{"id":14504,"date":"2022-06-24T18:23:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T18:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/?p=14504"},"modified":"2022-06-24T18:23:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T18:23:48","slug":"secam-bishops-in-africa-call-on-governments-to-take-urgent-actions-of-protection-of-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2022\/06\/24\/secam-bishops-in-africa-call-on-governments-to-take-urgent-actions-of-protection-of-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"SECAM: Bishops in Africa Call on Governments to take Urgent Actions of Protection of Biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA<\/em><\/p>\n

In preparation for the upcoming United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) scheduled for late this year in China, Catholic bishops in Africa have raised concern warning governments to act speedily in protection of biodiversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no such right to destroy biodiversity,\u201d members of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said in the statement read by Fr. Rigobert Minani<\/em>\u00a0Bihuzo the regional coordinator of the Ecclesial Network of the Congo Basin Forest (REBAC) during a hybrid event held in Kenya\u2019s capital Nairobi where preparatory sessions towards COP15 were being conducted. <\/em><\/p>\n

In the statement <\/em>published online<\/a>, the Church leaders <\/em>join the global Civil Society\u2019s calls advocating for\u00a0no more biodiversity collapse\u00a0as they ask the\u00a0nations to \u201ccommit to protecting half of the Earth, (50%) by 2030, to avoid the worst effects of the dangerous climate crisis\u201d\u00a0ahead of COP15 and UN Climate Change Conference (COP27).<\/p>\n

They further called on governments especially of the Global North, whom they disclosed as the \u201cbiggest emitters of greenhouse gasses, to\u00a0deliver on their financial commitments to halt biodiversity loss, ensure accountability and transparency and\u00a0help create a safe and resilient world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their massage dated Tuesday, June 21, and signed by the First Vice President of SECAM\u00a0Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha, South Africa, the bishops of Africa and the surrounding Island asked for\u00a0\u201cprotection of the rights of first nations and inclusion\u00a0within the biodiversity and climate discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndigenous communities are some of the\u00a0first to experience the adverse effects of the climate crisis due to their close relationship with the environment and their long-practiced roles as guardians of God\u2019s creation,\u201d reads an excerpt of the message as it continues, \u201cHowever, these communities are often dismissed because they are believed to represent just a tiny fraction of the world\u2019s population.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their Tuesday message, the Church leaders shared about the biomass of the Congo basin which is the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world noting that it is \u201cIncredibly rich with diverse ecosystem that provides food, fresh water, shelter, and medicine for millions of local and indigenous peoples and is home to critically endangered wildlife species.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amidst the benefits from the Congo basin forest, the bishops underscore the threats realized from a variety of fronts driven by human activity.<\/p>\n

One of the risks is land grabbing and industrial agriculture. According to the prelates it is regrettable that \u201cin recent years, investors worldwide focused on exploiting Africa\u2019s rich natural goods, often at the expense of local communities and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magnitude of exploitation has seen the loss of vital ecosystems while international industrial-scale agricultural developers have helped fuel wide-scale deforestation and spark social conflict,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Additionally, unsustainable and illegal logging\u00a0<\/strong>by both big and small companies is \u201cleading to deforestation, destruction of wildlife habitat, diminished resilience to the climate crisis, and damage to local communities,\u201d the prelates lamented.<\/p>\n

They continued,\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cWe have seen undue pressure on Earth\u2019s goods that increase tension and fosters conflicts. In the Congo forest alone,\u00a0dozens have died and there have been several documented human and environmental rights abuses in the region\u2026 leading to conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

In raising their concerns Church leaders reveal that \u201cCongo biome not only contributes to the Earth\u2019s health but works together with other biomes like Amazon to support the equilibrium of our sister, mother earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that destroying even a quarter of our remaining untouched lands or polluting the oceans\u00a0would remove the critical necessary carbon sink that is\u00a0 without any cost to society helping us avert the worst effects of a runaway climate crisis,\u201d reads part of the statement.<\/p>\n

The bishops further called on all people that, in the spirit of faith and strengthened by Church\u2019s teaching, they must \u00a0all play their \u201cindividual roles in protecting our home and be committed to growing in solidarity, communion, and friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The webinar was organized by SECAM, REBAC and Laudato Si\u2019 Movement (LSM) who serves the Catholic Family around the world to turn Pope Francis\u2019 encyclical letter Laudato Si\u2019<\/a> into action for climate and ecological justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA In preparation for the upcoming United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amecea-news","category-secam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14505,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14504\/revisions\/14505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}