Green Podium

Our country seems to be running on plastic bags, from supermarkets, retail shops, local markets and even in our own homes, plastic bags have become a part of our lives. However this has presented us with a menace that has become a concern from various quarters, due to careless dumping of used plastic bags. Recently, the government banned the use, manufacture and importation of plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging and gave a 6 month window period for the law to become effective. The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources Prof. Judi Wakhungu on the 15 th  of March 2017 passed a gazette notice on the ban and this will be effective come 28 th  of August 2017. The banned plastic bags are in two categories namely: Carrier bags – constructed with handles, and with or without gussets Flat bags – constructed without handles, and with or without gussets Manufacturers have argued that this will spell doom for their industri...

Saturday 25 th  March 2017 will mark the 10 th  anniversary of the earth hour celebrations. The timing will be as from 8:30pm to 9:30pm. This event has been marked every year since its inception in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, by the WWF. In this event, participants are required to turn off non essential lights for a whole hour as a way of raising awareness of climate change and show willingness to protect the planet. You can as well participate by turning off your lights or switching off electrical appliances during that period as an action aimed at showing that you are ready to take part in creating a more environmentally sustainable planet. We should embrace renewable energy as well as going for energy saving technologies. Let us unite and pledge support for nature as we shine a light on climate action. We can be heroes for our planet.  #ChangeClimateChange

The recently witnessed conflicts between herders and ranchers in Laikipia that have turned fatal in some instances is a true manifestation of what natural resource conflicts can result in. We did see herders invade land belonging to ranchers who are involved in wildlife conservation projects in a bid to graze their animals due to reduced pasture that was brought about by the prolonged drought and a poor rainfall pattern that has made the availability of water to shrink. Natural resource conflicts are caused by various factors which boil down to one aspect which is the access to, control and use of natural resources. This is as a result of the fact that there is varying importance that different groups of people attach to these resources for example forests, land, water and pasture are valued differently by different populations. Resource degradation has led to scarcity of resources as a result of climate change, droughts, floods etc. The dwindling resources have made communitie...

Last week, on March 8th was the International Women’s Day and as the day was celebrated it hit my mind that women do have a crucial role in matters of agriculture and the environment. Agriculture contributes to 27% of Kenya’s GDP and within this sector women carry out most of the farm activities as men move to urban centres in search of employment opportunities. Women have faced a number of challenges with respect to this as highlighted below. Women are poorly equipped for their role in the area of farming. Most of them are involved in subsistence farming and lack adequate access to production resources such as inputs, extension services and information. Women farmers have very little contact with extension services agents, denying them a possible source of information and encouragement to adapt to better technologies that are central to increased agricultural productivity and subsequent economic growth. Research has shown that female headed households do not attend most field d...