23 December 2021 The Abyei Wildlife Gallery initiative by UNISFA

In March 2021, UNISFA launched the Abyei Wildlife Gallery initiative, a new online interactive platform that showcases photographs of local flora and fauna submitted by the UNISFA community.  Hosted on the missions SharePoint the gallery is accessible to all to contribute to.  By becoming more aware of the ecosystem we live within we can take positive steps to preserve biological diversity. 

By collecting, recording, and displaying photographs, the gallery aims to fulfil three main purposes: 

  • Increasing biodiversity awareness within the mission. 

  • Fostering community spirit between all personnel across team sites. 

  • Encouraging the UN principle of “do no harm" regarding the local ecosystem.  

A mission wide photography competition was held to launch the gallery for all civilian and military personnel which resulted in over 130 photographs of 60 different species of Abyei wildlife being submitted. Species included Africanized Bees, Kingfishers, Marabou Storks and Hibiscus flowers (which are the national flower of Sudan and South Sudan). Five winners were selected and announced on the UN observed International Day of Biological Diversity 2021, the slogan of which is “we’re part of the solution”.  

The Abyei Wildlife Gallery is a positive legacy project that reminds and inspires personnel to preserve and sustainably interact with the vast variety of life in Abyei and the mission will work towards incorporating such activities annually.  

Recent Stories

The UN Procurement Awards, since 2022, aim to recognize and celebrate excellence within the United Nations system regarding procurement and supply…

The 2023 edition of the Greening the Blue Report includes UN system-wide and entity-level 2022 environmental sustainability data.