Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, representing Friends of the Earth International on global legally binding treaty Subject 7 Jurisdiction, says in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday, October 26, 2017 that States must guarantee that a complaint against transnational corporations (TNCs) can be submitted for the abuses committed in host communities in any member state. He spoke during the United Nations Intergovernmental Working Group to hold transnational corporations account for their human rights violations
Two of the four Nigerian farmers (Chief Fidelis A. Oguru-Oruma (left) and Eric Dooh) sit in the law courts in The Hague on October 11, 2012. The four farmers take on Shell in a Dutch court, accusing the oil giant of destroying their livelihoods. The court ruled that Shell has a case to answer for its human rights violations committed in Nigeria. Photo credit: AFP / ANP / Robin Utrecht
My name is Godwin Uyi Ojo, Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, member of Friends of the Earth International with autonomous national groups from 75 countries and over 2 million grassroots members. We are part of the global campaign to dismantle corporate power and stop impunity of transnational corporations.
We welcome the Treaty elements on transnational corporations and their supply chains with regard to holding them to account for human rights violations.
State obligations must include civil and criminal liabilities that address TNCs human rights violations.
The imperative nature of victims’ access to justice and right to reparation in international law is attested to by numerous international instruments and regional jurisdictions.
In the reparation case brought by four fishermen from the Niger Delta, the Court in The Hague, ruled that Shell has a case to answer for its human rights violations committed in Nigeria.
At a national level obligations must establish the jurisdiction of their courts with respect to TNCs’ violations of human rights’.
This should include the state in whose territory human rights violations occurred, the national state of the parent company, the national state of the shareholders, and all other states where the transnational corporation has activities.
States must guarantee that a complaint against TNCs can be submitted for the abuses committed in host communities in any member state. So TNC home states or TNC host states cannot apply the doctrine of forum non conveniens when invoking a human rights violation committed by a TNC. Each State must allow foreign persons and communities seeking environmental justice to take legal action in its courts if they so wish.
It is imperative that the national measures required of States for the implementation of the future treaty contain an obligation for them to establish the criminal responsibility of the leaders of multinationals and other companies in case of negligence or active participation in certain human rights violations.
The States Parties shall adopt legislative, administrative or judicial measures that allow human rights lawyers and defenders to act in litigation process against TNCs, while providing them technical and financial assistance. In this regard, States Parties must ensure that civil society organisations have access to courts on behalf of victims in these cases.
We strongly believe that an international court or Tribunal for TNCs human rights violations will allow impacted communities to seek reparation that is long overdue because as we speak now the people are suffering and dying in silence.
As the month of November approaches, the international community is making feverish preparations towards the forthcoming 23rd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany.
Dignitaries at the 2017 Pre-COP Climate Festival in Ghana
Ghana, like most African countries, will participate in the conference, scheduled to hold from November 6 to 17, 2017. And as part of the preparatory activities, a forum was recently held in Accra, dubbed: “2017 Pre-COP Climate Festival.” It was the sixth in the series of annual dialogue platforms instituted in 2012 by the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) of the University of Ghana, Legon, under the Africa Adaptation Research Centres of Excellence Project implemented with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.
The purpose of the annual event is to bring technical issues related to climate change adaptation and mitigation closer home to policy makers, managers, students, activists, religious leaders, metropolitan municipal and district authorities and officials, and the diplomatic community. It creates the space for diverse stakeholders of scientists, experts, academia and non-scientists to interact with each other and deliberate on issues of climate change that affect society and undermine development, and is of critical concern to the international community; hence, its timing to precede the COPs to the UNFCCC.
The theme for this year’s event was: “The Risks We Do Not Want.” The aim was to sensitise the Ghanaian public about COP23 and Ghana’s performance in relation to climate change.
The Convener of the Festival, Dr. Delali Dovie, explained that this year’s theme was evolved from the Cities and Climate Project being implemented by RIPS, and which see cities as holding the key to development and therefore must be resilient to deliver its development agenda.
However, the current images of cities are that of damages and loss from extreme floods events and storms that have ravaged the country in recent times. Additionally, cities have become major sources of atmospheric pollution, even though there are resources to control carbon emissions and reduce the impacts of global warming.
Dr. Dovie stressed that the “the battle against climate change will largely be won in the cities…”
In his keynote address, the Director-General of NADMO, Eric Nana Agyemang-Prempeh, noted the appropriateness of the theme for the Festival, saying “it could not have been better as the warming of the globe approaches a ‘tipping point’ that could be catastrophic for lives on earth.”
