Growing numbers of people around the world, most of them poor, are being uprooted from their homes due to climate change.
But migration can be a sensible way to adapt to the effects of global warming if managed carefully and supported by sound development policies and investments, experts say.
Last year, more than 40 million people were uprooted due to conflict and disasters, the highest figure in 10 years, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Disasters, mostly weather-related such as storms, floods and wild fires, triggered more than three times more displacements than conflict and violence in 2020.
“Increasingly, we are seeing climate change become an engine of migration, forcing individuals, families and even whole communities to seek more viable and less vulnerable places to live,” former World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva said.
If no action is taken, there will be more than 143 million internal climate migrants across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America by 2050, according to a 2018 World Bank report.
“The poorest people will be forced to move due to slow-onset climate change impacts, including decreasing crop productivity, shortage of water and rising sea level,” the report said.
But, the report added: “If we act now, we could reduce the number of people forced to move due to climate change by as much as 80%.”
Most climate change migrants move within their own countries.
Experts say that fears that climate change will drive vulnerable people seeking safety and sustenance across their borders are misplaced as the vast majority of climate migrants move within their own countries. Such fears are rife in parts of Europe, which struggled to accommodate large numbers of migrants and refugees in 2015-16.
And internal migration can be a sensible way to adapt to climate change, provided it is managed carefully and supported by appropriate development policies and targeted investments.
“Where the limits of local adaptation are anticipated, well-planned migration to more viable areas can be a successful strategy,” the Bank said.
Nowhere are the impacts of climate change felt more acutely than in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The 2018 World Bank report estimated that by 2050 there could be more than 85 million internal climate migrants in the region, 5% of the total projected population.
The triggers for climate migration are mainly water availability, decreased crop productivity and rising sea levels coupled with storm surges. Each of these climate migration drivers can have secondary and tertiary effects, including conflict over resources, increased poverty and famine, and long-term environmental degradation.
Many African nations depend on Lake Chad, the Nile.
One of the world’s greatest humanitarian disasters is centered on the Lake Chad Basin, which borders Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon in West Africa.
Lake Chad has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s. Around 30 million people in the region depend on the lake for their livelihoods in agriculture, fish and livestock. The resource depletion has exacerbated conflicts over resources in the region and displaced more three million people, leaving some 12.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
One of the most complex river basins in the world, the Nile River runs through 11 countries and supports about 40% of Africa’s population.
Longer droughts, rising populations and a siphoning off of resources via a large dam in Ethiopia may soon contribute to conflicts over water and its natural resources downstream in Egypt, potentially putting millions of people at risk of poverty and starvation.
Last year, rainfall in Ethiopia was less than expected, resulting in a decline in the production of milk, which is an important source of nutrition in the region. The UN estimates that 12.9 million people in the region risk food insecurity due to the drop in rainfall.
First, it is important to recognize that the most vulnerable people seldom have the resources to migrate in response to climate change, with potentially dire consequences that require local, national and international responses.
Second, although climate change is an increasingly important driver of migration in Africa, it triggers far more movement within a country than it does internationally.
Consequently, the hardest hit countries should include climate resiliency plans in their rural and urban development planning, allowing migrants to move safely to places that can accommodate them.
Cities, according to the ISS, have a critical role to play.
Climate migrants are increasingly moving to urban centers for non-agricultural income. Those urban areas susceptible to the effects of climate change should prepare for an exodus of citizens, while those in more resilient locations should plan to receive migrants.
Over-populated and under-resourced cities can be ill-prepared to accommodate the influx of migrants, and secondary cities in areas largely spared the effects of climate change can be better options.
“Movement is a critical resilience strategy for communities and individuals faced with climate change,” the ISS said. “Migration is an important adaptation strategy that should be enabled.”
“Voluntary or planned migration is a much better option for all involved than forced displacement,” it concluded.
This story, published by News Decoder, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
San Diego is one of several cities in Southern California facing water shortages that could learn from unusual efforts in South Africa and Peru to keep the taps flowing despite chronic shortfalls in water supplies.
Three-quarters of the water in the most populous U.S. state originates in the northern third of the state, while 75% of the state’s demand for water comes from cities, including San Diego and Los Angeles, in the southern two-thirds of the state, according to the University of California’s Water Economics Department.
San Diego, which is near the Mexican border and has an arid climate, receives on average 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain every year and imports approximately 85-90% of its water from either Northern California or the Colorado River.
With a growing population and global warming, the city is all but certain to face growing strains on its water security.
There are other cities around the world that struggle to deliver enough water to residents. It can be because of an arid climate exacerbated by climate change (Melbourne), inadequate infrastructure (Mexico City), a rapidly growing population or a combination of all three.
Cape Town, South Africa and Lima, Peru offer instructive and innovative examples for San Diego and other cities lacking adequate water supplies.
Cape Town adjusted to water insecurity.
Located in an arid region like San Diego, Cape Town almost ran out of water in 2017-18. As early as 2007, authorities had warned of possible shortages. But the city failed to increase water supplies during abundant rains that preceded a drought, and by 2017, officials feared “Day Zero” when all taps would run dry.
To stave off disaster, starting in early 2018, the South African government imposed draconian water rations, limiting each individual to no more than 50 liters (13 gallons) a day. To put that into context, an American uses on average about 303 liters (80 gallons) per day.
As Cape Town citizens adjusted to the realities of water insecurity, they began to grasp just how much water their daily appliances used. They devised new water-saving habits: plastic cutlery replaced traditional forks and knives, food was grilled instead of boiled and water from washing the dishes or doing laundry was used for flushing the toilet.
The city of Cape Town encouraged behavioral change by installing water management devices, including the Dropula Meter. Meters were placed in schools to show students and faculty how much water they were using and to alert them of any leaks or excessive consumption. If a leak was found, a team was dispatched to fix the problem and limit the amount of water lost.
Water meters are especially effective among youth.
Dropula’s defenders said it worked because it showed people how much water they used every day and prompted them to find ways to cut consumption.
Thinus Booysen, the inventor of Dropula, said water meters can be particularly effective among younger people.
“Before they [students] would wash their hands without realizing it takes five liters of water to wash your hands,” Booysen said. “I realized that the schools are an easy way to influence many people. There are many children in the school. They go home and influence their parents, their siblings, and change their behavior.”
Dropula meters were installed in more than 350 South African schools and helped save more than 550 million liters of water, authorities estimate. Strong rains in 2018, coupled with restrictions on consumption, helped Cape Town dodge “Day Zero.”
As part of its Water Action Plan, the University of San Diego, California has installed nearly 1,000 meters that provide real-time data on water use. The meters helped the university cut water consumption by 17% in 2020.
Lima is rebuilding pre-Columbian waterways.
One of the driest capitals in the world, Lima offers another model for cities like San Diego.
Lima can receive as little as nine millimeters (0.354 inch) of rain a year, according to the Nature Conservancy, but its population of 11 million dwarfs that of San Diego or Cape Town.
Together, rapid population growth, lack of preparation, pollution and climate change mean nearly 1.5 million people living in Lima lack running water, according to the Borgen Project, a non-profit that addresses world poverty and hunger.
To address the problem, the Lima Water Authority (SEDAPAL) and non-governmental organizations, including the Nature Conservancy, have joined forces to rebuild stone waterways, called “mamanteos,” that were built during the Inca Empire and which channel water from mountains to lower altitudes.
The mamanteos capture rainfall in the Andes Mountain Range and direct it to permeable soil or rock, where it is absorbed and brought back to the underground water table. Months later, water remerges through natural springs and man-made stone pools, and is reallocated to reservoirs for later use.
Researchers at Imperial College London and the Regional Initiative for Hydrological Monitoring of Andean Ecosystems in Lima estimate that a mamanteo infiltration system could increase the water flow in Lima’s Rimac River during the dry season.
“The estimated amounts can provide a critical contribution to Lima’s water supply,” the researchers said in their study, adding that increased water supplies during the dry season would benefit both local farmers and Lima residents.
A renovated mamanteo system would be more cost-effective than traditional water infrastructures like reservoirs, trans-Andean pipes or desalination plants, according to Americas Quarterly.
San Diego could invest in green infrastructure.
SEDAPAL is also working with The Nature Conservancy in creating a new tariff structure to increase funding for environmental concerns, including water scarcity.
The new regime requires utilities to invest in ecosystem services, green infrastructure and climate change adaptation. SEDAPAL dedicates 1% of its own revenue for investment into natural infrastructure, and 3.5% for investment into climate change adaptation.
“By making utilities share responsibility for water sources, not just distribution, there are now more resources for conservation,” said Hugo Contreras, director of water security for Latin America at The Nature Conservancy, adding that investment from utilities will be key in maintaining water conservation in Peru.
According to the online publication, the new water pricing structure has raised about $20 million for natural infrastructure purposes, with much of it earmarked for the restoration of mamanteos.
The initiatives in Lima are relevant to California because the state regularly pumps more water from its groundwater basins than is replaced from all sources, such as rainfall, irrigation water and streams fed by mountain runoff.
California draws about 652 billion more gallons of water from the ground than what is naturally or artificially recharged, according to the Water Education Foundation.
San Diego does not have a pre-Columbian water-harvesting system like Lima, but it could follow the Peruvian city’s example and increase water supplies by investing in green infrastructure such as rain gardens, permeable pavements and parks that would soak up rain water and direct it to underground aquifers for future use.
