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Showing posts with label UNEP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UNEP. Show all posts

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Participants uphold 20-point agenda for e-Waste

Participants at a workshop for Capacity Building on Environmentally Responsible Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) rose with a 20-point agenda to promote handling of e-Waste.

They stated at the three-day workshop organized in San Salvador between March 19-21, 2013, with the support of ITU Sector Member Telefónica, that key to the application and identification of business models that leverage recycling opportunities and create new employment will bring about waste reduction.

A press statement  accessible to NaijaAgroNet indicated that the new agenda was agreed by the 86 participants at the workshop.

Also, the agenda emphasized on the rising collaboration between all parties, as well as the development of online learning programmes and workshops aimed at policy-makers.

They further called on ITU and UNEP as well Partnership on Computing Equipment (PACE) to assist Central America and the Caribbean in the development of regulations, legislation and international standards to mitigate e-waste’s potentially damaging effects on the environment and the health of local populations.

Remmy Nweke
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Monday, December 24, 2012

The way back to the forest


Data from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has shown that Asia-Pacific region, especially China, takes the leading position in the global forest products industry.
The forest industry also grew by 1 to 4 per cent in 2011 as against 2010 which signifies that countries globally are coming out of the recession slowly.
Whereas the new data shows that production of wood-based panels and paper in 2011 was above the pre-crisis levels of 2007 and appears to be growing relatively strong in some regions.
Nigeria records highest deforestation rate
Investigations by NaijaAgroNet revealed that Nigeria is one of the countries on the continent that has the highest rate of deforestation, recording about 2.6 per cent annually. And as at 2004, Nigeria has 693,000 hectares of forest plantations.
Within the time under review for Nigeria had as at 2004, contributed about 1.3 - 3 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for a larger part of domestic energy, food and medicinal supply, which were not fully represented in the formal national statistics.
The increase in deforestation in the country has over the years worsen by livestock grazing, soil erosion, drought, desertification and growing demand for cropland, thus, greatly putting the state of forest of the nation’s under threat.
China leads global forestry business
However, leading the forestry industry is the Asia-Pacific region with China as the world's second largest producer of samnwood after United State of America, thereby overtaking Canada.
Notable is that in 2011 alone, China contributed 11 per cent of the world's sawnwood, 38 per cent of its panels and 26 per cent of its paper, hence it played a key role in the international forest products market, even as the Asian country also claimed the fifth largest importer of paper and paperboard after recording a huge increase in domestic production since 2007.
Also in 2011, China imported forest products worth $43 billion, about N6.79 trillion, accounting for 16 per cent of the global total imports.
The forest product statistics database by the United Nations' agency contains 1.2 million entries and cover production and trade of 52 products, 21 product groups of 245 countries and territories.
Meanwhile the Russian Federation that have the largest forest in the world has experienced decline in industrial round wood export in the last five years. The decline, NaijaAgroNet further gathered stood at about 60 per cent with an increase in sawnwood production by 8 per cent over the same period.
Calls on investors to look into forestry
Meanwhile the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in the last quarter of 2012, said that the investment guideline that was originated from The Forests Dialogue (TFD) on behalf of Growing Forest Partnerships and with the support of IIED, for forest business would give a high return on investment if followed.
In the same vein the IIED forest team head, Duncan Macqueen called on investors to venture into locally controlled forest that it offers triple investment returns and that people depending on forest for survival would have a secured income streams, making it a win-win situation for the investors as well as the forest managers and owners.
A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the third quarter of 2012 revealed that if about 0.034 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which amount to about N6.24 trillion is being spent on forest on a yearly basis would give an estimation of 5 million jobs globally and a high return on investment.
UNEP in the report advised that finance can be sourced from both public and private sectors using approach that pay landowners for maintaining the ecosystems.

Yinka Awosanya/LS

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Monday, November 5, 2012

Investment in science to reduce water risks –Study


Investments into science research has been found worthy of reducing water risks, says the latest study by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in partnership with the United Nations University (UNU) and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
The report of a recent study on water-related project has reiterated that investment in science could help in reducing risks that are in connection with water resources.
The study was conducted by the largest public funder of projects to improve the global environment and promote sustainable development, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with the partnership of the UNU and UNEP.
About 200 major international water-related projects over the past two decades were studied which give room for the identification of existing as well as emerging challenges and how science can offer solutions.
A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet revealed that the study extracted lessons from a portfolio of major trans-boundary water projects involving investments of more than US$7 billion, about N1.1 billion.
It is also revealed that river basins in particular are set to experience growing pressures as a result of urbanization, rising water scarcity and poor water quality.
GEF warns that the linkage between science and policymaking needs strengthening, and that the consequences of poor decision-making are dire leading to water-bankruptcy in some regions in the world with their adverse effects on food and energy security.
The report of the study affirmed a significant drop in the level of dissolved oxygen levels in marine areas which is a critical ecological indicator. A major increase of stored heat in oceans was also highlighted in the report.
Director, United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health, Zafar Adeel said the study underscores how often early ‘alarm bells’ with respect to emerging issues could be heard and must be heeded.
“The report offers helpful recommendations to the GEF to foster this process,” Adeel said.
Some other findings highlighted in the reports include a significant drop in the levels of dissolved oxygen in marine areas over a relatively short period of time which is an indication of critical ecology.
The report also stated that there is a major increase in stored heat in oceans with its negative impact on ecosystem, sea levels as well as human existence.
For GEF’s International Waters Focal Area Coordinator, Ivan Zavadsky affirmed that for over 20 years, GEF had catalyzed the largest investment of its kind in human history. “GEF’s $1.3 billion catalyzed a total of $7 billion of investment in managing shared waters - fresh and marine - in almost every part of the planet, above and below its surface.”
The UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP, Executive Director, Achim Steiner, pointed out that world leaders agreed at the Rio+20 summit in June to strengthen the science-policy interface and to foster international research collaboration on sustainable development.
“This is especially important in respect to water resources at a point in time of unprecedented pressures from climate change and urbanization to pollution and over extraction,” Steiner said.


Yinka Awosanya
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