South Sudan’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry has called for inclusion of Sudd Wetland among the list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
“In collaboration with UNESCO, now the country is trying to ensure that sudd wetland is also considered under UNESCO list of the biosphere reserve,” David Batali Oliver, Director General of Planning and Sustainable Development at the Ministry of Environment said in Juba on Thursday.
He was speaking during the closing of a three-day workshop on the protection of the Sudd Wetland organized by the Ministry of Environment in partnership with UNESCO.
Batali said the listing of the Sudd Wetland among the biosphere reserves will help to conserve and protect it.
“There is need to consider Sudd Wetland as one of the biosphere reserves which should be conserved and protected, so that it is managed sustainably for the benefit of the whole country,” he said.
Paul Gore, National Coordinator of Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme for UNESCO called on the ministry to develop information file for the Sudd Wetland in order for it to serve as tourism attraction.
He said the man and biosphere program has an open approach that tends to bring in communities to look at their socio-economic activities toward sustainable use of natural resources.
UNESCO selects annually a number of sites classified as new biosphere reserves with the aim of promoting sustainable development, protecting terrestrial, marine, and coastal ecosystems, and encouraging biodiversity conservation efforts.
The Sudd is a vast swamp in South Sudan, formed by the White Nile’s Baḥr al-Jabal section. The Arabic word sudd is derived from sadd, meaning “barrier” or “obstruction”.
The term “the sudd” has come to refer to any large solid floating vegetation island or mat.
In October 2006, South Sudan was included in the Ramsar Conversation List of Wetlands of international importance.
The Conversation on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty adopted on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar which provides for the “wise use” of wetlands and their resources. South Sudan now has some of the best preserved wetland and plains habitat in all of Africa and the largest timber reserves in t