In such a way, San Diego could replenish groundwater that has become increasingly scarce.
This story, first published by News Decoder, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
More than a century ago, a distant relative of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg figured out that greenhouse gases from burning coal could push up world temperatures.
On August 9, 2021, after decades amassing evidence, a United Nations panel vindicated the theories of Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius by concluding that we’re definitely to blame for heating the planet.
But why did it take so long, when Arrhenius worked out the basics in 1896? Don’t people know that fossil fuels cause global warming?
Grouping governments and hundreds of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded on Monday for the first time that it is “unequivocal” — beyond a shadow of doubt — “that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”
The bleak report also said that some changes under way may be irreversible, such as sea-level rise caused by the melting of ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, and that we are on track to exceed critical temperature thresholds in the period 2021-2040.
Blame for the climate crisis now falls squarely on our shoulders.
The problem in definitely linking warming to man-made greenhouse gases has been that there have always been freak storms, heatwaves, downpours and floods, allowing a sliver of doubt in previous IPCC reports about whether the main driver might be humanity or some other unknown factors in nature.
The evidence is now overwhelming, partly because there are so many off-the-chart extreme events that would be expected once every 100 or 1,000 years in a normal climate.
In 2021, for instance, scientists found that a heatwave this year in parts of Canada and the United States, with sweltering temperatures close to 50C, would have been “virtually impossible“ without humanity’s greenhouse gases.
“Our fingerprints are all over the climate system,” Ben Santer, a top climate scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, told me in an email, calling the new findings the culmination of a revolution in the science of global warming.
Santer led a chapter for a landmark IPCC report in 1995 that first, tentatively, linked mankind to climate change. The famous sentence said that “the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.”
From that moment, Santer wrote, “humans were no longer innocent bystanders in the climate system. By burning fossil fuels and increasing atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, humans were changing Earth’s climate.”
But it was not immediately embraced. “It met with the fate of other paradigm-shifting findings — it was fiercely criticized by individuals, corporations and countries who perceived that their business interests might be threatened,” he said.
Lawsuits could target fossil-fuel producers.
Now, the “unequivocal” evidence will add pressure for action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, possibly lawsuits against big emitters of greenhouse gases.
Some lawyers liken the history of the rising certainty about climate change to findings last century linking smoking to lung cancer, spurring successful billion-dollar lawsuits against tobacco companies.
There are already almost 2,000 lawsuits worldwide about climate change, often against fossil-fuel producers, 1,408 in the United States and 450 elsewhere in the world, according to a database by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
Levi Draheim, 14, is among a group of young people suing the U.S. state of Florida. The lawsuit says the current fossil-fuel energy system violates young people’s constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.
Draheim sees some glimmers of hope, partly because of pressure from young people. “I do see hope in that so many people have been willing to take action,” he told me. “But I also know that the action so far is not enough.”
Lingering reluctance to invest in clean power.
Despite mounting evidence, many nations are reluctant to invest massively in renewable energies such as solar and wind power and abandon fossil fuels — especially OPEC oil exporters who depend on oil and gas revenues.
Many poorer countries say they need to use more energy to raise living standards and point out that rich nations have repeatedly agreed to take the lead in fighting climate change.
And the media have often wrongly over-represented the views of climate sceptics, giving a misleading sense of controversy about the causes of global warming. Sceptics like to quote ageing evidence, like a 1975 story headlined “The Cooling World” in Newsweek magazine, about signs that we were entering a chillier period.
Arrhenius was among the first scientists to lay the groundwork for the IPCC conclusions. In 1896, he wrote a study that showed how rising amounts of carbon dioxide were linked to higher temperatures. He later concluded that burning of coal could cause a “noticeable increase” in carbon levels if kept up over centuries.
Thunberg, founder of the #FridaysforFuture global climate movement by young people, is distantly related to him. Her father, Svante Thunberg, once wrote that he didn’t know the exact family relationship but that “I was named Svante (after Arrhenius) as a request from my grandparents,” who were related to Arrhenius’ mother.
Among landmarks in understanding climate change after Arrhenius, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson warned in 1965 that “this generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through … a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”
‘The times are changing.’
But doubts about our responsibility are unlikely to end with the IPCC’s new findings. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who favours jobs in the coal industry, sometimes dismissed man-made climate change as a hoax. Before winning office, he wrote on Twitter that global warming was a concept dreamt up by China to hurt U.S. industries.
“Climate denialism is still alive and well in the United States Congress. And in the U.S., the credibility of climate science is still being challenged by powerful individuals,” Santer said.
“But the times are changing. The concerning changes in extreme events — particularly heat waves, drought, floods and wildfires — are diminishing the space in which denialism can thrive,” he wrote.
Backing up that idea, one recent survey found that 24% of Americans are “alarmed” by climate change, double the proportion five years ago. Yet it also documented that sizeable minorities are still dismissive or doubtful.
Governments will have a chance to ratchet up their actions to tackle climate change at a summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, building on the 2015 Paris Agreement that seeks to limit rising temperatures to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, while pursuing efforts for 1.5C.
By the end of July, however, only 54% of countries had submitted new or updated climate plans to the UN. Big emitters including China, India and Brazil were among those that did not meet a July deadline.
“Far from satisfactory,” UN Climate Chief Patricia Espinosa wrote.
Alister Doyle is a British freelance writer based in Oslo who worked with Reuters for more than three decades, including as the company’s first environment correspondent from 2004-19. He has worked in more than 50 nations, mostly in Europe and Latin America, and spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Knight Science Journalism fellowship from 2011-12. Among other stories, he landed with British scientists in a small plane on an Antarctic ice shelf in 2009 — weeks before it cracked up into the ocean.
This story, originally published by News Decoder, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
Neste momento, mais de 1.600 brigadistas do Centro Nacional de Prevenção e Combate aos Incêndios Florestais (Prevfogo), do Ibama, estão trabalhando em todo o Brasil. Em 2021, o Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Inpe) já registrou mais de 110 mil focos de queimadas, o que promete superar o ano passado, o pior desde 2008. Mas, enquanto as chamas se alastram país afora, o chefe de brigada Bolivar Xerente conta que a situação na Terra Indígena (TI) Xerente, onde vive, no Tocantins, está menos crítica do que em outros locais. “Conseguimos reduzir o capim seco, que é o combustível. Quando a gente fez as queimas de baixa intensidade, conseguimos preservar. Se alguém colocar fogo agora, acidental ou criminoso, não vai ter aquele incêndio de grande proporção”, afirma.
A ciência está ao lado de Bolivar ao apontar o próprio fogo como solução para os incêndios que se espalham pelos diferentes biomas brasileiros, ameaçando a biodiversidade e agravando as mudanças climáticas com a liberação de gases de efeito estufa na atmosfera. Quando utilizado de maneira controlada e monitorada, nos lugares e épocas certas, o fogo pode ser benéfico, como sabem há séculos os povos indígenas que aprenderam a manejá-lo de forma a preservar o ambiente onde vivem.
Essa é uma das principais premissas do Manejo Integrado do Fogo (MIF), que pode virar política nacional caso o Projeto de Lei (PL) 11.276/2018 seja aprovado pelo Congresso Nacional – hoje, a matéria aguarda votação na Câmara dos Deputados em caráter de urgência. O projeto, apresentado pelo Executivo em 2018, é item prioritário de um “pacote ambientalista” que deputados federais se articulam para votar antes da próxima Conferência do Clima da ONU, a COP26, que ocorrerá em novembro na Escócia, como forma de minorar as pressões internacionais.
Fontes ouvidas pela AgênciaPública garantem que o PL que institui o MIF é consenso político e não deve enfrentar dificuldades para ser aprovado. “Ele não tem polêmica entre ruralistas e ambientalistas”, diz Suely Araújo, especialista sênior em políticas públicas do Observatório do Clima e presidente do Ibama na época em que a proposta foi elaborada. De acordo com Suely, a bancada ruralista não se opõe à matéria porque ela “não interfere no negócio deles, na verdade, ajuda”.
O MIF é aplicado em maior escala pelo Prevfogo/Ibama por meio do programa Brigadas Federais (BRIFs), que desde 2014 inclui esquadrões em terras indígenas. Em 2021, 45 brigadas indígenas reúnem 800 pessoas de cerca de 50 povos em 11 estados. Os brigadistas são contratados pelo governo federal por seis meses no ano, pouco antes e durante a época seca – que pode variar dependendo do bioma –, e recebem por volta de um salário-mínimo por mês (o valor é maior para cargos de chefia e supervisão).
Indígenas dos povos Manoki e Myky, do Mato Grosso, iniciando as ações de Manejo Integrado do Fogo em maio deste ano
“O conceito de Manejo Integrado do Fogo abrange tudo que é feito para proteger uma área contra incêndios florestais, desde a prevenção até o combate”, destaca Rodrigo Falleiro, analista ambiental do Prevfogo/Ibama e um dos principais pesquisadores brasileiros do tema. Quando ele fala em prevenção, refere-se, por exemplo, a duas modalidades de queimas: as prescritas, feitas para fins de preservação ambiental ou pesquisa, e as controladas, realizadas para abrir roças e pastos – ambas executadas com planejamento, monitoramento e objetivos predefinidos.
