The cause for this crisis is essentially the inappropriate and unsustainable exploitation of life support system, which is apparent in the incredible rate of loss of bio-mass cover, soil erosion, irregularity and lack of precipitation, climatic change and creeping desertification.
Therefore, there is not only a strong need to reverse this situation, but also that the demand for some important attitudinal shifts among farmers, entrepreneurs, planners, decision makers, research and development think-thanks, and the public at large has never been more acute.
This needs a rational base for policy development in the fragile area of natural resources management, alongside the responsibility and accountability one should assume.
It is against this background of, on the one hand the horrifying environmental degradation that has rendered life support systems in the country untenable and, on the other, the emergence of new development paradigms on sustainability that LEM, the Environment & Development Society (Lem Ethiopia) is being launched. Thus, Lem the Environment & Development Society of Ethiopia is a citizen’s movement inspired with the concepts of sustainable development and established in March 1992. Since its establishment Lem Ethiopia has entered into a voluntary partnership with communities, schools, civil societies, national & international NGOs, government institutions at different levels, etc. working on environment/natural resources conservation and promotion of alternative technologies to translate the noble ideas of sustainable development and livelihood security into everyday action. It has legally registered by authorized government body & renewed its license every year.
More importantly, LEM Ethiopia enters into a voluntary development partnership with communities, to translate the lofty ideas of a stable environment, sustainable development and livelihood security into everyday action.
Founded in 1977 by the Late Professor Wangari Maathai, the Green Belt Movement (GBM) is a grassroots non-governmental organization that has worked, primarily with women in environmental conservation and community empowerment in Kenya for over 30 years. GBM employs a holistic approach to development that addresses basic needs and challenges that communities identify as priority. GBM’s work has focused on conserving the environment by empowering grassroots communities and building their capacity to restore the environment, promote good governance, and develop climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods. To date, over 51 million trees have been planted and hundreds of thousands of women empowered.
Underpinning GBM’s Theory of Change has been a fundamental understanding that when people understand the linkages between their actions and their livelihood situations (poverty, water scarcity, soil loss and food insecurity) they are more likely to muster their energies and take action for change. GBM engages communities through its unique watershed-based 10-step tree planting procedure, and mobilizes individuals to take action and improve their livelihoods and watershed management. GBM takes community through a process of Civic, Empowerment and Environmental Education (CEE) that provides a strong sense of self-knowledge and realization which has enabled them to embrace conscious pursuit for peaceful co-existence and a people driven socio-political-economic development. Through this process, they learn to make linkages between the challenges they face and environmental degradation. This leads to community-led action and a commitment to safeguard natural resources.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
Our mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, we work through our divisions as well as our regional, liaison and out-posted offices and a growing network of collaborating centres of excellence. We also host several environmental conventions, secretariats and inter-agency coordinating bodies. UN Environment is led by our Executive Director.
We categorize our work into seven broad thematic areas: climate change, disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, environmental governance, chemicals and waste, resource efficiency, and environment under review. In all of our work, we maintain our overarching commitment to sustainability.
Our work is made possible by partners who fund and champion our mission. We depend on voluntary contributions for 95 per cent of our income.
Every year, we honour and celebrate individuals and institutions that are doing outstanding work on behalf of the environment.
We also host the secretariats of many critical multilateral environmental agreements and research bodies, bringing together nations and the environmental community to tackle the greatest challenges of our time. These include the following:
The Convention on Biological Diversity
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
The Minamata Convention on Mercury
The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
The Vienna Convention for the Protection of Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol
The Convention on Migratory Species
The Carpathian Convention
The Bamako Convention
The Tehran Convention
Women Environmental Programme (WEP) is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-political, non-religious and voluntary organization formed in April 1997 by a group of women in Kaduna State. WEP envisions a world where the lives of women and youth are positively transformed.
Although WEP emerged in response to the environmental pollution by industries in Kaduna State, over the years she has expanded her interventions to conflict transformation, climate change and governance issues.
WEP has United Nations Economic and Social Council of the United Nations(UN) (ECOSOC) special status, Observer Status to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With the Observer Status, WEP participate as a major group organization in contributing to the intergovernmental decision-making process in the UN-System. WEP is one of the Organizing Partners (OPs) of Women’s Major Groups and serves as the National Coordinator for Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) in Nigeria. WEP is also the Focal Point for Global Environment Facility (GEF) CSOs in West and Central Africa.
Since 1997 WEP has impacted over 20,000,000 lives positively across the globe through her interventions in Environment, Governance, Climate Change, Women and Youth Empowerment, Peace and Conflict Transformation.
Who We Are
Our Vision
Knowledge for better livelihoods.
