RWANDA TO CELEBRATE THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2012

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The Government of Rwanda will, on the 5^th June, join the rest of the World in the commemoration of the World Environment Day (WED). The event will be preceded by the National Environment Week, starting from May 26, dedicated to different activities of raising awareness on environmental sustainability.

The 2012 WED’s theme given by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is “Green Economy: Does it include you?” This is another opportunity to raise awareness on the importance of green economy and to have every individual and institution, in different sectors feel concerned. The most important goal of celebrating the WED in 2012 will be to raise awareness on the serious impacts of carrying on with business as usual in terms of economic growth and development without environmental considerations. This would compromise achieving sustainable development.

By celebrating the WED 2012, Rwanda will be celebrating the achievements made towards protecting the environment and it will be a good opportunity to build upon the success made in 2010 when Rwanda successfully hosted WED 2010 at the International level.

Several activities will be carried out

The activities of the National Environment Week and WED will be done during the week from 26th May to 5th June 2012 in all Districts. The activities will be based on the main sectors including Renewable energy (less energy consuming cooking stoves, biogas, and solar) Greening the schools, offices and households, Water management (rainwater harvesting systems, water purification, protection of fragile ecosystems, lakes, rivers and wetlands) Waste management (waste sorting, recycling and disposal) Land management (reforestation, afforestation, organic agriculture, soil erosion control) and Clean transportation to avoid pollution from some emitting vehicles. Further, activities aimed at the adaptation to effects of climate change by all sectors of the economy will also be conducted.

The Launching of the National environmental week is scheduled to take place on the 26^th May 2012, during the Community Work -“Umuganda Rusange”, usually taking place every Last Saturday of the month. The closing will take place on the 5^th June 2011 by celebrating WED 2012.

Background

The World Environment Day (WED) is an annual event which is widely celebrated on 5th June. The WED was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 and has grown to become the one of the main vehicles through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action. WED is designed to give a human face to environmental issues, empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development, promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and people enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. Through World Environment Day, the UN Environment Programme is able to personalize environmental issues and enable everyone to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development. World Environment Day is also a day for people from all walks of life to come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations.

The WED celebration in 2011

The WED 2011 was celebrated jointly with the International Year of Forest (IYF) , given the United Nations General Assembly’s declaration in 2006 of the year 2011 to be the International Year of Forests (IYF). Both themes of the year 2011, “Forests for People” for International Year of Forests and “Forests: Nature at Your Service” for World Environmental Day, emphasized the services that forests render to society. The 2011 year's World Environment Day (WED) therefore underscored the link between quality of life and the health of forests and forest ecosystems.