A era do “fogo zero”
Antes dessa abordagem, a política adotada pelo Ibama era a do “fogo zero”, que via o fogo como prejudicial em todas as circunstâncias e tinha como objetivo evitá-lo a qualquer custo. No entanto, com o passar dos anos, pesquisadores perceberam que alguns ecossistemas – sobretudo nos biomas Cerrado e Pantanal – são, na verdade, dependentes do fogo. “Se não houver uma intervenção de fogo periódica nesses ecossistemas, eles começam a perder vivacidade; muitas plantas e animais que vivem naquele lugar não conseguem mais viver. E, além de ajudar na preservação da biodiversidade, as queimas ajudam a evitar incêndios florestais, por acúmulo de combustível, e a produzir recursos naturais para as comunidades”, explica Falleiro.
Em 2007, o Ibama promoveu a primeira experiência de resgate de conhecimentos sobre o uso do fogo com um povo indígena do Cerrado, os Paresi, do Mato Grosso – o levantamento se deu sobretudo com o objetivo de analisar os efeitos do fogo sobre os animais e as plantas frutíferas.
Brigadistas em combate a incêndio na TI Parque Indígena do Xingu, no Mato Grosso Foto:Vinicius Mendonça/Ibama
A metodologia ali desenvolvida foi sendo aperfeiçoada ao longo do tempo e se tornou o que hoje se conhece como Manejo Integrado do Fogo, que associa as técnicas de prevenção e combate a incêndios às necessidades específicas do ecossistema e das comunidades que o habitam. “É a mistura da caixa de ferramentas do conhecimento técnico-científico, que a gente adquire com a academia, universidades e ciência, com a caixa de ferramentas do conhecimento tradicional”, diz Alexandre Pereira, brigadista e analista ambiental do Prevfogo/Ibama que há anos trabalha com brigadas indígenas do Mato Grosso do Sul.
O MIF é mais relevante em ecossistemas dependentes do fogo porque as queimas prescritas, além de beneficiarem fauna e flora, servem para retirar o excesso de material orgânico inflamável e impedir que um foco de fogo acidental saia de controle e se torne um incêndio. Porém, segundo Falleiro, ele se aplica também a áreas de floresta, principalmente para auxiliar na abertura de roças tradicionais. “Os brigadistas entram, se organizam para queimar todos no mesmo dia, a comunidade ajuda, os brigadistas vêm com os equipamentos e procuram fazer essas roças junto para evitar que ocorram grandes incêndios, até porque a queima de roças é bem na época da seca”, aponta.
A aliança entre conhecimento técnico e tradicional
Hoje é consenso científico que as políticas de “fogo zero” foram prejudiciais a ecossistemas que evoluíram com o fogo porque favoreciam a ocorrência de grandes incêndios. Mas, quando elas ainda eram a estratégia oficial dos principais órgãos ambientais do país, os anciões indígenas da região já sabiam de seus riscos.
Bolivar Xerente conta que, quando começou a trabalhar na brigada da TI Xerente, ouviu um alerta de um dos “velhos” de seu povo. “Chegamos na aldeia dele e falamos que não podia colocar fogo. Ele disse: ‘Meu filho, vocês não vão dar conta de conter esse incêndio, o Cerrado necessita de você colocar um fogo controlado’. E falamos: ‘Não, a gente segura [o incêndio], a gente foi capacitado’. A gente segurou em julho, agosto, e no final de setembro uma pessoa – não foi intencional – fez um aceiro, mas começou a ventar muito, e um fagulho caiu no capim seco”, relembra.
“Esse fogo pegou e só parou quando topou o rio Tocantins. E lembramos da história do velho, que me chamou depois e disse: ‘Lembra do que eu falei pra você? [Não adianta] vocês aplicarem só o conhecimento técnico, que é feito no escritório. A gente, indígena e sertanejo, é da roça, a gente convive com isso, tudo aquilo tem um porquê, tem um objetivo’. Aí começamos a entender”, descreve.
Na contramão do que diziam os líderes indígenas, os órgãos ambientais promoviam ações educativas nas comunidades para abordar os malefícios do fogo e desestimular seu uso em qualquer situação. “Aí muito do que esses indígenas tinham de conhecimento de uso do fogo, de interação com o ambiente, acabou se perdendo”, assinala Pereira. “Em vez da gente criar uma solução, a gente criou um problema, e agora estamos tentando reverter.”
Em 2012, algumas mudanças abriram a possibilidade de uma nova abordagem, entre elas a permissão de manejo do fogo pelo novo Código Florestal Brasileiro. Pouco depois, em 2014, as primeiras brigadas federais indígenas foram contratadas. Parcerias internacionais também foram importantes, como a proporcionada pelo projeto Cerrado-Jalapão, entre os governos de Brasil e Alemanha, que capacitou técnicos brasileiros.
Com as novas diretrizes, a dinâmica de trabalho mudou. “Antes a gente chegava e impunha como ia ser o regime do fogo nas comunidades. Chegávamos e dizíamos: ‘Olha, aqui no Cerrado não pode ter fogo”, afirma Falleiro. Com a nova abordagem, “em vez de chegar dizendo que o fogo faz mal, [agora] a gente procura ouvir mais o conhecimento deles e comparar com o conhecimento científico, que em geral corrobora 100% com o conhecimento tradicional”. Além disso, para Pereira, a comunicação gera uma “relação de confiança entre o órgão público e as comunidades tradicionais”.
Entretanto, mesmo que o potencial de dano da política de zero tolerância ao fogo esteja comprovado, o MIF, de acordo com Falleiro, ainda é “exceção” no Brasil, já que poucos estados o aplicam. Por isso, é considerada essencial a aprovação da Política Nacional de Manejo Integrado do Fogo, elaborada principalmente por servidores do Ibama e ICMBio, com apoio de outros órgãos federais, e proposta enquanto projeto de lei pela gestão de Michel Temer em 2018.
Além de padronizar procedimentos de prevenção e combate aos incêndios florestais no país, a proposta prevê, entre outros pontos, a criação de um comitê nacional que comandará a articulação institucional para execução da política nacional nos diferentes biomas brasileiros. Como presidente do Ibama à época, Suely Araújo acompanhou todo o processo de construção do texto. “Ele vem para consolidar a atuação e formalizar o que já ocorre há vários anos. Dá uma institucionalidade do ponto de vista organizacional, diz quais órgãos vão participar da organização [da Política Nacional de Manejo do Fogo]”, indica.
Ela conta que não houve dificuldades para que a iniciativa fosse encampada pelo governo federal em 2018 e que por isso pensava que seria aprovada na Câmara em poucos meses. “Mas mudou o governo e as coisas enrolaram. Ficou com uma falta de atenção, ficou parado porque era um projeto do Executivo e o Executivo não estava nem aí. Na verdade, quem está puxando isso agora é o próprio Congresso”, destaca.
A deputada federal Rosa Neide (PT-MT), coordenadora da Comissão Externa de Queimadas em Biomas Brasileiros da Câmara e responsável pelo requerimento de urgência para a votação do projeto, explica que a ideia de resgatá-lo surgiu depois da temporada de incêndios florestais do ano passado. “Nós discutimos fortemente o que aconteceu em 2020, que foi o maior incêndio que o Pantanal já viveu, e aí a gente percebeu que aos entes federados, por mais que discutam – especialmente os estados e os municípios –, ainda faltam a orientação nacional e as definições legais”, afirma.
De acordo com a parlamentar, o presidente Arthur Lira (PP-AL) já teria avisado “aos líderes que tem todo interesse que seja rápido” o trâmite da proposta, que é consensual e deve ser aprovada sem grandes mudanças. Para Rosa Neide, o que justifica o amplo apoio à matéria são a sua qualidade técnica e o momento político favorável, com a aproximação da COP26. “O Brasil está sendo muito cobrado. O olhar de fora para nós tá sendo muito forte, muito severo. O Brasil não está fazendo o dever de casa corretamente, então tudo ajuda a impulsionar para que tenhamos uma política correta de manejo do fogo.” Sem esse tipo de ações, questiona a deputada, “quando chegar na COP, o Brasil vai dizer o quê?”
Manejo Integrado do Fogo é apontado por pesquisadores como estratégia fundamental para prevenir incêndios florestais Foto:Vinicius Mendonça/Ibama
Alternativa contra as mudanças climáticas
Como a redução de focos de incêndio ou ao menos a atenuação de sua intensidade significam queda nas emissões de gases de efeito estufa, a Política Nacional de Manejo Integrado do Fogo é vista por especialistas como uma arma importante para mitigar as mudanças climáticas.
E os resultados já podem ser observados nas TIs Xavante e Araguaia, as primeiras em que o Ibama realizou queimas prescritas junto à comunidade, em 2015. Segundo artigo publicado no início de setembro, assinado por seis pesquisadores – entre eles Rodrigo Falleiro –, entre 2014 e 2018 o MIF foi responsável pela diminuição das áreas afetadas por incêndios em ambas as TIs, em comparação à fase em que predominaram as políticas de “fogo zero” (de 2008 a 2013).
