory frameworks on fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
“An example of these measures is the recent ban placed on the importation of dirty diesel by five West African countries” he said.
It would be recalled that Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Togo in 2016 announced measures to end the practice of European oil firms and traders who export to Africa, highly polluting fuels (derogatorily dubbed “African quality”) that could never be sold in Europe.
Effective 1st July 2017, the five West African states banned the importation of high-sulphur diesel fuels making the permitted levels of sulphur in imported diesel to fall from as high as 3,000 parts per million (ppm) to 50ppm. Meanwhile, Europe since 2009 fixed the maximum permitted level at 10ppm.
Speaking at the African clean mobility week, Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) commended the ban by the west African states.
“West Africa has sent a strong message that it is no longer accepting dirty fuels from Europe. Their decision to set strict standards for cleaner, safer fuels and advanced vehicle emission standards shows they are placing the health of their people first” Solheim said..