He alluded to the increasing number of severe weather and extreme climate related events with devastating consequences in many countries, and observed that African countries, including Ghana, are extremely vulnerable to climate change with increased risk of drought, famine and floods.
Mr. Agyemang-Prempeh congratulated member countries of the UNFCCC who set the ambitious targets of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Climate Agreement in order to keep global average temperatures below two degree Celsius.
For 20 years, global negotiations have been on-going to come up with an effective, fair, sustainable solution that is acceptable to all nations. Finally, on December 12, 2015 at COP 21, in Paris, France, members agreed to combat climate change and undertake actions and make investments towards a low carbon, resilient and sustainable future. Known as the Paris Agreement, it brought together all nations, for the first time into a common cause based on their historic, current and future responsibilities.
The NADMO Director-General highlighted the difficulty in implementing the Agreement to the letter, “unless the consequential needs of technology development and transfer, capacity building, costs and financing were addressed.”
He proposed a number of things that Ghana could do to ensure delivery of her NDCs. “The state must be committed in supporting policies that solve key climate compactible development and climatic risk reduction challenges, intellectual leadership and innovation; we must support the application of the best science and technology disciplines to respond to the multi-dimensional issue of climate change towards our nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA); and we must ensure that climatic risks to society especially the poor, farmers, women, the elderly and least capacitated are drastically reduced.”
Obviously, these proposals require partnerships that support innovations. Mr. Agyemang-Prempeh cited the partnership between NADMO and the German Cooperation on Integrated Climate Risk Management Transfer as an innovation on drought risk insurance towards resilient agriculture and food security, central to the country’s NDCs.
He said the next 13 years provide the window of time “in which our economies must shift towards low-carbon development and resilience,” and hinted that the NDCs will now become a priority for NADMO. This means that NADMO will have to adopt a new posture to work towards strengthening climatic risk mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
The Deputy Head of Missions at the German Embassy in Ghana, Hans-Helge Sander, said the Embassy was aware of the impacts of climate change especially as it manifests in the agricultural sector. Therefore, the Embassy was providing technical support to Ghana through a number of activities such as its partnership with NADMO and the African Risk Capacity Project. He described COP 23 as the conference that will outline the next steps towards implementing the Paris Agreement.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Heather Cameron, announced several initiatives of her country to address climate change. These include Canada’s commitment of an amount of $2.65 billion to support developing countries adaptation programmes in response to climate change over a five year period.
She called for adaptation programmes that will give more attention to developing the potential of women to actively participate in solving problems.
Ms. Cameron congratulated RIPS for assembling such diverse stakeholders and bringing on board the youth represented by students from the Presbyterian Boys Senior High, Kimbu Senior High and St. Mary’s Senior High schools to participate in the discussions.
For his part, the Director of RIPS, Prof. Samuel Codjoe, traced the history of the RIPS from its establishment in 1972 as a UN sponsored regional demographic training centre for Africa, and said it has now become a full-fledged institute of the University offering Masters and doctorate programmes. He said RIPS has also established the Ghana Climate Change Resource Centre with support from IDRC.
As part of the Festival there were panel presentations and discussions on priority issues for African Negotiators at the COP, Ghana’s performance in relation to climate change and the African Risk Capacity Programme under which, the concept of the Sovereign Drought Insurance in Ghana scheme was introduced to participants.
Discussants for the first panel presentations were Mrs. Patience Demptey, a Gender Consultant and Dr. Ama Essel, Health Consultant who are both members of African Group of Negotiators (AGN). They agreed AGN’s contribution to the negotiation has resulted in the 50/50 allocation of resources under the Green Climate Fund (GCF). They said the group was able to secure equal access to the fund by making a case in Paris 2015 for Africa to get more funding for adaptation, because the continent contributed least to global warming and yet was suffering the most from it impacts.
Discussants for the second panel presentations were Mrs. Chalotte Norman of NADMO]s Climate Change Department, Ms. Felicity Le Quesney of the Oxford Policy Institute, UK, Ms. Assia Sidiba of the African Risk Capacity and Foster Gyamfi of Ministry of Finance. They provided insight into the nature of climate and drought associated risks, and the insurance opportunity that the African Risk Capacity scheme provides to tackling increased vulnerability of communities to disasters.
