Key role of communities in combating climate change

Arusha. Involvement of grassroot communities is key in mitigating the devastating impacts of climate change.

They need to be sufficiently educated on the causes and effects of the phenomenon that is associated with global warming.

“Environmental education is critical, especially now that the world is confronting a climate change problem,” a regional environmental lobby said in a statement.

The African Coalition of Communities Responsive to Climate Change (ACCRCC) released a statement on Thursday to coincide with the World Environmental Education Day.

The event is marked globally every January 26th in order to raise awareness about the need for participation of the communities to mitigate the levels of impact.

The statement by the Nairobi-based coalition urged the African countries to roll out massive education programmes on the matter. “Such programmes should aim at making grassroot communities to be much involved in conservation efforts,” stressed Pamela Nkirote, a board member of the lobby.

She said the top-down conservation programmes in many African countries would not yield the desired results

She said in many countries, conservation and environmental activities tend to end with the state functions marking the same.

“This should not be so, particularly when it is being driven from the grassroots,” she insisted in a statement to The Citizen.

The local people, Dr Nkirote insisted, must be blankly told that environmental matters “begin and rest with them.”

There is a benefit in roping in grassroot women, men and the youth in tree planting exercises “as ultimately they are the final beneficiaries.”

She implored the African governments to use the World Environmental Education Day as an opportunity to promote awareness on climate change.

“It is an opportunity to promote knowledge about some of the most serious environmental problems facing our planet and how to tackle them,” she pointed out.

She argued that grassroot communities should not be taken for granted because they were aware of scarce natural resources that must be protected.

“They know what renewable energies are and how they can help take care of the planet and that water resources are limited and essential for the Earth’s survival,” she added.

The International Environmental Education Day was founded on the Belgrade Charter after an environmental workshop held in Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslative in 1972.

It gained international recognition during the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden after it was proposed it should serve as a global framework for environmental education.

In Tanzania, public sensitisation on the environment is normally carried out to coincide with the World Environment Day, marked every June 5th.

It was on June 5th, 1972 that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was established after a major environment conference in Sweden.