Speaking Of The People
Ms. Kobie Brand is the Regional Director of ICLEI Africa. As a global organisation, ICLEI is represented in all regions of the world by a team of experienced senior managers.
Ms Brand is responsible for the strategic direction, positioning, partnerships, programmes and scope of work of the ICLEI Africa Secretariat. Reporting to the Secretary General of ICLEI and the ICLEI Africa Board of Directors, her task is to build and maintain a strong and viable ICLEI Africa Office with a broad membership base of local and regional authorities and their national associations across the African continent.
Ms. Brand has over 17 years of practical and managerial experience in Integrated Environmental Management – specifically policy, strategy and programme development and management – at local, national and international level. She holds post-graduate qualifications in International Politics, Law and Philosophy. Her experience is broad-based and includes Coastal Zone Management, Capacity Building and Informatics, Sustainable Livelihoods and Poverty Alleviation in South Africa and East and West Africa.
MARC ONA ESSANGUI
“The industrialization of Africa by leaders acting without environmental conscience will be the ruin of us.” Marc Ona Essangui- 2009 Goldman environmental prize.
Ona, who has been an activist since he developed polio as a child – campaigning for disabled rights and the environment – says: "My fight is the fight of all the people concerned with the survival of the planet. Our forest is home to the most extraordinary biodiversity. It is also a huge natural pharmacy. To destroy it would mean the ruin of humanity."
In 2009, Ona, then, 45, won the Goldman environmental prize, the world's richest prize for grassroots environmentalists, for his fight to save Gabon's protected Ivindo national park against development. He shared the $900,000 (£607,000) prize between the winners from six continental regions. He was jailed for his fight to protect Gabon's rainforest.
Sosten S. Chiotha of Malawi received a Bachelor of Education from the University of Malawi, a Master of Science in Medical Parasitology from the London 
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK and a PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Maryland at College Park in the USA. After two years as a School teacher, S.S. Chiotha joined Biology Department of the University of Malawi where he lectured for many years in medical parasitology. In 1991, he became the University of Malawi Research Coordinator until December 1996 when he became the Regional Program Director for Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD)-Southern Africa. S.S. Chiotha actively participated in the process of drafting Malawi’s National Environmental Action Plan
and the national disaster preparedness plan. On the international scene, he has contributed to publications on Research for the Association of African Universities and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. S.S. Chiotha took charge of the Malawi component of “IRALAS” Project (Innovative Rural Action Learning Areas),a regional project aimed at identifying initiatives by rural smallholder farmers on sustainable natural resource utilization. He has served as a member of the African Crop Science Society Governing Council and the International Network for Genetics for Aquaculture (INGA). S.S. Chiotha has been a guest researcher to the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He has presented many public lectures on environment including one at Florida Atlantic University.
Esther Kelechi Agbarakwe
Born on the 21st of April 1984, Esther Kelechi Agbarakwe has been to over twelve countries across the globe talking about climate change and actively discussing policy issues around a theme that is probably one the most vital concerns of the 21st century. A 2009 Dekeyser & Friends Foundation Fellow, her work on educating school children and other young people across the country about their role in global warming and environmental sustainability won her an award at the 7th LEAP Africa Annual Nigerian Youth Leadership Award in 2010.
Fondly called “Estherclimate” by friends, she was raised in Calabar and holds a B.Sc (Hons) in Chemistry Education from the University of Calabar. At 10, she was already a child rights activist. “My Climate activism began when I became part of the Earth Charter Initiative, a diverse global network of people and institutions that promote values and the principle of sustainable development. My major concern is that many Nigerians do not fully understand what Climate Change is and how their actions and/or inaction can contribute to the effects/impact of climate change. Yes, some have heard the term “climate change” on TV and Radio but still they are yet to fully understand the concept”
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AND THE DESERT ENCROACHES…
The statistics on desertification in Africa is alarming, for most nations of the continent, especially those in North Africa, the “sand” is a feared enemy. In Nigeria, the situation is not much different, the desert is expanding, Lake Chad is a shadow of itself, people are being displaced and pastoralists in search of pasture clash with farmers. If the trend persists, the consequences will be dire. In this report, OluseyiAdegbola examines issues crucial to the fight to stop desertification.
In Bauchi, a state in Northern Nigeria, they drift along the cobbled streets, often barefoot.When the heat of the sun becomes unbearable, they take shelter beneath extended eaves, behind large plywood doors, in shady alleys – anyplace that’s hidden enough but with sufficiently quick access to the main streets where they resume their trade – begging alms when the sun goes down. Their skin is fair, hair curly, and by their features, you could quickly discern that they are not from around here.They are natives of the Republic of Chad, an African country ravaged by war, drought, desertification and famine; they are here seeking to preserve a livelihood which the desert stole from them.
WANGARI MAATHAI- BACK TO NATURE
“The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple act of planting a tree, we give hope to ourselves and to future generations”.–Wangari Maathai
As a child Wangari Maathai, Africa’s first female environmentalist to win the Nobel peace prize (2004), adored the sites of nature- the hundreds of tadpoles that enjoyed the freshness of the marshy waters in the village, and the green natural expanse. To her, this was perfection as the environment all around exudes the warmth of nature and the peaceable state of Mother Nature.
PERSONALITY INTERVIEW: NNIMMO BASSEY
The state of the environment is at the centre stage of global discourse. Nations are faced with ecological disasters: floods, drought and desertification among other environmental hazards which to a large extent have been accepted as being effects of climate change.
Amidst these tragic events, renowned environmentalist and chairman, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth International, Nnimmo Bassey speaks with Green-IT reporter Oluseyi Adegbola on issues critical to the preserving of our environment.
PERSONALITY INTERVIEW: OMISORE
“Green Building is a must… a government providing mass housing for her people is exercising a social and political responsibility” - Omisore
The state of our environment is a critical issue that deserves the attention of all, government, organized professionals and technocrats. In this light Chief Tokunbo Omisore, the incumbent president of Africa Union of Architects (AUA) bares his mind on related and germane issues. Excerpt:
What is the vision and mission you want to enliven as the helmsman now at Africa Union of Architects, AUA?
First, I was elected President of Africa Union of Architects on the 16th June, 2011, before then I have been Secretary General in the last 6years. The mission and vision I will say commenced 6 years ago as secretary general but with an opportunity now to actualise what have since commenced with other council members to put in place. The aim in my 3 years as the President is to rebrand the African architect and architecture and this hinges on what you can refer to as the architect and her society.
WORLD POPULATION LEAP TO 7 BILLION
According to the United Nations on October 31, 2011 the global demographic projection is now estimated to have reached 7 Billion from the previous 6 billion ascertained on October 12, 1999 that had been increasing steadily geometrically right now at the rate of around 1.10% per year.
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