Our Mission
To strengthen the capacity and policies of African countries and institutions to harness science, technology and innovation for sustainable development.
Our Value Proposition
- To conduct high quality research, policy analysis, capacity strengthening and outreach on applications of science, technology and innovation policies to sustainable development in Africa
- To facilitate and convene evidence based policy dialogue and debate
- To inform development policy and practice
- To put critical issues of science, technology innovation on the Development Agenda
- To provide independent and objective policy advice to African governments and agencies, regional economic communities and institutions, private sector, civil society and community actors and agencies.
A Brief History
The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is a pioneering development research think tank on harnessing applications of science, technology and innovation policies for sustainable development in Africa. ACTS is an Intergovernmental organization founded in 1988 to pursue policy oriented research towards strengthening the capacity of African countries and institutions to harness science and technology for sustainable development. ACTS envisions a sustainable economic, social and environmental future for Africa, through science, technology and innovation.
Article 3 of the Charter of ACTS, empowers the Organization to undertake capacity building, conduct research, provide advisory services and disseminate information on the policy aspects of the application of science and technology to sustainable development in Africa. It also requires ACTS to:
- Promote capacity building in the developing countries in the field of policy analysis related to sustainable development.
- Monitor international trends in science and technology, undertake technology assessment and forecasting and analyze the impacts of new technologies for purposes of providing policy options to African and other developing country governments.
- Promote, enhance, inspire, study and conduct the building of the institutional framework requisite for the management, assessment, sustainable utilization and conservation of natural resources.
- Foster the exchange of information and networking between the Centre and other governmental and private institutions and individuals that have similar or related interests at the local, national, regional and international levels, with particular emphasis on policy matters.
- Promote, encourage, inspire and undertake technical cooperation activities between and within nations.
Since its founding, ACTS has been instrumental in enlarging the range of policy choices for sustainable development in Africa. Over the last quarter century, ACTS’ work has influenced patent (i.e. industrial property) legislation and policy (Kenya); environmental impact assessment standards (Eastern and Southern Africa); bio-energy and biofuels policy (Kenya, Eastern Africa, West Africa); agricultural policy, bio-diplomacy, biotechnology and biosafety (Africa-wide); climate change adaptation and mitigation (Africa-wide).
ACTS remains among the leading institutions working on sustainable development in Africa. In 2013, it was rated amongst the top Environment Think Tanks in Africa and the world. ACTS is also a past winner (1991) of the Justinian Rweyemamu Prize from CODESRIA (Africa’s Social Science Research Council) for its work in expanding the knowledge base for Africa’s development
Envirocare is non-profit making, non partisan, non governmental registered organization founded in 1993.Our primary target groups as well as main stakeholders are the communities in which we work.Below are our core functions as an organization. Below are our core functions as an organization:
FRIENDS OF THE ENVIRONMENT NIGERIA
Unga Group Plc entered into a strategic investment partnership with US-Based Seaboard Corporation in 2000 to form Unga Holdings Limited in which Unga Group Plc owns 65% and Seaboard Corporation 35%.
Our Vision “Nutrition for Life” directs the company’s future growth towards a portfolio of diversified value-added products in Eastern Africa and beyond.
Rhino Ark was established in 1988 as a charitable trust to help save Kenya’s Black Rhino population in the Aberdare ecosystem. The rhino were under severe threat from rampant poaching for their highly valued horn.
Wildlife would invade the farms bordering the park, destroying crops and occasionally killing people. The resulting fear and aversion towards wildlife worked in favour of poachers who got easy access since the local community saw no value in protecting either the wildlife or the forest habitat.
Rhino Ark’s formation was specifically to assist the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to build an electric fence along sections of the Aberdare National Park on its Eastern Salient which has the highest concentration of wildlife and borders directly onto farmland.
The scope of the initial project evolved into a much more ambitious task of protecting the entire Aberdare Conservation Area with a fence that would:
- Be powered by electricity to contain wildlife
- Be strong enough to withstand elephant pressure
- Curb illegal logging
- Curb snaring
- Curb poaching of wildlife (especially the critically endangered black rhino and bongo antelope)
The fence has brought harmony around the area and farmers now can enjoy peaceful sleep at night without fear of losing their lives, crops and homes.
Over the years, Rhino Ark’s work has evolved and expanded to include support for various community based conservation initiatives such as the Bongo Surveillance Programme designed to offer long-term solutions to the conservation of mountain forest ecosystems.
Landmark Dates
- 1989 – Aberdare Electric Fence construction started
- 28 August 2009 – Aberdare Electric Fence construction completed
- 12 March 2010 – Aberdare Electric Fence formally commissioned by H.E. Mwai Kibaki, the President of the Republic of Kenya
- 11 May 2012 – Aberdare Trust launched by the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya.
