It is time to face the fact that the Congo Basin forests will increasingly be threatened as development needs of member countries surges if urgent measures are not put in place to harmonise development challenges and conservation, experts have warned.
The Congo Basin Forest
The Congo Basin forest, which holds more than 25 billion tons of carbon and thousands of animal and plant species, is today impacted directly and indirectly by industrialisation, with palm oil plantations taking the lead.
“We need to step out of the conservation box and work with the different stakeholders to balance environmental needs with socioeconomic requirements,” pointed out Jef Dupain, Regional Director, Central and Western Africa at the African Wildlife Foundation.
Speaking at a panel discussion on industrial agriculture and Apes Conservation at the Congo Basin Forest Partnership meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, experts agreed there was a need to guide development actions and encourage best practices for sustainable resource conservation.
“The expansion of industrial palm oil plantations into the habitat of endangered animal species like apes in the Congo Basin forest area has become evident,” said Bas Verhage of WWF citing the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The book accordingly examines the interface between ape conservation and industrial agriculture in the Congo Basin and West Africa and notes that Ape habitats like that of other species in sub-Saharan Africa are seriously threatened. It more specifically explores the drivers behind the agricultural expansion and addresses ways to minimise and mitigate its impact on biodiversity.
In Cameroon for example, the Dja forest reserve in the South of the country is seriously under threats from an expanding rubber plantation just like the Ebo forest in the Littoral region is facing challenges from growing palms plantation.
The case of some 142,000-hectare Ebo forest that sits less than 150 kilometers from the capital of Cameroon, Yaounde and even closer to Douala, both cities with populations of over two million, is seriously under threat. Like Korup National Park and the Dja Reserve, Ebo is also home to a wide variety of wildlife, including the rare Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee and the drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus), a highly endangered baboon-like monkey that, until the 1980s, scientists had written off as extinct.
The conservation actors at the panel discussion called for an integrated cross-sector approach to national management that factor in development and conservation needs through building bridges and linkages between protected areas, spaces designed for production, infrastructure and mining activity.
“There is an urgent need to work towards reconciling the conservation and development visions so as to optimise land use. The concept of protecting of Congo Basin should also include opportunities for development and job creation. Conservation and development are closely linked rather than conflicting concepts. Thus conservation projects should be tailored and harnessed to provide solutions to development and employment challenges,” says Andreas Athanas, Programme Design Director, AWF, in an interview.
Experts agree transparency must be the watchword in the conservation and forest management industry in coming years to bolster and foster trust among stakeholders.
“There is a need to build a permanent platform for inclusive dialogue between the States, the private sector and other actors to create an enabling environment and ensure transparency,” Athanas said.
Nigerian entertainer, Yemi Alade, has taken the lead in spreading Shell’s #makethefuture campaign which aims to inspire youths and entrepreneurs for bright energy ideas that can help in the global quest for more and cleaner energy.
Shell #makethefuture ambassador, Yemi Alade (middle), flanked by Shell Kenya Country Chair, Brian Muriuki (right), and GravityLight co-inventor, Jim Reeves, with students of Daraja Academy, Kenya during the Shell #makethefuture 50 Nights Tour, last week
The multiple award nominee and winner of the 2015 MTV African Music Award for Best Female Artist joined Shell-organised 50 Night tour of Kenya last week to celebrate the benefits and installation of GravityLight in some Kenya communities after she united with Oscar-winner, Jennifer Hudson, and four other music stars in Rio, Brazil on Best Day of My Life music video for #makethefuture.
GravityLight, one of seven energy ideas celebrated in Rio, Brazil in October by Shell, offers a clean, safe, affordable and reliable alternative to other fuel sources including kerosene lamps, which are used in homes by millions of families in Africa, including Nigeria. The low-carbon innovation does not need batteries or sunlight and costs nothing to run. It works by connecting an elevated bag filled with 12kg of rocks or sand to a pulley system. Each time the weight descends to the ground it powers a generator to create 20 minutes of light.
“The event in Kenya brings closer home how innovations and collaborations can help bridge the energy divide in the face of a rapidly growing global population,” said the Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor. He added, “By continuing the conversation on providing a wider, more sustainable mix of energy resources for the world’s growing population, Shell is provoking thoughts on tomorrow’s solution, and supporting young entrepreneurs through our 13-year-old LiveWIRE programme.”
Speaking on the relevance of her music to Shell bright energy ideas campaign, Yemi Alade said her music offered a good platform to draw attention to the energy needs of the world with strong appeal to engaged millennials who form the bulk of her fans. “Music offers a good platform and this is particularly true in Nigeria where we are working hard to provide the energy the nation badly needs to develop. In my music, I try to encourage people to look at the innovative side of life and this is what the ‘makethefuture seeks to achieve in the energy space. I’m pleased to be part of the energy train,” she said.
“GravityLight is really close to my heart as it’s an invention that solves a problem I know only too well. For many years as a girl, I had to use candles and kerosene lamps for hours while studying at night. Now with GravityLight, people have a safer way to study and families can have quality time in evenings. Being part of #makethefuture has been amazing – I’ve seen how it changed lives in Rio, and it’s moving to see it do that again in my home continent,” she added.
