Dr. Funmilayo Doherty: About the United Nations World Youth Skills Day Ce...

Dr. Funmilayo Doherty: About the United Nations World Youth Skills Day Ce...: At the United Nations 69th session on 18 December 2014, the General Assembly expressed concern on the high number of unemployed youth, es...

About the United Nations World Youth Skills Day Celebration

At the United Nations 69th session on 18 December 2014, the General Assembly expressed concern on the high number of unemployed youth, estimated globally at 74.5 million in 2013, the majority of whom live in developing countries. It noted that Member States have an important role in meeting the needs and aspirations of youth, particularly in developing countries. Recognizing that fostering the acquisition of skills by youth would enhance their ability to make informed choices with regard to life and work and empower them to gain access to changing labour markets, the United Nations General Assembly decide to designate 15 July as World Youth Skills Day. The United Nations Invites all Member States, the organizations of the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, as well as civil society, including youth-led organizations, to commemorate World Youth Skills Day in an appropriate manner, in accordance with national priorities, including through education, campaigns, volunteering and public awareness-raising activities.

Scheduled Activities for 2016 United Nations World Youth Skills Day at YCT

The centre planned the following activities for the World Youth Skills Day.

                        Inspirational Lecture

                        Panel session

                        Youth Skill Competition

                        Exhibitions

                        Recognition Awards

                        Performances by Poet, Artiste and Comedian

                         

Speakers:

Alibaba, Co founder Jobberman, Shola Animashaun, Dr Shogo amongst others

Join us as we create awareness on skills development for youths on the 15th of July, 2016, Yaba College of Technology

Social Media platforms:

Facebook- www.facebook.com/wysdyct/ 

Twitter - twitter.com/YWysd 

Instagram - www.instagram.com/yabatechunevoc/

NOTE: nature of impact

The Nature of Impacts

The environmental impacts of a project are those resultant changes in the environmental parameters, in space and time, compared with what would have happened had the project not been undertaken. The parameters may be any of the type of environmental receptors noted previously; air quality, water quality, noise, levels of local unemployment and crime.

Types of impact that may be encountered in EIA

-      Physical and socio-economic

-      Direct and indirect

-      Short-run and long-run

-      Adverse and beneficial

-      Reversible and irreversible

-      Quantitative and qualitative

-      Distribution by gp and/or area

-      Actual and perceived

-      Relative to other developments.

Biophysical and socio-economic impacts are often seen as synonyms in adverse and beneficial. Thus new developments may produce harmful wastes but also produce much needed jobs in areas of high unemployment. This correlation does not always apply. A project may bring physical benefits when, for example, previously polluted and derelict land is brought back into productive use; similarly the socio-economic impacts of a major project on a community could include pressure on local health services and on the local housing market, and increases in community conflict and crime. Projects may also have immediate and direct impacts that give rise to secondary and indirect impacts later.

A reservoir based on a river system not only takes land for the immediate body of water but also may have severe downstream in implications for flora and fauna and for human activities such and sailing.

The direct and indirect impacts may sometimes correlate with short-run and long-run impacts. For some impacts, the distinction between short-run and long-run may also relate to the distinction between a projects construction and its operational stage; however other construction-stage impacts, such as change in land use, are much more permanent. Impacts also have a spatial dimension. One distinction is between local and strategic, the later covering impacts on areas beyond the immediate locality. These are often regional but may sometimes be of national or even international significance.

Environmental resources cannot always be replaced; once destroyed, some may be lost for ever. The distinction between reversible and irreversible impacts is a very important one, and the irreversible impacts, not susceptible to mitigation, can constitute particular significant impacts in an EIA. It may be possible to replace, compensate for or reconstruct a lost resource in some cases, but substitutions are rarely ideal. The loss of a resource may become more serious later, and valuations need to allow for this.

Some impacts can be quantified, others are less tangible. The latter should not be ignored. Nor should the distributional impacts of a proposed development be ignored. Impacts do not fall evenly on affected parties and area. Although a particular project may be assessed as bringing a general benefit, some geographical areas may be receiving most of any adverse effects, the main benefits going to others else where.

There is also a distinction between actual and perceived impacts, subjective perceptions of impacts may significantly influence the responses and decisions of people towards a proposed development. They constitute an impact source of information, to be considered along side more objective prediction of impacts. Financially, all impacts should be compared with the “do nothing” situation, and the state of the environment predicted without the project. This can be widened to include comparison with anticipated impacts from alternative development scenarios for an area. The words “impact” and ‘effect’ are widely used in EIA effects and impacts can sometimes used synonymously.

FME procedural and sector guidelines on EIA in Nigeria. EIA procedure as illustrated in the figure requires the preparation and submission to FEPA of either a screening report for the project or activity that requires preliminary assessment, or a mandatory report for an action included in the mandatory study list.

NOTE: Dimensions of the Environment

Dimensions of the Environment

The environment can be structured in several ways, including components, scale/space and time. A narrow pollution of environmental components would focus primarily on the biophysical environment e.g the UK department of the environment used the term to include all machine susceptible to pollution, including air, water and soil; flora, fauna and human beings; landscape, urban and rural conservation and the built heritage (DOE 1991). The DOE check list of environmental components is outlined below:

Environmental components

Physical environmental (adapted from DOE 1991)

1.	Air and atmosphere	Air quality
2.	Water resources and water bodies	Water quality and quantity
3.	Soil and geology	Classification risk (contamination erosion)
4.	Flora and fauna	Birds, mammals, fish, vegetation
5.	Human beings	Physical and mental health, well-being
6.	Landscape	Characteristics and quality of landscape
7.	Cultural heritage	Historic, archeological sites
8.	Climate	Temperature, rainfall, wind
9.	Energy socio economic environment	Light, noise, vibration
10.	Economic base-direct	Direct employment: labour market characteristic
11.	Economic base-indirect	Non-basic and services employment; labour supply and demand.
12.	Demography Housing	Population structure and demand
13.	Local services	Supply and demand of services: Health, education, police.
14.	Socio-cultural	Lifestyles, quality of life, social problems (crime) community stress, conflict.

