Members of the Somali Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (SOMESHA) made a tremendous nationwide climate monitoring outlook after the government of Somalia announced yesterday morning that weather storms may hit many coastal areas in the country.

After a cabinet meeting in Mogadishu yesterday, the government has called all communities living on the coasts to be vigilant as weather forecasts predict that storms may hit Somali coastal areas widely.

SOMESHA members in Puntland and Mudug regions reported that heavy rains with strong winds have been battering parts of Puntland in north east Somalia for the last 20 hours particularly towns and villages alongside the coast.

Residents in the coastal communities have been bracing for the bad weather after forecasts of the weather have been extensively aired and posted through the local media throughout Somalia.

Most of the areas, where the strong winds and heavy downpour are affecting, are towns and villages with large numbers of internally displaced and the IDPs live ramshackle camps so there is a concern that their houses may be destroyed by the winds.

By Masimba Tafirenyika

Once againMalawifinds itself in a tight spot. A food crisis set off by erratic rains, rising food prices and economic hardships is slowly unfolding. Sadly and unexpectedly,Malawihas lost its hard-earned status as an agricultural success story. Many are now wondering what went wrong and whether there could be lessons for other African countries.

More than 1.63 million people, or 11 per cent of the population, are facing severe food shortages, according to the World Food Programme, a UN relief agency.Malawineeds $30 million to the end of 2012 to cover the shortfall. Agriculture is the backbone of its economy: four in five people rely on it for income. Most farmers plant on small plots by hand with little irrigation, and therefore are vulnerable to recurring droughts, notes the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.Malawiis home to Africa’s third-largest freshwater lake —Lake Malawi— yet less than 3 per cent of the land is irrigated.

Malawi’s current troubles might seem surprising. Yet to those who follow events in the Southern African nation, it is less an abrupt change in fortunes than a series of self-inflicted injuries unfolding in slow motion.

Increased farm subsidies

Back in 2004, President Bingu wa Mutharika, who died in office in early 2012, rode into power on a promise to increase farm subsidies as part of his Farm Input Subsidy Programme. Under the plan, the government gave subsidy vouchers to “smallholders to buy a small amount of fertilizer and seed so that they could replenish the soil nutrients, take advantage of improved seed varieties and at least achieve a livable crop from their tiny farms,” says Africa Confidential, a UK-based newsletter.

The results were instant. In 2005, a year after expanded subsidies kicked in,Malawiharvested a grain surplus of half a million tonnes. In subsequent years it exported grain toLesothoandSwaziland, as well as 400,000 tonnes of maize toZimbabwe. Food experts and advocacy groups took turns at international forums extollingMalawias an example ofAfrica’s “green revolution.”

Ironically, even during the years of plenty,Malawicontinued to import large quantities of wheat, maize and other cereals, says FAO, and isolated pockets of hunger remained. In pursuing subsidies, Mutharika defied donor critics who alleged that the programme was riddled with corruption, ran counter to the principles of free markets and was unsustainable. Indeed, by 2009 the government was spending 16 per cent of its budget on subsidies.

Over time President Mutharika became autocratic, amid charges of corruption and cronyism. In 2009 he spent more than $20 million on a long-range presidential jet. Worse, he started promoting his brother Peter, then foreign minister, as his successor, further alienating donors, on whomMalawidepends. When the donors abandoned him, the economy tanked and protesters took to the streets, leading to political instability.

Leadership is key

Rhoda Tumusiime, the head of agriculture at the African Union Commission, notes that while success in agriculture does not have many drivers, leadership is crucial. “There must be a key political champion at head-of-state level to steer and champion a vision on agricultural revolution,” she told the Economic Commission forAfricain an interview.

Mr. Mutharika not only had the political will, but tried to lead by example. And his anti-poverty policies attracted many advocates. The director of the New York–based Earth Institute at ColumbiaUniversity, Jeffrey Sachs, who has worked closely with Malawian authorities to fight poverty, is among them. “We should … remember a positive legacy of the late president Mutharika, because that legacy holds a key for Africa’s future development and escape from poverty,” Sachs wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times.

“Until his final two years, Mutharika had actually engineered an agriculture-led boom inMalawi, one that pointed a way forAfricato overcome its chronic hunger, food insecurity, and periodic extreme famines,” said Sachs. He credited the late president for standing “bravely against the arrogance of an ill-informed foreign aid community back in 2005.”