Other bright energy innovations being supported by Shell are:
Bio-bean – which explores how to reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions from transport by turning coffee dregs into a sustainable transport fuel,
Capture Mobility – demonstrates how roadside turbulence from cars and trucks can generate clean power for local communities,
MotionECO – uses waste cooking oil to help to create a market for renewable diesel in China (in transport, public services and logistics) and discourage the harmful reuse of cooking oil,
Pavegen – converts power from footsteps into renewable energy that can power a community, and
Shell Eco-marathon – a global competition that sees students design ultra-efficient cars, and challenges them to see which can travel furthest on one litre of fuel.
Thomas Kuhn was the first scientist to use the term paradigm shift in his influential book titled, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” in 1962. He opined that “a successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual development of mature science.” Kuhn maintained that, as paradigm shifts via revolution, multiple prosperity and some anomalies come with it. It is clearly evident that the continuous drop in oil price by more than 40% since June 2014 when it was $115 a barrel, which now is below $70, after five years of stability is deterring Nigeria government from coping with spending commitment and thereby increasing government borrowing both home and abroad.
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun
Though crude oil has contributed immensely to Nigeria’s revenue since its discovery at Oloibiri in 1956, research has shown that, for a nation to attain the pinnacle of her success, its economy has to be diversified. Diversification does not come in a vacuum; sustainable development of other sectors of the economy cannot be achieved if we continue to romance the current mono product economy. As we all know that diversification will birth solid economic growth and this in turn will bring about a lot of prosperities for the nation; we should also not forget the fact that every paradigm shift comes with its own anomalies. That is the reason why this essay seeks to explicitly analyse the successes and challenges that come with diversification.
Foremost, it is germane to state clearly that one of the goods that come with diversification is improved human resource management. Due to the inability of the oil sector to employ a large number of our talented graduates, they tend to find succor in seeking greener pasture in advanced countries of the world at the detriment of our nation’s development. The development of other sectors of the economy will give room for efficient human resource management and this will also help identify and trap best brains that will catapult the nation to the brim of her success.
Unemployment will be a thing of the past if we can shift paradigm from a mono economy to a diversified one. The oil sector could only employ limited number of the population and worst still, only experts, leaving the rest to wander in disarray. History has shown that the agrarian economy of the 1960s employed 70% of the Nigerian population. So, there is no doubt in our mind that unemployment in Nigeria will be reduced significantly if the economy is diversified. Also, crime in its various forms such as kidnapping, robbery, scamming, and forgery will be reduced to nadir as these sectors will meaningfully engage the teaming population.
Furthermore, economic growth and development will be achieved. Economic growth according to Wikipedia, brings about increase in a country’s real level of national output which can be caused by an increase in the quality and quantity of resources and improvement in technology, that is, the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to population. Economic growth usually gives way for economic development, which in turn helps to ensure maximum quality of life through availability of social and infrastructural facilities such as pipe-borne water, uninterrupted power supply, improved healthcare delivery, and good road network among others.
There will be an increase in foreign exchange earnings through exportation of commodities that outsourced importation. The development of other sectors will strengthen our local markets and thereby helping our currency to appreciate over others. Most of the products consumed in the country will be locally made and this will help put a stop to excess importation of finished product. There is, however, a need to encourage Nigerians to patronize made in Nigeria products so as to grow Nigeria. Naira will only appreciate if local production and consumption are greatly encouraged.
In continuation, paradigm shift from a mono economy to a diversified economy will bring about an effective and efficient use of resources. Most of the raw materials needed by manufacturing industries to better the lives of the people are available in abundant in Nigeria. Tapping from these abounding resources will not only bring about increase in the country’s income per head, that is, per capita income but will help put a stop to unending importation of goods and services that has crippled our development as a nation. Extractive industries no doubt will have enough raw materials to tap from.
The diversification of other sectors will help boost foreign investment thereby motivating foreign investors to invest their capital heavily in domestic companies or other domestic assets. However, local industries will have access to necessary resources needed both in cash and kind to increase production and at the same time produce quality goods and services.
More so, we should not forget the fact that Kuhn maintained that there are anomalies for all paradigm, which the Nigerian economic revolution (diversification) may not be an exception. Some of the challenges that may come with diversification of the Nigerian economy include; challenge of inclusion, corruption, sustainability, environmental quality, educational training and management system among others.
A challenge of inclusion, however, is an international concept addressing how we can involve the grassroots in developmental plans without making them poorer. Thus, if diversification is not well managed, the only people that would largely benefits from it would be the upper and middle class. One of the reasons why policies failed in the past are because we use the top-bottom approach instead of bottom-up approach to solve problems rather than consulting them to know what they truly want. The fear now is that such act may continue.
