DAILY TRUST
Thursday, December 29, 201 1
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Environment
Intrigues, anxiety as Environment ministry gets new department Sy Alu AbulU
mt.nl brings 10 tight the number of depanments in the ministryu
A new departm,cnt known as Department of Climate Change
a.l.rudy there is the d epartment (or Drought and Desertification,
and Renewable Energy has been
Erosion, Flood and Coastal Zone Management, Pollution Conrrol,
approved for therederal Minls-
'7.0fEnvironment. A soorce at. the Head of Service of the Federation lold Daily Trust thai the depanment was approved based on the federa l
Environmental Impact Asses.smenl, Forestry. Administration and Finance. The~l;fU.tion of Ihe depan-
government determination to accord issues of climate and renewabl e energy the priorities both issues deserved. The creation of the depart-
attempt by the Ministry ofEnvironment to push for !.he establishment of Oil climat.e: change
menl foUowed uncenifuty In the
commission which has been befo re th e Presidency since 20?8.
The new depanment comprise of three different unils including the Special C limate C hange uni l, the Rtntwable Energy Unit and the RedUCing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) Unit currently In the Departmtnt of Forestry. The manoeuvre In the ministry is.however about who heads . the newdepa"rtrnetil Already d i- _ mate change experts operating within the civil service but outside the Ministry of Environment have started lobbying to be posttd to
head the new departmc.nt. At the same time, the choict: of who will ht:ad the new depart ment out of the three heads of units that formed me nelV depa rtm tot is stili not dear at the limt of going to the press but the Head of the Special climate Changt: Uni t is said to have an edge ovt:r th e other two as ht is already a deputy director and hav:e.verse knowledge in climatt change negotiations.. Daily Tnut check at tht mlOistry showtd that con tention for head of dtpartmenu are usually
fitrce_ Some (el¥" yt:ars Igo. the dtpartmenl of poUutlon control had to be divided into two separate dt:part m tnts of Pollution Control and th r- Environmental lmpact Assessment Dtpartment to please two directors who couldn't operate' undt:r the gme department. A source al the , ministry said logistics regarding personnel and other facilities for the nelV department we re still being 1V0rktd OU.I wh ile the decision as to who head the department was that of the minister.
FG to distribute 30 million -clean cooking stoves 8y AIel Abutu
THE FftieraJ Government is set to distribute about 30 million dean cooking stoves to Nigerians as part of effort to curtail the indiscriminatt feeling oflrees In thtcounrry for ustasfudwood Tht Minister ofEnvironmt:nt, Mrs Hadiza Ibrahim MaIlafla "no disclosed this rettntly said tht: distribution ...."Ould ommt:net: in 2016 but did nOI statt if tlu: stovt: .....ould bt: distributed freely or Ni~r1ans would pay for il MaUafia said that the decision to tncouragc Nigerians to usc the 5tove became neassary fQUowing ~-ela lions that tht: country was losing Its forest stock at an alarming rate. "Indiscriminate feeling of trees across the country has continutd at an alanning raJt as over 80 per cent of households In Nigma dtpmd 00 futJwood as meir source of coo~ngt:ne~shesaid
She said Ihat the situation was one of !he major factors responsible for lost of about 4 per cent of the nations forest coverage in the last fowdecades. - But we intend 10 incrnse the nations forest coverage from !he current 6perccnt to 10 percent by 2015."Heavy dependence of the populace on fud ....'OOd and agricultural apansion mab:s Afforcsration efforts difficult.~ she added..
UN launches biodiversity decade B,AluAbutu THE United Nations has declared 2011 to 2020 as biodivtrsitydtade with emphasis on the fact that a future o£life In harmony with naturt was pos.sible. if the world takes adion now. The Uniltd Nations Decade on Biodivcrsity (UNDB) was launchtd in Kanazawa, Japan, in a ceremony organiztd by the Uni led Nations Unlvtnity, in coUaboration with the Ministry of Environment of Japan, Ishikawa Prtfecturt and Kanazawa City, and the Secretariat o( the Convention on Biological DivttSity (CBD). The global launch of the United N:ltions Decade on Biodiversity counted on the partidpation ofUniled Nationsagtndes. Parties to th t CBD, and rep~enrativn of allieveb of govt:rnment in Japan. The three.day event indudt<!.. workshop on national biodiversity strategies and action plans. The idea of declaring 20 11 -2020 the United Nations Deade on Biodiversity was Inlliattd by Japan and endorsed at the tt:nth meeting of lilt Conft:rence o( tht: Parties to tht: Conveoton on Biologica1 Diversity, htld in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010. It was formally prodalmed by the Unlttd Nations Gueral Assembly at its siIty-fifth 5eS-
sion. The Unitt<!. Nations Decade on Biodiversity which builds on the achievements of the successfu l celebration of the 2010 International Yur of Biodiversity aim to Implement tht first Alchl Biodiversity Target of the StrategiC Plan on Biodiversity 2011-2020, namely to ensure that by 2020 all the pr:oplt o f th e ...."Orld will be aware of biodiversity and Its va lue. In his messagt addressed to panidpants, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary·General of the United Nations, calltd "on all the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and to all th e biodiversity-related conventions, as well as all members of the Unittd Nations system, me pri· Ville sector, civil-sodety groups and individual ciliuns and consu mers worldwide, to rally to the call of tht Unittd Nations Decade on Biodiversity. -In conclusion, he stated, -let us wo rk tOl!:ether to live In harmony with nature, let us preserve and wisely manage nature's riches for prosperity today and for the nnutt ..... e wanl.lo.k Kauuhiko Yokomluu,Stnior Vice-lo.l inisttr of the Environment in the Government of Japan, spca1dngon behalf ofM.r. Goshi Hosone. Minister of Envi ronment of Japan and current
President of the Conference of the Parties to the Com'ention, said: "The intensive efforts or all participants enabled tht: Copfertnce of me Parties to achievt substantial results at its tenth meeting, including the adopt ion of new global targets fo r biodiversity. Given tht: curr~nt status of biodiversity, it is inrumJ::ic.nt upon us to tndeaVOUf continually and unfailingly to achiC'o"e me Aichi Biodiversity Targtts. To passon to our children th~ abundant natural blessings of Ihis planet, we rriust harness the collective wisdom of hum anityland begin and extend concerttd efforts acr05S the ~Iobe to create socieLies th at uist in harmo~y wilh nature'Mr. Kazuhiko Takeuchi, \'it.:.Rector of the Uniled Nations Unh'ersity, st:lted: -It is not too late 10 prevent the further lou of biodiversity. The presence of the reprcscntatives gathered here today from national gO\'e rnmenls, Unittd Nalions.organizations, NGOs, theprivatesector and tht: public demonstrates th e rtsolve of the international community to find inclusive glc-bal solutions 10 address this complu problem." Tht: international launch of me Ot:cade was precedtd by regionallaunchcs in the Republic orKorea, India, the Philippine'S, Cuba, Ethiopia, Ecuador and Costa Rica.