Environment Watch

World Environment Day
5 June

“On this World Environment Day, I urge people and governments everywhere to overcome indifference, combat greed and act to preserve our natural heritage for the benefit of this and future generations." — Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

World Environment Day aims to inspire more people than ever before to take action to prevent the growing strain on planet Earth’s natural systems from reaching the breaking point. The 2016 theme highlights the fight against the illegal trade in wildlife, which erodes precious biodiversity and threatens the survival of elephants, rhinos and tigers, as well as many other species. It also undermines our economies, communities and security. This year’s slogan "Go Wild for Life" encourages you to spread the word about wildlife crime and the damage it does, and to challenge all those around you to do what they can to prevent it.
2016 Theme: Zero tolerance for the illegal trade in wildlife
The booming illegal trade in wildlife products is eroding Earth’s precious biodiversity, robbing us of our natural heritage and driving whole species to the brink of extinction. The killing and smuggling is also undermining economies and ecoystems, fuelling organized crime, and feeding corruption and insecurity across the globe.
Wildlife crime endangers iconic elephants, rhinos, tigers, gorillas and sea turtles. In 2011, a subspecies of Javan rhino went extinct in Vietnam, while the last western black rhinos vanished from Cameroon the same year. Great apes have disappeared from Gambia, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo, and other countries could quickly follow. Lesser-known victims include helmeted hornbills and pangolins, as well as wild orchids and timbers like Rosewood – flowers and timber are also considered wildlife! Learn more about this year's World Environment Day theme.
Host Country: Angola
This year’s World Environment Day celebrations are hosted by Angola, a country seeking to restore its elephant herds, conserve Africa’s biodiversity-rich wildlife, and safeguard the environment as it continues to rebuild after more than a quarter-century of civil war.
“Angola is delighted to host World Environment Day, which will focus on an issue close to our hearts,” said Angolan Environment Minister Maria de Fatima Jardim. “The illegal wildlife trade, particularly the trade in ivory and rhino horn, is a major problem across our continent. By hosting this day of celebration and awareness-raising, we aim to send a clear message that such practices will soon be eradicated.” See more information on the host country.

Group Wants Buhari to Extend Clean-up to Other Polluted N’Delta Communities
A human rights organisation, Make A Difference (MAD), has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for demonstrating goodwill in cleaning up Ogoni land which has suffered unprecedented amount of degradation.
MAD also advocated that such demonstration of good faith by Buhari towards Ogoni land should be extended to all communities that produce crude oil within the nine crude oil-producing states in the country.
In a statement signed by the Executive Director of MAD, Lemmy Ughegbe, and the Secretary, Yacit Noel Nanvyap, the initiative also called on the National Assembly to fast-track the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, which would go a long way in addressing concerns of environmental degradation occasioned by gas flaring and oil spillage.
According to the statement, “MAD commends the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for taking steps to clean up Ogoni land several years after the United Nations had made the recommendation.
“This act of the President demonstrates good will and selfless leadership especially when former President Goodluck Ebelr Jonathan who hails from the region had failed to do the clean up when he was in the saddle as President.”

Buhari to launch Ogoni land clean-up June 2

President Muhammadu Buhari will launch the Ogoni land clean-up on June 2, a statement has said.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Chijioke Amu-Nnadi, Head of Corporate Affairs unit, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Port Harcourt on Monday.
It stated that the Minister of Environment, Mrs Amina Mohammed, confirmed the date when she visited Bodo in Gokana Local Government Area of the state to inspect an oil spill clean-up demonstration.
The statement quoted Mohammed as saying that the president had given assurances that the area would be cleaned-up in fulfilment of his electioneering promise to people of the Niger Delta.
``I can confirm that President Buhari will visit Ogoni land on June 2 to flag-off clean-up of oil spills in the area as recommended in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
``Buhari would return to Ogoni land where he inaugurated a fish pond in 1984 where the once flourishing pond regrettably had been destroyed by oil pollution.
``The Federal Government is coming back to restore the ecosystem to what it used to be and as such restore the peoples’ source of livelihood.
``We are not just committed to implementing the UNEP report but we are also going beyond that by taking steps to improve security, good governance and economy of the Niger Delta region.
``I can assure that the clean-up exercise is only the beginning, as Mr President is focused on restoring hope to people of the region,” the statement quoted the minister as saying.
Mohammed solicited support of all stakeholders to make the exercise a success.
The statement also quoted Mrs Ibim Semenitari, the Acting Managing Director of NDDC, as saying that the clean was of utmost importance to the commission.
Semenitari lauded the president for taking steps to fulfil his electioneering promise of improving welfare and living conditions of people of Ogoni and others in the region.
``Ogonis are united behind this effort by the Federal Government to clean up their environment, and as such, the people will help in ensuring sustainability of the clean-up,’’ she said.
Semenitari said that NDDC through Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan Forum would mobilise and coordinate support of various stakeholders to make the clean-up a success.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the UNEP report was released in September 2011, with a call on the Nigeria and multinational oil companies to clean-up the Ogoni land. (NAN)