O levantamento, feito com base em imagens de satélite, indica ainda que nos dois locais as queimas prescritas “efetivamente reduziram a ocorrência de grandes incêndios florestais, o número de grandes e médias cicatrizes na vegetação, a intensidade do fogo e emissões de gases de efeito estufa”. O estudo destaca também que esse tipo de queima é reconhecido como uma estratégia de mitigação climática em ecossistemas propensos ao fogo, “uma vez que as queimas de baixa intensidade não consomem todo o combustível e, consequentemente, liberam menos gases de efeito estufa do que os incêndios”.
As análises científicas se traduzem na realidade dos povos indígenas: Bolivar Xerente enxerga impactos positivos em termos de subsistência. “Melhorou muito a questão das frutas para a nossa comunidade. No início, quando a gente trabalhava com fogo zero, tínhamos dificuldade de colher frutas. A comunidade Xerente é extrativista, cata semente, e com a semente pode plantar, fazer remédio – temos muitos remédios tradicionais. O Manejo Integrado do Fogo veio para melhorar essa situação, para a gente preservar, fazer remédio tradicional, as frutas, [atrair] as caças”, aponta.
O MIF pode ajudar também na redução de incêndios em florestas tropicais úmidas, como a Amazônia. Quando preservadas, normalmente não desenvolvem incêndios de grande intensidade e velocidade, porém estão ficando cada vez mais suscetíveis ao fogo, de acordo com os servidores do Prevfogo/Ibama ouvidos pela Pública. “A cada vez que esses incêndios passam na floresta, eles a tornam mais inflamável”, diz Falleiro. “Quanto mais a gente demora, mais floresta degradada a gente está produzindo. O problema não é só o que está pegando fogo hoje, mas é a condição de vulnerabilidade a grandes incêndios que a gente está construindo para o futuro ao insistir em políticas de fogo zero na maior parte do país.”
Foi justamente para evitar a degradação de um ponto específico da floresta que uma brigada na TI Yanomami, em Roraima, foi treinada nos últimos meses e vai entrar em ação pela primeira vez em novembro – o período de seca no estado começa só agora, em setembro, e vai até abril. “Ali é uma área de contato, muito próxima a assentamentos, ao lado de uma Floresta Nacional Federal [Floresta Nacional de Roraima] que já está bastante degradada pelo fogo. O fogo sai do assentamento, passa pela Flona e vai para a terra Yanomami”, explica Joaquim Parimé, coordenador do Prevfogo/Ibama em Roraima. A intenção, de acordo com ele, é construir aceiros – uma faixa de terreno livre de vegetação – impedir que o fogo avance sobre a floresta naquele local, próximo aos municípios de Mucajaí e Alto Alegre.
Para além do combate às chamas, uma das prioridades da brigada da TI Yanomami será auxiliar os agricultores indígenas locais a fazer a roça – atividade que, segundo Parimé, se não é feita de maneira controlada, apresenta alto risco de descontrole. “O grande objetivo é fazer com que a queima fique circunscrita somente à área que foi derrubada, que o fogo não escape e não cause um incêndio”, salienta.
Esta reportagem faz parte do especial Emergência Climática, que investiga as violações socioambientais decorrentes das atividades emissoras de carbono – da pecuária à geração de energia. A cobertura completa está no site do projeto.
Esta história foi partilhada como parte do World News Day 2021, a campanha global para destacar o papel fulcral do jornalismo baseado em fatos ao serviço da humanidade, no fornecimento de notícias e informações fiáveis . #JournalismMatters
A discussão sobre as mudanças climáticas está cada vez maior e a preocupação com o meio ambiente também precisa ser. Nesse cenário, a Itaipu Binacional, maior Usina Hidrelétrica do mundo em geração de energia, tem desempenhado ao logo de sua história um papel de extrema importância na luta pela preservação da biodiversidade, como forma de combater as mudanças climáticas.
A Usina Hidrelétrica de Itaipu é mundialmente conhecida como um dos principais atrativos turísticos de Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná (BR). No entanto, muito mais do que uma belíssima obra estruturante construída pelo homem e que atrai visitantes do mundo todo para conhecer de perto essa grandiosidade, a Itaipu Binacional é de extrema importância não só para a geração de energia como também no desenvolvimento de ações sustentáveis, sendo reconhecida internacionalmente.
A Itaipu é uma empresa binacional criada pelo Brasil e Paraguai para gerar eletricidade usando o Rio Paraná e segue princípios de desenvolvimento sustentável refletidos em suas ações e programas integrados para a promoção do bem-estar social, crescimento econômico e proteção ambiental, contribuindo para a prosperidade regional.
Em 2015 a Itaipu ganhou o Prêmio Mundial da Água, mas bem antes disso, desde a sua concepção, em 1974, a maior usina hidrelétrica do mundo, em geração de energia, tem trabalhado no desenvolvimento de programas, projetos e atividades de caráter social e ambiental em uma área que hoje abrange um total de 15 municípios do Paraguai e 55 municípios do Brasil, sendo 54 no oeste paranaense e um no Mato Grosso do Sul.
Foto: Alexandre Marchetti/Itaipu Binacional
Além disso, atua em diversas parcerias locais e globais de combate às mudanças climáticas e seus impactos. Esse compromisso se reflete nas ações de preservação e conservação da biodiversidade, em medidas de adaptação baseadas em ecossistema, como o aumento da cobertura florestal natural, a conservação de áreas protegidas e dos serviços ecossistêmicos e pela recuperação e proteção dos recursos hídricos na escala da bacia hidrográfica.
A Itaipu possui um forte protagonismo nacional e internacional, comprometida com todos os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) das Nações Unidas, estabelecidos na Agenda 2030. Essa agenda consiste em uma declaração global de interdependência em que os países comprometem-se a tomar medidas ousadas e transformadoras para promover o desenvolvimento sustentável em um horizonte de 15 anos.
O que são as ODS?
As ODS são uma agenda mundial adotada durante a Cúpula das Nações Unidas sobre o Desenvolvimento Sustentável em setembro de 2015, composta por 17 objetivos e 169 metas a serem atingidos até 2030.
1 – Erradicação da pobreza;
2 – Fome zero e agricultura sustentável;
3 – Saúde e bem-estar;
4 – Educação de qualidade;
5 – Igualdade de gênero;
6 – Água potável e saneamento;
7 – Energia limpa e acessível;
8 – Trabalho decente e crescimento econômico;
9 – Indústria, inovação e infraestrutura;
10 – Redução das desigualdades;
11 – Cidades e comunidades sustentáveis;
12 – Consumo e produção responsáveis;
13 – Ação contra a mudança global do clima;
14 – Vida na água;
15 – Vida terrestres;
16 – Paz, justiça e instituições eficazes;
17 – Parcerias e meios de implementação.
OBJETIVOS DO DESENVOLVIMENTO SUSTENTÁVEL (ODS) E RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS
O protagonismo da Itaipu em relação aos 17 ODS é bastante forte e teve início antes mesmo da elaboração da Agenda 2030. As ações sustentáveis são feitas de forma integrada, com a cooperação de diversos parceiros. Com isso, as estratégias de sustentabilidade da Itaipu proporcionam ganhos à população e ao meio ambiente.
Uma das importantes parcerias da Itaipu é com a UNDESA (Departamento das Nações Unidas para Assuntos Econômicos e Sociais). Em uma participação da Itaipuem um evento paralelo ao Fórum Político de Alto Nível (High Level Political Forum-HLPF, em inglês), foram apresentadas as experiências bem-sucedidas em água, energia e ação climática, e lançado o relatório “Soluções Sustentáveis em Água e Energia relacionadas à Mudança Climáticas”.
Durante esse evento, o embaixador João Genésio de Almeida, representante permanente adjunto do Brasil junto às Nações Unidas (ONU), destacou que as negociações sobre as bases financeiras do Tratado da Itaipu vão além de questões energéticas e deixam um legado de sustentabilidade. O foco do HLPF, que acontece anualmente, é avaliar o avanço dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) e a Itaipu tem participação ativa desde 2018.
Foto: Alexandre Marchetti/Itaipu Binacional
Outra importante parceria é entre a Itaipu e UNFCCC (Convenção-Quadro das Nações Unidas sobre a Mudança do Clima), onde foi firmada parceria com o Secretariado da Convenção Marco das Nações Unidas sobre Mudanças Climáticas, o Protocolo de Kyoto e o Acordo de Paris, para engajamento na Agenda 2030 e difusão do conhecimento relacionado aos temas “água”, “energia” e “mudanças climáticas” incluindo a organização e execução de eventos conjuntos antes e durante as 26ª e 27ª Sessões das Partes da Convenção Marco das Nações Unidas sobre Mudanças Climáticas (UNFCCC) — _COP 26 – 2021 e COP 27 – 2022.
A celebração desta parceria contribui para a missão e visão da Itaipu, em termos de liderança mundial na produção de energia e comprometimento com o desenvolvimento sustentável, além de representar uma oportunidade para reafirmar junto à ONU o compromisso assumido quanto à geração de energia limpa e renovável e quanto à realização dos ODS.
Ações locais
Além da relevância internacional, a Itaipu vem se destacando em nível local e regional com ações de preservação e conservação ambiental, e dentre elas pode-se destacar algumas dessas iniciativas:
SANEAMENTO PARA A GESTÃO DE RECURSOS HÍDRICOS E SEGURANÇA HÍDRICA:
Objetivo: Fomentar a integração de um sistema de gestão dos recursos hídricos com a implantação de sistemas sustentáveis de esgotamento, visando a melhoria da qualidade da água que chega ao reservatório de Itaipu.