Food security equals national security

Second, while foreign aid is critical in feeding the hungry and reviving agriculture inAfrica, food security requires the same seriousness and resources as national security, if not more. In fact, national security loses its legitimacy if thousands of citizens die not from enemy firepower but from starvation, or risk their lives crossing borders while fleeing from hunger.

And finally,Africaneeds a strong food policy backed by resources. One tangible African Union response has been the ComprehensiveAfricaAgriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which requires countries that sign up to it to spend at least 10 per cent of their national budgets on agriculture. CAADP itself has a very small budget, but it uses the little it has to strengthen agricultural institutions and build teams of skilled personnel who roam the continent sharing best practices with national authorities.

“There is no doubt that African agriculture needs strong local institutions to avoid the kind of bubble that we saw in Malawi, which was largely driven by external energy,” Martin Bwalya, the head of CAADP, told Africa Renewal, alluding to Malawi’s dependence on donors for its short-lived success. CAADP, which is run by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the AU’s development agency, recognizes thatAfrica needs institutions whose effectiveness and shelf life do not depend on the survival of individuals.

Mr. Mutharika tried to follow the path of subsidies and largely succeeded. Countries that have pursuedMalawi’s lead have “achieve[d] breakthroughs in farm yields and food production for the first time in their modern history,” said Professor Sachs. His successor, Joyce Banda,Africa’s third female president, now has to formulate a new food policy, woo back the donors, stabilize the economy and again get agriculture back on track.

Africa Renewal

http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2013/what-went-wrong-lessons-malawi%E2%80%99s-food-crisis

Press release:

(Statement on the Charcoal Export at Kismayu Port

Mogadishu — October 27, 2012, The Somali government reiterates the ban on charcoal exports In line with the UN Security Council resolution where all member states were asked to take the necessary measures to prevent the export and import of charcoal from Somalia which the Government of Somalia previously originated the request for the ban on the grounds that the charcoal business is not only hazardous to the environment but also detrimental to the security efforts.

Therefore, we express our deep concerns of any possibility to violate the UN security council resolution that bans charcoal and the government is in the process of forming task force to make sure and prevent any violations of the charcoal ban”  .

The Federal Government is pleased by what has been achieved since the takeover of Kismayu by the Somali forces and AMISOM. The local leaders in Kismayu have the responsibility to put the people first, above any political differences and self interests what so ever and to ensure security, stability and restore confidence to the public.

The clear position of the Somali Government is to maintain the seaport and the air port facility solely open for humanitarian assistance, AMISOM and Somali forces are making sure to keep this task until an interim administration is established in due course.

It is the solid belief of the Somali Government that the people of Kismayu are fed up with counter productive politics, worlordism and extresmism and they deserve security, stability, basic serivce delivery and prosperous future. Therefore, the charcoal at the port will be stored for the time being so as the government to come up with the best course of action to deal with it in time.

The Somali Government is committed to comply with the UN Security Council Resolution 2036 and calls for the uphold of the ban and stand ready to continue to assist the people of Kismayu. We are taking full responsibility to mobilize humanatarian assistance and the government is in the process of sending ship of aid from the federal government to the people of Kismayu.

-END-

–
Suldan A. Farahseed
Communication Director
Office of the Somali President
Mogadishu, Somalia

Hyderabad (India), 16 October 2012 – The key role that rapidly diminishing wetlands play in supporting human life and biodiversity needs to be recognized and integrated into decision-making as a vital component of the transition to a resource-efficient, sustainable world economy, according to a new TEEB report released today.

Water security is widely regarded as one the key natural resource challenges currently facing the world. Human drivers of ecosystem change, including destructive extractive industries, unsustainable agriculture and poorly managed urban expansion, are posing a threat to global freshwater biodiversity and water security for 80 per cent of the world’s population.

Global and local water cycles are strongly dependent on healthy and productive wetlands, which provide clean drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, and flood regulation, as well as supporting biodiversity and propping up industries such as fisheries and tourism in many locations.

Yet, despite the high value of these ecosystem services, wetlands continue to be degraded or lost at an alarming pace, according to The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Water and Wetlands report, released for consultation today at the 11^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention for Biological Diversity.