In addition, corruption is the bane of every society. The reason why the mono product economy failed to be the answer to solving the puzzle facing us as a nation is because corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of this nation and if we fail to kill corruption, corruption will one day kill us and render the diversification of the economy useless. If this problem is not addressed, some cabals will still be looting the country’s treasury which may in turn affect the success of the economic revolution.
It is certain that environmental quality will be threatened. Extractive industries have high capacity of degrading the environment. Environmental degradation ranging from oil spillage, indiscriminate felling of trees, air and water pollution will be on the rise and this will be deleterious to the environment, aquatic and man’s health.
As if that is not enough, it is worrisome that the system of education cages graduates without giving them the opportunity of thinking outside the box. We might need to start outsourcing experts from outside the country to establish and manage these sectors, increasing the competition for job amongst our youth. Sustainability is also an important factor that must be looked into. How do we sustain the projects such that we don’t leave diversification again to concentrate on a particular field? How do we ensure that the sectors selected would be sustainably managed such that it lasts generations? These are issues that must be well addressed if we are to get it right.
We should not forget that management system borders most of the challenges. We have not proven a good track record of management in Nigeria. How do we make sure the systems to be created are not just running but have limited negative trends on the people and the country at large?
In conclusion, it is apparent that the exploration and exploitation of crude oil resources brings more anomalies to us than blessing. As such, diversification from such sector via revolution to other sectors of the economy to achieve more economic prosperity must be ascertained. Even if some challenges that can easily be dealt with will be experienced as stated by Kuhn, we must not underestimate the unending prosperities that come with it. That is why Professor Wole Soyinka submits that “I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we’d never smelled the fumes of petroleum.” God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
By Alabede Surajdeen (environmentalist and political commentator; alabedekayode@gmail.com; @BabsSuraj)
Senior Special Assistant to the Benue State Governor on Public Utilities, Sanitation and Environment, Nathaniel Ikyur has stated that the state government is set to partner with some companies to create wealth from waste.
Outcome of waste-to-wealth: Paper bags from waste paper
According to Ikyur, who spoke after a special Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) sanitation exercise held over the weekend at the NUJ House in Makurdi in his honour, in the next few weeks, the Benue State Government would go into partnership with the companies in order to help Benue and her citizens generate wealth from waste.
“Waste generation and disposal should be properly managed and that is what the government wants to do through the partnership,” he stressed.
Ikyur, who also called for all hands to be on deck to help the government in salvaging the sanitation situation in the state, noted that partnering with the NUJ to carry out the monthly sanitation exercise would further publicise and sell the idea to the public, as there is every need for attitudinal change towards sanitation and waste management.
In his address, the Vice Chairman of the Council, Martins Kajo, stated that the union decided to partner with the SSA considering the importance of sanitation, adding that there is need to carry out sanitation every week instead of just once a month.
According to Kajo, cleaning the environment is ideal in enhancing a healthy society, therefore, the union decided to come out and clean the environment and support one of theirs in his efforts in sanitising the environment in Makurdi.
Also speaking, Chairman NUJ Correspondents Chapel, Aloysius Umalo, said they came out to carry out the sanitation exercise as a mark of living up to the tenets of supporting a clean environment.
He said, “It is our duty as journalists to inform the masses of sanitation and it is also our duty to help in sanitising the environment by taking part in sanitation.”
In his submission, a veteran journalist with Radio Benue, Dr. Fidelis Otebe, who stated that change begins with one, noted that a clean environment is a healthy one therefore, as journalists, they need to show example by cleaning the environment.
He maintained that as the watchdog of the society, journalists too have a role to play in educating the public on the need to keep the environment clean as well as take part in doing it physically.
It will be recalled that at a recent meeting of the Union’s State Working Committee (SWC) and State Executive Council (SEC), members appraised the sanitary conditions in Makurdi which they attributed to the environmental activities of Ikyur.
According to the union, a letter of commendation has since been delivered to Ikyur and, in support of his efforts, they decided to hold a special sanitation exercise as a mark of honour and a means to encourage his good performance.
In another development, General Manager Benue State Environmental Sanitation Agency (BENSESA), Andrew Chile, while addressing journalists after the monthly sanitation exercise in his office, stated that the agency has put modalities in place to curb the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in Makurdi.
According to him, over 60 defaulters were last week arrested carrying out indiscriminate dumping of refuse and made to carry out the cleaning of the said areas to serve as deterrent.
He added that they have liaised with security agencies with clear instructions on arrests and those arrested next will be sorry for themselves as very drastic measures are coming ahead to address indiscriminate dumping of refuse.
Earlier this year, a project in Iceland reported an apparent breakthrough in the safe underground storage of the principal greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide – an option likely to be necessary if we’re to solve our global warming problem.
A core sample from research conducted to sequester carbon dioxide in basalt rocks. The white areas within the dark basalt rock core sample show where the carbon dioxide has reacted with minerals in the basalt and converted into a carbonate mineral similar to limestone. Photo credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
The Carbfix project, run by a leading Icelandic producer of geothermal power, Reykjavik Energy, announced that it had successfully injected 250 tons of carbon dioxide, dissolved in water, into an underground repository of volcanic rocks called basalts – and that the carbon carbon dioxide hadn’t just stayed there. No – it was way better than that. Instead the carbon dioxide had apparently become one with the basalt, undergoing a fast chemical reaction and forming a type of rock called a carbonate in two years’ time.