Principais resultados: Recursos Hídricos e Segurança Hídrica: implantação de plataforma de integração de dados e gestão de recursos hídricos; mapeamento do déficit florestal para planejamento de ações de conservação/recuperação; implantação do Plano de Segurança da Água (PSA);
Implantação de Sistemas Sustentáveis de Esgotamento Sanitário (SES): implementação de melhorias nas estações de tratamento de esgoto de seis municípios da área de contribuição hídrica ao reservatório;
Sistema de monitoramento das estações de tratamento de esgoto da UHI, Centro de Recepção dos Visitantes e Refúgio Biológico Bela Vista, com a elaboração de seis boletins informativos.
MONITORAMENTO DA QUALIDADE DA ÁGUA NO RESERVATÓRIO
Objetivo: Monitorar a qualidade da água, visando segurança hídrica para manter as condições adequadas à geração de energia e aos usos múltiplos do reservatório.
Principais resultados: Nos últimos dois anos (2019 e 2020), o reservatório e a maioria dos braços foram classificados com boa qualidade de água: oligotrófico a mesotrófico (baixa concentração de nutrientes na água);
Implantação de sistema de inteligência de dados para a priorização dos investimentos em ações ambientais na área de contribuição hídrica;
Todas as áreas públicas de lazer foram classificadas como próprias para a balneabilidade, conforme preconiza o Conselho Nacional de Meio Ambiente;
Implantada rede de monitoramento composta por 14 estações, 5 no corpo principal do reservatório e 9 nos braços; destas, 3 são telemétricas com registros horários.
AQUICULTURA SUSTENTÁVEL
Objetivo: Fomentar o desenvolvimento sustentável da cadeia produtiva da aquicultura na região de influência do reservatório, buscando maior segurança hídrica.
Principais Resultados: 122.000 alevinos produzidos por ano no sistema de Bioflocos;
1.900.000 larvas de pacu e 180.000 larvas de lambari produzidas por ano em sistemas tradicionais;
61.000 alevinos doados por ano para engorda em tanques-rede;
Assistência para 48 aquicultores atuantes no reservatório.
GESTÃO DE RESÍDUOS SÓLIDOS
Objetivo: Apoiar tecnicamente ações de gestão dos resíduos sólidos e saneamento nos municípios de atuação da Itaipu Binacional, com a finalidade de potencializar investimentos e auxiliar na promoção da segurança hídrica.
Principais Resultados: 15.575 toneladas de materiais recicláveis processados em 2020, acréscimo de 38% se comparado ao mesmo período do ano anterior;
Potencial Teórico de Geração (PTG) de 18,93%. Esse é o índice de reciclagem regional. A média nacional é de 4% e a do estado do Paraná, 10%;
25 Cooperativas/Associações de catadores contratadas pelos municípios em 2020 – acréscimo de 60% se comparado ao mesmo período em 2019;
Acréscimo de 12% na renda dos catadores em 2020 e 884 postos de trabalho (aumento de 26%) – em alguns municípios, o aumento de renda dos catadores já chega a 448% desde o início do Programa, em 2003;
51 municípios com Cooperativas/ Associações formalizadas, crescimento de 38% se comparado ao mesmo período em 2019;
51 Unidades de Valorização de Recicláveis – UVRs concluídas e 18 em execução (69 projetadas);
484 pessoas capacitadas em Gestão de Resíduos (técnicos municipais e catadores);
292 consultorias realizadas em Gestão Administrativa, Jurídica e Contábil;
43 técnicos de UVRs contratados;
48 municípios preenchendo o Reciclômetro. (ano de referência 2020);
Projeto de implantação de Unidade de Valorização de Resíduos Orgânicos (UVRO) em Santa Helena, PR (em andamento em 2020);
Produção de materiais informativos e de divulgação: cartilha de gestão de UVRs, ímã de geladeira com o calendário da coleta seletiva, jingle para os caminhões de coleta, entre outros.
Foto: Alexandre Marchetti/Itaipu Binacional
AGRICULTURA SUSTENTÁVEL
Objetivo: Promover o desenvolvimento rural sustentável e a redução de contaminantes da atividade agropecuária na área de contribuição hídrica do reservatório e outras áreas de interesse da Itaipu.
Principais resultados: Assistência técnica e extensão rural – ATER para 1.946 famílias da agricultura familiar;
8.468 assessorias (ATER) realizadas/ano;
28 cooperativas familiares assessoradas;
265 agroindústrias familiares assessoradas;
Atendimento a 38 municípios;
Vitrine tecnológica demonstrativa no Show Rural;
Estação de Pesquisa em Agricultura Orgânica;
Apoio na estruturação do Mercado do Produtor;
Desenvolvimento de pesquisas para geração de tecnologias para agricultura sustentável e orgânica;
Apoio na organização dos produtos da agricultura familiar para comercialização.
MONITORAMENTO DA FAUNA DE PEIXES
Objetivo: Monitorar os impactos da barragem e de sua operação sobre a ictiofauna, orientando medidas de conservação.
Principais resultados: 16 anos de operação e monitoramento do Canal da Piracema, maior sistema de transposição para peixes do mundo, constatando seu uso por 186 espécies;
56.851 peixes marcados em 24 anos de monitoramento das migrações, mostrando que espécieschave são capazes de transpor o Canal da Piracema vindas desde a UHE Yacyretá (440 km a jusante);
Mapeamento das áreas de desova das espécies nativas, com destaque para as 21 migratórias, permitindo o zoneamento do reservatório e a indicação das áreas prioritárias para conservação;
Maior série histórica de dados sobre a pesca profissional em um reservatório do Brasil, indicando uma exploração sustentável dos estoques e rendimento estável há 20 anos;
Monitoramento contínuo de 11 espécies exóticas e de seus impactos e interações com o ecossistema.
CONSERVAÇÃO DA BIODIVERSIDADE
Fauna, áreas protegidas, patrimônio ambiental, corredor de biodiversidade santa maria e viveiro florestal.
Objetivos: Monitorar e conservar a fauna silvestre regional (bioma Mata Atlântica); Conservar a biodiversidade da flora regional contribuindo para a manutenção dos serviços ecossistêmicos em especial a segurança hídrica; Estabelecer a conexão entre o Parque Nacional do Iguaçu, outras áreas naturais e as áreas de preservação de Itaipu Binacional, recuperando áreas degradadas ao longo de microbacias; Produção de mudas de espécies florestais da Mata Atlântica destinadas aos programas de restauração de matas ciliares e áreas degradadas na região de contribuição hídrica ao reservatório da Itaipu, garantindo a sua saúde ambiental.
Principais resultados: Maior programa mundial de reprodução em cativeiro e conservação ex-situ da águia harpia, com o nascimento do 53º filhote;
24 milhões de mudas de árvores nativas produzidas e plantadas (maior programa de reflorestamento do setor elétrico);
902,6 hectares conservados, entre áreas naturais e de preservação permanente, envolvendo duas microbacias;
Distribuídas 5 milhões de mudas nos últimos 10 anos para 43 municípios da região.
GESTÃO POR BACIAS HIDROGRÁFICAS
Objetivo: Implementação de ações de manejo integrado de solo e água, alinhadas ao contexto de desenvolvimento territorial e segurança hídrica, reduzindo o aporte de sedimentos, nutrientes e outros poluentes na rede hídrica e no Reservatório da Itaipu.
Principais resultados: 1.972 km de estradas rurais com adequações;
2.584 km de cascalhamento de estradas rurais;
419 km de calçamento poliédrico;
185 km de asfalto TST (tratamento superficial triplo);
57.433 ha de solos conservados;
225 unidades de abastecedouros comunitários;
353 unidades de distribuidores de dejetos orgânicos;
115 unidades de cisternas;
483 nascentes recuperadas;
1.346 km de cercas para proteção das matas ciliares.
“Na prática, a Itaipu tem, sempre teve e sempre terá uma grande preocupação com o ecossistema e a biodiversidade em todo o seu entorno. Cuidar das questões ambientais também garante a segurança hídrica e energética para o Brasil e para o Paraguai e contribui para o desenvolvimento sustentável, nos termos da nossa missão institucional”, destaca o General João Francisco Ferreira, Diretor-geral brasileiro da Itaipu Binacional.
Esta história,publicada aqui pela 100Fronteiras, foi partilhada como parte do World News Day 2021, a campanha global para destacar o papel fulcral do jornalismo baseado em fatos ao serviço da humanidade, no fornecimento de notícias e informações fiáveis . #JournalismMatters
About 10,000 years ago, sea levels in Singapore were at least 20m lower than today.
But with the ice age coming to an end, melting land ice fuelled the oceans and sea levels rose over the next three millennia.
Eventually, rising waters flooded and killed a mangrove forest along Singapore’s southern coast, according to a new study by climate scientists at the Republic’s leading Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
On June 4, their findings were published in the scientific journal The Holocene. They offer insight into how rising sea levels at present could impact the country in the years to come – especially when the accelerating rate of sea-level rise due to human activity is taken into consideration.
