By Goth Mohamed Goth
Somaliland’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Shukri Haji Ismail Bandare, said plans are underway to open a research center to study the impact of global climate change in the country.
The minister pointed out that they have been jointly working together with the ministry of finance and the university of Burao, Togdeer region, in laying the groundwork for the proposed research center whose purpose is to study the impact of global climate change in the country.
Hon. Shukri Haji Ismail Bandare, further said that Somaliland’s Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the CCF has collected data related to the impact of climate change in some regions of the country.
She added, “We have gathered data from four sites located in Awdal region, Sheikh, Togdeer, and Oodweyne. The detailed data on climate change impact gathered and complied and we plan to share the data with our partner institutions and ministries”.
“The research center focused on studying the effects of climate change in the country will be based at the university of Burao and is set to open next week,” outlined the Environment Minister.
The impacts of climate change are increasingly being felt and acknowledged as such. These impacts cause the recurrence of severe droughts in the country said Minister Shukri Haji Ismail Bandare, who was a guest at the Somaliland government performance and accountability program hosted by the SLNTV on Friday night.
The Minister during the program briefed on the workings of the ministry of environment, its achievements, future plans, and the goals of the ministry, such as the creation of national parks, land grabbing, the protection and care of wildlife, illegal trade in wildlife, etc.
“The global climate change that we are seeing today is not just about us, when we talk about it, it has affected the whole world; now every country is dealing with it in its own way”.
There are many new laws that have been adopted by other nations of the world, and are currently being implemented by governments to safeguard their environments, she noted.
“Most importantly the human and economic consequences of not dealing with climate change are beginning to be understood and found to be alarming in Somaliland, being a country which continues to degrade its environment”, said Shukri Haji Bandare.
The Minister said, “The destruction of the environment has adversely affected us. The effects of climate change have resulted in low rainfall and the recurrence of droughts”.