How Katsina lost 15 economic, medicinal trees to desertification

Katsina State is among the 11 states across the north-west and north-eastern zones of the country threatened by adverse desert encroachment which poses great danger to agriculture, food security, and water resources.
Of the state’s 34 local governments councils, eight — Daura, Maiadua, Zango, Sandamu, Baure, Jibia, Kaita, Mashi, Katsina — mostly the bordering Niger Republic are most affected. These areas have been grappling with the challenge of desertification which travels at 0.6 kilometres every year, leading to soil erosion and disruption of the ecosystem.
Desertification is the persistent degradation of land ecosystem by climate variation and human activities and is one of the greatest environmental challenges witnessed nowadays; it is a major barrier to meeting basic human needs in dry land.
The geographical location of Katsina State makes it vulnerable to the gradual deterioration of the environment due to persistent deforestation which can be seen from the deliberate felling of trees and other forms of vegetation, over grazing and faulty farming practices. These greatly affect the socio-economic life of the inhabitants.
Most vulnerable to this menace are the numerous medicinal and economic trees which were abundantly found in farmlands across the area but are no longer easy to come by.
Some of these trees are the Parinari Macrophylla (Gawasa), Sclerocarya Birrea (Daniya), Detarium Macrocarpum (Taura) Doum Palm (Goruba), Tamarind (Tsamiya), Balanites (Aduwa), Ziziphus (Kurna), Acacia Albida (Gawo), Prosopis africana (Kirya), Lannea acida (Faru), Ebony Tree (Kanya), Shea (Kadanya), Black Plum (Dinya), Honey Locust (Dorawa) and Acacai nilotica (Bagaruwa).
Disturbed by the trend, the Daura Emirate Development Association organised a lecture titled: “Desertification and Afforestation in Daura Emirate’, in a move to raise awareness and proffer solution to the menace of desert encroachment that is affecting the region.
The guest speaker, an environment expert, Sade Abdullahi, said “no fewer than 15 indigenous trees of high economic and medicinal values are rapidly being lost due to desertification in Katsina”, an action that will spell doom for future generations if not properly checked.
He said it was alarming to note that these indigenous trees species “are going extinct and we must work to save them.
“Our generation may not see the consequences, but our children and their grandchildren will have no alternative but to live with them if nothing is done,” he said.
What is more worrisome is the fact that these indigenous tree species which are of high economic and medicinal value are rapidly being lost as a result of human activities which are detrimental and a setback to our development.
To address this, Abdullahi advocated for sustainable forest resource management which would ensure that the current generation utilised wisely the available natural resources without necessarily compromising the availability of the resources to the future generation.
This, he said, can only be achieved when the volume of wood harvested at a given period of time does not exceed the net growth that the forest is capable of generating during same period.
Another expert, Professor Muhammad Sani Kalla, said the lecture was organised to mobilise local and national action against desert encroachment in the state and other affected areas across the country.
He said at present, agricultural activities along the Sahel belt of Nigeria were threatened by desert encroachment. “If you look carefully, feed for livestock in this particular area is becoming a problem especially at the tail end of the dry season like now,” he said.
He attributed the loss to indiscriminate felling of trees which exposed the emirate to dangers of desertification, loss of soil fertility and other effects of climate change among others.
He urged on and sundry to at least plant a tree and nurse it to maturity as part of measures to prevent desertification and soil degradation in the area which, he said, was the most vulnerable.
“So you can be sure if their livestock are not well fed, pastoralists will not have surplus to take to the market and get money. So that is why we are looking at it as a threat that we have to do something about. And the way we are doing it is by organising enlightenment campaigns like this lecture to at least bring awareness on the situation and offer some solutions,” he said
Professor Kalla encouraged schools to initiate clubs that would engage students in tree planting and other practices that would preserve the environment.
“We encourage schools to set up school clubs and there are many other ways of motivating pupils and students like introducing competition and giving them prizes. We just want to inculcate tree planting into our own psyche,” the don said.
For Abdul-Aziz Hassan, a director at the state Ministry of Environment, the government’s recent efforts to implement the Great Green Wall Project, which seeks to establish shelter belts in dry regions of the world, is among steps taken to address the adversity of desertification.
He said the proximity of these areas to the Sahara makes them more vulnerable, adding that, “We are giving them special focus in terms of measures in desertification control. These LGAs are provided with amenities that will mitigate the effects of desertification as well as provide alternative sources of trade for the locals.”
On his part, the senator representing Daura zone, Sen. Mustafa Bukar, promised that the eighth Senate would support the campaign against deforestation through relevant legislations and effective monitoring of agencies charged with curbing desert encroachment in the country.
He said this year’s budget has special provisions for desertification and the Senate would closely monitor agencies that had the mandate to combat desertification and other environmental challenges.
“There is also the need for farmers to stop felling trees while clearing their farmlands because trees hold the soil in place and help prevent erosion,” he said.
The Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Faruk Umar, called on educational institutions, the media and other influential stakeholders to join the campaign to keep the environment green.

Air pollution could increase risk of stillbirth, study suggests

Exposure to vehicular and industrial emissions heightens risk during pregnancy, researchers say
Air pollution heightens the risk of stillbirth particularly during the third trimester of pregnancy, study says. Photograph: Timur Emek/Getty Images
Exposure to air pollution may increase the risk of stillbirth, new research suggests.
Stillbirths, classed as such if a baby is born dead after 24 weeks of pregnancy, occur in one in every 200 births. Around 11 babies are stillborn every day in the UK, with aproximately 3,600 cases a year.
Researchers have called for tighter curbs on car exhausts and industrial waste emissions to reduce the risk of air pollutants after their research concluded that exposure to ambient air pollution heightens the risk of stillbirth.
Following a review of 13 studies on the subject, published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, the researchers found the risk was particularly heightened during the third trimester of pregnancy.