Researchers found that from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago, sea levels were rising at rates as high as 10mm to 15mm a year.
Sea-level data for the subsequent two millennia is patchy and NTU researchers are looking to fill the gaps.
Preliminary data, however, indicates that modern sea levels were reached about 3,000 years ago and remained relatively constant until the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
In the 20th century, a warming planet due to human emissions caused sea levels to rise 1mm to 2mm a year as water expands when heated.
Today, the rate is between 3mm and 4mm a year – thermal expansion is still happening but land ice is also melting faster.
Scientists say sea levels would only rise faster, as mankind continues to burn fossil fuels and fell forests, putting more and more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.
Study lead author Stephen Chua, who did the research as part of his doctoral work at NTU’s Earth Observatory of Singapore and the Asian School of the Environment (ASE), said understanding how sea levels have changed in Singapore could lead to more robust and accurate local projection of sea-level rise.
A better understanding of the fluctuations will help scientists here come up with models that can more accurately predict sea-level rise in this part of the world instead of relying on global forecasts.
Dr Chua added: “The study offers a strategic insight for Singapore as it moves to adapt to climate change.”
Looking back to look ahead
To figure out what sea levels were like all those years ago, the researchers had to dig deep into the earth.
They looked through thousands of available borehole logs – records of holes that have been drilled into the ground for infrastructure projects – to find an area with deposits such as marine mud and mangrove peats.
Such deposits accrete, or accumulate, layer by layer and contain pollen and microfossils of foraminifera – tiny organisms found in marine environments.
Their presence can help researchers determine how sea levels have fluctuated in Singapore.
For instance, the presence of foraminifera in one part of the core indicates that seawater had likely inundated the area then. On the other hand, if pollen from trees is found in another segment of the core, it could mean seawater did not extend that far inland at that point.
Radiocarbon dating – a technique also used by archaeologists – can be used to determine the exact age of the deposits.
The climate scientists at NTU discovered abundant mangrove pollen 20m below the current sea level, indicating that a mangrove shoreline existed in southern Singapore almost 10,000 years ago.
The findings show the limitations of using mangroves as a nature-based solution to keep out the rising tides, according to the researchers.
Because the complex root systems of mangrove trees can trap sediment from the tides as they ebb and flow, they can, to an extent, keep pace with sea-level rise and are considered a natural defence against rising waters.
Despite mangroves’ adaptability and effectiveness as a coastal defence, the study highlights their limitations in the event of rapid sea-level rise, said the NTU researchers in a statement.
Professor Philip Gibbard, a geologist from the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge who was not involved in the study, said sea-level records from places far from the ice sheets were important, as the processes driving sea-level changes in such areas would be different from the processes nearer to the poles.
“This important contribution from Singapore and the region provides a valuable record… This record can then be further refined as more studies become available in the future,” he said.
This story, provided by The Straits Times, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
There is no doubt that the impact of climate change in Ghana is beginning to manifest with evidence abounding that temperatures in all the ecological zones are rising, whereas rainfall levels have been generally reducing and patterns have increasingly becoming erratic. Unless mechanisms are carefully and systematically put in place to reduce vulnerability, climate change may pose serious challenges to national development. This article will provide you with a list of causes and effects of climate change in Ghana and evidence of climate change in the country.
Causes and effects of climate change in Ghana
In all this, we need to know that the climate change referred to in this article is Anthropogenic climate change which is the type caused by human activities as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted as part of the earth’s natural processes. The human activities, particularly, out-of-control industrialisation, the burning of fuels, the cutting down of trees and other agricultural activities, release gases including Carbon(iv)oxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O) into the atmosphere. These gases, on reaching the stratosphere, have the ability to trap the infrared radiation (sun’s energy), which reflects in the form of temperature.
Below are a number of causes and effects of climate change:
It has resulted in an increase in the earth’s surface temperature, sea level, precipitation, droughts and floods. Evidence of climate change in Ghana is visible as parts of the Northern Region of Ghana experience drought and flooding which has become a yearly worry to the people and the government. People along the banks of the Volta river are constantly rendered displaced, homeless. As a result of the situation, agricultural production has declined. Changes in rainfall patterns and temperature have also led to an ecological imbalance, causing an influx of pests and diseases like cerebrospinal meningitis which is quite common in the Northern Region of Ghana.
Aquatic life in the south has been affected, reducing the economic activity of most inhabitants who are mainly fishermen. This has led to many not being able to find alternatives to raising their living standards and adversely affecting education, health and social well-being. Climate change in Ghana has become a serious threat to the livelihood of the people.
Effects of climate change in Ghana. SOURCE: Facebook
List of effects of climate change in Ghana
Climate change issues in Ghana are enormous running through education, tourism, employment and transport. Some of the effects that climate change in Ghana include:
Educational infrastructure has been damaged as a result of climate change’s direct impact on education. The severe weather conditions according to the 2007 National Disaster Management Organisation’s (NADMO) report for example collapsed school buildings. Two hundred and ten (210) schools were affected by the flood with one hundred and ninety nine (199) classrooms reported to have collapsed.
On employment, increase in temperature, decrease in rainfall and its unpredictability is likely to jeopardize the employment of about 60% of the active population, the majority of whom are small scale rural farmers, resulting in unsustainable livelihoods with negative consequences for poverty, health, education, gender equality environmental degradation and food security. Food security is expected to be affected in the sense that the reliance on rain-fed and low-input agriculture will mean that output will decline, resulting in lower incomes for farmers. This will in turn increase poverty levels and heighten the risk of malnutrition.
Climate change issues in Ghana has also led to a reduction in underground recharge and annual river flows which can lead to water shortage in the near future. This is evident in CSIR-WRI 2000 report on Climate Change and water resources which estimates that by the year 2020, all river basins will be vulnerable and the whole country will face acute water shortage. It also predicts a general reduction in annual river flows in Ghana by 15-20 % for the year 2020 and 30-40 % for the year 2050 and a reduction in groundwater recharge of 5-22 % for 2020 and 30-40% for 2050.
In the transport sector, due to the changing weather patterns road networks easily get damaged. They get damaged as a result of either erosion or flooding or even extreme heat.
The tourism sector as a result of the causes and effects of climate change in Ghana is expected to increased infrastructural damage, higher industry operating operating expenses (e.g. insurance, back-up water & power systems and evacuations) and inconvenience, risk, danger and high cost of holidays to tourists.
Impact of climate change on agriculture in Ghana
The impact of climate on agriculture in Ghana will be dire if prudent measures to mitigate the menace by political leaders since agricultural yields are plummeting and will continue to do so. Lest Ghanaians forget, about 60 percent of its population is in agriculture with most being smallholder farms using rudimentary technology. Evidence of climate change in Ghana is becoming glaring as the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis report (2009), World Food Programme note cereal crop yield alone is predicted to plunge by 7% in the next 40 years. By 2009, “5% of the Ghanaian population, or 1.2 million people, had very limited access to sufficient and nutritious food for an active and healthy life” it also states.
Some of the climate change issues in Ghana on agriculture include reduced soil fertility due to changes in precipitation and temperature, rainfall deficits resulting in desertification of grazing pastures and reduced water availability for animals. Shifts in agro-ecological zones that are too rapid for trees and farming systems to adapt to, loss of cropland from erosion and desertification and increased demand for irrigation are also other impacts of climate change on agriculture in Ghana.
Farmers are also hit by low yields caused by low rainfall or flooding and the increased incidence of pest attacks resulting from an increase in temperature. In the southern part of Ghana there is coastal erosion and destruction of valuable coastal agricultural land and in the north we are witnessing out-migration of people, especially to southern Ghana, with impact on national security. There is also the experience of more vector and vector-borne diseases all as a result of climate change.
Agriculture and food security are also intertwined and thus climate change induced unsustainable livelihoods will result in negative consequences on food security, poverty, health, education, gender equality and environmental degradation.
In response to the challenges, Ghana has integrated the Ghana Climate Change Policy which provides a clear pathway for dealing with the challenges of climate change. The policy addresses four areas of concern to climate change and variability namely increasing greenhouse gas emissions and loss of carbon sinks, increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and rainfall variability leading to extreme and unpredictable events. Though the Ghana Climate Change Policy is a good initiative, implementation is most likely going to be difficult as the policy has no firm grounds in terms of implementation let alone sustainability.
This story, originally published by YEN, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
“How to stop global warming?” is one of the essential questions raised within International summits and meetings devoted to environmental protection. This process requires immediate concerted efforts of all countries around the world. They have already felt the harmful influence of climate change: drought, floods, hurricanes, and tornados – these natural phenomena occur more often in such areas, one may hardly ever expect it to be!
Prevention of global warming
Global warming is a process when one can observe a gradual magnification of the mean annual temperature of both the atmosphere and surface area of the Earth as well as the World Ocean. It happens due to various reasons connected with the concentration of warming gases in the atmosphere, volcanic or solar activity, etc.
Rather often, a word-combination “greenhouse effect” is used as a synonym to a notion “global warming”. One has to mention that there is a slight difference between these two notions.
The greenhouse effect is the phenomenon, which denotes heating within the Earth’s surface, lower atmosphere and the World Ocean because of a big concentration of greenhouse gases (methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor, etc.). At daytime, the sunlight penetrates through the atmosphere. Its warmth heats the surface. At night, the planet cools down, releasing the warmth, which is later accumulated in the upper levels of the atmosphere.