Half of the world’s wetlands were lost during the twentieth century – due mainly to factors such as intensive agricultural production, unsustainable water extraction for domestic and industrial use, urbanization, infrastructure development and pollution. The continuing degradation of wetlands is resulting in significant economic burdens on communities, countries and businesses.

The report also highlights that the restoration of wetlands and their water-related services, also offers significant opportunities to address sustainable and cost-effective solutions to water management problems.

“Policies and decisions often do not take into account the many services that wetlands provide – thus leading to the rapid degradation and loss of wetlands globally,” said UN Under-Secretary General and UN Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“There is an urgent need to put wetlands and water-related ecosystem services at the heart of water management in order to meet the social, economic and environmental needs of a global population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050,” he added.

The report – initiated by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands with financial support from the Norwegian, Swiss and Finnish Governments and developed by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), together with the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Wetlands International, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – lays out a raft of recommendations that would slow and ultimately halt the degradation of wetlands.

Taking account of the value of water and wetlands in public policy and private decisions; fully integrating the management of wetlands and securing their wise use in water management; and prioritizing the further loss and conversion of wetlands through strategic environmental assessments are among the many steps that must be taken, according to the report.

“In 2008 the world’s governments at the Ramsar Convention’s 10^th Conference of Parties stressed that for water management carrying on ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option”, said the Ramsar Convention’s Deputy Secretary General, Nick Davidson.

 “This report tells us bluntly just how much more important than generally realized are our coastal and inland wetlands: for the huge value of the benefits they provide to everyone, particularly in continuing to deliver natural solutions for water – in the right quantity and quality, where and when we need it. If we continue to undervalue wetlands in our decisions for economic growth, we do at our increasing peril for people’s livelihoods and the world’s economies,” he added.

Rapid Wetland Loss

Inland wetlands cover at least 9.5 million km² (about 6.5 per cent of the Earth’s land surface), while inland and coastal wetlands together cover a minimum of 12.8 million km².

Between 1900 and 2003, the world lost an estimated 50 per cent of its wetlands, while recent coastal wetland loss in some places, notably East Asia, has been up to 1.6 per cent a year. This has led to situations such as the 20 per cent loss of mangrove forest coverage since 1980.

The main pressures on wetlands come from:

·        Habitat loss, for example through wetland drainage for agriculture or infrastructure developments, driven by population growth and urbanization;
·        Over-exploitation, for example the unsustainable harvesting of fish;
·        Excessive water withdrawals for use in, for example, irrigated agriculture;
·        Nutrient loading from fertilizer use and urban waste water, which can lead to eutrophication – the excessive growth of algae that deprives other species of enough oxygen and can create dead zones;
·        Climate change, which can alter ecosystem conditions through rising temperatures;
·        Pollution, remarkably through extractive industries, invasive species and siltation.

Such pressures threaten wetlands’ natural infrastructure, which delivers a wider range of services and benefits than corresponding man-made infrastructure at a lower cost.

The Benefits of Wetlands

Water

Wetlands are a key factor in the global water cycle and in regulating local water availability and quality. They contribute to water purification, denitrification and detoxification, as well as to nutrient cycling, sediment transfer, and nutrient retention and exports. Wetlands can also provide waste water treatment and protection against coastal and river flooding.

For example, The Catskill / Delaware watershed provides about 90 per cent of the water used by New York City citizens. In 1997, a study showed that building a new water treatment plant would cost between US$6 and US$8 billion, whereas ensuring good water quality through measures to reduce pollution in the watershed would only cost US$1.5 billion. This study led to programmes to promote the sustainability of the watershed.

Food Security

Wetlands play a key role in the provision of food, and habitats and nurseries for fisheries. One example is the Amu Darya delta in Uzbekistan where Intensification and expansion of irrigation activities left only 10 per cent of the original wetlands. Yet a pilot restoration project initiated in the delta – with the support of community, government and donors – led to increased incomes, more cattle, more hay production for use and sale, and an increase in fish consumption of 15 kilogrammes per week per family.

Job Security

Wetlands can be important tourism and recreation sites and support local employment. For example In the Ibera Marshes in Argentina, conservation-based tourism activities have revived the economy of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, near the Ramsar Site “Lagunas y Esteros del Iberá”, creating new jobs and allowing local inhabitants stay employed in the town rather than migrate to cities to look for work. Around 90 per cent of the population now works in the tourism sector. In order to favour local employment, the site managers provide local rangers and guides with training on working with guiding tourists. In addition, local communities receive support to establish municipal nature trails.