The third group of panelists was Daniel Benefor of Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency, Kingsley Amoako of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Winfred Nelson of the National Development Planning Commission. They briefed participants on the progress Ghana has made with her NDCs, the relevance of the NDCs for long term national development and highlights of the implementation of adaptation and mitigation priorities in the agricultural sector.
In a bid to halt the exploration and use of coal in Africa (or decoalonise Africa) and move towards 100% renewable energy, the #deCOALonise Africa campaign seeks to stop the development of coal infrastructure within the continent through strengthened community resistance and international collaboration. In this piece, the campaigners insist that Africa is not a dumping ground for dirty, dangerous and outdated power plants. The campaign is being promoted by 350.0rg and decoalonize.org
The Federal Government of Nigeria has commenced moves to revive mining activities in Enugu coal mines, which have been inactive for about 40 years
So far, 2017 is the second-hottest year on record. Climate change is here, and Africa is feeling the impacts deeply. Despite this, governments across the continent are making plans to develop massive new coal mines and power plants.
Coal is a killer, and Africa deserves better. We deserve a future free of coal and other fossil fuels and based on clean renewable energy for all.
That’s why we’re launching the #deCOALonise campaign today.
Wherever governments are planning big new coal projects, people resist. Wherever companies and politicians are putting profits before public health, people resist. All over the continent, local communities are actively fighting for a fossil free future.
The #deCOALonise campaign is lifting up these pockets of resistance and highlighting the power of local communities to fight dangerous, unwanted coal projects. This new platform is a space for learning and sharing, for shining a light on the devastating impacts of the coal industry, and for uniting the many powerful grassroots groups working to end the age of coal in Africa.
Africa’s colonial history continues today in the form of the coal industry.
We need to make it crystal clear: the same kind of thinking underpins this new push for coal as the early waves of colonialism in Africa – greed, extraction, and exploitation. If we want to have a planet and continent where future generations can thrive, we have to stop coal development in its tracks.
By building solidarity between the many groups and campaigns fighting coal across the continent, we can show the coal industry that Africa is not a dumping ground for their dirty, dangerous and outdated power plants. Africans are through with their pollution and exploitation.
It will be through local African communities resisting new coal infrastructure and embracing clean, renewable energy that we can shake off the past and chart a course to a better future.
Together, we can pave the way to energy solutions that are for and by Africans.
Three leading bird conservation organisations on Thursday, October 26, 2017 in Manila, the Philippines, announced an innovative partnership to boost awareness of the plight of migratory birds around the globe. The new alliance formally unites two of the world’s largest bird education campaigns, International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) and World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) in a bid to strengthen recognition and appreciation of migratory birds and highlight the urgent need for their conservation.
Migratory birds
The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) and Environment for the Americas (EFTA) outlined their new cooperation in a partnership agreement at a side event in the margins of the 12th Conference of the Parties to the (CMS COP12) holding in Manila this week.
The collaboration establishes a single, global campaign organized around the planet’s major migratory bird corridors. These include the African-Eurasian, the East Asian-Australasian, and the Americas flyways.
Speaking at the event, Bradnee Chambers, Executive Secretary of CMS, said: “Shaping a sustainable world for migratory birds and people requires better cooperation at all levels and across all the flyways of the world. With this new partnership agreement, we are uniting our voices for bird conservation and setting the stage for a new global venture in efforts to raise awareness and appreciation of migratory birds.”
Susan Bonfield, Executive Director of Environment for the Americas, said: “Birds do not recognise political boundaries, so their conservation depends on our joint efforts at the many habitats they need for nesting, migratory stopovers, and wintering grounds. This partnership represents our desire to work together for the benefit of migratory birds around the globe.”
Jacques Trouvilliez, AEWA Executive Secretary, said: “For 10 years, AEWA has been promoting WMBD in Eurasia and Africa to make flyway conservation happen. It is time now to unify our efforts to make this campaign a really global one for the benefit of all birds on our Earth.”
IMBD was created in 1993 to raise awareness of migratory birds and their conservation throughout the Western Hemisphere. Now in its 24th year, IMBD has grown into a framework underpinning 700 events across the Americas, from Canada to Argentina and more than 15 countries in the Caribbean.
WMBD was initiated by AEWA and CMS in 2006 as a way to counter the negative public opinion towards migratory birds due to the spread of the H5N1 Avian Influenza virus. A total of over 2,000 events have taken place in 140 countries since the campaign started.
Both campaigns are typically observed in May but can be timed to coincide with local migrations.