This evaporation plays a role of a glass greenhouse. Gases freely increase the temperatures and cause the melt of the Arctic ice and enlargement of the sea level.
What actions can prevent global heating?
Be smart – drive Less. One can use alternative means of transportation like bikes. If you still can’t imagine your life without a car, try to diminish the volume of CO2 generated by your vehicle: hold the tires of a vehicle nicely pumped up. This action can improve the petrol mileage by more than 3 percent. Moreover, the world of car industry has hugely enhanced its efficiency during the last years. The buyers are also offered to try electric and hybrid cars.
Save and safe. The consumption cycle is one of the ways to enlarge global climate change: large factories produce new clothes each day due to the high level of demand in the market. When one starts wearing used clothes, he helps to reduce the number of resources necessary for production as well as for recycling useless garments. The less you buy, the more you do for the environment.
Reuse, reduce and recycle. Every day millions of goods are sold. Each of them has got a package. To help our planet “breathe” more freely, one should start to buy products with minimal packaging. At present, people learn to reuse plastic bottles as containers for plant growing. Small scraps of fabric can turn into a beautiful blanket for fans of patchwork etc. Plastic, paper, and iron belong to a category of recyclable materials. Special organizations provide help to motivate people to collect and recycle them.
Wise house or heat less. Make sure that your house is insolated with special materials, which help to save warmth inside the house and spend less electricity.
Save energy! Old lamps need much energy to work properly. The new-age technologies allow people to get the same results with less harm: use fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs to save your time and money.
Lower electricity consumption. If you cannot change the environment within 1 second, you can proceed small steps on a way to perfect future. Switch the light off, leaving the room, the flat or a house. Switch all techniques off if you don’t use it at the moment. Consume that “enough”, which is necessary.
The green lungs of the earth. Use a possibility to plant a tree or two. These plants produce oxygen and consume carbon dioxide. If people plant more trees, the clearer environment will possess.
Think “green” or Facebook, Twitter and Social Network help either! Millions of people use their gadgets and have no idea that these technologies can bring use to climate change: one can share information about the ways to reuse some packages, old clothes and useless things in a new way; one can arrange competitions and clear the neighboring area. Become an example of a person showing that “being green” is normal. It helps to make the Earth healthier.
Alternative energy. Alternative resources are an ideal means that belongs to inexhaustible resources. Moreover, solar panels or wind stations produce electricity without CO2 emission.
Save water. It takes much time and resources to renovate the quality of water. Try to make the shower shorter and more efficient (use special showerheads, which use 50% water and 50% air).
Support local food manufacturers. People can’t live without food. But have you ever thought about the number of efforts and resources were put to produce, pack and deliver a product onto a shelf of a supermarket and a shop? Large vehicles drive enormous distances, consume plenty of the petrol and produce CO2. Each day millions of cars repeat the action. If one supports his local manufacturer, he decreases a demand in the market and saves resources.
Rethink your transportation. The planes are said to be the primary source of air pollution. If you can drive by train or by bus, do that and save the nature.
Control of global warming
It is evident that in future humankind will have to attempt strict control of global warming. One may already see the results of climate shift now. The situation may become even worse so that humans will become extinct. Sounds frightening, isn’t it?
One may ask a question whether it is possible to control CO2 emission. At present, the development of regulatory documents and their improvement is a great work done by all countries together. Many countries have assumed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1999).
Unfortunately, many countries that have the highest percentage of CO2 emission have rejected the latter one.
How to prevent global warming
The development of a new, environmentally friendly nation is an essential task for each country. The experts think that the strategy of overcoming global resource crisis should include the following steps:
develop a “healthy energy” economy – to get effectual technologies involved in the industry;
widen the usage of revolving energy (alternative sources);
сhange the current energetic system into a less dependent (on gas, coal, etc.) and healthier one;
reduce energy consumption and make it more efficient;
restore forests to enlarge natural carbon dioxide absorbers from the atmosphere.
The full damage, done by humanity to the environment, cannot be compensated within one or even ten years. But, small steps on the way to bright future are worth taking! Nature does not forgive mistakes. Anyone who learns to live in peace with the environment sooner or later will be rewarded and ensure a healthy future for his children.
This story, originally published by Legit, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
Most of us live our lives without a single thought of the environment. I mean, why would we worry about the earth, it has been around for thousands of years and it will be around for thousands more, right?
It is hard predicting the future and even though many people have tried, no one can know exactly what will happen in a hundred or thousand years from now.
However, that doesn’t mean that the warnings about global warming, the destruction of earth’s biodiversity and other environmental issues should be ignored.
That’s why the World Environment Day 2021 is calling on people to ‘Reimagine, Recreate and Restore’ in order to save our planet.
World Environment Day
The 5th of June marks the annual celebration of World Environment Day – an initiate by the United Nations which aims to create awareness about the environmental issues, including marine pollution, global warming and wildlife crime, to name only a few; and thereby encourage action to make the necessary changes needed to preserve our beautiful planet and its biodiversity.
World Environment Day (WED) was established in 1972 during a UN conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.
Two years later, in 1974, the world celebrated WED for the first time with the theme “Only One Earth.” It has been celebrated ever since by over 143 countries annually.
Reimagine. Recreate. Restore.
The theme for this year’s World Environment Day is Reimagine. Recreate. Restore. Instead of focusing on the negative, the day encourages people to take control over the issues that are plaguing the environments.
On the WED website it reads:
“This is our moment. We cannot turn back time. But we can grow trees, green our cities, rewild our gardens, change our diets and clean up rivers and coasts. We are the generation that can make peace with nature. Let’s get active, not anxious. Let’s be bold, not timid.”
Briefly News took a look at some of the threats the environment faces and how we can change our ways to preserve what is left. We asked Professor Karen J Esler for her insights into some of the environmental issues.
Esler is a distinguished Professor and the previous head of the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology at Stellenbosch University (2015-2020).
Prof Esler is a member of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology since its inception in 2004 and she currently serves as African Associate Editor for the journal Conservation Biology.
There are too many environmental issues
While climate change is one of the big environmental problems that humanity will face over the next decade, it isn’t the only one.
We asked Professor Esler which environmental issues she thought were the most serious and she couldn’t highlight only one.
“I think the most serious environmental issue today is that I can’t necessarily pin-point a single issue – there are so many. We are losing biodiversity (genetic diversity, species, habitats and ecosystems) at dramatic rates, this means we are eroding nature’s essential services sometimes taken for granted,” she said.
These include the “clean air, clean water, nature experiences that influence our well-being, diverse healthy soils, crops, microbiomes and diets that contribute to our health.”
Prof Esler added that the insatiable appetite for fossil fuels and land is triggering catastrophic climate change and increasing risk of infectious diseases – which means it is not only the earth that suffers, but our health as well.
We took a brief look at only some of the issues that have impacted the environment.
Global warming as a result of CO2 emissions
According to the UN, CO2 emissions have increased by almost 50% since 1990, which accelerates global warming. Climate change as a result is causing meteorological events like heat, drought, insect outbreaks and floods.
Wildfires have been more frequent and more severe in the past couple of years in countries around the world.
Out of control fire on Narrow Neck Plateau, Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia. Climate change is causing extreme weather, prolonged droughts, and increasing bushfires. CREDIT: Getty Images.
These issues threaten the survival of millions of people, plants and animals. In some parts of the country, farmers are asking for help keeping their livestock alive as a result of droughts, while in other parts an unusually wet summer led to crop fields flooding, resulting in poorer harvests compared to the previous year.
Deforestation led to the Amazon to lose over 17% of its forests in the last 50 years
Another issue that is leading to the loss of biodiversity is deforestation. According to WWF, forests make up over 31% of the earth and account for 80% of the world’s land-based species, such as elephants and rhinos.
However, the world’s forests are under threat as a result of deforestation and forest degradation. In 2019, the tropics lost nearly 30 soccer fields’ worth of trees a minute and WWF reported over 17% of the forests in the Amazon have been lost over the past five decades.
Pine tree forest deforestation shown from above. CREDIT: Getty Images.
Oceans – Climate change, waste and the impact on marine life
The ocean has an important role to play in the preservation of the planet. It makes up over 71% of our planet’s surface and 95% of all the space available to life. The ocean has an important role to play in regulating the global climate.
They absorb CO2 and heat, which help regulate the weather. According to the US’ National Ocean Service, the ocean produces more than 50% of the world’s oxygen and absorbs 50 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere.
WWF reported that it is estimated over 83% of the global carbon cycle circulates through the ocean. Ninety percent of the world’s greenhouse gases have also been trapped in the marine waters over the last two centuries.
This could lead to more severe weather as the oceans help determine rainfall, droughts and floods. The high amounts of CO2 absorption and warming of the oceans are threatening coral reefs. There are numerous species that rely on these reefs for food and protection and they play an important part in the oceans’ ecosystems.
According to scientists, should the current rates of temperature increase continue, coral reefs could be extinct by 2050.
Global warming is not the only thing impacting the ocean. Overfishing, illegal fishing, pollution and habitat degradation have all led to the ocean suffering.
An environmental issue of plastic pollution problem. Sea Turtles can eat plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish. CREDIT: Getty Images.
