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GEF concludes four-year, $3.7b investment cycle

Michael Simire
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0
GEF concludes four-year, $3.7b investment cycle

 

Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF
Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF

Countries participating in the 46th Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) held in Cancun, Mexico, launched the new GEF2020 strategy and approved a $230 million work programme that together with previous investments during 2010 -2014 will total $3.7 billion directed towards the protection of the global environment.

These and other decisions taken by the Council provide the foundation for the next four years of actions (GEF-6) by the GEF and its partners to work with countries to address urgent global environmental problems relating to climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and land degradation, management of international waters, management of forests for multiple benefits, and protection against dangerous chemicals and wastes.

“I believe the GEF has been strengthening its work in many ways. Perhaps most importantly, we can point to a continued strong engagement in countries to address global environmental challenges of concern to us all. In the past four years, the GEF has funded almost 900 projects in more than 140 countries across all important environmental domains for a total amount of $3.7 billion,” said Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF.

The GEF-6 replenishment concluded last month with a record sum of $4.43 billion pledged, representing a strong donor support and an expression of confidence in the GEF’s work. “It built consensus around a package of program and policy recommendations that will help keep the GEF at the forefront on many global environmental issues. It will allow GEF to respond to its new responsibilities, strengthen our focus on the poorest countries, continue our momentum to engage with the private sector, and enhance our focus on gender and results,” Ishii added.

Looking ahead, the GEF Council also welcomed the new GEF2020 strategy to guide GEF into the future. The strategy puts a focus on addressing the drivers of environmental degradation, using new instruments to engage the private sector, working to achieve impact at scale, and creating synergies with existing and new development partners. The Council also welcomed two new partners: the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), bringing the number of implementing partners to 14. DBSA is also the first national project agency to be accredited to the GEF.

The GEF Council also appointed Dr. Juha Uitto from Finland as the new Director of the GEF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). Dr. Uitto previously served as Deputy Director of the Evaluation Office of the United Nations Development Program, and has more than two decades of experience in the fields of evaluation and environmental policy in a variety of capacities.

WaterAid supports UN’s call to end open defecation

Michael Simire
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WaterAid supports UN’s call to end open defecation

 

AMCOW’s interim President and Nigeria’s Honourable Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Reng Ochekpe (left), with the Country Representative of WaterAid Nigeria, Dr. Michael Ojo
AMCOW’s interim President and Nigeria’s Honourable Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Reng Ochekpe (left), with the Country Representative of WaterAid Nigeria, Dr. Michael Ojo

WaterAid has welcomed a new UN campaign championed by UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson to end the practice of open defecation.

Over 1 billion people around the world relieve themselves in bushes, in fields or at the sides of roads or railway tracks for lack of even a basic, shared pit in the ground. This is 14% of the world’s population, or one person in seven.

Where there is open defecation, pathogens spread quickly, causing diarrhoea, cholera, bilharzia (a freshwater worm) and other diseases.

Recent WHO/UNICEF JMP figures for Nigeria show that the number of people with access to improved sanitation facilities has dropped even further from 31% last year to just 28% of the population now. This means about 122 million Nigerians do not have access to improved sanitation and a staggering 39 million (23% of the population) practice open defecation.

Based on these figures, indications are that at present rates of progress, Sub-Saharan Africa overall will not become open defecation free until 2063.

WaterAid is campaigning for everyone, everywhere to have access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2030. Some 748 million people in the world are without safe water, while another 2.5 billion are without adequate sanitation.

Dr. Michael Ojo, Country Representative of WaterAid Nigeria, said: “It is time for a drastic change to the status quo. It is hard to believe that in this day and age, people must still risk their health and dignity for the lack of a basic toilet. It’s even more difficult for girls and women who risk danger and harassment every time they go in search of a private place to relieve themselves. Safe water and basic sanitation has to be a top priority in effectively tackling extreme poverty. We call upon our leaders to take action.”

Without basic toilets, girls are more likely to drop out of school, and adults are less able to care for their families or to work, exacting huge social and economic costs.

The new UN campaign to end open defecation is expected to last till the end of next year, as the UN develops a new set of development goals to replace the original Millennium Development Goals.

Among the goals were pledges to cut in half the proportions of people without safe water and sanitation, respectively. Though the overall universal target on water has been met; some individual countries, especially developing countries like Nigeria, are yet to meet those goals and those still without safe water are the hardest to reach. The target on sanitation remains the most off-track.

Recently, in April this year, Nigeria joined 44 other developing countries at the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting and committed once again to achieving universal access to water and sanitation and eliminating open defecation nationwide by 2025.

UN NAMA Registry records first matched support between Austria, Georgia

Michael Simire
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UN NAMA Registry records first matched support between Austria, Georgia

 

Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary
Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary

A new UN Registry which records and matches offers of support from developed nations to the stated plans of developing countries to reduce and limit greenhouse gas emissions has recorded the first such agreed cooperation between Austria and Georgia.

“This first success highlights the enormous potential of the new registry as a transparent, efficient clearing house that matches financial, technology and capacity-building support from the developed world to the needs developing nations have defined themselves to act on climate change,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The online NAMA Registry was designed and is operated by the UNFCCC Secretariat, at the request of governments, to record both the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) which developing countries choose to enter into the system and also the offered support available for these actions.

Its objectives are to facilitate the matching of finance, technology, and capacity building support with these NAMAs and to serve as a platform for international recognition of the mitigation actions of developing countries.

In the first recorded match in the registry, Georgia has received a grant from the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment, and Water to implement Georgia’s NAMA entitled “Adaptive, Sustainable Forest Management in Borjomi-Bakuriani Forest District”.

“I congratulate Georgia and Austria on entering their information into the registry, thereby debuting this important tool.  It is a clear invitation to other countries and organizations to continue to populate the registry and boost the international cooperation between developed and developing countries in reducing and limiting greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ms Figueres.

Church takes free healthcare to Lagos residents

Michael Simire
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Church takes free healthcare to Lagos residents

AriseIt was a banquet of free healthcare services as the Women Arise Initiative, an arm of the Redeemed Christian Church Of God’s City of David Parish, berthed at Apapa in Lagos.

The Women Arise Medical Team patrolled the streets of Apapa in an ambulance announcing to residents to come out and access basic healthcare services at no cost.

Among the healthcare services offered to the residents were malaria, typhoid, blood-sugar tests, blood pressure and dental check, health talk, counseling and drug administration.

Convener of the Women Arise Initiative, Pastor Mrs. Siju Iluyomade explained that the project was borne out of the need to care about the physical and medical wellbeing of women, while lending a voice to issues related to women.

According to her, any nation that lifts up the womanhood would be lifted up in return. Women Arise had previously been to parts of Lagos like Makoko, Lagos Island, Surulere and Ebute-Metta. The group intends to reach out to other parts of the state.

Pastor Iluyomade said the Women Arise Initiative supports the “Bring Back our Girls Initiative” which, according to her, brings to mind the need for the government to ensure every Nigerian is well taken care of. She expressed concerned over the need for healthcare services to be available and accessible to all and sundry.

“Apapa has a diversified mix of different ethnic groups and as we can see all are united in the need to access healthcare services. This shows that there are many things that can unify us as a nation. The impact of our outreach in places we have visited is heartwarming seeing the smiles and satisfaction in the faces of the people and the comfort that they feel, knowing someone is concerned about their health pushes us to do more,” she added.

Head of the Medical Team, Dr. Ademola Lafenwa, pointed out that the high level of ignorance among the people has resulted in some cases where participants don’t even know the status of their health and they have serious health issues.

“Today, one of the person I attended to has a very high blood sugar level and is also hypertensive. He is not even aware of any of these conditions. People don’t know they can approach the nearest health centre within their vicinity for medical care. They think health centres are meant for only babies and immunisation exercises. They also believe that if they visit hospitals, they will be charged heavily for services delivered and conclude that hospitals are designed for the rich only.

The Lagos State Government has ensured that every Primary Health Centre is assigned with a medical doctor, but the level of awareness among the people to use these health centres is low. This is worrisome,” Lafenwa stated.

The turnout was massive as residents thanked the Women Arise Medical Team for offering free healthcare services that would ordinarily have cost them money to access.

 

By Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna

West Africa faces up to an environmental crisis

Michael Simire
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West Africa faces up to an environmental crisis

People in West Africa are confronting enormous environmental problems, and Canada isn’t part of the solution, writes David Israelson, a writer and consultant based in Toronto

Ebire

Lots of people who fish complain about their catch, but Abdulahi Traore has good reason.

“We don’t catch what our families can consume for a day,” he says, pointing to a plastic box holding a few tilapia in his pencil-shaped dugout canoe. After fishing for nearly 10 years in the estuary, called the Ebrie Lagoon, offshore from Abidjan, Ivory Coast that is home to some 3.5 million people, it’s not only the catch that’s getting worse — the water is too.

It’s easy for Canadians to overlook environmental problems like this 100-km West African lagoon, a rich, soupy sea that contains some 150 species of shellfish, but also some of the world’s nastiest pollution. We’re not exactly setting a great example with our own water and coastlines.

I found out how little I knew about West Africa — and how much there is to learn — when I conducted a workshop for journalists on behalf of th United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) here.

I also tried to learn what Canada is doing to lend a hand — not much.

For years we have all been told to think globally, act locally when it comes to the environment, but focusing on either the big picture or our own backyards can draw our attention away from important regions that are under stress, like this coast.

The question is, when it comes to the environment, is Canada thinking at all?

UNEP administers an international agreement called the Abidjan Convention, drafted in 1984 and signed by 22 countries that have a collective population of some 400 million. The signatories, from Mauritania to South Africa, share some 14,000 km of coastline, agreeing to co-operate on research, marine protection and an action plan for keeping the coastline clean.

When we toured we learned how the water is contaminated with sediment, raw sewage, detritus from cargo ships and tankers, industrial waste and garbage. One section of the estuary is a ship graveyard, where stripped-down hulls of abandoned vessels were left to rust and rot.

The estuary’s natural cleaning agents, mangroves, are disappearing. Farther off the West African coast, many areas are overfished. Foreign factory trawlers drop explosives near the continental shelf, scoop up the fish and leave.

The local public is exposed to cholera, typhoid and other diseases in part from the marine pollution, says Ivorian environmental specialist Thierry Mangle, who accompanied us on the harbour tour. He fears “an ecological catastrophe” — it’s not that nothing is being done, it’s just that much more is needed.

Why should we care in Canada? It’s important because the world really is getting smaller.

What used to be local or regional environmental problems are now capable of reaching across continents; the 21st century is becoming the century of the environmental refugee.

What should we do? It doesn’t take much. The Swedish International Development Agency sponsored the journalists’ program I conducted, and another Swedish non-governmental group is working with local people on cleaning their part of the lagoon.

Where is Canada? I wish I knew. What I do know — and the Africans know too — is that our environmental reputation is being sullied, and we’re the culprits.

It has been degraded by a federal government that attacks environmental groups at home and which has weakened our own water pollution laws, shut down research, silenced government scientists and failed by most measures to address climate change.

No one expects Canada to be a leader in regional environmental issues such as West Africa’s marine pollution. But people here do notice who shows up, and it’s not us.

This is a time when we should be building bridges in emerging markets, and there’s a growing market for environmental cleanup technology. But it’s hard to be competitive when you have a bad reputation at home — it can reach around the world.

People here are trying to build a network of experts who can share information and work on solutions — journalists, environmental scientists, community workers and UN officials.

They face daunting challenges — they’re not always well paid and they meet political obstacles and in many cases, repression. They want to build a network of people to share their stories and their experiences with each other and with the world.

Which should leave Canadians asking — what kind of environmental story do we have to share?

Obstetrics fistula: Experts clamour maternal health care improvement

Michael Simire
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Obstetrics fistula: Experts clamour maternal health care improvement

Fistula

Experts and development partners have called for prompt actions to end Obstetrics Fistula through provision of quality maternal health care and accountability mechanisms. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about two million young women live with untreated Obstetric Fistula in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Obstetric Fistula is a medical condition in which a fistula (hole) develops either between the rectum and vagina or between the bladder and vagina after severe or failed childbirth, when adequate medical care is not available. It is considered a disease of poverty because of its tendency to occur in women in poor countries who do not have health resources comparable to developed nations.

This condition harms women physically, socially and economically, and often leads to isolation from families and communities, thereby deepening their poverty and worsening their sufferings.

 

Predisposing Factors

Gynaecologist and Technical Adviser at Development Communications (DevComs) Network, Dr. Olalekan Olaniyan, says early marriage, illiteracy, ignorance and poverty predisposes women to obstetrics fistula. According to him, poor health-seeking behaviour, delays in using health facility, delays in reaching health facility, poor health infrastructure (for caesarean delivery when needed) make the risk of Obstetric Fistula even greater.

Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Babatunde Oshotimehin, in a release on International Women’s Day marked recently, said that about 20,000 girls below age 18 give birth in developing countries daily and nine in 10 of these births occur within marriage or union.

Nigeria is one of such countries where child marriage and harmful traditional practices are common, while percentage of birth delivered in a health facility is 35.8 percent, according to Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) preliminary report, 2013. Consequently, over 64 percent of births take place at home and other places, due to several factors such as inability to afford health services, distance to health facility, concern that there may not be a female provider, and attitude of health workers.

 

Prevention

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Obstetric Fistula is preventable and can be avoided by delaying the age of first pregnancy, ending harmful traditional practices and timely access to obstetric care.

Olaniyan calls on government to improve health systems and social infrastructure, in order to provide prompt caesarean session for women going through prolonged and obstructed labour. He also advocates for alleviation of poverty, illiteracy and end of harmful traditional practices.

 

Benefits

Preventing and managing Obstetric Fistula contribute to the Millennium Development Goal 5 of improving maternal health, says the WHO. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) recommends universal access to reproductive health services, including maternal health care and fistula treatment. It adds: “We must eliminate gender-based social and economic inequities, discourage early childbearing, promote education and human rights, and foster community participation.”

United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in a statement to observe the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, says it is important to raise awareness of the condition because it is not well-understood even in societies where it is prevalent. “The more understanding and action we generate today, the more we can look forward to a future where obstetric fistula is virtually unknown,” he said.

DevComs Network’s Media Officer, Ayodele Adesanmi, observers that the condition is synonymous to ending prolonged labours, which is the duty of all stakeholders, including government, health workers, community members and the media. “The role of the media in reducing stigmatisation and violation of the rights of women leaving with fistula cannot be over-emphasised,” he contends.

 

Call to Action

Ending Obstetric Fistula is the responsibility of all stakeholders, however, the government must play a leading role and show will and commitment to improve the quality of maternal health services rendered in the country through increased budgetary allocations and provision of infrastructures. “Obstetric Fistula still exists because health care systems fail to provide accessible, quality maternal health care, including family planning, skilled care at birth, basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care, and affordable treatment of fistula,” says the WHO.

 

How to boost, rebrand health insurance

Michael Simire
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0
How to boost, rebrand health insurance

InsuranceIncreased advocacy and social marketing are key components in increasing health insurance coverage among Nigerians. Similarly, dearth of credible information has created a wrong perception about health insurance because of the sharp practices experienced by health insurance users.

Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN) Dr. Jimmy Arigbabuwo, who expressed these sentiments, stated that, to achieve universal health coverage, the only global language is health insurance and Nigeria cannot be an exemption.

“Our poor health indices stand the potential of recording better scoring once we aspire to embrace health insurance. It is not fair that a user of healthcare facility moves from his/her place to another several kilometers of the nearest Primary Health Centre or General Hospital because of inability to afford cost of treatment in a private hospital. Health insurance will address this challenge and put a final stop as prepaid capitation and subscription makes every healthcare facility, public or private, available and accessible for use by all and sundry irrespective of your social status, creed, religious, political or economic standing,” Arigbabuwo submitted.

He added that all healthcare facilities, small and big, should get accredited through the various regulatory authorities and operators of health insurance, state and national, including community-based health insurance to pave way for universal health coverage.

An executive member of the Lagos AGPMPN, Dr. Austin Aipo, estimates health insurance coverage in the country at about six percent, but adds that 30 percent can be achieved if the state government pulls together resources meant for free healthcare into health insurance.

Dr. Aipo said if health insurance is well implemented, data generated would aid the government in planning health budgetary allocations.

This year’s World Family Doctor Day has “Universal Health Coverage” as its theme and the Nigeria AGPMPN is a member of the World Organisation of Family Doctors.

 

By Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna

Stakeholders seek improved funding for water, sanitation

Michael Simire
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Stakeholders seek improved funding for water, sanitation
Babalobi
Babalobi

Following a review of current trends within the sector, experts have expressed concern over the prevailing situation and called for a thoughtful financial initiative that would aid the provision, management and maintenance of water. They likewise want the issue of infrastructures and sanitation addressed.

At a daylong Media Roundtable on “Resources Mobilisation for Improved Water Supply and Sanitation service delivery in Lagos State” held recently in Lagos, stakeholders gave prodigious revelation of shortage of water in the state. However, some state officials rose in defence of the government.

The event was organised by the Water and Sanitation (WASH) Media Network with the support of Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council and WaterAid in West Africa.

The meeting, which brought together journalists reporting water supply and sanitation issues for print, electronic and online media, sought to identify financial needs for accelerating and ensuring universal coverage of safe water supply and sanitation services to residents of Lagos State. It was also to meant determine how required financial resources could be mobilised from government agencies, private sector, donors, private sector, and consumers to meet investment needs.

In a presentation, National Chair, WASH Media Network, Babatope Babalobi, said with the estimated population of Lagos at 21 million, the state needed about 1.6BLD potable water to meet daily consumption by its residence, adding that only 7 million Lagosians out of the estimated population of between 17.5 million and 21.3 million currently have access to potable water supply.

He added that for the state to meet her Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015, over 10 to 14 million of her dwellers must have access to potable water supply and warned that if something drastic was not done to address the situation, sub-Sahara African countries would not meet the MDGs water target till 2046 and the sanitation target till 2076.

According to him, the demand projection implies significant capital requirements for infrastructure expansion, estimated to be in the range of $1.5 to 2.0 billion, averaging around $100 million per year over the next 25 years, saying these would be required in order to reach 80 percent coverage of its target in the state.

Babalobi, who submitted that the contribution of the state government to rural water supply and sanitation in the last six years was minimal, as only a donor agency contributed over 56 percent funds utilised on all activities related to rural water and sanitation, added that rural water supply and sanitation were poorly funded.

Though he gave kudos to the state for creating the Wastewater Management Office, he however said that the agencies were still in dire need of funds to meet the sanitation challenges of the mega city status of Lagos.

Chairman of the event, Prof. Lekan Oyebande, said in the area of innovative funding sources, cost recovery poses a great challenge, adding that Lagos has not done well in that regard, and urged for the launching of serious initiative towards ensuring that operation and maintenance cost was contributed in the mega urban region by water users.

According to him, “The high level of unaccounted for water should be seriously tackled.  If such losses can be recovered, or reduced to an acceptable level, the savings will represent a significant source of innovative investment in the state.”

Officials of the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) disclosed that the “Lagos Water Supply Master Plan” that spans 2010 to 2020 and within three terms would cost an estimated $2,485,950 (N402,723,900).

Stakeholders step up moves to conserve Niger Delta’s biodiversity

Michael Simire
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Stakeholders step up moves to conserve Niger Delta’s biodiversity
Effect of oil spill on a water body
Effect of oil spill on a water body

A major step was taken recently in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, where nature conservation practitioners gathered for two days to fashion out a way to save the threatened biological diversity of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria.

While it harbors a large reserve of untapped oil and gas, the sprawling region is characterised by high biodiversity, abundant natural resources and extreme poverty. Believed to be one of the largest wetlands in the world and Africa’s largest delta, the region produces an estimated 2.2 million barrels of oil per day.

Decades of oil exploration, characterised by persisting pollution of land and sea, has led to large scale degradation of the environment, putting the areas rich biodiversity at risk. While residents’ source of livelihood and lifestyle are on one hand dwindling, several species of flora and fauna are, on the other, facing extinction.

But succour may just be around the corner, thanks to an initiative aimed at contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of globally significant biological diversity in the Niger Delta, with the overall objective to mainstream biodiversity management priorities into the region’s oil and gas (O & G) sector development policies and operations.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the project is being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The scheme aims to strengthen the governance framework of law, policy and institutional capacity for the mainstreaming process; adopt and pilot new biodiversity action planning tools for proactive mainstreaming; and support for long-term biodiversity management and the use of the new tools in the region by capitalising a Niger Delta Biodiversity Trust.

To attain these outcomes, several constituted expert working groups were inaugurated in Port Harcourt, where a representative of the Environment Minister (Laurentia Mallam), Halima Mohammed, lauded the initiative, saying that it calls for new ways of doing business in the delta.

“Government, being one of the major players in the industry, aligns itself with the stated goals and objectives. If government, the O & G industry and local communities adopt and pilot new biodiversity action planning tools for proactive biodiversity mainstreaming in the Niger Delta, a major shift would have been achieved for the benefit of biodiversity and its sustainable utilisation,” says Mohammed, who doubles as an Assistant Director in the Environment Ministry and a GEF Desk Officer.

She adds: “An engagement mechanism is very important to ensuring a platform for communication among all players for the benefit of the biodiversity of the region. The innovative funding mechanism which the project recommends is commendable. As a major stakeholder, we have already ensured our buy-in.

“However, it is recognised that the peculiar nature of the delta demands a regular review and update of strategies. We salute the UNDP for the catalytic role it is playing in the sustainable management of the situation.”

Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Sir Peter Idabor, describes the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) as a veritable tool in biodiversity management because the plan’s primary concern is to ensure that the region’s rich biodiversity resources are protected from the impact of oil spill by putting in place adequate preparedness, control and response measures for sustainability.

According to him the NOSCP – a blueprint for the management of all oil spills in the Nigerian environment, especially three-tier-level incidents – has mainstreamed the sensitivities of the biological diversity of the Niger Delta to oil spill incidents for the purpose of identifying high risks for effective protection.

National Coordinator of the Niger Delta Biodiversity Project, Matthew Dore, discloses that the geographic focus of the project is on the four core states within the Niger Delta (Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers) which. Combined, encompass an area of 46,420 km2 (the ‘indirect landscape mainstreaming target’).

“The physical footprint of the O&G company assets within this area is admitted by the industry to be 600 km2, which is considered the project’s initial ‘direct landscape mainstreaming target’,” he as, stressing that the project would bring improved biodiversity management to these areas indirectly and directly.

A total of eight groups were incorporated at the forum. One of such groups (Group 6) is seeking to devise a Niger Delta Community Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). Chaired by environmental activist, Nnimmo Bassey, the group of 12 members notes that community engagement should focus on local communities’ dependence on ecological resources for food, water, livelihood and aesthetic wellbeing.

Bassey, who is a member of the Environment Committee at the ongoing National Conference, listed criteria for selecting sites for the project to include: accessibility; possession of reasonable and recognised biodiversity at the global, national and local levels; freedom from disputes; and demonstration of a high sense of leadership.

 

By Michael Simire

Rotational grazing meets technology on Mambilla Plateau

Michael Simire
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0
Rotational grazing meets technology on Mambilla Plateau
Cattle on the Mambilla Plateau
Cattle on the Mambilla Plateau

“Consider the cattle, grazing as they pass you by. They do not know what is meant by yesterday or today, they leap about, eat, rest, digest, leap about again, and so from morning till night and from day to day, fettered to the moment and its pleasure or displeasure, and thus neither melancholy nor bored. (…) Ever trusting in the divine provisions of nature and the reliability of human wisdom to sustain them…”

Nowhere in Nigeria does the above quotation from Untimely Meditations, by Friedrich Nietzsche, finds its truest expression than Mutum Biu Village, where local knowledge-driven technology meets with scientific adaptation measures, enveloping into an environmental splendour of sustainability and climate resilience.

Faced with adverse climate effects on rangelands, growing degradation of grazing lands with attendant soil erosion, loss of vegetation, changes in hydrology, and disrupted plant and animal communities, livestock grazers in Mutum Biu, a sleepy community on the Benue plains near Mambilla Plateau, in Taraba State, North-East Nigeria, decided to look within by tapping into native wisdom to create a local rotational grazing formula which significantly improved their sub-Saharan grassland production for grazing.

Speaking recently during a visit to the area by scientists from the Federal University, Kashere Nigeria and Lincoln University, New Zealand, the Head of Cattle Grazers Association who doubles as the Traditional Ruler of Mutum Biu, Ardo Guruza, gleefully revealed that they had to create the rotational grazing formula when “it dawned on us that grazing land on the Mambilla Plateau was fast depleting and desertification was setting in, necessitating the usual mobility southwards but with increasing agro-pastoralist crisis all over Nigeria, we had to look within ourselves to come up with this difficult but successful formula which demanded discipline and strict adherence from us.”

According to Chief Guruza, about three seasons ago, certain sections of the grazing land on the Mambilla Plateau were demarcated with local wires and all livestock grazers in Mutum Biu were sensitised on the need to graze their cattle in the non-demarcated areas. After a period of time, the locations were interchanged and the results were astonishing as their livestock grew in strength and number, eradicating decades of agro-pastoralist conflict as movement down southern Nigeria became unnecessary for Mutum Biu livestock farmers.

Adamu Fugo, a farmer in the community, corroborated the success story of the Mutum Biu rotational grazing formula. He said: “I am a farmer, and I have been doing rotational grazing for almost years years now. Rotational grazing did not only boost productivity of our land, but took the land to a whole new level of holistically managed and planned grazing. We are able to graze more livestock on the same land, we did not suffer drought even during dry season.”

Prof Bruce McKenzie, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Lincoln University, and Prof Stephen Goldson, a research Theme Leader for the Bio-Protection Research Centre at the same university, who were part of the team that came to the Mambilla Plateau to provide expert advice on ways to further improve sub-Saharan grassland production for grazing through technology-driven methods, commended the community’s ingenious effort at adapting to climate change.

Prof McKenzie affirmed: “We did find some legumes growing throughout the Mambilla Plateau. This is encouraging in that it indicates that soil pH may be suitable for sowing other high value varieties. However, improving the plant species needs to be coupled with the reinforcement of the subsisting rotational grazing system.” “Going back to the era where cattle were left to indiscriminately graze, will undermine the grassland irrespective of plant types,” says Professor McKenzie. One cost-effective way of achieving this could be via the New Zealand-developed solar-powered electric fence technology; a suggestion that was met favourably by the local cattle grazers spoken with.

As climate change continues to cause additional stress to many West African rangelands including Nigeria, it therefore becomes necessary to promote and implement rotational grazing as the only viable grazing strategy with the capacity to arrest the decline and speed up the recovery of affected ecosystems while ensuring that the direct economic and social impacts are offset by a higher return on other ecosystem services and land uses.

According to a new report by eight researchers featured in Environmental Management, a professional journal published by Springer, “Climate impacts are compounded from heavy use by livestock and other grazing ungulates, which cause soil erosion, compaction, and dust generation; stream degradation; higher water temperatures and pollution; loss of habitat for fish, birds and amphibians; and desertification. Encroachment of woody shrubs at the expense of native grasses and other plants can occur in grazed areas, affecting pollinators, birds, small mammals and other native wildlife. Livestock grazing and trampling degrades soil fertility, stability and hydrology, and makes it vulnerable to wind erosion. This in turn adds sediments, nutrients and pathogens to western streams.”

The report further affirmed that grazing and trampling reduces the capacity of soils to sequester carbon, and through various processes contributes to greenhouse warming. Rotating or significantly reducing grazing is likely to be far more effective, in cost and success, than piecemeal approaches to address some of these concerns in isolation.

As desertification increasingly becomes a fancy word for land that is turning to desert, fanning the embers of agro-pastoralist conflicts across Nigeria, and climate change continues to affect public land ecosystems and services throughout Africa with these effects projected to intensify even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, adaptation strategies such as the homegrown, local but nonetheless effective rotational grazing system in Mutum Biu and the New Zealand-developed solar-powered electric fence rotational technology are needed to ensure that the fruitful, green fields of Africa are trod by both man and animal in a manner that secures a sustainable future for all!

 

By Atayi Babs (atayibabs@yahoo.com)

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