Biodiversity

Wetlands are some of the most important biologically diverse areas in the world and provide essential habitats for many species. Coral reefs, peatlands, freshwater lakes, waterbirds, amphibians and wetland-dependent mammals such as hippopotamus, manatees and river dolphins are among those examples of biodiversity covered by the global Ramsar Convention network of “Wetlands of International Importance”, which comprises over 2,000 sites covering over 1.9 million km.

Examples of major wetlands in the Ramsar network include: the Danube Delta in Romania and the Ukraine; the Pantanal wetlands across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay; and Lake Chad across Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

Climate change

Wetlands provide climate regulation, climate mitigation and adaptation, and carbon storage – for example in peatlands, mangroves and tidal marshes.

Peatlands cover 3 per cent of the world’s land surface, about 400 million hectares (4 million km2), of which 50 million hectares are being drained and degraded, producing the equivalent of 6 per cent of all global Carbon Dioxide emissions. While vegetative wetlands occupy only 2 per cent of seabed area, they represent 50 per cent of carbon transfer from oceans to sediments, often referred to as ‘Coastal Blue Carbon’.

Recommendations

At the global level there is a need to ensure that the role and value of water and wetlands are integrated into implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, the Ramsar Strategic Plan 2009-2015, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Millennium Development Goals, among other international agreements.

The report also issued specific practical recommendations for actors at all levels, some of which are detailed below.

National and international policy makers should:

·        Integrate the values of water and wetlands into decision making – for policies, regulation and land-use planning, incentives and investment, and enforcement;
·        Regulate to protect wetlands from pressures that do not lead to improvements in public goods and overall societal benefits;
·        Regulate to ensure that wetland ecosystem services options and benefits are fully considered as solutions to land- and water-use management objectives and development;
·        Commit to and develop improved measurement and address knowledge gaps – using biodiversity and ecosystem services indicators and environmental accounts.

Local and regional policy-makers should:

·        Assess the interactions between wetland ecosystems, communities, man-made infrastructure and the economy, and integrate this knowledge into river basin and coastal management;
·        Ensure participation of communities, including indigenous peoples, and ensure that traditional knowledge is duly integrated into management solutions.

Researchers should:

·        Systematically contribute to filling the gaps in knowledge on the values of water and wetlands, on improved governance solutions, and on measures and tools to support the development of environmental accounts;

The development cooperation community should:

·        Integrate the appreciation of the multiple values of wetlands and potential cost savings to meet the objectives of development cooperation.

Businesses should:

·        Assess the dependency of their businesses on water- and wetlands-related ecosystem services from the short to long term;
·        Assess the risks to operation inputs, eventual liabilities, risk to reputation, and license to operate from both resource availability and impacts, including pollution pressures.

About TEEB

The UNEP-hosted Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward.  TEEB is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

About the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

The Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) – called the “Ramsar Convention” – is an intergovernmental treaty that embodies the commitments of its member countries to maintain the ecological character of their Wetlands of International Importance and to plan for the “wise use”, or sustainable use, of all of the wetlands in their territories.

Notes to Editors:

The executive summary of the report can be downloaded at: www.teebweb.org
 
The full report is available at:http://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/cop/cop-11/information/cop-11-inf-22-en.pdf.

Media Contacts:

Bryan Coll, UNEP Newsdesk (in Hyderabad) on Tel. +254731666214 or E-mail: bryan.coll@unep.org / unepnewsdesk@unep.org

Anita Beck, TEEB Communications Officer (Geneva) on Tel. +41 22 917 8763, E-mail: anita.beck@unep.org

Oana Barsin, Ramsar Secretariat Communications Officer (Switzerland) on Tel. +41 22 999 0170, E-mail: barsin@ramsar.org

Exclusive interview with Luc Gnacadja, head of UN desertification convention

By Busani Bafana

20 years on, has the world delivered on the UNCCD?

Yes and no. Yes, because when you look at the convention there are a number of requirements and commitments. Developing country commitments were to establish action programmes to address desertification, avoiding and restoring degraded lands and mainstreaming this into national poverty alleviation and development. Developed country parties were to provide financial support and technology transfer for certain country parties to implement those national programmes. Most of the developing country parties affected by desertification have established their national action plan, so that aspect of the commitment has been made. But the failure is that plans will not go to the fields and roll back desertification, it takes implementation. Unfortunately developing countries in Africa, for instance, have not succeeded in reflecting desertification in their plans for poverty eradiation, food security or development.

