BNRCC Project Backgrounder - Building Nigeria's Response To ...

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1PAGE 7Engaging MediaThe Media ForumA media forum was held on May 27 th , 2007 at the Abuja’s Top View Hotel. BNRCC believes there is aneed for more effective public access to information about Climate Change vulnerability, impacts andadaptation responses. Strategic, effective, and high‐quality information dissemination and networkingwill enable people to respond proactively to Climate Change and its effects. By reaching out to mediaoutlets and practitioners though a forum, BNRCC could to share knowledge about Climate Change andadaptation, and nurture ongoing mutually beneficial collaboration. An informed and engaged mediacan disseminate and share vital knowledge with the public, as well as advocate for policy change .Among the forum’s key outputs was the formation of a network of media practitioners interested inclimate change matters—the Climate Change Media Network of Nigeria (CCMNN). The Secretariat ofthe Network is currently at the Head Office of the African Radio Drama Association (ARDA), (c/o MsData Phido) Lagos. Members of the media are strongly encouraged to join!Lake Chad Basin Commission Warns Member Countries ofLake’s ExtinctionThe Lake Chad Basin Commission(LCBC) has warned member statesof the looming ecological and socio-economic disasters in the LakeChad Basin, which if the membersdo not take urgent measures mayculminate the extinction of the lake.The Executive Secretary of theCommission, Mr. MuhammmadSani Adamu, an engineer made thedeclarations recently in N'djamena,the capital of Chad Republic whileaddressing member countries of thecommission to mark its forty fourth-year anniversary.He said that the saving of the Lakefrom drying up and eventual extinctionhas become inevitable in preventingthe Chad Basin Area frombeing a disaster region in the centralpart of Africa.According to the Executive Secretary,the Lake Chad has drasticallyshrunk along its water from 30, 000square kilometer in 1960 to thepresent level of only 2, 500 squarekilometers.Besides, he added that many of thewetlands in the Basin have eithershrunk like the Lake or completelydried up, giving way to the rapidadvancement of the desert into thelargest inland lake in Africa.He told the six-member countries ofChad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon,Central African Republic and Libya“the reduction in water volumes ofthe Lake has largely affected theproduction of agricultural crops,fishing and breeding of livestock.In saving the Lake from drying upand eventual extinction, SaniAdamu urged all the six- membercountries of LCBC to urgently take“action” in other to save the lakeand its wetlands.He warned that “the disappearanceor extinction of the lake will befatal” not only to the 25millionpeople living in the region, but theentire continent of Africa.Adamu suggested that the stakeholdersof the Lake Chad Basin areto come together in proffering concretesolutions to the drying lakeand its wetlands.The Chadian Minister of Environment,Madam Khadidja Abdulkadirwho launched the commission'sforty fourth years anniversary saidthat “plans of action” be urgentlyput in place by the six-membercountries in saving the Lake fromextinction. Such plans, she saidinclude the transferring of the waterof River Ubangui in DR. Congo into Lake Chad."Humanity isincredibly innovative.We have the capacityto solve the problemof climate change;the only issue iswhether we asindividuals,governments andbusinesses have thecourage to acttogether to do whatneed to be done. Thestakes could not behigher."James Murdoch, ChiefExecutive, BSkyB,September 2006The Guardian Monday June 2, 2008, Page41