Green Podium

The UN Environment in conjuction with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is hosting the Environment and Emergencies Forum (EEF) in Nairobi, Kenya from today the 26th to 28th September to discuss developments on how countries can prepare and respond to environmental emergencies. The main focus this year will be on the human health and environmental threats caused by armed conflicts. Usually, first responders go into humanitarian situations with uncertainity and always face various environmental and health risks in their duty. They also have limited knowledge of the area of their operation with regards to such risks since assessment of environmental impacts of conflicts has always been done much way after a war or conflict has ended. However, since emergency situations have to be attended to urgently, the responders have been forced to venture in these areas despite the possible risks they could be exposed to. Participants at the EEF this year will be a

Karura Forest has taken the government's ban on plastic bags a notch higher by banning all plastics from the forest. All disposable plastic including plastic bottles will no longer be allowed in the forest and visitors to the forest have been provided garbage bins at the gates where such can be dumped before being allowed in. This move by the Friends of Karura Forest in collaboration with the Kenya Forest Service has been lauded by various stakeholders including the Ministry of Environment with the support of the cabinet secretary Prof Judi Wakhungu. Plastic rubbish has been a heavy pollutant in Karura forest hence the need to take such a move. Plastic take thousands of years to degrade and is an eyesore to the natural environment. It has also been proving a great cost financially since employees had to move around the forest everyday to pick and collect carelessly disposed plastic waste. In terms of alternatives, visitors are encouraged to carry reuseable trail bottles whi