The Sixth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-VI), the continent’s premier climate change conference, will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 18-20 October, bringing together diverse stakeholders to understand the implications, nuances, challenges and opportunities of implementing the Paris Agreement.
James Murombedzi, Africa Climate Policy Centre, Officer-in-Charge
The main theme of the CCDA-VI, organised under the auspices of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) programme, will be “The Paris Agreement on climate change: What next for Africa?”
The Paris Agreement on climate change, set to come into effect before the end of the year, aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue more ambitious efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in this century.
Implementation of the Paris Agreement has significant implications for Africa as the continent that will be most severely impacted by the adverse impacts of weather variability and climate change. The continent is already experiencing climate-induced impacts, such as frequent and prolonged droughts and floods, as well as environmental degradation that make livelihoods difficult for rural and urban communities. Increasing migration on the continent is both triggered and amplified by climate change.
Reviewing the Paris Agreement allows for a contextual analysis of what was at stake for Africa and what the Agreement offers, prior to COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco 7-18 November 2016, thereby contributing to strategic orientation for African countries in moving forward with the implementation of the Agreement.
The basis of the Paris Agreement is the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by all parties in the lead up to COP21 as their national contributions to limiting global greenhouse gas emissions. INDCs became Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) subsequent to COP21.
James Murombedzi, Africa Climate Policy Centre, Officer-in-Charge, says: “The Paris Agreement heralds bold steps towards decarbonising the global economy and reducing dependency on fossil fuels. However, there are contentious nuances of the agreement that must be unpacked in the context of Africa’s development priorities, particularly in regard to the means of implementation which were binding provisions of the Kyoto Protocol and currently only non-binding decisions in the Paris Agreement.”
To better articulate the specific objectives and capture the implications of implementing the Paris Agreement for inclusive and sustainable development in Africa, the conference will be organised under the following sub-themes:
Unpacking the Paris Agreement and emerging challenges and opportunities for Africa;
Integration of the Paris Agreement into Africa’s development agenda and other global governance frameworks;
Linking African initiatives to the implementation of the Paris Agreement;
Emerging challenges from climate change.
CCDA-VI is expected to be attended by policymakers and researchers, young people, civil society organisations, negotiators and the private sector. The CCDA-VI will facilitate and enrich the sharing of lessons, key research findings, outreach and policy uptake, as well as stimulate investments.
Grassroots leaders from oil and energy-impacted communities across the country will on Wednesday gather at the Houston offices of Energy Transfer Partners for a prayer action in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of water defenders mobilising against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
US President Barack Obama
In one of the largest environmental justice mobilisations in history, Standing Rock water defenders have drawn together more than 5,000 people representing over 280 Indigenous Nations and Tribes and forced a federal injunction against one of the largest oil pipeline projects in North America. Energy Transfer Partners has drawn national attention for driving both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the equally controversial Trans Pecos Pipeline, that has also violated the rights of Indigenous Peoples in West Texas, and poses significant threat to the water and land for many communities in Texas.
The Trans Pecos & the Comanche Trail Pipelines are being constructed to transport huge amounts of natural gas through the pristine Big Bend region under the sacred Rio Grande & into Mexico. Energy-impacted communities from Richmond CA, Chicago, Kentucky, Arizona, the Gulf Coast, New York, New Jersey, and national environmental organisations are all aligning with local organisers in Texas to oppose both the Trans Pecos Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline and call for a Just Transition to renewable energy alternatives.
Yvette Arellano, T.E.J.A.S. says: “Clean water is a basic human right that should be afforded to everyone. No treaty, law or structure should have to reinforce a necessity, yet we understand that we live in a world driven by corporate greed that sacrifices sacred lands, vulnerable populations and people of color.
“I am humbled by the solidarity and courage grassroots, big greens and supporting organisations from all over the country are demonstrating to face Energy Transfer Partners at their doorstep in the house of the largest petrochemical complex of the nation. Together we press forward, rise and demand a clean world for future generations in our struggle to survive.”
