Deutsche und EU-Entwicklungspolitik - Germany... -
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Published on: 4/11/2001
Last Visited: 9/6/2001
The award has been won by Raphael Mweninguwe , a journalist with the Malawi newspaper 'The Nation'.Since he himself could not make it in time to Bonn , the Malawi Ambassador to Germany , Silas S. Ncozana , received the prize on his behalf.
In a written statement accepting the award , Mweninguwe said that many African news editors do not take environmental issues seriously.They concentrate much on political violence when it comes to reporting about Africa.They do not report on environmental degradation that is taking place because of the wars , he added.
In his article headlined Encroachers attack Thyolo , Mweninguwe paints a graphic picture of the human struggle for survival against land erosion and loss of water in the Thyolo Mountain , a forest reserve , and the Kalulu and Thyolomwani hills in his country.
Little did people ... know that their encroaching on the mountains would have far reaching consequences on their lives.The encroached hills are catchment areas from which several rivers in the district originate , writes Mweninguwe.
With the heavy deforestation that came with people encroaching on the hills , rivers no longer flow during the dry season because they dry up quickly.The wetlands are no longer the wetlands they used to be , says Mweninguwe.
According to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan , each year an additional 20 million hectares of agricultural land becomes too degraded for crop production , or is lost to urban sprawl.
Yet over the next 30 years the demand for food in the developing world is expected to double.New land can and will be farmed , but much of it is marginal and , therefore , even more susceptible to degradation , said Annan in his message on the World Day to Combat Desertification.
He added.