That’s a big deal because it means the gas would not escape back to the atmosphere again even if the underground repository were somehow compromised. And now, a group of American researchers has taken the science even farther, once again suggesting that storing carbon dioxide stripped from industrial processes, or sucked from the atmosphere, in basalt rocks may be a key part of the solution to climate change.
Peter McGrail of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a branch of the Department of Energy, and his colleagues were also working on storing carbon dioxide in basalts, based upon small scale laboratory experiments showing the gas does bind with the rock. And they, like the Carbfix project, were ready to scale up and perform an actual injection, in this case 1,253 metres deep into basalts from the Columbia River region of Washington State.
In their results reported recently in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, they go beyond the Carbfix project in several key ways, McGrail said. First, they injected carbon dioxide in its fluid, supercritical form, which is most likely to be how it is received and transported from industrial projects. And second, after two years had passed, they took core samples of the rocks, using a battery of tests to prove definitively that the CO2 had indeed turned into a carbonate rock called ankerite, comprised of calcium, carbon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, and manganese.
This was a key demonstration because there are some carbonates that occur naturally in basalts, and so it was important to distinguish the new rock from what had already been there.
“We’d seen these things in the lab, but the field is often a case where your best laid plans and ideas from lab experiments fall apart, and just don’t work out,” said McGrail. “And the fact now that we’ve seen this after just two years with the exact really same things that we’ve seen in the laboratory, it’s a really significant result for us.”
In effect, what the researchers in both Iceland and Washington State were accomplishing was a high speed version of the geological process known as “weathering,” in which carbon dioxide very slowly becomes locked away in rock layers.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the study was the researchers’ ability to analyse the very carbon itself inside the rock samples that they recovered two years after injection. Here, they looked at the ratio of two “isotopes,” or slight variants, of carbon to one another. This way, they were able to show that the rock contained a higher ratio of the slightly lighter carbon 12, as opposed to the somewhat heavier carbon 13, thus showing a signature that matched up with the fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide that had originally been pumped into the earth.
“There is no other possible explanation,” said McGrail. “The only way that those carbonates had formed, it had to come from the CO2 that we injected.”
McGrail says that after this successful field test, the next step for the research will now be to scale up and start injecting even larger quantities of carbon dioxide into basalts, in volumes more representative of an industrial scale operation.
The new study is impressive, said Klaus Lackner, a researcher at Arizona State University who directs its Centre for Negative Carbon Emissions, where he is developing technologies to capture carbon dioxide from the ambient air all around us – a process that would have to be complemented by some form of long-term storage of the gas. Lackner knew the project was ongoing but was not involved in the work.
“Taking this study together with the Icelandic study, you see real progress toward making in situ mineralisation a high quality affordable carbon storage technology,” Lackner said. “Sure, there are more questions to answer, but these papers represent immense progress. The two studies complement and reinforce each other.”
Lackner added that “basalts on land and below the ocean floor are so abundant that if they can be pulled in, we have indeed unlimited storage capacity.”
McGrail’s vision appears slightly different, though. He believes that, much of the time, CO2 will be sequestered in geological repositories that contain it safely, but that do not react with it to form rock. However, he thinks that in key locations where basalts are available but other repositories are not, basalts will be used.
But Lackner stressed the advantage of having the carbon dioxide permanently become rock.
“There is a real value in being sure that storage is permanent on a geological time scale and that the carbon does not need any further monitoring,” he said. “Once you made carbonate there is no reason why it would revert again. You hit the thermodynamic ground state and it is very difficult to dislodge it from there.”
Either way, the new research appears to be another step along the way to a world in which, even if our industrial processes necessarily produce lots of carbon dioxide, we have other options than to just let it spill into the atmosphere.
The world confab on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development better known as Habitat III was held in Quito, Ecuador from October 17-20, 2016. The city of Quito hosted the conference while the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) anchored the conference and provided the secretarial backup. At the last count, over 36, 000 delegates from 167 countries and 10,000 global participants were in attendance. The attendance at the conference, according to the organisers, was the largest participation ever recorded by local authourities, civil societies and other stakeholders at a United Nations conference.
Participants at the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador
The corollary of the Conference was a document titled New Urban Agenda(NUA) which over 100 member countries of UN-Habitat endorsed as the guidelines on how issues and challenges posed by urbanisation would be addressed in the next two decades. It was projected that by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities worldwide. This is a frightening figure. It, therefore, calls for a concerted effort by governments to develop a sustainable plan for a rapidly urbanising world. The NUA “seeks to create a mutually reinforcing relationship between urbanisation and development.” On the basis of this concept, the NUA has come up with “an aspirational framework (not legally binding) that will seek to guide U.N member states how best to ensure that urbanisation is sustainable, inclusive and operationalised for the benefit of people.”