Juan Mancias, Tribal Chairman, Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas: “It gives me great pleasure to see the networking that has arisen from finally deprogramming from forced and coerced corporate dependency on oil; to recognise the importance of Native Original People of Texas (NOPOT) as the intricate thread in holding accountable the oil super PACs for the destruction of humanity through the pollution of the four elements of life: Water, Air, Earth, and Fire. Please join us in this walk of sending our voices for Mother Earth. We call on the criminal Kelsey Warren and Energy Transfer Partners to stop the cycle of Genocide of NOPOT and Texas Tribal Ancestors by ending the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Trans Pecos Pipeline and the Comanche Trail Pipeline. AH’E YA’T PAYESE’L. Water is life!!”
Kim Wasserman, Little Village Environmental Justice Organisation (LVEJO), Chicago: “From Chicago to Houston we stand with all of our communities impacted by the oil and gas industry in fighting back. It took us twelve years to shut down the two coal plant in Chicago and we commit to fighting until our communities have justice. While these companies think they have only money and stocks to lose we have to remind them it’s our lives and world at stake.”
Jess Grady-Benson, Divestment Student Network: “The fossil fuel industry and their financiers have desecrated our land and communities for decades, deeming communities of color and poor communities sacrificial in their conquest for profit. Today they threaten our collective futures from the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in ND to the Trans Pecos Pipeline in Texas. Yet, our universities remain invested in this violent industry. We stand with the Water Protectors and support the calls for divestment from Energy Transfer Partners and the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Divestment Student Network stands with Standing Rock for the protection of life, dignity, and self-determination.”
Ahmina Maxey, The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA): “The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives stands in solidarity with the indigenous freedom fighters and allies from Standing Rock to West Texas. Our “dig, burn, dump” economy has entrenched us in an unsustainable system that we must move away from.”
Everette R. H. Thompson, 350.org.: “There is no way to build these pipelines that will be safe or in ‘the public interest,’ as fossil fuel companies would like you to believe. Both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Trans-Pecos Pipeline are dirty, large-scale fossil fuel projects that will put money in the pockets of high-paid executives while exploiting black and brown communities, releasing an enormous amount of greenhouse gasses and limiting our ability to leave a healthy world behind for generations to come. We need to end this cycle by keeping fossil fuels in the ground and putting resources towards the just transition to a 100% renewable energy economy.”
Jayeesha Dutta, Radical Arts and Healing Collective, New Orleans: We stand in deep solidarity with our Indigenous brothers and sisters banded together to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline. Our fights are quite literally one: the Gulf South is where that Bakken crude oil will eventually end up for refining and transportation. We are already on the frontline of environmental disasters, like the BP oil catastrophe, which we are still recovering from. It is time to put an end to extractive energy production, and the exploitation of our land and labor that comes along with that.”
Researcher Andrew Mude and colleagues also receive USAID Award for Scientific Excellence; Both awards honour innovative use of satellite tech and community outreach to develop livestock insurance for vulnerable herding communities in Horn of Afric.
Cattle rearing in Kenya. Both awards honour innovative use of satellite tech and community outreach to develop livestock insurance for vulnerable herding communities
Dr. Andrew Mude, an economist and principal scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), will be presented with the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application this evening for his work leading an innovative livestock insurance programme that employs satellite data to help protect livestock herding communities in the Horn of Africa from the devastating effects of drought.
The accolade, named to honor the legendary crop scientist and Nobel Prize Winner, was presented to Mude by Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin at a special ceremony that included hundreds of agriculture experts from around the world attending the 2016 World Food Prize symposium in Iowa. The Rockefeller Foundation provides the endowment for the award, which includes $10,000 for the winner.
“Borlaug’s footprint and legacy are immense and it’s humbling to be honored in association with him,” Mude said. “When the World Food Prize committee selected me, I think they were celebrating a scientist who aims to emulate Borlaug’s relentless commitment to following through on his research to ensure it makes an impact in communities still struggling to achieve food security.”
At a separate event in Des Moines, Mude and colleagues from the University of California (UC), Davis and Cornell University received the Award for Scientific Excellence from the Board for International Food and Agriculture Development (BIFAD), which is part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The award recognises significant achievements originating from work performed through USAID’s Feed the Future Innovations Labs, which has provided support for the livestock insurance project since its inception via the BASIS Assets and Market Access Innovation Lab team now based at UC Davis.