“By pooling educational and outreach materials, each partner will leverage their resources to reach a broader audience,” said Bonfield. “Ultimately, we’re all working towards the same goal: connecting people to our shared birds.”
Based in Boulder, Colorado, Environment for the Americas works with diverse partners to provide bilingual educational materials and information about birds and bird conservation throughout the Americas. Their programmes, it was gathered, inspire children and adults to get outdoors, learn about birds, and participate in their conservation.
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has commended the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) for a successful national congress which saw Comrade Benjamin Anthony of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Abuja emerge as the new president.
Akinbode Oluwafemi, Deputy Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN)
The national congress which held in Ibadan, Oyo State from October 18 to 19 2017, had about 500 delegates from 38 state councils of the union across the 36 states, National Coordinating Councils (NCCs) and FCT Abuja of the federation in attendance. Former president – Solomon Adelegan from Ondo State Water Corporation – lost to Comrade Anthony, who is also the current Federal Capital Territory chairperson.
In a statement issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN said the atmosphere of calm under which the elections held and the outcomes reflected the deep cohesion and strength of AUPCTRE, which is one of the largest affiliates under the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Akinbode Oluwafemi, deputy executive director of ERA/FoEN, said: “We commend AUPCTRE for the hitch-free national congress and election which has produced a new president in the person of Comrade Benjamin Anthony. With his track-records as a campaigner for just policies, his emergence as national president gives us hope that AUPCTRE will continue leading the campaign against water privatisation in Nigeria.”
Oluwafemi explained that members of AUPCTRE have over the years been at the fore of the fight to get state governments, especially Lagos, to reject Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the water sector in favour of Public Public Partnership (PuP).
AUPCTRE is also part of the Our Water Our Right Coalition which embarked on a host of activities including street protests in Lagos to get the state government to expunge “anti-people sections” in the Lagos Environmental Law signed into law early this year.
The ERA/FoEN boss reiterated the organisation’s conviction that, with the new helmsman, a new dawn in the campaign against water privatisation has come, even as he added: “With all our local and international partners we will continue to engage with the union on innovative solutions to the crisis in the water sector within the realm of human rights.”
“We are confident in Comrade Anthony and his team in steering AUPCTRE in a direction that will not only strengthen state chapters but also reinvigorate their engagement with civil society to guarantee that government policies does not violate the right of any Nigerian to clean, safe and adequate water,” Oluwafemi said.
The UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (COP23) scheduled to hold from November 6 to 17, 2017 is designed to increase climate action and more sustainable development at all levels of society. The organisers of COP23 are apparently walking the talk, the conference will be made sustainable to the greatest possible extent. In a special series, the UN Climate Change News team is looking at the different aspects of sustainability – including transport, waste management, catering, energy and offsetting. To kick off the series, the team looked at the issue of making the conference fully climate neutral, including by offsetting carbon emissions. In this second installment of its special series, the team is looking at the issue of sustainable transport and energy.
One of Bonn’s several electric and hybrid buses in service. Photo credit: Stadtwerke Bonn/Martin Magunia
Ensuring that carbon emissions from energy and transport are kept to a minimum will be an important way of ensuring the upcoming COP23 conference is as sustainable as possible.
Up to 25,000 people are expected to participate in COP23 – including government delegates, representatives of observer organisations, businesses and journalists. The lion’s share of transport emissions will be from long distance travel of participants coming from abroad (see the team’s special article on the overall climate neutrality of the COP, with a focus on offsetting emissions from international travel).
Once the participants are in Bonn, they will have to make their way to the conference site each day, get around on site – and get back to the places they are staying at night. Reducing emissions caused by local transport is therefore a crucial part of the work of the COP23 Sustainability Taskforce.
“The most important aspect is that local public transportation is free of charge for all registered participants from Parties, observer organisations and media,” says Dennis Winkler, Lead of the COP 23 Sustainability Taskforce and responsible for the sustainability of UN climate change conferences at UN Climate Change. “Also, 600 bikes will be provided free of charge for participants to get from one conference zone to another, or even to the city.”
Riding from Bula to Bonn on electric shuttles
The city of Bonn has several electric and hybrid buses in service and special electric COP23 shuttles, running on 100% renewable energy, will connect a brand-new UN Campus train stop with the nearby metro stop and the two conference zones (“Bula” and “Bonn”).
“We think it is important for there to be electric transport at the Bonn Climate Change Conference, as it absolutely meets the key goals of COP23,” says Anja Wenmakers of Bonn’s public transport provider, SWB. “We are committed to supporting climate action goals and believe that public transport in general can make an important contribution to quickly achieving these goals.”