The Nigerian delegation to the Habitat III Confab was led by the Federal Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), who addressed the assembly of member nations during the opening session of the conference. The snippets from Fashola’s address accessed online are recapitulated as follows: “that more than half of the global population already living in cities; that the urbanisation rate has been rising fastest in Africa; that about half of Nigeria population now lives in urban centres; that rapid urbanisation poses some problems and challenges; that cities play a crucial role in our lives, and are crucial engines of growth for the economy; that urbanisation can help to jump-start industrialisation and manufacturing; and that the incipient urbanization must, therefore, be exploited to unlock its economic potentials, and provide a solution for rapid transformation of our urban centres.”
Is Nigeria ready for urbanisation?This writer is quoting copiously part of the text of the Hon. Minister’s address for the purpose of this article. Having addressed a world assembly about Nigeria’s view on rapid urbanisation, its challenges, and the oppourtunities derivable from the process, one is tempted to ask: Is Nigeria really ready to deal with or confront the present problems and future challenges of the country’s rapid urbanisation?
Judging from the manifestations in Nigerian cities from the intermediate towns, the large cities, the metropolises and the pioneer megacity of Lagos, it cannot be truly confirmed that the preparedness and capability to deal with the country’s rapid urbanisation is real and firmly on the ground. Since the spin-off of Nigeria’s rapid urbanisation in the 1970s and post-oil boom era till date, the capability to plan and manage the cities effectively has been overwhelming. The rate of rural-urban migration, which is the main cause of the increase in urban population was never controlled either deliberately through policy fiat or program interventions.
While the influx goes on, there was little or no proactive approach to planning the urban centres in the true sense of urban planning. Where a semblance of urban planning was made, it was feeble and did not respond adequately and quickly to the ambulatory speed of urban expansion, thereby leading to a situation where planning was running after development instead of vice versa. Consequently, Nigerian cities were bombarded with the proliferation of slum settlements where migrants live under very deplorable and health-threatening conditions.
Till date, the situation remains pathetic while the speed of urbanisation is still gaining momentum. For example, “the population of Lagos in 2000 was six million and, in the year 2011, the population was 12.5 million and, by 2014, it has morphed from a metropolis to a megacity of over 21 million people and still growing.” Other cities within the country are also having a net increase in their populations.
“By 2020, the country’s population is projected to reach 203.7 million with an urbanization rate of 56.8 per cent. By 2025 and 2050 the latter is further projected to rise to 60.3 percent and 75.4 percent respectively,” says Nigeria’s Report for Habitat III, 2016. What all the statistics reveal is that rapid urbanisation will continue to be on the upward swing, which is typical of a developing country such as Nigeria.
Future challenges of urbanisation in Nigeria are very apparent. As pointed out earlier in this piece, over 70 percent of Nigeria population will live in cities across the country by the year 2050. Currently, Nigerian cities are debilitated by the problems associated with urbanisation to such an extent that the cities are left unfunctional in the provision of basic services and infrastructures, mobility and unsightly due to environmental unwholesomeness. The shortage of housing is steadily on the increase and finance is in short supply to cope with the essentials of planning and city management. It is therefore safe to imply that with a higher percentage of urban population, the challenges which the cities in Nigeria would contend with in the future will be mega and multi-dimensional. It is in these urban settlements that the battle for sustainable urban development will be won or lost. As a nation, therefore, we should begin to chart a course for the country’s urban future.
It is important to understand the inter-relatedness of the various problems posed by rapid urbanisation. The inherent problems often associated with rapid urbanisation are of consequence and inter-related. Meaning one problem is a causative factor of another problem. In terms of a solution, all the problems arising from incipient urbanisation in Nigeria cannot be treated in isolation from each. Both must be addressed in a holistic cause-and-effect approach. Furthermore, the pervasive and destructive nature of urbanisation problems in Nigerian cities cannot be overemphasised. Uncontrolled and not well-managed urbanisation has wrecked havoc in the urban centres.
For example, rural-urban migration triggers urban population increase and human congestion in cities. It increases the demand for housing and in a situation of the housing shortage and prohibitive house rent, people usually resort to self-help and improvise for their shelter. They prefer to live in overcrowded shanty towns despite the high health risk and their vulnerability to epidemics. The problem of vehicular congestion in cities is also connected to the sudden increase in the number people driving on the city roads causing air pollution through fumes from vehicle exhausts.
From this illustrated scenario, the connectivity of each of the problem is apparent. Therefore, addressing the root cause of urbanisation is pivotal while managing the problems is also of necessity since the process is unstoppable. This calls for the quick-fix and long-term interventions by the government and private sector initiatives in order for Nigeria’s teeming urban population most especially the marginalised migrants, to benefit from living in the cities.
New urban age calls for New Urban Agenda (NUA). That the world is in the fast lane of urbanisation is an incontrovertible reality. Echoes from the Habitat III Conference have further confirmed that the entire global community must realise that homo sapiens have woken up to a new dawn of rapid urbanisation and urbanism where the destination of most people is to migrate and live in the cities.