One of the biggest issues to address in order to preserve the oceans and marine life is pollution. Millions of tons of plastic and other waste are polluting the ocean. According to a report by environmentalist Ellen MacArthur introduced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2016, by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
“In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight),” the report reads.
MacArthur’s report was based on a 2015 plastics study by the U.S. environmental group Ocean Conservancy. Although it can’t be guaranteed that MacArthur’s “analysis” will be correct, it does show the gravity of the situation.
How the Covid-19 pandemic hit reset on the environment… temporarily
The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated economies and claimed the lives of over 3.71 million people as of 5 June, 2021. However, it also showed that we are able to ‘restore’ the earth.
When the World Health Organization (WHO) first declared Covid-19 a pandemic it brought the world to a temporary standstill – there were less cars on the roads, boats in the water and airplanes in the sky.
As a result, air quality improved in many cities and we saw a reduction in water pollution in different parts of the world.
CSIR reported in May last year that satellites showed a decrease in air pollution in South Africa during the hard lockdowns.
Although it is unrealistic to expect the same measures to be taken to stop climate change, the Covid-19 lockdown did prove that with the right adjustments, we can help restore the environment.
It is our responsibility to protect what is left of our planet
Prof Esler has highlighted how important it is for society to intervene and protect what is left of our biodiversities.
She said:
“Wicked problems are interesting in that solutions are intricately tied to their complexity, and to resolve them requires an expanded focus. This means looking beyond the direct drivers of change (land or sea use change, over exploitation, invasive species, climate change) to include indirect drivers such as the values that drive our decisions, our governance, social and economic systems etc.”
Prof Esler added a transformative change is needed and the attention should never stray far from this cause.
According to Esler, the United Nations declared 2021 – 2030 as the “Decade on Ecosystem Restoration”, which poses a global challenge to reverse the “trend of degradation by scaling up restorative actions.”
“For example – planting a few types of trees on a mass scale to sequester carbon may in fact pose a risks to biodiversity and cause greater problems such as increased catastrophic fire risks and changes in hydrology. A focus on complexity and diversity through ecological restoration might provide better opportunities,” she told Briefly News.
The time for change is now
It has never been more crucial to start finding ways to fight climate change and other environmental issues. Many countries have already started taking steps to implement ‘green’ solutions.
Pakistan hosted this year’s World Environment Day and the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke about climate change during a virtual event.
Khan urged rich nations to step up in the fight against climate change by reducing their carbon emissions and helping poor countries.
“This is a chance for the world to correct its course. Now we have the next decade for ecosystem restoration,” Khan said.
Renewable energy is one way countries could fight climate change. Photo of wind turbines and solar panels in Palm Springs, California. CREDIT: Getty Images.
Professor Esler reiterated how important it is that society starts taking these environmental issues seriously before it is too late.
She said:
“If nothing is done to stem the tide of degradation and to quell the loss of biodiversity, I think we can only expect further negative feedbacks to our own health and well-being, leading to a world stripped of glorious diversity and one full of inequalities and unjust outcomes. This is not the future I wish to envision.”
This story, originally published by Briefly News, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
“Mangrove Care Villages will also be formed as a spearhead of sustainable mangrove rehabilitation.”
Indonesia, which is home to one of the world’s largest mangrove forests, has set a target of rehabilitating 150 thousand hectares (ha) of its area under mangroves in 2021.
Based on data recorded in 2011, about three million hectares of mangrove forests can be found along 95 thousand kilometers of Indonesia’s coastal areas, constituting 23 percent of the world’s mangrove ecosystem. Papua, Kalimantan, and Sumatra Islands are considered the most crucial regional mangrove ecosystems.
This year’s ambitious mangrove rehabilitation program, which will be carried out particularly in critical and tsunami-prone areas, was announced by Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, during a recent coordination meeting held to discuss the accelerated program.
The online meeting was attended by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya, Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Wahyu Trenggono, representatives from the Home Affairs Ministry and the National Development Planning Ministry/Bappenas, and head representative of the World Bank for Indonesia and Timor Leste, Satu Kahkonen.
About 84 percent of the funding for the 2021 mangrove rehabilitation program will be sourced from the State Budget (APBN), including from the Additional Assistance Budget (ABT), through the National Economic Recovery Program (PEN), while the remaining 16 percent will be derived from non-APBN sources.
Pandjaitan has urged local governments across the country to support the mangrove rehabilitation program.
“We urge the Ministry of Home Affairs to coordinate, so that the provinces and districts will also help maintain the mangroves, and they will also reap the fruits of this program, as it creates jobs,” he remarked.
An aerial photo of mangrove forest area in Harapan Island, Kepulauan Seribu District, Jakarta, Saturday (22/5/2021). CREDIT: ANTARA FOTO – Aditya Pradana Putra/wsj.
The minister also discussed the carbon credit potential that could be optimized through the program. To this end, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry will identify suitable locations to serve as pilot projects for carbon trading, and regulations are also being prepared to regulate carbon trading activities, he said.
Meanwhile, Environmental Affairs and Forestry Minister Nurbaya has emphasized the importance of the public gaining a comprehensive understanding of the program that has drawn international attention owing to its effect on the climate change agenda.
“The good news is that climate change in Indonesia is considered to be in the medium category. We have nearly become a role model country for good (mitigation of) climate change,” she affirmed.
Keeping carbon stored is vital for keeping global warming in check and meeting targets under the U.N. Paris Agreement on climate change, according to scientists.
Indonesia’s mangrove forests store around 3.14 billion metric tons of carbon (PgC), or five times more carbon per hectare than highland tropical forests, according to Daniel Murdiyarso, a long-time principal scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and a leading wetlands expert.
Mangroves, however, have been disappearing more quickly than inland tropical rainforests, particularly due to clear-cutting for shrimp farms.
The loss of mangroves has led to a decline in fisheries, degradation of clean water supply, salinization of coastal soils, erosion and land subsidence, as well as increase in gas emissions, among other things.
As high carbon storage ecosystems, peatland and mangrove ecosystems have a strategic role as nature-based solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation. Peatlands and mangroves store up to two to 10 times more carbon than forests.
Given the significant role of mangrove and peatland ecosystems, the government has recently converted the Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) into Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM).
“Peatland restoration and mangrove rehabilitation at several places are interrelated. This is because the nature of these ecosystems are connected. Hence, we will maximize our efforts to conduct synergistic activities in the two ecosystems,” BRGM head Hartono remarked.
BRGM has highlighted that six strategies will be applied to expedite mangrove rehabilitation, in accordance with the instructions of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
The six strategies comprise conducting coordination and data synchronization among ministries and agencies, macro planning and details of mangrove rehabilitation, and spreading education and disseminating information on the mangrove movement.
“Mangrove Care Villages will also be formed as a spearhead of sustainable mangrove rehabilitation,” Hartono informed at the Thought Leadership Forum held by the Nusantara Nature Conservation Foundation.
Synergized rehabilitation of mangroves will be conducted by involving relevant ministries, local governments, the private sector, and NGOs, he said. The agency will also develop an instrument for a measurable and continuous mangrove rehabilitation program, he added.
Meanwhile, the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) is drafting a roadmap for the management of wetlands for mangrove and peatland forests to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
“The roadmap is one of the instruments supporting the important pillars to achieve Indonesia’s Vision 2045, namely sustainable economic development,” Bappenas deputy head for maritime affairs and natural resources, Arifin Rudiyanto, said on February 2, 2021.
Mangrove and peatland ecosystems have multiple benefits, which can potentially support several areas, including economic growth, creative economy, tourism, maritime interests, food security, water resources, and the environment, he said.
Mangroves and peatlands also benefit the national economy, the environment, and social life, including supporting mitigation and adaptation to climate change, he pointed out.
Hence, the roadmap for the management of wetlands will be drafted to also serve as a long-term guidance to support the achievement of the vision, he said.
Three working groups will supervise the formulation and implementation of the roadmap in collaboration and consultation with ministries and institutions that have adopted a strategy, management plan, and data related to the mangrove and peatland ecosystem, Rudiyanto said.
Bappenas had set up a wetland management strategy coordination team on October 30, 2020 and tasked it with accelerating the attainment of sustainable development goals.
Proper mangrove and peatland conservation and management will support the target of greenhouse gas reduction and prevent the release of carbon stored in the two ecosystems, Rudiyanto said.
The roadmap for the management of wetlands would help achieve several targets of sustainable development in 2030.
To support the mangrove rehabilitation program, large-scale nurseries will need to be developed in various regions.
The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) recently built a mangrove nursery in Pasuruan district, East Java.
TB Haeru Rahayu, director general of marine space management at the KKP, explained that the mangrove nursery in Pasuruan has primarily been set up to ensure the availability of mangrove seeds to meet the needs of mangrove nurseries and for planting and rehabilitation efforts.
The Mangrove Center of Excellence Program aims to produce 100 million seedlings for mangrove planting programs in Indonesia. The nursery spans 3,093 square meters and houses 500 thousand seedlings of the species Rhizophora sp.
It has been built by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries through the directorate general of marine space management using funds from the additional budget for the National Economic Recovery Program (PEN) for the 2020 fiscal year.
This story, originally published by ANTARA News, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.