Furthermore, a shuttle service with smaller electric vehicles through the Rheinaue park will be organised by the German Environment Ministry.
Using clean energy efficiently
Transport aside, energy is another important aspect of reducing the footprint of COP23. In an effort to use energy efficiently, the organisers are seeking to keep all indoor areas at an average temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, and not warmer. And participants are requested to turn off room lights and ventilation as well as ICT equipment when not in use.
In addition to maximising energy efficiency, the COP organisers are making sure that the energy that is used in buildings is to the greatest extent possible from renewable sources.
“We have a target of 80 percent renewable energy all over the conference,” says Winkler, adding that he and his team would have to make an assessment of whether this target has been reached at the end of the conference.
The secretariat of UN Climate Change runs on 100% renewable energy, some of it sourced from solar panels on the roof of its headquarters building.
The Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Dr Ipalibo Banigo, on Wednesday, October 25, 2017 identified malnutrition as the cause of 53 per cent of deaths in women and children.
Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Dr Ipalibo Banigo
Banigo made this known in Port Harcourt at the opening ceremony of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria Week/Annual General Meeting and Pre-convention meeting.
She spoke on “Economic Empowerment of Women under the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017/2010.”
The deputy governor said studies had shown that women were central to economic growth of any nation.
“Investment in women is economically important,” she said.
She decried the gender gap in employment (labour) circle, saying, “it can take about 70 years to close up the gender gap in the labour sector’’.
Banigo said that women had suffered from activities of pipeline vandalism and illegal refineries.
“Women should be given more political appointments to enable them to participate in decision-making and represent the interest of women,’’ she said.
The deputy governor said that educating a girl-child was one way of empowering a woman, while engagement in agriculture remained a way out of poverty and hunger.
In her remarks, the Vice-President of FIDA, Mrs Inima Aguma, said that the body considered education, intellectual and skills development as very important.
Aguma said that in line with this, the organisation had institutionalised the mandatory continuing legal education.
According to her, FIDA Nigeria engaged in training, workshops, lectures, seminars and discussions on topical issues, aimed at improving and developing the intellectual and professional capacity of its members.
Mr Rufus Godwin, the Head of Service in Rivers, said that FIDA had produced many prominent women, now occupying very strategic positions in the country.
The Federal Government has promised to collaborate with the stakeholders in Kogi State to give the necessary support to the state government in managing disaster.
Flooded parts of Lokoja in Kogi State in 2012
Dr Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, team leader, Disaster Risk Management team, Office the Vice-President, made the promise while speaking with journalists on Wednesday, October 25, 2017 in Ibaji, Ibaji Local Government Area of the state.
He said that the team was in the state to carry out assessment of flood sites and disaster-prone areas in nine riverine local governments of the state.
Oke-Osanyintolu said: “We are here to do a holistic assessment, resource mappings, risk analysis and look at the overview of preparedness of Kogi State to manage any form of disaster.
“We are trying to mitigate the impacts of both man-made and natural disasters on the people of Kogi.
“We want to help reduce the rate of mortality and morbidity that is always associated with disaster.
“We have done a holistic assessment in areas worst hit by flood; we are satisfied with our assessments because Kogi government and other stakeholders are doing their best.
“We are going back to the drawing board to do a holistic planning; we will ensure that Kogi is well-prepared to effectively and efficiently respond to any form of emergency disaster.”
Oke-Osanyintolu, who is also Senior Technical Adviser on Disaster Risk Management, said the collaboration became necessary because of the realisation that the state government could not manage disaster alone.
The Deputy Governor, Mr Simon Achuba, who received the team, said that the state government had made provision in its 2017 Budget to equip the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
He said the equipment include flying boat for rescue operation and other materials, to mitigate the effects of flooding.
“On 2017 flood, we took some steps ahead of time by doing monthly sanitation to clean our drainage system, flood sensitisation campaign and stakeholders meeting; if not, the situation would have been terrible just as in 2012.
“I come from a flood-prone environment; as I speak to you now the road leading to my local government in Ibaji is cut-off due to flood.
“We thank the Federal Government for coming to our aid,” he said.
Contributing, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, expressed delight over the team’s visit to the state.
She said: “It is exciting and encouraging that the Federal Government is having more reawakening to our challenges in Kogi.
“It is an assurance that the people of Kogi have not been forgotten.”