“More than a decade of research into the conditions that contribute to poverty among pastoralist communities produced a strong set of solutions that Andrew and the rest of the BASIS team skillfully implemented in the field,” said Michael Carter, professor of agricultural and resource economics at the UC Davis. “It’s exactly the kind of work Borlaug envisioned when he urged agriculture researchers to take their solutions directly to farmers and food producers, particularly in places whether they face a daily struggle to survive.”
Mixing technology and innovation with grassroots outreach
A Kenyan native who received his Ph.D. from Cornell University, 39-year-old Mude leads a project called Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI), which is greatly reducing the vulnerability of East Africa’s livestock herding families to recurring droughts.
“With today’s changing climate, and the increasing frequency of droughts, weather-based insurance has become a critical tool in building the resilience of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations,” said Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director of The Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office. “By utilising the most current technology, Dr. Mude’s innovation is helping livestock herders protect their livelihoods. We can provide herders with no better form of food security than by empowering them to protect themselves from the impacts of climate change.”
A key feature of the programme is its use of satellite data gathered every 10 days by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and then processed by NASA to create a “vegetation index” that allows Mude and his colleagues to track the density of vegetation available to pastoralists in the Horn of Africa. Payouts are made to policy holders when the index shows that forage availability has declined below an agreed threshold. That’s a signal that rains have failed and drought – responsible for 75 percent of livestock deaths in the region – is at hand.
Before the innovative IBLI approach was implemented, African herders had no access to livestock insurance to protect their most valuable assets, whose losses can lead to a lifetime of poverty. Yet it was highly impractical and costly for insurance claim adjusters to travel through the vast rangelands of East Africa to confirm dead animals and pay claims. The satellite data provides a solution to that problem, its measurement of forage serving as a proxy for conditions on the ground that could imperil livestock.
“This is a much-deserved recognition that does more than just honor Andrew; it also makes a powerful statement about the importance of livestock to the food security of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people,” said ILRI Director General Jimmy Smith. “For a billion people in the world today, their livestock are their most valuable asset – an irreplaceable source of food, income and labor – and protecting them, as Andrew and his colleagues are doing, should be a high priority.”
Since launching IBLI in 2008, Mude and his team have engaged local herders and leaders in building and delivering education programs – employing videos, innovative games, cartoons, radio broadcasts and most recently mobile learning applications – to increase understanding of the principles and coverage of the insurance product. These learning tools help teach basic concepts of livestock insurance, like the fact that premiums must be paid even if grazing conditions stay healthy and no payout occurs.
“Our engagement with the community has resulted in a number of important insights leading to continued improvement of the IBLI product and the efficiency of service-delivery. For example, where payouts were previously made to replace dead livestock, they are now made when rains fail and drought appears imminent, giving herders the means to purchase feed, medicine or other inputs that will help their animals survive the drought. This is proving more effective at providing a safety net for herding households than making payouts to help replace dead animals,” explained Mude.
From a pilot project to a country-wide initiative
Since 2010, when IBLI began offering insurance contracts in one county in Kenya, it has expanded across Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia; 11,750 herders in Northern Kenya (Marsabit, Isiolo, Wajir, Garissa and Mandera counties) and 3,905 herders in Southern Ethiopia have purchased IBLI insurance contracts. Since 2011, more than $200,000 in payouts – $159,000 in Kenya and $50,000 in Ethiopia – have been triggered by poor herding conditions.
The results from the project are encouraging. For example, evidence from the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa found that households insured with IBLI were less likely to sell off livestock or reduce meals as a coping strategy. Overall, insured households are more likely to invest in veterinary services, generate greater milk productivity and their childhood nutrition is better than non-insured households.
Governments have taken notice and are now adopting the model and partnering with the IBLI team. The Kenyan Government is now providing IBLI coverage to 9,000 households through the Kenya Livestock Insurance Programme (KLIP) and expects to cover 80,000 to 100,000 households by 2019. Most recently, in late August 2016, KLIP made indemnity payments to a few hundred herders in Kenya’s huge and arid northern county of Wajir, which has suffered prolonged drought.