And that the choice of where people decide to reside is a personal decision, not governmental. Rather than misconstrue urbanisation as a burden, member nations must also consider the positive aspects of the human settlement transformation and get ready to deal effectively with the future challenges that urbanisation could pose.
The beginning of the journey to properly manage urbanisation is the well-articulated and far-reaching guidelines contained in the New Urban Agenda, which all member countries of the United Nations have endorsed and pledged to implement its provisions. The NUA is replete with a gamut of suggestions on how to successfully manage urbanisation by ensuring sustainable urban development, good urban governance, participatory urban planning, urban design, urban economy, urban ecology and environment, inclusive urban prosperity and equal oppourtunities for all and the coordination of urban and rural development strategies. The application of innovative technology forms part of the very detailed provisions of the NUA.
The domestication of the New Urban Agenda in Nigeria and the framework for its implementation must begin in earnest. The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing should go the extra mile to reproduce the 24-page NUA document and ensure its distribution to all the states of the federation and to the 774 local governments by way of wider dissemination of the provisions and sundry information contained in the NUA. The NUA must not be to the exclusive knowledge of the technocrats at the Federal level.
The document must also be circulated to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government to enable these institutions to have a clear knowledge of the exact role(s) they are expected to play in the implementation of the NUA document. For example, I foresee the Ministry of Environment, Transportation, Finance, Tourism and Culture, Health, Power, Works, Science and Technology, National Bureau of Statistics and National Planning Commission among others whose expected/essential roles are implicit in the document. Unless these institutions are brought into the picture of what their roles are supposed to be, they might be oblivious and remain complacent. This is the more reason why the anchor ministry responsible for Housing and Urban Development at the federal level which also doubles as the country’s secretariat for Habitat III should do the necessary follow-up so that all stakeholders are adequately informed and mobilised to be part of the implementation process.
By extension, all institutions of higher learning must not be left out of the distribution chain, most especially those offering a degree course in urban and regional planning. The NUA will serve as a guide for their curriculum review and updating. In line with what the NUA suggested, these institutions could develop a new programme of studies in urbanisation tailored toward the needs of urban managers, technocrats and other municipal officials who work for the state or local governments in the country.
The same case is also made for the organised private sector, the civil society, professional bodies and other desirable stakeholders. This all “inclusive approach” will go a long way in educating what to expect and how to respond to the challenges of future urbanisation. One of the cardinal principles of the NUA is: inclusiveness.
Finally, the entire document must be put on the Ministry’s website for ease of access by the reading public. The citizenry must have a shared mission and vision of the country’s urbanisation challenge and promise.
ByYacoob Abiodun (Urban Planner and Planning Advocate; wrote from Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos)
The certification gives evidence that the Government of Morocco has successfully addressed the management of improved sustainability throughout all event‐ related activities during the entire management cycle of COP22
This is the first time that an event in Africa has been certified under the standard. COP22 was attended by more than 22,000 people, and both the Government of Morrocco and the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) did everything they could to ensure that it was organised in a sustainable way, according to the UNFCCC.
The ISO 20121 is an international standard that helps to ensure that an event recognises its impact on society and actively contributes to the three dimensions of sustainability: economic, environmental and social.
The certification, awarded by the auditor Bureau Veritas, gives evidence that the Government of Morocco has successfully addressed the management of improved sustainability throughout all event-related activities during the entire management cycle of COP22. Among other things, the COP22 Sustainability Approach inludes the following aspects:
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the extent possible and offsetting of unavoidable emissions;
Distribution of re-usable bottles that can be filled at water dispensers available throughout the conference venue free of charge for all participants;
An ambitious paper reduction initiative, limiting hard copies and the distribution of paper publications and making available, free of charge, an innovative NFC‐based touch‐to‐collect technology to disseminate electronic materials in an easy and interactive way;
Waste separation;
Re-use of all temporary structures;
Using local and seasonal food and distributing unsold meals to local associations;
Using solar energy where possible and complementing the bus fleet with electric cars;
Giving priority to hotels with environmentally friendly practices.
The first UN climate change conference to receive ISO 20121certification was COP21/CMP11 held in 2015. The certification obtained first in Paris and now in Marrakech sets an example for future UN climate change conferences and beyond, and the good practices established will be shared with future host countries, added the UNFCCC.
Multiple water protectors and their allies who stand in support of the efforts to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the U.S. were arrested on Friday at the Kirkwood Mall in Bismarck. These water protectors had gathered to hold a prayer circle, raise awareness with shoppers and disseminate information on the human and environmental impacts of the pipeline. Heavily weaponised and undercover police were said to have physically assaulted and arrested close to 50 protectors within minutes of gathering peacefully.
Police confront a group people protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will transport oil across 1,134 miles of Native prairie land, valuable farm land and critical waterways, including the Missouri River
Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network commented, “As a person born and raised in North Dakota, I’m ashamed at the violence against water protectors who wanted only to circle up and pray for the water that sustains life for all of us. This violence and racism isn’t new to me as a Native person, but it still angers me that this kind of attack, by locals and police, would happen because people don’t want an interruption to their shopping day. The climate crisis will interrupt life and destroy all of us unless we wake up to what is happening.”
