The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) has conducted the second phase of sensitization on the RIO Conventions in Western Liberia.

The two-day consultative and awareness exercise which took place in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, is part of a Cross-Cutting Capacity Development (CCCD) Project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) managed by UNDP, to strengthen awareness on three Rio Conventions; Bio-Diversity, Desertification and Climate Change.

Several farmers, local leaders and stakeholders from western Liberia – Grand Cape Mount, Gbarpolu, Bomi and Montserrado Counties participating in the workshop, were urged to preserve their communities and environment from potential climate change.

A farmer from Grand Cape Mount County Ma Jartu Pussa described the role of farmers especially in rural areas, as crucial in mitigating climate change issues and helping the government garner the political will to achieve the RIO and SDG 13.

Ma Jartu called on the EPA to increase awareness by empowering farmers with the requisite information to help spread the word on measures to be taken by communities and their members in combating climate change and saving the forests.

“We want for EPA to help empower the farmers with more knowledge so we can help our other friends in the community to save our forest,” Jartu Pussa stressed.

She pledged to be one of the agents of change by using the information and knowledge from the workshop to raise awareness in her community.

The first phase of the RIO consultation and sensitization was held in Nimba County covering North and Central Liberia

Currently, the world is changing with climate change being one of the newest global phenomenon being experienced in several countries and resulting into different disasters, due to failure by governments to institute proper and sustainable mechanisms and measures that would help preserve and conserve the environment.

Under the CCCD project, Liberia is expected to strengthen global efforts by institutionalizing commitments under the RIO conventions; ensuring the flow of funding and information dissemination at the local and national levels.

According to the Team Leader of the Sustainable Economic Transformation (SET) at UNDP, the CCCD Project is essential due to its impact on the environment.

Dorsla Farcarthy stated that sensitization and awareness are important instruments and measures to be used to add value to keeping the environment safe in order to boost economic growth and promote livelihood.

He emphasized that the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals especially 13 depends on citizens’ action which he believes is cardinal to combating climate change,

“We need to change our habits, behavior and attitudes that tend to undermine our fight in protecting our environment and avoid experiencing the real effects of climate change which would lead to death,” Facarthy cautioned.

It is also important to note that Liberia could achieve global environmental benefits through improved coordination, collaboration and database systems to reflect the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Liberia ratified and acceded to the RIO conventions on September 25, 2008.  The three RIO conventions focus on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification and derived directly from the 1992 earth summit in which each instrument represents a way of contributing to the Sustainable Development goals of Agenda 21.