And in Ethiopia, a government pilot project spearheaded by Mude’s team is working to expand its insurance programme, while the World Food Programme (WFP) is making IBLI-type insurance a key pillar of its food security strategy in Ethiopia’s pastoralist lowlands. Other governments and development agencies are seeking help in testing IBLI-type policies across West Africa’s Sahel and in the drylands of southern Africa.
“We have the satellite technology needed to monitor grazing conditions in the remotest of regions,” Mude said. “We should be using it to ensure that Africa’s remote livestock herders have access to the basic insurance farmers around the world take for granted. We draw inspiration from Borlaug’s lifelong commitment to ensure his research makes a difference. Together with many partners and the herders themselves – and only together – we’re determined to find new ways to help millions of people continue to practice the oldest form of sustainable food production the world has ever seen.”
The United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has procured polio vaccines to vaccinate over 41 million children against polio to contain the recent outbreak of the disease in north-east Nigeria.
Polio immunisation. Photo credit: Ruth McDowall for Rotary International
UNICEF, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the immunisation would spread across the Lake Chad Basin area as fleeing populations conflict are on the move within the sub-region, raising concerns that the virus could spread across borders.
It said that about 39,000 health workers have been deployed across Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Niger, Cameroon and the Central African Republic to deliver polio vaccines in areas at high-risk for the virus during five rounds of coordinated vaccination campaigns across five countries.
UNICEF said that it is procuring the vaccines and engaging the public through mass media and grassroots mobilisation.
“The re-emergence of polio after two years with no recorded cases is a huge concern in an area that’s already in crisis,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “The scale of our response reflects the urgency: we must not allow polio to spread.”
The statement said that the ongoing conflict has now displaced 2.6 million people, devastated provision of healthcare and left more than four million people in north-east Nigeria facing crisis and emergency food security levels.
It said that, in the three worst-hit Nigerian states, 400,000 children would suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.
Polio vaccination teams in parts of Borno State are conducting simultaneous malnutrition screening to identify cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five and refer malnourished children to treatment programmes. Findings from the first rounds of outreach screening have confirmed high rates of severe acute malnutrition.
“Children are dying and more young lives will be lost unless we scale up our response,” said Fontaine. “Through the polio vaccination drive, we can protect more children from the virus while also reaching children in need with treatment for malnutrition.”
“The third round of the current polio campaign runs from 15-18 October with additional rounds scheduled in November and December. The immunisation campaign is being delivered by national governments, with support from UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The coordinated efforts between the polio vaccination campaigns and childhood nutrition screenings are part of UNICEF’s scaled-up response to the crisis. However, UNICEF’s response remains hampered by continued insecurity, especially in areas of Borno state in Nigeria, and by a lack of funding.
Of the $158 million needed for UNICEF’s emergency response in the region, only $50.4 million has so far been received.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world body for assessing the science related to climate change, will present its findings with a focus on Thailand and Southeast Asia at an outreach event in Bangkok, Thailand on 14-15 October.
Dr Youba Sokona, Vice-Chair of the IPCC. The IPCC will present its findings with a focus on Thailand and Southeast Asia. Photo credit: www.unccd.int
It will also present its work programme for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) cycle at the event hosted by Thailand’s Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP).
IPCC experts will address a media workshop and a press conference at 1.00 pm on Friday, 14 October, at the Hotel Novotel Bangkok on Siam Square, as part of the two-day outreach event, attended by policymakers, practitioners, scientists, civil society representatives and media from Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. The event will be opened by Dr Raweewan Bhuridej, Secretary General, ONEP, and Youba Sokona, Vice-Chair of the IPCC.
“For the new AR6 cycle we aim to enhance further the involvement of experts from developing countries and improve the range of expertise involved. This event will provide a great opportunity to reach out to the various stakeholders in Thailand and encourage them to contribute to the work of the IPCC,” said Sokona.
Scientists will also present the latest IPCC report, the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), completed in 2014, which was a crucial input to the Paris Climate Change Agreement reached in December 2015. AR5 found the world has the means to limit global warming and build a more prosperous and sustainable future, but pathways to limit warming to 2ºC relative to pre-industrial levels would require substantial emissions reductions over the next few decades.