“The actions by the police today further expose the interests of the state in protecting corporate interests over human life,” said Angela Adrar, Executive Director of the Climate Justice Alliance, who is in North Dakota this week as part of a delegation of 100+ community leaders who are acting in solidarity with the indigenous leaders at Standing Rock. “What we witnessed today was the violent and unwarranted response that law enforcement has consistently had toward those who are acting within the law to raise awareness of the devastating impacts that the Dakota Access Pipeline could have on indigenous communities and this entire region.”
If completed, the Dakota Access Pipeline would transport oil across 1,134 miles of Native prairie land, valuable farm land and critical waterways, including the Missouri River. The pipeline most acutely endangers the drinking water for the Oceti Sakowin and Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation, however a spill from the oil pipeline poses an economic and environmental threat to communities across the region.
“Our delegation represents people from across the country who have suffered the impacts of environmental degradation in our own communities. We came to the mall today to show the residents of Bismarck that, while we are particularly concerned about issues of sovereignty and survival for indigenous people, we’re also here out of concern for the safety of the entire area and our future generations who will have to pay the price of the pipeline,” said Cindy Wiesner, National Coordinator of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance.
In a news release, North Dakota’s Bismarck Police said 33 people had been arrested for “criminal trespass,” stating that Kirkwood Mall is “private property.” Police arrived at the scene at 12:48 p.m. and reported 100 protesters were gathered. According to police, protesters formed a prayer circle. Those who didn’t leave the premises after being told to do by police were arrested.
“Kirkwood Mall management advised BPD they would not allow any protest activities, nor any open prayer services in or on their property,” said police. “Kirkwood Mall informed police that if any of these activities occur on or in their property that any individual(s) involved need to be told to leave Kirkwood Mall property.”
Videos of the protests and subsequent arrests show at least one protester on the ground shouting “Water is life” while being arrested. Amnesty International tweeted a video of the arrests saying: “Following arrests at a North Dakota mall today, we reiterate our demand for police to respect the right to peaceful protest.”
Shortly after the conclusion of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP22) in Marrakech, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, visited Norway, where she met with government and local leaders and gave a speech at the 2016 Zero Emission Conference in Oslo. Hosted by the Norwegian NGO ZERO, the conference was designed to show that it is possible to create a thriving, modern society without the use of fossil fuels or fossil-based materials, and with zero greenhouse gas emissions. In her speech, Espinosa summed up the central outcomes of COP22, along with outlining the next steps for international, national and local climate action, and addressed the issue of what specifically Norway can do to help implement the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Patricia Espinosa summed up the central outcomes of COP22 in a speech at the 2016 Zero Emission Conference in Oslo, Norway
Let me start by thanking the Zero Emission Resource Organisation for the invitation to join the 2016 Zero Emission Conference. I’d also like to thank you all for coming and discussing what is expected from Norway, and indeed from every country around the world, now that the Paris Agreement has entered into force.
The question of what’s next has certainly been in thoughts of many individuals and institutions.
As I am sure you know, we just wrapped up COP22 in Marrakech. This latest climate change conference gave some good insight into what’s next. Let me share a few insights from Marrakech.
First, I saw unparalleled political will to act on climate change. The momentum that carried us from hundreds of thousands of people in the streets at the People’s Climate March in 2014… to an ambitious agreement in Paris last year has not diminished.
Political will brought the Paris Agreement into force just days before this year’s conference in Marrakech, setting a tone for the meeting and allowing us to hold the historic first Conference of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.
Second, Marrakech featured close cooperation to advance critical issues, which can be seen in the conference outcomes. Governments took a crucial step towards writing the rules of the Paris Agreement. They outlined the finance, technology and capacity building support that enables the developing world to move to low-emission development and build resilience. Marrakech featured long-term de-carbonisation plans from major emitters and medium-income countries.
The Marrakech Action Proclamation unites nations in the determination to implement the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.
This is all very positive and shows that governments are willing to work together. It also sends a strong signal that we have unstoppable global momentum on climate change and sustainable development.
Third and finally, Marrakech shined a light on movement in markets and in the private sector. And it highlighted climate actions by local governments.
In markets, we see a transformation to low-emission. The clean energy market is growing and now it makes more sense to choose renewable energy over all others. Investors are moving to cleaner, greener assets to secure stable returns. Throughout the private sector, we see high efficiency operations, sustainable supply chains and products that reduce consumer’s climate footprint.
Local governments are moving in the same direction. From cleaner air and adequate water to educated workers who can thrive in the green economy, community-level climate action clearly benefits people.
This is why what comes next is so important – our actions over the coming months and years will make a positive difference in the lives of billions of people.
So what is next?
We now need all nations to ratify the agreement and quickly act on their national contributions to the agreement. Norway is a leader in this regard.
Norway was the first industrialised nation to ratify the Paris Agreement and has set an ambitious target. The government here plans to reduce emissions by 40 percent by pointing energy, transportation, agriculture and industry at low-emission models.
