Russio-Ukraine war: IFAD launches response to protect world’s rural poor - NaijaAgroNet

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The United Nation (UN's) International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has launched a Crisis Response Initiative to ensure that small-scale farmers in high-risk countries can produce food over the next few months to feed their families and communities while reducing the threat to future harvests, reports NaijaAgroNet.

“The disruption to global markets is shaking food systems to the core,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD. “This is particularly alarming for countries already grappling with the impacts of climate change and COVID-19, where more people are likely to be pushed further into poverty and hunger. IFAD’s new initiative will help protect livelihoods and markets so that the most vulnerable people can continue to feed their families and communities, and thrive for a better future.”

Ecobank supports WED 2018, says planting today'll protect tomorrow

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In reaffirming commitment to help save the planet by supporting World Environment Day, the Ecobank has declared that planting today is all about protecting tomorrow, and urged supports for the World Environment Day, 2018, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to bank, through this initiative, management and staff will plant trees across all 33 countries of its pan-African footprint. In addition, garden implements will be donated to local authorities to help nurture and grow planted seedlings.

Globally, it is estimated that between 3.5 billion and 7 billion trees are cut down every year. To counter this, Ecobank’s charitable tree planting initiative, ‘Planting today. Protecting tomorrow’, illustrates the bank’s firm belief that its long-term success is intertwined with the sustainable development of the economies, societies and environment in which it operates.

Ade Ayeyemi, Group CEO of Ecobank said: “Ecobank’s presence across 36 African countries gives us many advantages but it also imposes on us a huge corporate responsibility. It is absolutely right that we demonstrate our passion for preserving the environment for future generations through our actions as opposed to just mere words.”

“As a pan-African bank we strive to give back to our communities, to society and to the environment as a core tenet of our culture. Our ‘Planting today. Protecting tomorrow’ initiative is part of our strategy to make a real difference and to ensure that we save the planet for all future generations: for everybody’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.”

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Biological Diversity: UN says tourists must protect nature

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The United Nations has said that tourism must not undermine the nature that attracts tourists in the first place, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a United Nations-backed treaty on biological diversity, Cristiana Pasca Palmer, made this call at marking International Day for Biological Diversity.

“Tourism grows, so does the risk of harming the environment […] It will be important therefore such developments do not undermine the very natural beauty that draws tourists in the first place,” said Cristiana Pasca Palmer, in her message for the Day, which this year is celebrated under the theme Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism.

Many natural areas with rich biodiversity, such as beaches, coasts and islands, mountains, rivers and lakes, are popular tourism destinations. Roughly half of the leisure trips taken globally are to natural areas, she noted.

It is therefore important to understand that the way tourism is managed will impact biodiversity and conversely, the way ecosystems are managed will impact the sustainability of tourism, as tourists will not come to polluted or degraded destinations.

The Convention was adopted on 22 May 1992 as the international legal instrument for “the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources” that has since been ratified by 196 nations.

In 2010, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 22 May as the International Day for Biological Diversity.

In his message for the Day, UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary General Taleb Rifai said: “Together we can make tourism an ally in fighting loss of biodiversity and achieving the Global Goals for a better world.”

In that regard, UNWTO is encouraging more destinations to set up sustainable tourism observatories, he said.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has also been working with all its partners to explore pathways for ensuring the long-term sustainability of tourism while also ensuring that it contributes positively to biodiversity.

“Biodiversity is as necessary for nature and humankind as cultural diversity, to build stronger, more resilient societies, equipped with the tools they need to respond to the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova in her message for the Day.

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South Sudan: $61m required to protect, rebuild food security

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that the continuous political crisis in South Sudan would require the sum of $61 million, about N9.7 trillion, to protect, rebuild food security and livelihood in the new country, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The recent violence in South Sudan, NaijaAgroNet reports is threatening to increase hunger and human suffering considerably, unraveling modest gains made in food security in the past two years, according to Sue Lautze, FAO Representative in South Sudan, the agency's newest member country.

Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that under the United Nations' Crisis Response Plan, FAO and its partners in the Food Security and Livelihoods Cluster are seeking $61 million for crucial food assistance and livelihoods activities.

FAO's efforts are focused on getting seeds, livestock vaccines, fishing gear and other agricultural inputs, technologies and services to vulnerable rural and urban families whose food production and income activities are being disrupted by conflict and the displacement of people.

This, NaijaAgroNet reports would afford FAO to mitigate the environmental impact of displacement.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that the humanitarian situation in South Sudan deteriorated rapidly since fighting broke out in mid-December, causing not only the loss of life and displacement, but also disrupting agricultural development and humanitarian activities crucial to the survival and future livelihoods of millions.

“The impacts on diversified livelihoods in four of South Sudan's ten states are generating an alarming risk of food insecurity and malnutrition,” Lautze noted.

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