The environment has important economic and socio-cultural dimensions. This wide definition is more in tune with an Australian definition, “for the purpose of EIA, the meaning of environment incorporates physical, biological, cultural, economic and social factors’ (ANZECC 1991).

The environment can be analysed at various scales. Many of the spatial impacts of projects affect the local environment, although the nature of ‘local’ may vary according to the aspect of environment under consideration and to the stage in a project’s life. However some impacts are more than local. Traffic noise, may be a local issue, but changes in traffic flows caused by a project may have a regional impact, and the associated CO₂ pollution contributes to the global green house problem. The environment also has a time dimension, baseline data on the state of the environment are needed at the time a project is being considered.

History of FEPA in Nigeria

Prior to the dumping of toxic waste in Koko village, in Delta State, in 1987, Nigeria was ill-equipped to manage serious environmental crisis, as there were no institutional arrangements or mechanisms for environmental protection and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations in the country. 

Arising from the Koko toxic waste episode, the Federal Government promulgated the Harmful Waste Decree 42 of 1988, which facilitated the establishment of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) through Decree 58 of 1988 and 59 (amended) of 1992.

FEPA was then charged with the overall responsibility for environmental management and protection. It is on record that by the establishment of FEPA, Nigeria became the first African country to establish a national institutional mechanism for environmental protection.

In the wisdom of the Government, FEPA and other relevant Departments in other Ministries were merged to form the Federal Ministry of Environment in 1999, but without an appropriate enabling law on enforcement issues. This situation created a vacuum in the effective enforcement of environmental laws, standards and regulations in the country.

World Environment Day: Zero Tolerance for the Illegal Wildlife Trade

 June 5 of every year is designated as the World Environment Day (WED). This year the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Mitigation celebrated the day with a public lecture and launching of it's environmental club for primary schools. Please read the excerpts from the welcome address of the President, Society for Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Mitigation, Dr. Funmilayo Doherty on the WED event at the University of Lagos.

I am indeed very glad to welcome you all to this year’s UNEP World Environment Day Celebration. The World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Over the years it has grown to become a broad, global platform for public outreach and the ‘people’s day’ for doing something positive for the environment. The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Pollution Mitigation (SETPOM) has deemed it fit to commemorate the day with a Public Lecture around the theme of this year’s WED celebration – Illegal trade in wildlife under the slogan “Go Wild for Life”.

Each year, thousands of wild animals are illegally killed, often by organized criminal networks motivated by profit and greed. According to a statement by the United Nations, between 2010 and 2012, 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory in Africa. It further says that three rhinos are killed every day, and the Western Black Rhino has already gone extinct, adding that the great apes are already extinct in several African nations. Profits from the illegal wildlife trade sometimes go into the pockets of international criminal networks, threatening peace and security, and damaging the livelihoods of local communities who depend on tourism. Now for the first time, the United Nations has produced a global report on the problem. It says virtually every country in the world plays a role either as a source, transit or destination for the trade. The report says illegally acquired animals are being sold in legal markets - and much of the time the buyer is unaware.

 While Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES),it is a crime to deal in ivory, reptile skin and teeth, skin of cats and antelopes, and also to “make crafts from them’’. In 2013, CITES identified 19 countries—including Nigeria, that were heavily implicated in the illegal trade in ivory. The new United Nations campaign,`Wild for Life’, therefore aims to mobilise the world to end this destructive trade.

Huge efforts to counter the illicit trade - including stronger policies, awareness campaigns and investments in community conservation and law enforcement - have scored some great successes. However, many species remain at risk and it will take a dedicated and sustained effort by each and every one of us to turn the tide.

How can we do it? More people need to understand the damage this illicit business is doing to our environment, livelihoods, communities and security. We must change our habits and behaviour so that demand for illegal wildlife products falls. More awareness and action pushes governments and international bodies to introduce and enforce tougher laws and combat those still willing to break them.

This year’s theme for WED – Go Wild for Life – encourages you to celebrate all those species under threat and take action of your own to help safeguard them for future generations. This can be about animals or plants that are threatened within your local area as well as at the national or global level - many local extinctions will eventually add up to a global extinction! Wildlife is an inheritance, which should be cherished and preserved.

This year is very special in the history of the society as we will be launching the Environmental squad club for primary schools. Details of this initiative will be unfolded during the launch of the e-squad. I want to thank the e-squad committee and in particular Prof Adebayo Otitoloju for his dedicated effort in making this dream a reality.

We will be naming the first ever SETPOM environment ambassador in the person of Mr Fasasi Olarewaju popularly known as Sound sultan. We need people to lend their name and fame in the campaign towards protection of the environment and do what they can to champion the environmental cause.  I hope that our new environment ambassador, will lend his support in this regard. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you all to this public lecture and launching ceremony and encourage us all to show zero-tolerance for the illegal trade in wildlife in word and deed, and make a difference.