THE FIRST EAST AFRICAN LANDCARE MASTER CLASS TAKES FOOT IN UGANDA

In support of the African Landcare Network, East African Regional Offices of World Agroforestry Centre hosted the first East African Landcare Master Class from 19th to the 23rd March in Mbale Uganda. This site was chosen to showcase the work of an innovative Landcare platform, the Kapchorwa District Landcare chapter (KADLACC). The aim of the class was to bring together current and potential landcare practitioners from across East Africa to strengthen the network, to further link research with development and to provide a unique learning opportunity for the participants. Up to 30 participants from 6 different countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi participated in the training. From a diversity of backgrounds including country landcare chapters, staff from ministries and boards of agriculture and natural resource management, major networks and NGOs gathered to engage in building landcare programs, share landcare skills and knowledge and participate in activities to further develop the network.

The master class covered several topics including the principles of landcare, landcare capacity building strategies, the importance of the landcare facilitators, gender issues, working with diversity and building landcare networks. In addition, participants considered ways of fostering landcare partnerships between government, non-governmental agencies, civil society, communities, and the business sector and farmer groups.

Landcare is community based natural resource management involving partnerships between governments, NGOs and communities. For more information about landcare, visit http://www.worldagroforestry.org/projects/landcare/

A second Landcare Master Class is planned for September to be hosted by the South Africa Landcare and supported by the African Landcare Network.

Dreams do come true....The 'Have Faith-Act Now' Youth Caravan Documentary

‘It’s morning, sunny and inviting and I can’t wait to start the day; Its noon, warm and bright, am effusing energy and passion; its evening, the sun sets in the horizon and I can’t wait for tomorrow’ 

One cold chilly and gloomy evening we sit round in a circle pondering about what will happen. Outside, its heavily snowing, it couldn't get worse or so I thought! As we look about unsure how we should start this I quietly think to myself, ‘What a disappointment! We did everything..... Everything’!

I can almost feel the pain and see the hurt on many a face! It’s been a rigorous three weeks preceded by months of planning and we almost have nothing to show for it! Only that we are family now, have been for the past few months as we planned for all this, at the now famous ‘Chini ya mti’ at the University of Nairobi back in Kenya.

This was at Danhostel, Bellahoj in Copenhagen after the end of the UNFCCC COP 15 where our hopes for a fair and legally binding deal had all but come to nothingness! So we sat there wondering, pondering about what we’d tell Kenyan youth whose hopes we had carried. With us were UKYCC youth, trying to make sense of the COP 15 outcome. It is then that we realized that we had to do something different when we came back to Kenya, this is when the Roadshow idea was born. Then it seemed absurd, too ambitious, even impractical, and this is where our story starts, this is where our passion shines through....

Fast forward to 2011 and 161 youth from 19 nationalities in 6 trucks are traversing across 6 countries, collecting petitions, singing and dancing at climate justice concerts and raising awareness on climate change....

Its 2012, and we have the first documentary of that journey that will forever be etched on people’s minds, a journey that has sparked a revolution among youth, grassroot communities and faith communities.

And so here it is, the story of our journey; yet this story does not end here, it goes on and on, to be picked and passed on through generations, a story of sheer will and determination, of love for mother nature, of dreams for a better tomorrow!

Click to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxFMAypNpc8&feature=share

 ‘It always seems impossible until it is done’ Nelson Mandela

The ABC of Green Economy: Part 1

So, recently, there has been much talk on the Green Economy as the pathway to a sustainable future. This is the core ideology on which the entire sustainable development revolution is hinged on, and is the rallying call for the forthcoming epic conference in June 2012, in Rio de Janeiro – Rio+20 (Earth Summit). But the Green Economy report which has been prepared by UNEP is quite extensive, over 600 pages long, and this has been quite a challenge to many people.

However, I intend to present a simplified overview of the Green Economy concept of development in this blog post series. Part 1 will focus on the outline of the Green Economy, and it is heavily excerpted from UNEP’s Green Economy Report (http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/Portals/88/documents/ger/ger_final_dec_2011/Green%20EconomyReport_Final_Dec2011.pdf).

Definition of the Green Economy

UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) describes the Green Economy as “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.”

The Green Economy report is divided into three main sections:

Part 1: Investing in natural capital:

Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Forests

Part 2: Investing in energy and resource efficiency:

            Renewable energy, Manufacturing, Waste, Buildings, Transport, Tourism, Cities

Part 3: Supporting the Transition to a global Green Economy:

           Modeling, Enabling conditions, Finance

That sums up end of Part 1; Part 2 will delve into Investing in natural capital in detail.

Prepared by: Kennedy Liti Mbeva (http://kenliti.blogspot.com)