- July 2012 – Mt. Kenya Electric Fence construction started
- 6 September 2012 – Launch of the Mt. Kenya Electric Fence by Hon. Njeru Githae, Minister for Finance
- March 2013 – Eburu Electric Fence construction started
- 26 November 2014 – Eburu Electric Fence (43.3 km long) construction completed
The Trust is a public-private partnership with strong ‘Participatory Management’ by communities to ensure the objectives of the fence are met. This is intended to be a role model to be replicated in the other areas.
The Institute of Environment and Water Management (IEWM) is a non-governmental organization that aims to strengthen water and environmental governance and climate change resilience through unlocking the potential of communities and institutions to manage their natural resources equitably and sustainably.
IEWM has a strong track record in tackling and finding innovative solutions to address climate change, natural resource management, and water and sanitation issues, through training and capacity building, skills development, research and knowledge management. The institute’s added value and achievements relies on strategically combining effective programme management, targeted advocacy and compelling communications.
The Institute has striven to bridge the gap between local action and policy/decision making through lobbying and advocacy. It’s technical experience and influence is recognised and valued at the national level and IEWM’s interventions are clearly aligned with national policies and guidelines, actively contributing to the country’s Vision 2030.
Indigenous Information Network (IIN) works on both Development,Conservation of Our Environment with a focus on several multilateral agreements, rights issues for women children and for pastoralists and forest- dwelling groups in Kenya. It is a non-profit, volunteer-run non-governmentalorganization (NGO) registered in the Republic of Kenya. The organization was founded in 1996 by a group of professionals in response to addressing needs for information through media and other channels about Indigenous Peoples, their livelihoods, and the challenges they face as they struggle to exist. The organization has been involved in dissemination of information, environmental conservation activities, community development, and advocacy activities to support of Indigenous Peoples, women, girl child, youth and other isolated minorities in the region.
IIN works directly with indigenous groups from rural areas to address issues in the following areas:
- Environmental conservation- With a focus on different multilateral agreements, at the local, national, regional and international levels.
- Health issues, including sexual reproductive health,
- Women’s rights and gender mainstreaming
- Education which includes Girlchild education
- Water issues promoting access to clean water by harvesting the rain, Protecting natural source. We strongly believe without clean water no good health for the communities.
- Economic Empowerment which include fundraising, for both the communities we work especially women and the youth.
- Traditional Knowledge, and protection and preservation of our cultural
- Land rights
- Sustainable development with a focus on sustainable development goals (SDGs)
Communication Strategies:
Indigenous Information Network IIN, believes that information is empowering. Un informed community is like someone in darkness. Engaging the communities and keeping them informed on different development around them is crucial. We do this by helping to set recourse centers and conducts person in every community that we work with so that they can help reach out and share any development issues. IIN also engages in networking and information sharing between the indigenous peoples of Africa and worldwide via electronic and print media. IIN continues to use the social media and other forms of communication and information sharing – Nomadic News and other updates and promotes different communities to make use of local radios around them to share information among themselves. Nomadic News and environmental news. Nomadic News focuses on the struggles of Indigenous Peoples in Africa and makes connections between grassroots, national and international politics.
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.5+ million members and supporters to defend everyone’s right to a healthy world.
As a major land steward at the edge of the Great Rift Valley, the Gallmann Africa Conservancy / the Gallmann Memorial Foundation is dedicated to creative, sustainable conservation – People and wildlife flourishing together, through research, education and the arts.
The GMF/GAC is a non-for-profit charitable organization active in Ol ari Nyiro, Laikipia Nature Conservancy, West Laikipia, Northern Kenya. It was created by Kuki Gallmann to honour the memory of Paolo Gallmann and Emanuele Pirri-Gallmann -her husband and son- who both died tragically in Africa, and are buried in Ol ari Nyiro.
The Gallmann Memorial Foundation in Ol Ari Nyiro on Kenya Eastern Rift Valley Laikipia Plateau due to sustained protection of its unique ecosystem and tree cover, and of its underground waters and natural springs -and of its varied topography- ARI NYIRO, IMPORTANT BIRD AREA (IBA) and KEY BIODIVERSITY AREA (KBA) no 064, is now uploaded officially in Birdlife International website with following link: http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/ol-ari-nyiro-iba-kenya
Global Hand is a matching service: a non-profit brokerage facilitating public/ private partnership.
Although today’s world sees many parties wishing to respond to global issues, the problem they often face is connectivity. Who should they partner with and how?