“Continued high emissions would increase the risks for Southeast Asia, exposing the region to impacts including flooding, food shortages, and extreme weather events affecting human health, security and poverty,” said Joy Pereira, Vice-Chair of Working Group II of the IPCC, which deals with impacts and adaptation to climate change. “A range of options exists to limit the adverse effects, including through adaptation to the changing climate. Local decision-makers will hear from the IPCC scientists how to tackle the challenges and create new opportunities based on the best available science,” said Pereira, one of the speakers.
Other speakers include Working Group III Co-Chair Priyadarshi R. Shukla, Working Group I ViceChair Edvin Aldrian, AR5 author Shobhakar Dhakal and representatives of the Thailand Research Fund and Chulalongkorn University.
The outreach event precedes a session of the IPCC in in Bangkok on 17-20 October 2016, which among other issues will consider the outline of the Special Report on impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, and a new IPCC Methodology Report.
A report released on Wednesday by Climate Scorecard rates the chance of each of the top 25 greenhouse gas emitting countries around the globe ratifying the Paris Agreement before 2018.
Dr Peter Tarfa, Director, Department of Climate Change in the Federal Ministry of Environment
The Report on Ratification Status of the countries rates Nigeria as 23rd and gives the West African nation a “medium” chance of ratifying the global treaty before 2018.
Nigeria, whose million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) is put at 320.04, and representing 0.8% of global total, is yet to ratify the global treaty, which will will enter into force on Friday, November 4 at the 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) holding in Marrakech, Morocco.
President Muhammadu Buhari promised recently in New York after signing the climate pact that Nigeria would deposit its instruments of ratification with the UN before COP22.
Nonetheless, the report does not rate Nigeria as part of the 10 countries with a “high” possibility of ratifying the agreement. The countries are: India, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Canada, South Korea, Australia, Italy, South Africa and Spain.
However, India on Sunday, 2 October 2016 deposited its instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement with the UNFCCC.
Besides Nigeria, only the United Kingdom has a medium rating of ratifying the Paris Agreement before 2018.
Russia, Poland and Turkey rates “low” in that regard, while China, United States, Brazil, Mexico, France, Argentina, Ukraine and Thailand have already ratified the agreement.
In a somewhat surprising move, leaders in China and the USA announced their countries’ ratifications jointly on the eve of the G20 Summit 2016. US President Barack Obama ratified the agreement without seeking approval from Congress, a development observers believe could pose problems later for its effectiveness in the country.
Similar to the USA, the Canadian government has indicated their articles for ratification will be taken to the UN before Prime Minister Trudeau is set to meet with his cabinet of premieres about a long-discussed climate plan.
Likewise, Italy has a draft for the law to ratify the agreement in its final stages.
On September 21st at the UN general assembly, a contingent of 31 countries submitted articles for ratification, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Thailand. Pledges were made by leaders from South Korea, and Australia.
Yet, despite the positive momentum for ratification in some countries, political turmoil in Spain and Turkey are stalling efforts towards ratification.
By October 5th countries submitted articles for ratification include Canada, Germany, and India, boosting the GHG emissions represented over the 55% mark. With that goal reached, the UN has 30 days before the agreement goes into effect.
Table A below rates the chance of each country ratifying the Paris Agreement before 2018. The ratings reveal that eight countries have ratified the Paris Agreement already; 10 of the 23 countries reporting have a high chance of ratifying the Agreement before 2018; two countries have a medium chance; and three countries have a low chance.
Paris Agreement Ratification Forecast. Source: Climate Scorecard
Palm oil, a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil, has lately come under fire.
Palm-fruit bunches from a palm oil plantation in Malaysia. Photo credit: www.wsj.com
Already a cause for concern among environmental activist groups as it is linked with issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, climate change, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuses in the countries where it is produced, palm oil is now said to be a threat to human health.
“Palm oil is a disaster in every respect – not only for the rainforest and its inhabitants, but also for our health,” says Reinhard Behrend of Rainforest Rescue.
According to scientists at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), refined palm oil and products manufactured with it contain very high amounts of fatty acid esters that cause cancer and damage DNA, the liver, kidneys and testes. The contaminants are byproducts of the industrial processing of palm oil, the body adds.
