Africa-Press – Liberia. The Environmental Protection Agency and partners, including United Nations Development Program and Sweden Sverige have embarked on a regional dialogue on protecting the environment, under the theme, “Stockholm +50, A Healthy Planet for the Prosperity of All, Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity.”
The dialogue is aimed at stimulating an inclusive, bottom-up debate on Stockholm+50 and intents to facilitate a consultation process that is based on people’s experiences and ideas for “A Healthy Planet for the Prosperity of All.”
The dialogue that kickoff off in Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County on March 24, also seeks to harvest recommendations for government, civil society, and the private sector on priority actions that can advance national and sectorial policies that address climate change and leverage nature-based solutions.
This, according to organizers of the regional discussion, can build on and inform nationally determined contributions, National Biodiversity Strategies, and Action Plans, to include green economy and recovery as well as the Sustainable Development Goals Framework.
Before the second stakeholders dialogue in Gompa City, EPA Executive Director Wilson Tarpeh told a gathering at the kickoff of the meeting in Buchanan that the consultation, when completed across Liberia, would amplify the voices of the poor, youth, women, indigenous group, local communities, and another marginalized groups that will influence national database that considers the views of all stakeholders.
According to Mr. Tarpeh, people from diverse sections needed to brainstorm on possible means of eradicating environmental pollution, flooding, and reduction of emissions among others so that one sector will not feel left out of processes leading to finding possible solutions.
His statement was, however, reechoed by the Chief Technical Advisor at the EPA, Benjamin Karmorh, Jr., who maintained that the country’s environmental protection sector has continued to remain robust since its establishment in managing and protecting the habitat.
This, according to Mr. Karmorh, is also demonstrated under the leadership of President George Manneh Weah, where Liberia ratified the Paris-Climate Agreement.
He further noted that government’s efforts to protect the environment show its political will to address issues of climate change, which he sees as a concern of everyone.
“Climate Change is the concern of everyone because it affects various sectors of society and poses challenges to the vulnerable, including women and children and those living with disabilities. Karmorh expressed that Tarpeh’s hopes that action to protect the climate would be achieved relatively to adaptation and mitigation.
“This gathering is also important in addressing the situation faced with coastal erosion and flooding, which affect agriculture as well as illegally hunting of wildlife in the biodiversity sector,” Mr. Karmorh said.
He, however, maintained that the protection of the environment can’t be done by the EPA alone, but with the participation of everyone, for which he believes the forum was essential.
Also making remarks at the Stockholm +50 regional dialogue on the environment, United Nations Development Program Resident Representative Stephen Rodriques asserted that the issues of climate change are not just restricted to Liberia, but the world at large.
“changes are taking place all around the world and it is important to protect the environment from being affected by these changes.
According to Rodriques, there is a need to put in place a mechanism that will enable future generations to be safe from changes that continue to affect the world. He said it is no doubt that climate change is resulting in natural disasters around the world and the need to find solutions can’t be overemphasized.
By protecting the environment from natural threats, Rodrigues added that there will not be a crisis of food insecurity as well as safe drinking water challenges being experienced in some parts of the world.
At the same time, Swedish Ambassador accredited near Monrovia, Urban Sjostrom, asserted that the voices of everyone are key in such a discussion in finding a possible solution to threats posed by climate change.
Amb. Sjostrom explained that it was time that the world come together to protect each other from environmental disasters, stressing that unless that is done, everyone will be victimized.
In the same way, Ambassador Sjostrom wants everyone to join the process to fight against climate change as a means of saving the world from natural disasters.
Meanwhile, at the end of these consultations, it is expected that the EPA prepares a national report that will feed into the global process of finding solutions to environmental crises.
Stockholm +50 national consultation-Liberia is geared at creating a healthy planet for the prosperity of all. It is in continuation of a 1972 global community meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, on how human treatment of the environment was never in the right direction.
As a result, the global community realized that measures would be put in place to avoid threats to the environment by humans, which led to the ‘Stockholm Declaration.’
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