UNU-INRA Holds Training Workshop On Green Business

Lusaka, 22nd September,2014 - The United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) has opened a training workshop in Lusaka, Zambia to equip African researchers, businesses, environmentalists and economists with the necessary tools to be able to identify potential risks of their business activities on the environment and develop effective management strategies to mitigate them.

The training workshop, which is on the theme “Greening Businessthrough Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”, falls under the Institute's Green Economy Project entitled “Unleashing the Potential of African Rural Economies through Green Growth”, a project that is being supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

The workshop also aims at enhancing the understanding of the participants on the roles and responsibilities of businesses in the conservation and use of biodiversity and ecosystem services to ensure a successful transition towards green economy in Africa.

The Green Economy Research Fellow of UNU-INRA, Dr. CalvainAtewamba, recognized that in as much as human beings have to depend on nature for business and food, the impact of their activities on the environment have to be mitigated.

“All businesses are dependent on the planet's biological diversity and all business activities impact either negatively or positively on the environment.Providing reliable information and tools to assess business impacts and dependences on natural resources and how to manage these risks and opportunities could be a competitive advantage to accelerate Africa's transition to green economy”, stated Dr. Atewamba.

He also noted that business activities, particularly in the extractive industries have led to challenges including freshwater scarcity, overexploitation of oceans, pollution and climate change, and appealed to organisations to integrate environmental values into their corporate strategies, and put in place monitoring and evaluationsystems to reduce the risks of their operations on mankind and nature. Doing this, he said, will helpimprove their reputationand thus impact their bottom-line.

The Director of UNU-INRA, Dr. Elias T. Ayuk, in explaining the importance of the workshop, underscored the Institute's commitment tocapacity strengthening in natural resources management in Africa.

“We organise these workshops to bridge the gap between knowledge and delivery. This particular workshop is very important because African businesses need to pay more attention to the impact of their activities on economic development”, Dr. Ayuk said.

The five-day workshop have twenty-three participants coming from different African countries including Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Uganda, Malawi, Benin, Swaziland, Tunisia and Zambia.

About UNU-INRA
UNU-INRA's work centres on Africa's two most important endowments — its human and natural resources. It aims at strengthening capacities at universities and other national institutions to conduct research and produce well-trained individuals with the ability to develop, adapt and disseminate technologies that promote the sustainable use of the continent's natural resources. UNU-INRA operates out of its main office at the University of Ghana. It has also established operating units (OUs) at the University of Cocody, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, and Institute for Food Technology (ITA) of the Ministry of Mines and Industry in Dakar, Senegal, through which some of its major activities are carried.