Sudanese Group to Gather 10 Million Signatures for Climate

Petro-Canada's Edmonton Refinery and Distribution Centre glows at dusk in Edmonton February 15, 2009. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber/File Photo
Petro-Canada's Edmonton Refinery and Distribution Centre glows at dusk in Edmonton February 15, 2009. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber/File Photo
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Sudanese Group to Gather 10 Million Signatures for Climate

Petro-Canada's Edmonton Refinery and Distribution Centre glows at dusk in Edmonton February 15, 2009. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber/File Photo
Petro-Canada's Edmonton Refinery and Distribution Centre glows at dusk in Edmonton February 15, 2009. REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber/File Photo

Sudanese environmental activists have launched a campaign to gather 10 million signatures supporting the fight against climate change impact in Sudan by 2030.
The campaign targets university students, environment and climate advocates, and all people who might be interested. The Sudanese Sustainability Initiative, which launched the campaign, seeks to polarize the younger generation given the crucial role they can play in changing their community.

Rafka Bakri, programs coordinator at the Sudanese Sustainability Initiative, says: "The campaign, in addition to many projects such as "Green," and "Sustainability," are part of the initiative's 13th goal focusing on climate change.

Rafka sees that despite the lost time and the growing climate crisis, awareness of the environmental issues is still weak among the youth.

Activist Mohammed Abdullah Harasi hopes the campaign would achieve its goal and collect the 10 million signatures needed to support the climate-related efforts, and protect the environment by encouraging youth on launching programs that promote a cleaner environment, and raise awareness of the importance of reducing harmful emissions.

Holding a poster highlighting the climate change challenge, Asia Abu Jadiri, head of the campaign explains their plan to collect the signatures, saying: "We are committed to four goals, including the fight against climate change. We work in partnership with prominent universities like Al Khartoum University, Omdurman Ahlia University, and the Bahri University."

Abu Jadiri believes environmental issues in her country are many and lack the required attention. "We encourage youth to use eco-friendly products, build green sustainable cities, protect rivers, seas, and forests, in addition to recycling wastes and preserving the environment to achieve the 2030 strategy," she noted.

Abu Jadiri sees that adjusting environmental behaviors will make a difference on the long term, especially that 60 percent of the Sudanese population are youth, and the contribution of those 10 million young men and women will remarkably change the worsening environmental situation in Sudan.

"The 10 million signature campaign is not our first project. We started in 2018 in response to the global and deep movement for the climate, and following the democratic shift in Sudan, which recognized the great role played by the younger generation and its will to build a better society. We have many projects including "Green," in which we forested large lands and planted thousands of trees to promote the idea of a greener city. For a better environmental awareness, we launched the Sustainability Forum to discuss sustainability matters and study the successful experiences in this field; we also launched the Studio Program on social media to share lectures highlighting the goals of sustainability."

Among the campaign members is the Sudanese team partaking in the world climate challenge organized by the US organization The Green Team Academy.

Sudan submitted a report in 2020 on the environmental status in the country. It is the first to cover all the environmental conditions in the country and the trends that affected it following the conflict. The report also combined several field studies on the environmental impact of the conflict, which ended with a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005.



S.Africa's Iconic Protea Flower Relocates as Climate Warms

Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
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S.Africa's Iconic Protea Flower Relocates as Climate Warms

Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP
Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma cultivates the blooms north of Johannesburg, 1,500 km (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa. Phill Magakoe / AFP

On his farm two hours north of Johannesburg, Nico Thuynsma gestured towards thousands of orange, yellow and pink proteas in flower and thriving 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa.

"They're all different," the 55-year-old farmer said of the assorted blooms from the diverse Proteaceae family that has more than 350 species in South Africa, from firework-like "pincushion" varieties to delicate "blushing brides".

He picked out a majestic pink and white crown, nearly the size of his head, that has taken four years to reach its impressive size. "The King Proteas are very slow to grow," Thuynsma said.

The largest of the proteas, the King Protea, is South Africa's national flower.

It has lent its name to the national cricket team and countless brands. It features on the currency and is the logo for South Africa's presidency this year of the G20 group of leading economies, which convenes a summit in November.

It is also the country's largest flower export with more than 10 million stems sent abroad last year, worth close to 275 million rand ($15 million), according to the Cape Flora industry organization, said AFP.

Its status offers the King Protea some protection but almost half of South Africa's other protea species face extinction because of pressures on their native habitats in the mountains of the Cape, according to South Africa's National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

These include habitat loss to agriculture, the proliferation of invasive alien species and "changes to natural fire cycles", SANBI said in a 2021 report.

Icon

"People come to South Africa to see proteas," Nigel Barker, a professor in plant sciences at the University of Pretoria, told AFP. "It's the plant equivalent of the elephant or the lion."

Most proteas are endemic or semi-endemic to the Cape Floral Kingdom biome of "fynbos" ("fine bush") that stretches across the southern tip of South Africa and is one of the world's richest flora biodiversity hotspots.

But climate projections predict "hotter, drier conditions", Barker said. "We'll be looking at a completely different vegetation type in the future, semi-desert almost in some places."

"Many species, because they're so range-restricted, will probably go extinct under those scenarios," he said.

"The only solution we have is to cultivate them artificially... in greenhouses or farms where you control irrigation," Barker said.

An example is Thuynsma's farm in the grasslands of the north, where he began planting proteas three decades ago.

Here, winters are dry and frosty, and the summers rainy -- conditions very different to those in the far south where the proteas are at home.

Gel for irrigation

Through trial and error, Thuynsma has been able to cultivate close to 200 protea varieties, including some long forgotten and abandoned by farmers in their original habitats.

In his latest experiment, he has planted 36 varieties with just two liters (four pints) of saturated gel for irrigation.

"I hope to unlock the power of some of these varieties," Thuynsma said. "They come from the Western Cape out of very harsh conditions, so they do have it in them."

"I learn from them, I learn with them. And, hopefully, in the future I can advise my nursery public -- and even estates -- how to plant this lovely fynbos without irrigation," he said.

"I don't think I have a solution for climate change," he joked, crouched over a small seedling in freshly turned soil. "But I do have a solution: to plant proteas."

A few meters (yards) away, in a warm nursery, thousands of protea sprouts awaited their turn in the soil.

"I love them, I protect them, I collect them," Thuynsma said. "The protea is part of South Africa's DNA."