A multi-million dollar initiative that should help some of the world’s poorest people to better cope with droughts and pest infestations is being launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The $14.5 million project aims to conserve and restore damaged forests, soils, water systems and other key life support systems in southern Niger and northern Nigeria.
Niger, ranked second to last on the United Nation’s poverty index, has been racked by drought and more recently locust infestations. It has led to an estimated third of the more than 11 million people in Niger suffering severe food shortages.
Experts believe that the country is now more vulnerable to natural disasters like droughts and plagues as a result of human pressures such as overgrazing, felling of forests for fuel and water pollution. Such pressures are deemed to be highest on the borders between the countries and have become a source of tension and conflict between villages and communities.
The wide-ranging project aims to strengthen the way natural resources are managed, boost the legal and institutional frameworks that oversee these areas and streamline cooperation between the two countries. Experts believe these actions can play their part in alleviating poverty, increasing food production while improving the health and viability of the region’s fragile, wildlife-rich, habitats and ecosystems.
Under the new project, over 20 pilot areas are to be established in communities linked with four river catchments shared by Niger and Nigeria. The pilots will include natural resource conflict prevention, evaluations of biological resources, management of degraded sites, the pin-pointing of sustainable practices and new and profitable alternatives to unsustainable and damaging activities in areas such as food production and energy.
Better managing shared water resources and fisheries may also be part of the project with proposals to reclaim degraded lands. — Samina Iqbal
At risk of diabetes
Often people ask the doctor if their fasting blood glucose is normal. People with fasting plasma glucose levels of 100 to 125 mg/dL are considered to have “impaired fasting glucose” because they are at increased risk for eventually developing Type 2 diabetes, states a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. But what is in store for people having fasting blood glucose in the normal range, but on the higher side as between 90 and 100 mg%.
A study was done to determine if a risk existed even among people with normal fasting glucose levels. The subjects studied, included 13,163 male military personnel (age, 26-45 years) with baseline fasting plasma glucose levels in the normal range (100 mg/dL). During an average follow-up of 5.7 years, 208 men developed Type 2 diabetes. The risk for diabetes increased progressively as the blood glucose levels increased within the normal range. Fasting blood glucose in the upper end of the normal range was associated independently with an increased risk for diabetes. The risk was augmented significantly by obesity and raised fasting triglycerides.
These results demonstrate a continuum of risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, even for people whose fasting plasma glucose levels fall within the so-called normal range. The main influencing factors are weight, age and gender.
The findings could serve as an incentive for people with fasting glucose levels in the 90mgs to change their lifestyle in order to lose weight and normalize blood lipids. The sedentary lifestyle has to be changed to an active one to prevent the rising incidence of diabetes. — Dr Fatema Jawad
Children don’t sleep enough
A survey released recently shows what millions of groggy parents already know: Many babies and toddlers do not get enough sleep. Twenty-six percent of parents of children up to four years old said in a recent survey that their child gets less than enough sleep. The survey was conducted by the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation (NSF).
The older the child, the less likely he or she is to sleep 12 hours to 15 hours per day, the recommended minimum from the NSF and paediatric sleep experts. Forty percent of parents and caregivers said that their child has a problem each or almost every day or night, including having a hard time falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night or getting up too early in the morning.
The child’s sleep patterns, of course, may lead to less sleep for parents. Of those surveyed, 71 percent said they get less sleep than they feel they need. The results come from telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,003 parents or primary caregivers of children under four years old. The margin of error on the survey, conducted in September and October, is plus or minus 3.1 percent. Details of the survey and tips for parents were released at an event in New York on Wednesday last. — Reuters n
