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Tanzania marks World Environment Day
2006-06-05 10:52:34
By Pacifique Nkeshimana
Tanzania joins the international community today to mark the World Environment Day, (WED). The day is marked just two months after the government announced a major policy to clean up and protect the environment.
The day will be marked at national level in Singida region, where the Vice-President, Dr Ali Mohammed Shein, will be the chief guest.
The government, under President Jakaya Kikwete, has waged a war against all forms of environment degradation that includes a plan to ban the use of plastic bags.
World Environment Day is a United Nation flagship environmental event that is celebrated every year in more than 100 countries.
The day, was mooted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 and its commemoration has been entrusted to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is headquartered in Nairobi.
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian about the day, a conservation expert with the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, Paul Nnyiti, said the day is meant to draw the attention of the world to the significance of the environment to human development.
The event, will also seeks to stimulate political interest in environmental protection.
’’The World Environment Day seeks to empower people to become agents of sustainable and equitable development because conservation of the natural resources is the basis of development,’’ he said.
He said the WED helps to promote the understanding that communities are an integral part in the change of attitude towards environmental issues.
Nnyiti said today’s event could help put vigour in partnerships among nations to team up in ensuring that people continue to enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
Early this year, the United Nations General Assembly, through resolution 58/211 declared 2006 as the International Year Against Deserts and Desertification.
The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment says more than 60 per cent of the world’s ecosystems are on the decline or degraded to an extent that people can no longer rely on them for their daily services.
’’These deteriorating ecosystems include dry lands, forests, water bodies impacting on fisheries and air.
The UN has estimated that drought and desertification account for US$40 billion annual loss in food productivity,’’ he said.
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