THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2011 IN NIGERIA

The World Environment Day (WED) was established by the United Nations
General Assembly to mark the opening of the 1972 Stockholm Conference
on the Human Environment.Celebrating WED is about the inspirational power of individual actions that collectively become an exponential force for positive change.

WED is celebrated around the world in many ways, including street rallies,
bicycle parades, green concerts, essay and poster competitions in schools,
tree planting, recycling efforts, clean-up campaigns and much more.

In Nigeria, WED will be celebrated by hiking the hills of Gwarinpa, in Abuja and organizing a climate change workshop on the hills of Gwarinpa on Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 9am and on Sunday, June 5, 2011 we will be having an Arts and Crafts exhibition at Dreemi, Plot 75, 1st Avenue, Gwarinpa, Abuja by 3pm with the theme: Forests, Service to Nature. No thanks to the Nigeria Youth Climate Change Coalition and Greenback Nigeria that is putting this together to create awareness about environmental sustainability and issues surrounding Climate Change.

However, as the Environment becomes the biggest threat to all other Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), it will be of much concern to create more awareness on environmental sustainability, in essence, Nigeria’s natural resources, which as become its valuable assets are seriously threatened, mostly by anthropogenic causes. Grim statistics from the Nigeria MDG report for 2010 showed that between 2000 and 2010, the area of forest shrank by a third, from 14.4% to 9.9% of the land area; little progess was made up to 2005 in providing access to safe water and accessing improved sanitation.

Moreover, Nigeria remains acutely vulnerable to climate change and its impacts in each ecological zone will be different. But, if well managed, measures to deal with the effects of climate change which include creating awareness, building eco-friendly communities, encouraging eco-friendly products, and enforcing environmental degradation laws provide important opportunities for ensuring more sustainable progress.

Author: Oludotun Babayemi

I work on for profit or not - for - profit projects as a Project Planner, Grant Writer and Information Manager.11 years ago, I started Cloneshouse Nigeria, 10 years ago, I started Follow The Money, with a Colleague in 2012, a citizen-led movement that promotes social accountability in rural communities, which a year after, got registered legally as Connected Development [CODE]. In the past 7 years, I have evaluated projects on Water, Power, Education, Health, Disaster Risk in Nigeria, and West Africa countries with the United Nations and the Japan International Corporation Agency. Education and Fellowships include Stanford University, USA; Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; School of Data, Open Knowledge International, UK; USAID - Crisismappers. I Tweet @dotunbabayemi and am an email away at oludotunbabayemi@gmail.com

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