The intention is to accomplish this by 2030, which is also the year Norway plans to be carbon-neutral. This is at least 20 years sooner than the long-term goal in the Paris Agreement to be climate neutral in the second half of the century.
This nation has a strong history as a leader and serves as an example for how overachieving can be done by a developed country. This leadership is clearly seen in Norway’s donor support for the intergovernmental climate process, and in your support for climate action in developing countries.
In this new implementation phase, the climate change Secretariat will face many challenges to adapt to our new global realities. We need your continued support, as do many countries around the world.
Achieving an ambitious transformation requires a rapid move towards zero-emission solutions. The Paris Climate Change Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals agreed last year provide the direction we need to go and a framework for solutions.
And friends, many solutions are needed.
This is where you can make a significant difference. You can help Norway capitalize on this leadership opportunity by spreading low-emission – and no-emission – solutions across the world.
The best and brightest minds, the innovators and influencers in public and private sectors, now need to step up and lead.
You have the opportunity to deploy technology that shows that a move to zero-emission personal and public transportation is possible for an entire country. You can accelerate the transformation to your own green economy through financial innovation and cooperation.
You can support other countries as they look to do the same. Procurement that protects forests is a great start, but there is so much more than can be done. For example, you can continue to research and work on solutions like carbon capture and storage that can align the fossil fuel infrastructure we cannot avoid with the zero-emission future we absolutely need.
Norway is truly positioned at the forefront of action. And now is the time to act.
The Paris Agreement and SDGs must promote these solutions and more, here and in every country. Zero-emission solutions should be integrated into all national development plans, all business models and into the everyday lives of all citizens.
This is what’s next – improving the lives and livelihoods of people in local communities, while making significant gains towards our common global goals.
We must build on progress made to date. We must work together to spread these solutions around the world, across societies and sectors of the economy.
Together we can deliver a future that is peaceful and prosperous for all, using low-emission solutions that keep our planet healthy and livable.
The involvement of local communities in forest conservation actions at all levels is key to the success of conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources in the Central African region, experts say.
Need for proper wildlife conservation: In Cameroon, some 32 chimpanzee skulls have been seized since the beginning of 2016 during operations carried out under the framework of the wildlife law enforcement initiative
According to African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), engaging local communities in natural resource management enhances conservation activities including the fight against poaching and wildlife trafficking.
“The local forest communities are key drivers to the fight against illegal and wildlife trafficking and thus the need to empower them in readiness to conservation challenges,” says Manfred Epanda, AWF Coordinator in Cameroon.
In a paper presented at a side event at the Congo Basin Forest Partnership meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on Tuesday, November 22 2016, Epanda underlined the need to adequately sensitise and educate the local population on the importance of conservation to their wellbeing.
“Studies by the AWF has shown the direct relationship between the level of education of the population and attitudes towards conservation,” he said
According to the studies, the involvement of the local people in the conservation process will enhance conservation by some 11.40 percent, pointing out that much resources including wildlife and money can be saved by improving the attitude and knowledge of local people towards conservation.
Experts agree there is a direct relationship between the natural resource potential of a region and the socio-economic wellbeing of the population who rely on these resources for cash and subsistence income.
“The local population directly rely on their natural resources for survival, but the exploitation of these resources must be done sustainably,” says Richard Eba’a Atyi of CIFOR.
“We do not discourage hunting by the local population as a source of food. The law is against hunting in protected areas and hunting for commercial purposes. This is what the AWF and other partners are against,” says Jef Dupain, Regional Director West Africa, AWF.
Conservation experts also called for reinforcement of wildlife trafficking laws in the Congo Basin forest region to curb increasing illegal poaching activities, especially in protected areas.
Manfred Epanda cited the case of the Dja Faunal Reserve in Cameroon known to be ivory trafficking hotspots, necessitating the reinforcement of the wildlife law and continuous education and involvement of the local population in the protection process.
“The co-management of protected areas with the local people permit for mastery of the local reality like culture, language, people and provide the opportunity for the population to identify with the project,” he said.
The Dja Faunal Reserve, he explained, is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) world heritage site that is facing significant challenges although numerous conservation initiatives are presently ongoing in and around the reserve.
Unfortunately, it attracts the attention of traffickers because it is one of the last remaining refuges for wild apes and many other endangered species in the region, Epanda explained.
Chimpanzees are totally protected wildlife species by the 1994 wildlife law, which stipulates that anyone found in possession of parts of a protected wildlife species, is considered to have killed the animal experts said. The aim is to protect animals like the chimpanzee that are facing serious threats from poaching.
In Cameroon for example, and according to statistics, some 32 chimpanzee skulls have been seized since the beginning of 2016 during operations carried out under the framework of the wildlife law enforcement initiative started by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) in 2003 to effectively enforce the laws.
MINFOF has since been working hard to ensure that those involved in the slaughter and sale of chimpanzee parts are prosecuted because their acts infringe the wildlife law, experts said.