Why?

Because the issue of desertification is in ivory towers in the ministries in charge of it. Desertification is more than planting trees. Desertification is first and foremost avoiding the misuse of the land, such as inappropriate use of fertilizer, the use of some crops that are not appropriate for the land, or the type of tillage that denudes [land].

In the last decade the least developed countries have experienced an average of 5 per cent GDP growth. However, this growth has not alleviated poverty or generated food security because it has not been generated using land that is often the sole asset of the poor. To deliver on poverty alleviation, we must ensure that we help the poor use the asset — land — sustainably. Africa has the potential to become a global engine for sustainable development.

Is there political will to roll out sustainable land practices?

You know, the will should be measured, especially political will. I measure political will by government investment in setting their commitments into motion, and in that regard there is a lot more governments can do. Think about the Maputo declaration to invest 10 per cent of budgets into agriculture, but [only] a few of the countries have met that. When you consider that Africa is the continent suffering the most from food insecurity, you wonder how the priorities are set. Political will calls for African governments to check their medium-term investment plans. I wish to see more coordinated investment that will address adaptation to climate change while at the same time maintaining and preserving biodiversity.

Commitment is good, but where is the action?

Governments may have had an excuse that 20 years ago they did not yet know how to monitor and measure desertification. But now they know because the science is there. Scientists have put on the table 11 indicators that not only assess the status of the land, but assess trends in the improvement in land degradation and these are globally accepted.

According to the FAO, 25 per cent of global land is highly degraded and there is only 10 per cent of land being improved. To feed 7 billion people today and 9 billion tomorrow, we need to meet 50 per cent demand of food, 45 per cent demand of energy and 35 per cent demand of water. If you take only the demand for food, we need additional farmland the size of South Africa, 120 million hectares. Where are we going to find them? That is why we need to come out of Rio+20 not with business as usual, but with a decision for business as unusual.

The good news is at the grassroots level. There are amazing success stories. We ought to reflect these success stories into our policies and institutions to enhance and measure them. Tanzania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have provided some success stories. Malawi, a country perceived to be unable to feed itself, broke new ground.

Are you hopeful that in the next 20 years we will have changed course?

I am someone who believes that where there is no hope, life is not worth living. We must craft the hope that we want to live for. That is why we came to Rio. Let us not commit to lip service but to something we can monitor. We cannot wait for Rio+40 for results. We need that clear mandate to monitor land degradation and we hope this will be decided on at Rio+20.

—Africa Renewal online
Africa Renewal www.un.org/africarenewal

The group strongly condemned the demolition of Abonnema community by soldiers at the instance of the state government. Government has for years insisted that the waterfront community is a haven for armed criminal groups, cultists, and deviants.

The invasion by the armed security forces, however, led to the destruction of  homes, properties and businesses of residents of the community ”without the due process of law is callous, unjust, illegal and a reckless affront to constitutional governance”, the group said..

Felix Morka, the Executive Director of the group, on Wednesday June 27, 2012, at about 6.00 am, claimed that the Rivers state government’s demolition squad assisted by heavily armed police and other security forces invaded the Abonnema Wharf community located on the Port-Harcourt waterfront.

According to SERAC, ”without warning, bulldozers began to tear down homes and other structures in the community as residents that were rudely awakened by the violence fled in utter consternation. Residents that attempted to salvage personal properties were brutally beaten by members of the demolition squad. The demolition continued until about
7 pm”.

But, a frontline environmental journalist in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s main oil and gas region, Akanimo Sampson, who is also an activist of the African Federation of Environmental Journalists (AFEJ), said government had repeatedly put citizens on notice of their plan to tear down the community.

The move was caught in a bitter dispute between Okrika, the ethnic group of Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, and Ikwerre, the ethnic group of Governor Chibuike Amaechi. The two ethnic groups were laying claims to the ownership of the waterfront.

Government is however, insisting that they acted in the overall interest of the state. There have been flurry of security reports from 2007 during the short-lived administration of Governor Celestine Omehia, linking Port Harcourt waterfronts as ‘hotbeds’ of armed rebels.

