Africa

UNEP Regional Office for Africa (ROA)

Country celebrations – Republic of the Congo
The Government of the Republic of the Congo commemorated WED in Brazzaville, Congo, this year, and made the WED celebrations part of a Summit on tropical forest basins, which was organized by the government of Congo, with support from UNEP, UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and UN Development Programme (UNDP). In line with the WED theme ‘Forest: Nature at your Service’ the Summit focused on the sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the basins of Amazon, Congo and Mekong Borneo. The goal of the Summit was to ensure a greater contribution to the regulation and stabilization of the planet’s climate, the fight against poverty and economic development of countries concerned. 

The regional director of ROA, Mounkaila Goumandokoye, joined the regional celebrations and chaired a 3 hour-event/round table focusing on the following:

Sustainable management of forests in Congo; Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol for biodiversity conservation; forests and climate change; oil exploitation: environmental impacts and remediation measures.

Contact: 
Angele Luh Sy
Regional Information Officer
angele.luh@unep.org
Country celebrations - DR Congo

UNEP delivered a presentation entitled, Congolese forest: nature serving humanity at UNDP- DR Congo. A number of participants including Sarassorro, government officials, NGO’s as well as others were invited.  
Contact: 
Dieudonne Musibono
dieudonne.musibono@unep.org

Country celebrations - Juba, Sudan
A tree planting event as part of the Keep Juba Green campaign took place for WED.  This was a community event and involved the Southern Sudan Government, donors and other UN agencies.  It was a repeat of a highly successful event staged in Juba for WED last year attended by the Vice President of Southern Sudan.  A total of one million trees are being planted as part of the Keep Juba Green campaign.  The first 500,000 were planted between April and June 2010 - during the rainy season - and the remaining 500,000 will be planted this rainy season.  The trees planted in and around Juba include fruit trees.

Country celebrations - Khartoum, Sudan 
On 1 June, a one-day event was organized under the theme: Women and Forests at Ahfad Universityfor women. UNEP delivered a presentation at this event and participated in a forum and tree planting event for World Environment Day.

Contact: 
Julie Marks
julie.marks@unep.org

Country celebrations - Sierra Leone 
On the back of significant efforts to focus Sierra Leone’s recent 50 year independence anniversary on environmental issues, a series of community level outreach activities took place across Sierra Leone for WED 2011.
At the provincial level: Across six provinces (Kenema, Makeni, Moyamba and Kono and Magburaka and Bo), there were marches (krio for parade - banners, marching bands etc). In addition, there were quizzes, debates, and t-shirt’s distributed. 

In the Freetown area, on 4 June a march took place with the support of marching bands. The film “Home” was also screened, together with a photography exhibit. 

There was also a tree planting on 5 June on Sugar Loaf mountain (just outside Freetown) with 250 students. In addition, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting B Corporation screened 'HOME' on national TV and radio stations. 

Contact: 
Oli Brown
oli.brown@unep.org

Country celebrations - Port Harcourt, Nigeria 
The UNEP team in Ogoniland, Nigeria, organized WED events with primary school students who took part in UNEP's Green Frontiers schools programme.  This involved students from eight schools.   

Contact: 
Jimmy Okoroh
jimmy.okoroh@unep.org