Global Hand is designed to bring together people from all parts of the spectrum. You can use this site to find partners wherever you fit. Your area of interest may be:
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Philanthropy
- Disaster response
- Poverty alleviation
- Advocacy
- Microcredit
- Job Creation
- Guidelines/Best Practice
- Doing business with the poor
- Sustainable Development
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Gifts-in-kind
- Services-in-kind
- Humanitarian Aid
- Fair Trade
- Corporate Volunteering
Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. Through world class science and innovative crop solutions, our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities.
The 400km electric fence is a conservation tool put in place to help resolve multiple challenges facing the Aberdare Range ecosystem. These challenges included poaching, bush-meat hunting, snaring, illegal logging, charcoal burning and encroachment. These activities, by the 1980’s had almost decimated the population of critically endangered black rhino in the ecosystem.
At the same time, regular crop damage by wildlife, especially elephant, was a major problem for the farmers residing next to the Aberdare protected areas. Encounters between farmers and wildlife occasionally led to human fatalities, and served to heighten tensions between humans and wildlife.
Construction of the fence began in 1989 and was completed in August 2009.
Today, in spite of the dramatic decrease in black rhino number in the 1980s, the ANP still hold a small and genetically viable population of native black rhino. This is largely due to the building of the fence.
To maintain the fence in good working condition, a team of fence scouts based in “Fence Energizer Stations” patrol the fence line daily to carry out maintenance work.
The project is a partnership between Rhino Ark, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the local communities. Rhino Ark and the Kenya Government provided the funds while KWS oversaw the construction work.
The Environmental Working Group’s mission is to empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. With breakthrough research and education, we drive consumer choice and civic action.
We are a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment.
We work for you. Do you know what’s in your tap water? What about your shampoo? What’s lurking in the cleaners underneath your sink? What pesticides are on your food? How about the farms, fracking wells and factories in your local area? Do you know what safeguards they use to protect your water, soil, air and your kids? Which large agribusinesses get your tax dollars and why? What are GMOs? What do they do to our land and water?
More than two decades ago EWG set out to answer these questions, and more, and to empower you to get to know your environment and protect your health.
EWG’s groundbreaking research has changed the debate over environmental health. From households to Capitol Hill, EWG’s team of scientists, policy experts, lawyers, communication experts and programmers has worked tirelessly to make sure someone is standing up for public health when government and industry won’t. Through our reports, online databases, mobile apps and communications campaigns, EWG is educating and empowering consumers to make safer and more informed decisions about the products they buy and the companies they support. In response to consumer pressure, companies are giving up potentially dangerous chemical ingredients in their products and improving their practices.
WHO works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.
Our goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.
For universal health coverage, we:
- focus on primary health care to improve access to quality essential services
- work towards sustainable financing and financial protection
- improve access to essential medicines and health products
- train the health workforce and advise on labour policies
- support people’s participation in national health policies
- improve monitoring, data and information.
For health emergencies, we:
- prepare for emergencies by identifying, mitigating and managing risks
- prevent emergencies and support development of tools necessary during outbreaks
- detect and respond to acute health emergencies
- support delivery of essential health services in fragile settings.
For health and well-being we:
- address social determinants
- promote intersectoral approaches for health
- prioritize health in all policies and healthy settings.
Through our work, we address:
- human capital across the life-course
- noncommunicable diseases prevention
- mental health promotion
- climate change in small island developing states
- antimicrobial resistance
- elimination and eradication of high-impact communicable diseases.
Our Liaison Offices in New York, New Delhi, Tokyo and Vienna continue to serve as contact points for ACUNS members traveling to those locations and interested in making connections to the United Nations based organizations in those cities, and to the local scholarly communities there.
The individual lead Liaison Officers at these locations are ACUNS members, either in the academic or practitioner communities, who have volunteered their services to help support members of our global network.
In some cases, the Liaison Offices also organize functions – lectures, seminars, workshops, and conferences – in cooperation with local UN bodies, other international organizations, NGOs, and academic institutions. The Vienna Liaison Office has been especially active in arranging or participating in such programming, supported by an energetic group of young volunteer interns.
(R)Evolution Let’s Change Now! (RLCN) works towards climate change mitigation, wildlife conservation and awareness and social service through various platforms and initiatives. It undertakes mitigation measures at the ground level and also makes its presence felt at the international level.
500003 Andhra Pradesh
he Tanzania Conservation Resource Centre is a non-profit organization which supports researchers and students working in natural resource issues in Tanzania. We have a resource centre in Arusha providing services and information to anyone involved in research and natural resource conservation.
CRC has an office behind the AICC Hospital, on a road opposite the Kibo Palace Hotel. Click here for the map to the office.
CRC is registered as a non-profit organization in Tanzania and in the United States. We rely on contributions from our members as well as in-kind and cash donations from supporting individuals and organizations both locally and internationally.