Chairmen of Kogi/Kotonkarfe, Lokoja, Idah, Igalamela and Ibaji Local Government Areas, in their separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), also commended the Federal Government for the exercise.
According to them, the gesture would go a long way in ameliorating the hardship facing victims of disaster in the state.
They also thanked the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, for sending the team down to the communities for flood assessment and make some interventions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise, which began on Monday ended on Wednesday with the team visiting some communities affected by flood in the state.
The team also paid courtesy visit to the Achandu Attah Igala, Dr Yusuf Ameadaji, who lauded the efforts of the federal and state governments, saying that idea behind the visit was to reduce the effects of flooding in his domain.
He, however, appealed to the Federal Government to provide the victims of the flood with succour, saying that the flood had destroyed their roads and farm lands.
“We are very grateful to the Federal Government for taking up these issues and for giving the needed support that our people deserve,” he said.
The Benue Team Lead, Synergos, Mr Michael Agon, has emphasised the organisation’s commitment in facilitating the continuous approach for the systems shift of agriculture in Nigeria and enlighten stakeholders on agricultural opportunities in Benue State.
Group photograph of participants at the meeting
Making this known on Wednesday, October 25, 2017 at an Agricultural Visionary Group (AVG)/Agricultural Innovation Group (AIG) Stakeholders Meeting held in Makurdi, Benue State, he stated that they create a platform for exchange of ideas in order to enable stakeholders in agriculture make informed decisions.
He maintained that Synergos would continue to strengthen the agricultural system by establishing stakeholder working groups and building in the capacity of key public and private sector agricultural stakeholders to problem solve, mobilise resources, implement improvement initiatives in Benue State.
According to Mr Agon, as they try to find solutions to agriculture in the state, stakeholders need to look inwards and tap into many potentials in agriculture such as yam export trade which the state stands to gain big in the over $30 billion trade as Nigeria accounts for 75% of world yam produce, boasting of a spread of 60 varieties, with Benue having eight out of the lot.
Stressing further, the Team Lead stated that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Synergos is poised to enhance agricultural opportunities in the country, hence, their training of aggregators in post-harvest farming to enhance crop handling processes among others.
Also speaking, a stakeholder and farmer cum Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Benue State University, Makurdi, Mrs Mwuese Mnyim, stated that agriculture is a worthy venture and sustainable for livelihood.
Mrs Mnyim, who charged that Benue people must be at the heart of yam export in the country, added that they should cash in on the opportunity provided now with the commencement of export of the crop.
In his submission, Director, Agriculture Services, Benue State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr Thomas Nongo, extolled the state governor for his effort in payment of counterpart funds for agricultural interventions which has developed agriculture in Benue.
According to Nongo, the state now has comparative advantage in agriculture in several crops, including citrus, yam etc and has actually reclaimed its food basket status.
Participants at an international conference on rivers and deltas in Africa on Wednesday, October 25, 2017 said the management and challenges of ecosystem could be better addressed through integrated and multi-sectoral framework.
A polluted river in the Niger Delta region
The conference, with the theme, “Sustaining Ecosystem Services of Africa’s Rivers and Deltas”, was organised by a consortium of universities in the Niger Delta and hosted by the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State.
The stakeholders called on the government to encourage research in ecosystem services for sustainable development of the Niger Delta.
The participants, who were drawn from the academia, government, non-governmental organisations and community representatives, said there had not been sufficient investment in the ecosystem services in the region to complement revenue from oil and gas.
The universities include the University of Port Harcourt; Federal University, Otuoke; Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; Delta State University, Abraka; University of Calabar; and University of Uyo.
Others are Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt; University of Benin; and the Foundation for the Conservation of Nigerian Rivers.
The conference was the second in the series in response to a 10-year Global Delta Sustainable Initiative agreed upon by a network of international experts on rivers and deltas at a conference in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in September 2013.
The stakeholders, in an eight-point communiqué, urged the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to collaborate with government, host communities, NGOs and other corporate bodies to chart a new course for sustainable development agenda for the Niger Delta.
They also called for a paradigm shift from the current flood control and crisis management approach to sustainable and integrated flood-risk management method in line with global best practices to address flood disasters in the region.
They further suggested that tertiary institutions in the Niger Delta need to strengthen research collaboration on sustainable development activities in the region.
The participants also advised that the IOCs, government and communities should emphasise and carry out modern environmental pollution control measures to save the rivers and deltas.
