The Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have conducted a three-day training for technicians using the Environmental Knowledge Management System (EKMS).
The training, themed ‘Strengthening National Capacities to Meet Global Environmental Obligations with the Framework of Sustainable Development Priorities’, attracted over 75 participants from line ministries and agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academia.
EKMS focuses on collecting, storing and sharing data between institutions for better environmental management and fulfilment of the Rio Convention.
The Rio Convention, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, includes the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Additional software was also procured by EPA and UNDP to enhance the functionality of the EKMS, which was established by the Cross-Cutting Capacity Development (CCCD) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Speaking at the start of the training, CCCD Project Manager, Aaron Wesseh, said, ‘The platform aims to support the government by building connections between initiatives, stakeholders, and those working on sustainable development on the ground, and by creating a dynamic system of knowledge and information exchange.
‘The platform will also build on and strengthen existing knowledge networks on environmental issues, and will also link networks and partnerships of GEF, GCF and bilateral grant recipients to promote collaborative learning and sharing of knowledge, foster South-South knowledge exchanges, and deepen collaboration among grant recipients as well as with research centers, universities, practitioner networks, and think tanks’.
Liberia faces numerous environmental challenges including land degradation, fragmentation, deforestation, soil erosion, and pollution. Its economy and human health is also threatened by rising temperatures and water scarcity.
Data on the EKMS website shows that Liberia has lost over 60 percent of its forest cover and the remaining forest is at serious risk of deforestation.
The aforementioned three-day event, according to the EPA, helped in strengthening a pool of technicians from national resources management institutions that will use the new technological innovation to collect, store and share environmental information.
‘It also increased the technicians’ understanding of what the environmental knowledge is and how to validate data, information, and knowledge and as well enhanced the decision-making ability and communication strategy’, the statement read.
Source: EPA
Photo source: EKMS
