Youth groups receive Equator Award
Category: Aberdares, Community, Conservation, biodiversity | Date: Mar 23 2009 | By: kenyaforests
On Wednesday 18 March 2009, the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Professor Helen Sambili presented the Equator Initiative Award to two community groups - Kijabe Environment Volunteers and the Kwetu Training Centre from Kilifi at a colourful event at the KENVO resource centre in Kimende. The prize - awarded globally to a total of 25 winners - was given to the two groups to recognize and celebrate outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation of biodiversity. Kenvo provides local communities with the information, education, and resources they need to advance environmentally friendly businesses, while Kwetu trains local community members of the Kilifi District in conservation activities that also generate income, focusing on unemployed youth, women, and fishermen.
While lauding the efforts of the groups Prof. Sambili asked other youth to follow their example, adding that mankind has a short time to convert what has been destroyed within our environment. The Minister was accompanied to the festivities by Mr Aeneas Chuma UNDP Resident Representative and Dr. Chris Gakahu also of UNDP, and the MP for Lari, and was received by the local community, youth groups from the area and past winners of the Award. The Award carries a monetary value of USD 5000 each, which the Ministry of Youth Affairs boosted with Kshs 50,000 for each group. Mr Chuma said that the groups had made Kenya proud by being part of the twenty five winners drawn from 310 nominations globally.
David Kuria of Kenvo (right) shows Prof. Sambili (centre) round the exhibition. In the picture is Mr. Chuma UNDP Resident Rep. (to the left of the Minister) and the MP for Lari (extreme left).
Below, part of the exhibition.
Vote the earth: Earth Hour 2009
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 17 2009 | By: kenyaforests
From WWF:
On 28 March 2009 at 20:30 local time, wherever you are, WWF is aiming to mobilize one billion people in 1,000 cities in 100 countries to switch off their lights for one hour. Earth Hour 2009 will represent the largest-ever global vote, and will send a uniquely powerful message to world leaders on the need for urgent, concerted action to combat climate change.
This mass mobilization of people through Earth Hour will carry through to the negotiators and decision-makers meeting to discuss the new Global Climate Deal in Copenhagen at the UN Climate Summit in December. The message is that the world demands a just, effective and science-based Global Climate Deal - and will not accept failure.
Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, when 2.2 million people participated. In 2008, this grew to more than 50 million people in 371 cities in 35 countries. At the beginning of March, the Earth Hour team has already received commitments from double the number of cities and countries with more coming on daily. There is a huge and growing mobilization of people worldwide who will participate in Earth Hour.
I ask that you look at ways you might mobilize individuals, communities, schools, companies, faith groups and urban areas in your region to join Earth Hour. There are tools and ideas on www.earthhour.org in a variety of languages, and support is available from both the Earth Hour Global team and WWF International.
We recognize that in some countries the idea of switching lights off may not be as straightforward as in some developed countries. If this is an issue I encourage you to be creative and find appropriate ways to join the global vote! For example, one WWF office in Africa will stage an event with the local community at a school using renewable energy.
I particularly urge you to use your networks to encourage local participation. Find ways to maximise local participation.
Earth Hour is a WWF creation, with a global reach-out, and will be followed in the nine months to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen with a continued focus on the fact that one billion people are calling on government leaders to act responsibly and agree a just, effective, science-based Global Climate Deal.
For more information on how to participate and be counted, visit www.earthhour.org, Vote Earth, and help world leaders see the light!
For activities in Kenya, select Kenya on the website. Come on Kenya, join us for Earth Hour 2009, turn off your lights at 8.30pm Saturday 28 March and sign-up at earthhour.org.
Tags: climate change, earth hour
Kenya: Atlas of our Changing Environment
Category: Mau | Date: Mar 02 2009 | By: kenyaforests
UNEP has a new atlas on the environment and its contribution to Kenya’s economy and Vision 2030. According to UNEP, this Atlas does two unique things:
• it assesses Kenya’s progress towards its own goals of improving the environment to achieve development goals; and
• it delivers a stunning bird’s-eye view of environmental change through the use of paired satellite images taken years apart.
And,
In the first case, it demonstrates that the social and economic pillars of Kenya’s development plan, Vision 2030, need to be built on a solid foundation of environmental sustainability. Similarly, it teases out the links between the environment and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), showing how the 7th goal, environmental sustainability, underpins them all. In its second unique contribution, the Atlas contains an array of visual tools, including dozens of current and historical remote sensing images, 65 maps, and 229 photographs, that help scientifically document site-specific environmental change at 30 locations across
the country.
The atlas is available for download here where you can also read more about the atlas in the press release. The file is however very huge and a little impractical for the average download speeds in Kenya. Try downloading by chapters.
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Donations Received
- Apr 29th Theresa S. USD50.00