Behrend adds: “Toddlers and children that consume large quantities of processed foods are especially vulnerable: around half of all food products found in our supermarkets are made with palm oil – and the toxins it contains. For young children, a slice of bread with chocolate-hazelnut spread for breakfast is enough to expose them to critical amounts of the contaminants. The risk is particularly high for infants due to the palm oil used in industrial baby foods.”
According to him, non-tropical vegetable oils such as sunflower, rapeseed and olive are viable alternatives. He called on policymakers to not only warn the citizenry about palm oil, but to actively protect them from its dangers.
Palm oil is a type of edible vegetable oil that is derived from the palm fruit, grown on the African oil palm tree. Oil palms are originally from Western Africa, but can flourish wherever heat and rainfall are abundant.
Today, palm oil is grown throughout Africa, Asia, North America, and South America, with 85% of all palm oil globally produced and exported from Indonesia and Malaysia. Observers however say that the production, most of the time, does not utilise sustainable measures.
Activists are bothered by the extent to which land and forests are cleared for the development of the oil palm plantations. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an area the equivalent size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour to make way for palm oil production. This large-scale deforestation, according to the WWF, is pushing many species to extinction; with findings showing that, if nothing changes, species like the orangutan could become extinct in the wild within the next five to 10 years, and Sumatran tigers less than three years.
In furtherance of its continued commitment to interventions that transform lives and improves the health and well-being of communities in Nigeria under its Diageo Water of Life Scheme, Guinness Nigeria Plc has constructed a self-sustaining motorised solar-powered water facility in Tyowanye Community in Buruku Local Government Area of Benue State.
Executive Governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom, drinking water as Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria, Peter Ndegwa, looks on during the commissioning ceremony of a water project donated by Guinness Nigeria to the Tyowange community in Benue State
The Tyowanye water scheme is one of three major water schemes the company has delivered this year in collaboration with its non-governmental orginisation (NGO) partners and is the 35th project Guinness Nigeria has delivered under its Water of Life initiative. The Tyowanye project was executed in collaboration with OXFAM, an international NGO that mobilises the power of people against poverty.
Guinness Nigeria’s continued commitment to initiatives that improve access to safe water was restated at the event by Guinness Nigeria’s Managing Director, Mr. Peter Ndegwa. He also revealed that Guinness Nigeria would continue to play a leading role to promote safe water stewardship in Nigeria. He said Guinness Nigeria, a Diageo company, had since 2007 embarked on the Water for Life Programme, which has provided over 10 million people in 18 countries across Africa with access to potable water. In furtherance of this programme, Guinness Nigeria has prioritised interventions that improve access to safe water especially in communities that face acute water shortage.
“We have invested in sustainable technologies that help us to manage our water use. The construction of the Tyowanye motorised solar-powered water scheme is in furtherance of our efforts to help more Nigerians access clean drinking water. Our desire is that by improving access to safe drinking water, we can assist the people of Tyowanye community improve their overall well-being,” Ndegwa said.
Also speaking at the event, the Governor of Benue State, Dr Samuel Ortom, expressed his gratitude over the newly-constructed water scheme. He stated that the water facility would support the state government’s drive to improve health and hygiene for Benue State citizens, adding that “as we know, water is life, so he who brings water brings life. Guinness Nigeria has brought ‘life’ to this community through this project and we are very grateful for this intervention”.
He enjoined the community to protect the investment and use it judiciously to ensure its continued sustainability. He also stated that the State Government would be delighted to further partner with Guinness Nigeria in the area of agriculture where the state, known as the food basket of the nation, is able to provide all the agricultural inputs Guinness Nigeria requires in its operations.
The Tyowanye water scheme – which was formally unveiled by the Governor of Benue State, Dr Samuel Ortom, and the Managing Director/CEO of Guinness Nigeria, Mr Peter Ndegwa, comprises of two solar-powered boreholes and two blocks of VIP toilets – will benefit over 10,000 people in and around the community.
Thirty smallholder farmers from Kiambu, Meru, Machakos and Makueni counties in Kenya on Tuesday set off from Thika on a four-day resilience journey that will see them engage county leaders and Kenyans on the ideal agricultural system that they envision for country and continent, exhibit produce, share knowledge and share seeds to their counterparts. The farmers will make stops in Machakos, Makueni and Nairobi counties with a clear message ahead of World Food Day.
