GENEVA, 21 November 2008 (IRIN) - As part of the UN's US$2.2 billion humanitarian appeal for Sudan, officials said their agencies would work to better manage natural resources in the African nation in the upcoming year.

"This year [2009], there will be more emphasis on recovery and more attention paid to natural resource management," Toby Lanzer, the UN's deputy humanitarian coordinator in northern Sudan, said on 20 November, in light of the desertification taking place in the country.

Tree-planting projects were under way to help stave off environmental changes, which were considered a major contributor to the violence in Sudan's west, and to offset the carbon emissions of peacekeeping missions.

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