EPA, UNDP Hold Regional Stakeholders Awareness Workshop on The Rio Conventions

Recent deluge leading to disastrous flood in various parts of Liberia has raised eyebrow on the little attention being paid to effects of climate change and environmental degradation in the country. Liberia, a signatory to the Rio Convention, has not succeeded much in implementing these conventions which could avert some of these natural disasters caused by degrading the environment. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through the Cross-Cutting Capacity Development project (CCD) is striving to capacitate stakeholders at community level across the country to strengthen and institutionalize commitments under the Rio Conventions. The three Rio Conventions—on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification—derive directly from the 1992 Earth Summit. Each instrument represents a way of contributing to the sustainable development goals of Agenda 21. The three conventions are intrinsically linked, operating in the same ecosystems and addressing interdependent issues. At a two-day workshop in Ganta, Nimba County, the EPA brought together regional stakeholders like farmer corporations and environmental groups to broaden their understanding on their knowledge on how come environmental and biodiversity conservation. According to the Deputy Executive Director of the EPA, Randall M. Dobayou, the CCD project is intended for Liberia to make better decisions to meet and sustain global environmental obligations. However, he said, such would require “Liberia to have the capacity to coordinate efforts, as well as best practices for integrating global environmental priorities into planning, decision-making and reporting processes. To this end, the objective of the project is to strengthen a targeted set of national capacities to deliver and sustain global environmental outcomes within the framework of sustainable development priorities.”