A Kenyan farmer
“We, as farmers and consumers from around Kenya, call upon the Government of Kenya and International aid donors to listen to our demands, to move away from conventional agriculture and support ecological farming. Conventional agriculture has failed us and will continue to do so as climate change worsens….,” reads in part a demand letter written by Kenyan smallholder farmers to the local governments of Kenya and International Aid Donors in Kenya.
The farmers say they have decided to support each other because they have not received sufficient support from authorities and donors. Instead, they add, a lot of support has gone into industrial agriculture, widely regarded as a flawed agricultural model that places farmers in a cycle of debt as well as reliance on harmful and expensive chemicals and seeds.
With support from The Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBioC), Greenpeace Africa (www.Greenpeace.org/Africa/en/), The Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN), the Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) and The Kenya Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (KSSF), the farmers will use this resilience journey to showcase and prove the benefits of ecological farming.
Ecological farming not only supports local farmer’s livelihoods, it also, “enhances their economic empowerment and is conscious of environmental stability and builds community resilience to adverse effects of climate change,” says Martin Muriuki, Executive Director, Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE).
The farmers are sure that the solution to address hunger in Kenya lies within the country’s borders. With the right support, they can feed Kenyans with healthy, nutritious food that is grown ecologically.
According to observers, ecological farming is not a new practice; it combines local farmers’ knowledge with the most recent scientific knowledge to create new technologies and practices that increase yields without negatively impacting the environment and some of our smallholder farmers are already practising it by building on the traditional agriculture methods based on local landraces and knowledge.
“The farmers’ appeal comes at a very critical time, the current food system is broken, the environment is damaged and the current industrial agricultural model has left thousands hungry and dependant on technologies that are unable to withstand weather shocks and lined the pockets of a few corporates,” states Greenpeace Africa’s senior Food for Life campaign manager, Nokutula Mhene.
The effects of climate change are starting to bite; the Kenya meteorological services have warned that La Niña is near meaning that many parts of Kenya will experience depressed rains in 2016. There is an urgent need to support smallholder family farmers to practice ecological farming through access to irrigation and access to affordable organic inputs and protection of local farmers against middlemen exploitation. The future, states Anne Maina from KBioC, “is in practicing agroecology and not synthetic chemical driven farming.”
Ecological farming is a bouquet of techniques to produce environmentally-sustainable and healthy food for local people. It is a proven “agricultural production method that has at its core resilience, equitability, food sovereignty, and environmental sustainability. We call upon Governments and Donors to put in place mechanisms that allow for a paradigm shift towards ecological farming,” says Greenpeace Africa’s Executive Director, Njeri Kabeberi.
At the end of the journey, the farmers will hand over a letter to International aid agencies in Nairobi. The letter will outline priority areas in the agricultural sector that agencies should invest into.
A new research has shown that the annual harvesting of wild honey may be one of the most sustainable and effective governance measures now protecting the Mount Mutis Nature Reserve in West Timor, Indonesia.
Wild honey harvesting
The Kanoppi research project, a combined effort between the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), has found that the customary laws surrounding the harvesting of wild honey by the local Mutis-Timau community are having a strong impact on forest protection, at least as much as national and provincial laws.
“It’s a success story for community-based landscape management and how it can contribute to forest conservation in harmony with national policy,” says Ani Adiwinata Nawir, Kanoppi’s Coordinator for Policy Research.
Local customs dictate that honey can be harvested once or twice a year, according to the seasons, and must be harvested in a way that does not disturb the ecosystem that sustains its production. The harvest is shared equally among the community, bringing additional benefits for livelihoods.
In addition, the practice inadvertently contributes to national and provincial laws on forest protection – laws which members of the Mutis-Timau community are generally unaware of, according to the research. This suggests an untapped potential for both the inclusion of elements of customary law in sustainable resource management policies, and better participation by local people in creating formal laws, Ani says.
The Kanoppi project’s recommendation to protect the tradition of the honey harvest has already been adopted in the Timor Tengah Selatan district government’s strategy on landscape-level integrated management of non-timber forest products, as a reference for government agencies.
Kanoppi forms part of the CGIAR Research Programme of Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, is supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and is implemented in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund in Indonesia (WWF Indonesia) and a locally established policy working group.
