Kenya Forum Addresses Environmental Disasters

Kenya on Monday hosted the first ever Forum of the Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA), in an effort to improve measures against environmental disasters.



The conference, which was organized by the Kenyan government and the African Union, brought together participants from 48 countries to Nairobi to find better ways to manage disasters like landslides, land degradation, drought, floods and hurricane El Nino. 



The discussion focused mainly on Earth Observation technology in Africa, where countries are still facing difficulties in adopting and integrating this technology. The four-day meeting sought to come up with a better way of providing climate information, predictions and early warning especially in areas prone to extreme climate events.



Kenyan Minister of Environment and Natural resources Judi Wakhungu who officially opened the 4 day forum at the Crowne plaza hotel in Nairobi said: "From Ghana to Mauritius, the MESA Projects continue to provide relevant information to public and private organizations. Kenya has faced an increase in poaching and deforestation which we, with our development partners, have worked hard to turn around," she added.



For his part Ambassador Mahboub Maalim, Executive Secretary for the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said that the Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA) programme is being implemented simultaneously with the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative . - Kenya