REMA to reward best environmental performers

The Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) is set to reward best performing districts cooperatives and media in its 2012/2013 Best Environmental Performance Awards to celebrate the World Environment Day on Wednesday and a National Environment week that is ongoing. The Director General of REMA, Rose Mukankomeje, encouraged people to think about this year’s global theme for World Environment Day; “Think, Eat, Save”. She noted that in homes, hotels, and restaurants people still cook more food than they need, contributing to a large amount of global food production that is wasted every year. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate that every year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted or lost while one in every seven people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of five die daily from hunger. “Waste of food also means waste of all the resources and inputs like water and energy which are used in the production of all the food. That means more and more energy is used in food processing and the final disposal generates green house gases,” she said. She added that the most important goal of the theme for World Environment Day 2013 was to promote resource efficiency and sustainable production and consumption by reducing our food print and wasteful practices. According to the Mayor of Kigali, Fidele Ndayisaba, awareness and sensitisation on how to be smart about the way we eat, serve, shop for and dispose our food, was essential. Best practices in that direction that have been initiated in Rwanda include having a family organic garden--commonly called Akarima k’igikoni. The mayor also encouraged the use of post harvest storage facilities across the country for fruits vegetables, potatoes, maize, and milk. “We shouldn’t only think about ourselves or our households, but the global community. Everything each of us does matters, and affects our neighbours. We all need to act for the global environment and food,” Ndayisaba said.