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“Certification of the Sudd Wetlands as a Ramsar site is
an important symbolic achievement that now hopefully will be followed through
with practical measures to assist in the conservation of this unique habitat,”
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said. UNEP has established a project
office in Juba and has commenced a programme of capacity building for
environmental governance.
With a total area in excess of 30,000 square kilometres,
the Sudd is arguably the largest wetland in Africa and provides immense economic
and environmental benefits to the entire region. The swamps, flood plains and
rain-fed grasslands support a rich animal diversity including hundreds of
thousands of migratory birds.
The area is also inhabited by the Nuer, Dinker and
Shilluk people who ultimately depend upon the wetlands and the seasonal flooding
of the adjacent rich pastureland for their survival.
The three-day workshop is particularly significant in
that it follows last year’s peace agreement ending 23 years of war between the
Central Government and southern rebels and brings together technical experts and
officials from both sides to jointly address the range of environmental issues
facing the country.
UNEP is supporting the workshop together with the two
environmental administrations of Sudan, the European Commission and the Nile
Basin Initiative as one part of its new focus on capacity building the
environmental sector in developing countries.
One of the surprising side effects of the north-south
conflict was the isolation and incidental protection of the natural resources of
southern Sudan, such as the Sudd wetlands, and extensive hardwood timber
forests.
Southern Sudan now has some of the best preserved
wetland and plains habitat in all of Africa and the largest timber reserves in
East Africa. The regional government of southern Sudan now has a unique
opportunity to ensure that the development of these resources is both socially
equitable and environmentally sustainable, UNEP said.
Source: UN News Service
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