The Chairman of Stanbic Bank of Tanzania Limited and foremost intellectual, Professor Mark Mwandosya, has joined the pan-African Advisory Board of NatureNews, Africa’s leading environment newspaper.
A statement signed by Publisher/CEO of NatureNews, Aliu Akoshile, said Professor Mwandosya brings to the board his vast knowledge and experience as a prodigious scholar in the fields of engineering systems, energy, water, environment, and regulation of utilities.
The statement said Professor Mwandosya played indelible roles in the African environment advocacy as head of the Climate Change Studies Programme in Tanzania and as a member of the Steering Committee of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) International Resource Panel.
Mr. Akoshile noted that as a three-time Minister and international technocrat, Professor Mwandosya has attended meetings of Subsidiary Bodies and Conferences of Parties (CoP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 1995.
He said Prof. Mwandosya, who earned a PhD in Electrical and Electronic engineering from the University of Birmingham in 1977, had served as Chairman of the Group of 77 (and was spokesman for the Group of 77 and China) at the meetings of the subsidiary bodies for the Climate Convention during the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol.
The advisory Board which was inaugurated on Tuesday has the King (Emir) of Dutse in the north western Nigeria and Chancellor of Sokoto State University, Alhaji (Dr.) Nuhu Muhammad Sanusi, as chairman, with the Kenyan environmental activist and founder, Friends of Lake Turkana, a UNESCO heritage site in the East African Rift Valley, Ms. Ikal Angelei, as member.
Other members, according to the statement, includes a former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General/Head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa and a three-time Minister and later Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in Senegal, Professor Abdoulaye Bathily and the consummate conservationist and Environmental Hero awardee of DW German TV network, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi, who is also President of Lekki Urban Forest & Animal Sanctuary Initiative (LUFASI).
Akoshile said the board also has distinguished Professor Salah Arafa, a member of the Egyptian National Committee on Climate Change and a member of the Research Council on Environment and Development at the Egyptian Academy for Scientific Research and Technology; and Ms. Hawe Hamman Bouba, Executive President of the African Indigenous Women’s Organisation – Central Africa Network and member of Cameroon Human Rights Commission.
Other board members, according to NatureNews publisher, are the Harvard trained Dr. Namane Magau who was on the executive team of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and served as Executive Vice President of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; and the renowned environmental activist and laureate of the prestigious Thoroft Rafto Memorial prize, Architect Nnimmo Bassey who is Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation.
While inaugurating the Advisory Board, Aliu Akoshile said the choice of the members was to underscore the publisher’s vision of making NatureNews the authentic African voice on climate change and sustainable environment.
He thanked the members for accepting to lend their weights to the cause of development journalism which the newspaper, www.naturenews.africa, symbolises.
Akoshile said the board has the historic duty to help Africa overcome the challenges of climate change and create a sustainable living environment for 1.367 billion people in the continent.