he unpleasant treatment nature has received so far once again was brought to the fore recently, as trainers, activist and volunteers from SCI branches and partners met in Lagos-Nigeria for the camp coordinator training: Lead for Nature in and with Peace, hosted by Voluntary Workcamps Association of Nigeria (VWAN), to ascertain the threat of human induced climate change and to extrapolate ways and practices that can promote a climate that supports peace. We can identify on the global picture that communes in the so called ‘Global South’ are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change while they have little financial and technological means to offer more resilience to climate change, holding the training in Lagos is seen as a way to promote volunteering as a way for young people within the local context to raise their voice on climate issues in their local communities, also to be heard globally and seen in their communal struggles with the impacts of global warming. SCI is sowing solidarity among its worldwide network, the Create a Climate for Peace campaign is initiated to concert and dedicate many activities in response to the biggest challenges of our time. On the theme of the training - “Young Citizens Building Global Communities – Lead for Nature in and with Peace” there is a clear statement of the idea of the Create a Climate for Peace Campaign within SCI, many young people who participated in the training are involved in the worldwide campaign through various follow up Workcamps/local activities that aims to encourage more eco-friendly lifestyles, while also stimulating more awareness of global climate issues through online and offline platforms. At the end of the year we T
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Article - Lead for nature in and with peace training
A short article on the create a climate for peace camp coordinator training - Lead for nature in and with peace, held in Lagos-Nigeria, during May 3-9, 2014. The training is hosted by Voluntary Workcamps Association of Nigeria (SCI group in Nigeria)
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Transcript
he unpleasant treatment nature has received so far once again was brought to the fore recently,
as trainers, activist and volunteers from SCI branches and partners met in Lagos-Nigeria for the
camp coordinator training: Lead for Nature in and with Peace, hosted by Voluntary Workcamps
Association of Nigeria (VWAN), to ascertain the threat of human induced climate change and to
extrapolate ways and practices that can promote a climate that supports peace. We can identify on the
global picture that communes in the so called ‘Global South’ are more vulnerable to the impacts of
climate change while they have little financial and technological means to offer more resilience to climate
change, holding the training in Lagos is seen as a way to promote volunteering as a way for young people
within the local context to raise their voice on climate issues in their local communities, also to be heard
globally and seen in their communal struggles with the impacts of global warming.
SCI is sowing solidarity among its worldwide network, the Create a Climate for Peace campaign is
initiated to concert and dedicate many activities in response to the biggest challenges of our time. On the
theme of the training - “Young Citizens Building Global Communities – Lead for Nature in and with Peace”
there is a clear statement of the idea of the Create a Climate for Peace Campaign within SCI, many young
people who participated in the training are involved in the worldwide campaign through various follow
up Workcamps/local activities that aims to encourage more eco-friendly lifestyles, while also stimulating
more awareness of global climate issues through online and offline platforms. At the end of the year we
T
will be able to connect the dots of all the Workcamps and activities that is held within frame of the
campaign at the visibility event taking place in Poznan-Poland, during October 8-12, 2014; several
activities connected to the campaign that have taken place worldwide will be exhibited and evaluated.
There is the need for everyone to raise to the challenge of climate change, this need cannot be over
emphasized, the future of the earth’s climate (our home) depends on how quickly and effectively people
can substantially reduce those activities that are warming the globe, since further greenhouse emissions
will have much more devastating consequences on future generations. We have to advance in our
relationship with nature (the natural world) and quit, or as the case may be, reduce lifestyles that
continue to violate our natural environment. Create a Climate for Peace campaign presents a call towards
Climate Justice and Peace for all and sundry.
The training has over-seen a convergence of young SCI activists from across the globe to engage in
methods and be equipped with insights to lead sustainable follow-up activities in their local community
with their local organisations under the framework of the Campaign. Participants were engaged to
critically assess their roles as future camp coordinators and as earthlings.
The main aims of the training course are:
• To empower young people to lead and facilitate community youth projects as part of peace work
• To help young people to gain a new and improved appreciation of nature and to understand that by
respectfully treating nature social justice and inclusion can be strengthened
• To deepen young people’s understanding about the nature and dynamics conflicts and giving them
practical skills and tools to transform conflicts in youth work and learn from them
The methodologies employed by the trainers did not addresses only the environmental aspects of climate
justice, also the awareness of its social and economic dimensions was triggered by the use of experiential
methods and workshops in the microcosm of global tendencies to strengthen the pedagogical and
practical aspects of the course. Facilitating collaborative participation was central to the sharing of
knowledge and experiences among the pretty much diverse group of participants; this provided a
platform for cross learning between the duality of North and South.
The training was also about exchanging best practices, successful stories and solutions from already
existing practicable examples across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, about how other individuals
and organisations have been able to work sustainably for climate justice and peace. It is glaring that living
sustainably would imply a radical shift in some of our attitudes and choices, the context we live in may
already pose a challenge, just as we experienced on the training: a common idea is to promote the use of
less fossil fuel based products and shift more bio degradable , on the contrary almost everything in the
local market is packed in layers of plastic, confronting these realities and finding more climate positive
solutions was the subject of much confab, from which we can draw more inspiration for our present and
future actions to support and sustain an climate friendly approach to our consumer choices. During the
training visit was made to a local project Permaculture Forest Garden in Badagry-Lagos, to gain practical
experience within a best practice community.
According to Nnimmo Bassey of
Environmental Rights Action -
Friends of Earth Nigeria; “Africa
is in the line of fire of climate
impact”. The impacts are already
being felt if we look closely; the
rising temperatures, crop
failures, desertification, floods,
succession of heat waves,
coastal erosion and shift in
rainfall patterns we experience
results to more ecological
hazards, conflicts over resource, IDPs, climate refugees and other chains of ominous events that
continuously threatens. As these impacts are oscillating to intensify we can expect more adverse effects if
we fail to break the reliance of our economic development on fossil fuel to advance towards more
sustainable energy sources, change the way we currently consume to being more conscious of our
choices. In the overview, it is obvious that the existing policies, programmes, actions and measures by
governments and institutions are insufficient to address the level of risk posed by climate change. We see
the need for everyone to respond with a positive attitude - through sustainable living, practices and
activities to mitigate the effects of global warming.