This clarification notwithstanding, SERAC said, ”the demolition of Abonnema community is being carried out in flagrant disregard of judicial process. On behalf of the community, SERAC obtained an order of interim injunction restraining the Rivers state government from destroying the community on November 11, 2011 in Jim George & Others vs. The Executive Governor of Rivers State & Others (Suit No. PHC/2286/2009).

”A ruling on a contested application of the government to vacate the interim order of injunction was fixed for July 2, 2012. Despite the pendency of this lawsuit and a
subsisting order of interim injunction, the Rivers state government has proceeded, lawlessly, to destroy the community.

”The government’s suggestion that Abonnema Wharf is being demolished in order to rid the
community of criminals is as unconscionable as it is absurd. Nowhere in the laws of Nigeria is demolition authorized as a crime fighting strategy. This is yet another pitiful excuse to justify the indefensible action of the government”.

”At the core of the decision to destroy Abonnema Wharf community, like it destroyed Njemanze and other waterfront communities in 2009, is Governor Amaechi administration’s
unbridled quest to acquire prime waterfront lands in favor of private businesses for upscale
entertainment and other investments. Under the guise of public-private partnerships, the
government has continued to utilize taxpayers’ resources and state instruments to advance the parochial interests of its affluent business collaborators to the extreme detriment of desperately poor citizens of the state. Since his inauguration, Governor Amaechi has vigorously pursued a land grab policy that has resulted in the painful displacement of hundreds of thousands of poor citizens”, the group alleged.

Forced eviction entails the removal of people from their land and homes against their will and without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protections. The forced eviction of Abonnema Wharf constitutes a brazen violation of the human rights to adequate housing, dignity of the human person, private and family life, fair hearing and, indeed, the right to life as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other human rights instruments.

In the mean time, SERAC is demanding an immediate end to the ongoing demolition of Abonnema Wharf community; an end to the violence and brutality that is being perpetrated against innocent citizens of the community; strongly urging the government to immediately provide emergency shelter and other services to the displaced population, and take expeditious steps to provide adequate compensation or resettlement to affected residents.

The group is also urging Governor Amaechi, who is equally the Chair of Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum, to observe observance of the rule of law in dealing with these populations, and to bring his strayed administration back on a path of constitutional
democracy.

ENDS

As leaders gathered in Brazil this week, WWF and AfDB are encouraging leaders in both the public and private sectors to invest in Africa’s natural capital. “Africa must rally around this objective, not just because donors demand it, but because it’s our responsibility to protect our ecosystems,” says the report.

AfDB president, Donald Kaberuka commented: “We must strengthen cooperation between leaders, across continents, who share a common interest in fostering economic transformation. Let’s make it a reality, together.”

Over the next decade, important decisions will be made in terms of large-scale infrastructure, resource planning, and economic development.  Investing in natural capital now will ensure ecological – and financial- security in the future.  The AfDB and the WWF call on world leaders to act decisively on a green growth agenda.  That agenda includes enhancing ecological resilience and the capacity of natural systems, living within planetary limits and promoting measures of social progress that integrate the value of ecosystems.

The ‘Africa Ecological Footprint Report – Green Infrastructure for Africa’s Ecological Security’ takes a look at the health of Africa’s natural systems, as well as its footprint—the surface of land and sea needed to sustain a particular group. Trends in both areas are worrying. Africa’s natural systems are under great strain—biodiversity has declined by 40 percent in 40 years. At the same time, increases in population and consumption patterns are projected to double Africa’s footprint by 2040.

If Africa continues on a business-as-usual scenario, these two pressures—the reduction of nature’s capacity to sustain life, and a more voracious consumption of resources—will impede its ability to sustain necessary and equitable development in the long run, including the provisioning of life’s most basic necessities: food, water and fuel.

The good news is that Africa is well placed to act. Many African countries still have a low footprint, allowing them to take on board resource-efficient technologies and lifestyles, circumventing inefficient development pathways taken by other countries.  This means finding solutions that both promote social development and preserve nature.  “This report brings home the fact that to build a lasting prosperity in Africa we must chart a course for development that conserves and sustains the “green infrastructure” – healthy rivers, forests, oceans – that supports the economy and society.”  We must maintain our credibility when we’re talking about the environment, we cannot just sideline development.” underlines WWF Director General, Jim Leape. “That is what ‘sustainable development’ is all about. We must find concrete solutions to satisfying both.”

