East African Legislative Assembly, Dar es Salaam, August 28, 2014: The regional Assembly is calling for mitigation of climate change and additional resources for forestry conservation and management initiatives.
With this in mind, the EALA has urged stakeholders to commence work the development of the East African Community Forest Law, Enforcement and Governance Strategy (EAFLEG) Strategy in a bid to effectively respond to socio-economic and environmental challenges and opportunities in the region
The Assembly is also urging Partner States that have not ratified the Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources Management to do so.
This afternoon, EALA debated and approved the report of the Regional Parliamentarians Workshop on Forests and Climate Change.
The report presented to the House by the Chair of the Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources Committee, Hon Isabelle Ndahayo observes the importance of having a regional forests policy that among other things maximizes contribution of the sector in enhancing livelihood and conservation. The report follows the Parliamentarians workshop on Forests and Climate change which was held on June 9-12, 2014 in Nairobi.
It cites a number of existing programmes and case studies including that of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). Hereunder, the report annotates that the effects of climate change do not have political boundaries and remain a common problem in the region.
The report further cites Climate Smart Agriculture as vital s emission in increasing productivity and resilience. CSA is a land management practice that sustainably increases productivity while reducing greenhouse emission.
A key Bill on Forestry is soon anticipated to be brought to the House. The Bill which is initiated by EALA Member, Hon Christophe Bazivamo has the object of promoting sustainable management of forest resources.
Forests play an important role in climate change mitigation, as captured in Articles 112 and 114 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community.
A Communiqué released at the end of the Meeting in June 2014 urged the United Republic of Tanzania to ratify the EAC Protocol on Environment and Natural Resources Management. It similarly urged the Republics of Burundi and Rwanda to join and embrace Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), and the Agriculture Forestry and other Land Use (AFOLU). On Disaster Risk Reduction, the Assembly wants the Council of Ministers to operationalize the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Strategy and to finalise the attendant Bill.
When debate resumed today, Hon Judith Pareno called for concerted efforts to contain climate change which is a threat to survival of humanity.
“Over 70% of the disasters are as a result of climate change and we need to mitigate against such challenges”, Hon Pareno stated.
“There are new efficient ways of conserving the environment through the use of the energy saving jikos,” she added.
Hon Christophe Bazivamo noted that forests play a key role in climate change and called for strengthening of partnerships to ensure food security and conducive environment.
“There are many dangers faced in the Partner States today for example we are energy deficient given the fact that 80% of the demands in the rural areas are derived from firewood. But we already have a deficiency”, he remarked.
“We must support re-forestation for posterity”, he added.
Hon Susan Nakawuki, on her part, noted that global population was on the increase saying that by 2050, the world population shall hit a high of over 10 billion. According to the legislator deforestation is responsible for about 20% of the global warming calling for remedial measures.
“I am pleased that EALA continues to engage in tree-planting activities. We need to go further by educating the masses on the importance of tree-planting” she added.
Others who supported the Motion are Hon Mumbi Ngaru, Hon Nancy Abisai.
The House also received questions asked by Hon Bernard Mulengani to the Council of Ministers for oral answers.
The House was however briefly suspended due to a quorum hitch in line with Rule 13 of the Rules of Procedure. At that point, Rwanda had 2 Members, Kenya (7 Members), Uganda (7 Members), Burundi (5 Members) and United Republic of Tanzania (7 Members). The Rules of Procedure provide that the quorum of the House shall be composed of half of the elected Members provided that such quorum shall be composed of at least three of the elected Members of the elected Members from each Partner State.
However, on resumption, the quorum numbers were realized and business continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment