“Agriculture must cease from being treated as development programme; agriculture must be treated as business. Our goal will be to pursue government supported private sector agriculture value chain to make agriculture more productive, efficient and competitive.” – President Muhammadu Buhari Since his assumption of office in May last year, Muhammadu Buhari, president of Nigeria, has repeated at many fora that ...

The Federal University of Technology in Minna (FUT Minna), Niger State has produced its second set (or ‘Batch B’) of graduates under a special scheme being bankrolled by the German government. Tagged the Master Programme on Climate Change and Adapted Landuse (CC&ALU), it is being implemented under the West African Centre for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) initiative ...

A tropical rainforest more than twice the size of France is at risk of being cut down, following news from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that the government is considering re-opening its forest to new logging companies. This comes at a time when the governments of Norway, France, Germany, the UK, and the European Union, are assessing whether to ...

Indigenous Peoples and local communities protect half the world’s land, but formally own just 10 percent, according to a report released today by a global alliance of NGOs. The Global Call to Action on Indigenous and Community Land Rights, backed by more than 300 organisations all over the world, was on Wednesday launched with the publication of a new report. Entitled ...

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world in marking the 2016 World Wildlife Day, Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, has disclosed that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has lifted the suspension on trade between Nigeria and other countries in all endangered plants and animal species as well as related products. The Minister has also asked Nigerians to do everything ...

On the 18th February 2016 the autonomous territorial government of the indigenous Wampis people (Wampis GTA) submitted a formal complaint to Peru’s regulatory body for the environment (OEFA) accusing the state oil company (Petroperú) of gross negligence for its failure to prevent and contain the oil spill in the Wampis community of Mayuriaga. As a preventative measure the Wampis GTA ...

Two Nigerian Niger Delta communities are suing oil big-wig Shell and asking for compensation for oil spills on their land. It is the second in five years that Shell will be sued to court. One of the two communities involved is the Ogale community with a population of 40,000. In an area where most people derive their livelihood from fishing, oil spills have deprived ...

Newly appointed President of COP21, Ségolène Royal, last week paid a courtesy visit to the West African French-speaking nation of Côte d’Ivoire. Royal, who recently replaced Laurent Fabius, the French Minister of Environment, Energy and Marine, was in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, for several days, apparently to gather the support of President Ouattara Alasane towards the realisation of Africa’s transition to renewable ...

A massive clean-up operation has begun on the Pacific Island of Fiji after a powerful cyclone. Cyclone Winston hit the island last week, with winds of over 200 miles per hour, torrential rain, and waves of up to 12 metres. Many homes were destroyed, several people died and electricity lines were cut. It’s the first time that Fiji has been ...