For example, coral reefs in the West Indian Ocean are valued at an estimated USD7.3 billion annually. They support coastal and artisanal fisheries, protect coasts from erosion and extreme weather, absorb carbon dioxide, and are the basis of a thriving tourism sector.  Investment in green infrastructure will ensure the sustained health of natural systems on which life and livelihoods depend.

While the report underlines some serious trends, it also offers examples of initiatives across Africa, where natural capital is being preserved while social and economic development benefits rural populations.

For example, the lake Naivasha region produces 70 percent of Kenya’s cut flower exports and 20 percent of its vegetable exports, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to the national economy. Through a payment for environment services scheme, the horticultural industry pays upstream farmers to preserve the water resources on which the horticultural industry depends. This scheme not only helps to preserve valuable freshwater ecosystems, but also benefits small-scale farmers by increasing their yields and income, and ensures a clean, sustainable water supply for commercial farms.

Another example of how smart policy and investment can make a difference is the South African Renewables Initiative. The Initiative, established to fulfil South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan, is channelling international public finance into the development and distribution of renewable energy. South Africa plans to add 19 GW of renewable energy to the national grid by 2030—going from nil to 14 percent renewables in its total energy mix in two decades. Not only will South Africans have increased access to energy, this scheme will also boost green technologies and jobs in the region. Background:

AfDB and WWF formally entered into a partnership in July 2011, agreeing to initially focus on three areas of cooperation: developing win-win partnerships with emerging economies and strengthening South-South cooperation; catalysing knowledge sharing and knowledge products for green growth and sustainable development; collaborating on energy and water resource management; and climate change. This report is the first joint product of this partnership.

With a recent tripling of its capitalisation to USD 100 billion, the AfDB is the most important multilateral institution financing development in Africa. As the continent faces rapid economic and population growth, and growing resource and climate pressures, the AfDB plays an essential role in ensuring sustainable and equitable development.

WWF is the world’s largest environmental non-governmental organisation and has been active in Africa since its foundation more than 50 years ago. WWF works together with governments, businesses and local communities to deliver conservation and sustainable development worldwide.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the African Development Bank.

To download the report, and to find out more, go to: www.panda.org/lpr/africa2012 ; www.afdb.org/rio20                                                         

Media contacts for interviews and further information in Rio:

AfDB: Chawki Chahed – C.CHAHED@afdb.org ,             +55 21 84 120 372

WWF: Gemma Parkes – gparkes@wwfint.org

To download the report: www.panda.org/lpr/africa2012

For promo videos and B-roll: http://gvn.panda.org/pages/search.php?search=!collection1746&k=385e7fbe2b

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – When an ILO mission arrived in Ethiopia in 1993 to introduce a newly-launched cooperative reform and human resource development programme, it found a country with hundreds of thousands of displaced people and demobilized soldiers.

It also found a weakened economy, food insecurity, rampant unemployment and … a cooperative movement.

This movement was among those bearing the scars from the previous 14 years. Based on past experience, cooperatives were perceived as socialist institutions and instruments of state oppression.

Nineteen years later, all that has changed.

The Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union (OCFCU) exemplifies how agricultural cooperatives improve their members’ capacity to access global markets, as well as their income and social conditions.

OCFCU exports coffee to the European Union (EU), the United States and Australia. All in all, more than 200,000 coffee producers and around 200 cooperatives are involved throughout the country.

It has negotiated fair trade deals with coffee dealers in some of the EU countries, set up coffee shops in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Canada and is vigorously promoting organic coffee farming for added value.

A key objective is to improve the sustainability of the coffee industry by supporting biodiversity, enhancing soil health through the use of organic compost and to promote environmental protection – all issues which will be on the table at the Rio+20 conference.

From Oromia to the rest of Ethiopia and beyond

Oromia’s coffee is organic, and forest-grown, and no herbicides, insecticides nor chemical fertilizers are used in its production.

By working together, farmer members are able to pool their resources. This democratic system benefits individual farmer members and their communities.

Harvesting is carried out by hand. Supervision and inspection are undertaken once a year by BCS Öko-Garantie, a private agency implementing EU-Regulations on organic production.

As a producer of fair trade coffee, OCFCU is able to use the Fairtrade Premium and its social fund to finance community development programmes. It has already funded 28 education, eight health, and 36 clean water projects, as well as the construction of a bridge and the improvement of electrical supply.

The OCFCU has also recently created its own members’ bank, which extends credit for much-needed pre-harvest financing. What’s more, it is promoting eco-tourism in the coffee growing areas as well.

The experience from Oromia is being replicated in the rest of Ethiopia, where a rapid development of the cooperative movement is taking place.

A comparable initiative in Ghana is Kuapa Kokkoo, a Fairtrade-certified cocoa farmers’ cooperative. Established in 1993 by some cocoa farmers, the cooperative drives its strength from the participation of small-scale farmers at the village level.

More on Ethiopian Coffee Cooperatives and ILO at Rio+20

http://www.uncsd2012.org/index.php?page=view&type=99&nr=31&menu=20

National info on policies/publications at Rio+20

http://www.uncsd2012.org/index.php?page=view&type=6&nr=166&menu=32

“There is no storage for the fish so they [the fishermen] wait to sell the fish to brokers… The fishermen handle the fish just up to the shore,” James Eregor, a Lake Turkana boat operator, told IRIN.

Many of the brokers, who are reluctant to have their photos taken, have come up from Kitale, about 300km to the south – a journey that can take days due to the poor state of the road, but profits can be high given that a plate of fish in a typical Nairobi restaurant sells for the equivalent of US$4-6.

“We sell 1kg of fish at 40 or 50 shillings [48-60 US cents]. Nile Perch is more expensive [about $1.68 per kg], but the bulk buyers make a lot more money,” said David Koiya, a fisherman. “If there was a fish market and cold storage facilities and a good road, then the local fishing population would benefit.”

The lack of such facilities means fishermen on Lake Turkana are forced to dispose of their catch promptly.

“The fish we catch here is just for the stomach, it is not for profit. If this fish is not sold today, we will throw it into the bush,” fisherman Paul Lopotio told IRIN.

Fishing costs are considerable. “A net is used in the lake for about a month before it is replaced. Then I pay other people who help me to fish; I buy fuel for the boat and I also pay the owner of the fishing boat,” explained Lopotio.

“When it is windy, we may even catch no fish and the children end up sleeping hungry. But there is nothing else for us to do here; fish is the staple food and it helps us to buy other foods.

“When it rains, drying the fish under the sun in the local market also becomes difficult and the fish rot.”

The situation of fishermen in Kalokol is replicated across Lake Turkana. At Eleyi beach, for example, fisherman Michael Lokotor said: “Before there was a fish market but it was closed five years ago. For now, we dry the fish in the sun before selling them to a wholesale buyer who comes by boat from Kalokol.”

Poor roads in the Turkana region, characteristic of much of the northern Kenya region, mean a lack of access to markets in a region where livelihood opportunities are limited and poverty rife.

Well-to-do fish buyers from Nairobi and other urban centres with refrigerated trucks benefit most from the catch.

“Sometimes it takes two weeks to fill the truck, which carries five tons of fish. Some of the fish is brought here by car or ‘boda boda’ (motorbike taxi),” said John*, the driver of a refrigerated truck who had set up camp in Kalokol.

Falling water levels

Fishing in Lake Turkana is becoming more of a challenge as water levels in the lake are falling due to perennial drought, as well as evaporation and siltation, according to the Kenya’s Fisheries Ministry.

The fish we catch here is just for the stomach, it is not for profit. If this fish is not sold today, we will throw it into the bush

Environmentalists warned recently that ongoing damming activities on the River Omo, the main river supplying Lake Turkana, could adversely affect water levels and consequently the livelihoods of thousands dependent on the lake. Lake Turkana produces about 200,000 tons of fish annually.

According to Godfrey Monor, director of fisheries in the Fisheries Ministry, poor infrastructure and insecurity have hampered efforts to provide market access to fishermen, but he said things were improving: “There are initiatives to introduce solar [fish] driers, and fishermen are also being sensitized on how to produce sun-dried salted fish,” he said.

A private partnership between Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to provide a ready market for the sun-dried salted fish.

“There is also a private developer who is putting up a cold storage facility in Lodwar [main town in the region],” said Monor, adding that the government is also helping to initiate irrigation schemes around the lake to help fishermen to diversify their income streams.

*not a real name

Source: IrinNews