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Experts seek incentives for climate-resilient, low-carbon investment

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Experts seek incentives for climate-resilient, low-carbon investment

A group of environmentalists has called on government to create an incentive for intensive engagement on climate resilience measures in the economy.

Participants at the Dialogue
Participants at the Dialogue

Participants at the 6th session of the Development Dialogue on Climate Change and Renewable Energy that held recently at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) in Ondo State, who made this submission, emphasised that the dialogue provided considerable insight and knowledge on climate change issues and climate action projects they could initiate.

Apart from providing the opportunity of earning higher incomes through low-carbon projects and carbon rebates, the day-long session, the participants agreed, also provided an avenue whereby networks in climate change were created and opportunities opened.

Themed: “Climate Change: Cross-Sector Scaling of Mitigation and Adaptation Initiatives in Nigeria” and organised by the Carbon Exchange Trade in Collaboration with FUTA, SMEFUNDS, New Nigeria Foundation and Noaz International, the forum, it was gathered, created a platform whereby professional partnerships were brokered and output from Nigeria’s Climate Action Forum communicated to the global audience.

Apart from creating a platform for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the forum was described as a local action in line with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Climate Action in global intensification of knowledge and capacity through advocacy on climate change.

In view of the need to create awareness on the debilitating effect of climate change on national economies and how to mitigate its effect especially in the country, the Africa Roundtable on Climate Change under its Climate Action Forum in Nigeria, a coalition of local action groups, hosts regular Development Dialogues on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Carbon Emission Reduction.

The FUTA session, according to the organisers, was designed to enable academic institutions to endow research and projects on climate mitigation and adaptation including climate smart agriculture, renewable energy as well as carbon emission and landscape resilience.

Prof Adebiyi Daramola, Vice Chancellor of FUTA, said the overall advantage of the Dialogue would be seen in climate change mitigation, adaptation and finance which are critical to building both economic, social and environmental resilience, scaling clean projects in sustainable landscapes and cities, biodiversity preservation as well as renewable energy, energy efficiency, environmental screening and monitoring and value-chain development.

Prof. Olufemi Ajibola, chairman of the session and Managing Director of New Nigeria Foundation, said issues on climate change are relatively new therefore there is need to create increased public awareness. He said an alternative to oil is imminent giving the drop in oil prices globally, adding that it is unacceptable for the country to overlook the opportunities of the new energy solutions, and so it is imperative to harness alternative resources in solving the problems of the country.

Director of CERAD, Professor Ayorinde Olufayo, was optimistic that the dialogue would provide linkage to global climate change and renewable energy and create technologies for ecosystem that will aid livelihood resilience for rural communities.

In a presentation titled: “Mitigation and Adaptation Initiatives for Sustainable Economic Development”, Innocent Azih, Director, Carbon Exchange Trade, said mitigation of climate change would be achieved through policy measures that emphasise scaling of climate friendly products and technologies, climate regulations, low-emission transportation and building construction as well as adaptation practices such as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and stable long term financing for new greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation technologies.

While highlighting mitigation measures and policies, Azih posited that climate change recognition now identifies climate-friendly products and technologies as well as slow and long term financing from GHG technologies. He also identified carbon pricing as an effective mitigation measure as well as private sector response in the form of clean energy projects such as solar energy and clean cooking technologies.

In a presentation that explored research readiness for local action on climate change, Director, Centre for Renewable Technologies (CRET) at FUTA, Professor Olurinde Lafe, stressed the need for concerted efforts to globally address climate change. He said local actions which include legislation, advocacy and adoption of a clean development mechanism would have great impact in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Professor Lafe said Nigeria has abundant renewable energy sources in the form of solar, wind, biomass, gas thermal, ocean waves and tides, adding that there are research opportunities for project development in renewable energy sources through the use of available energy conversion technologies and waste to energy opportunities. He said opportunities abound in local action which according to him will solve employment problems and at the same time resolve the energy challenges facing the nation.

Professor Lafe outlined top research and development topics for local action which include: harnessing multiple renewable energy sources, distributed energy generation, micro grids high capacity energy storage, fuel cells and smart building architecture and engineering.

Farming, forestry top list of jobs most linked to suicide

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Farming, forestry top list of jobs most linked to suicide

A US study has listed farmers and foresters among the people most likely to take their own life.

Farming
Farming

The research carried out by America’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that those who work in farming, fishing, and forestry are the top most likely to commit suicide, compared to those in other jobs.

Published last week, the data was gathered from 17 US states in 2012. Occupational codes were applied to 12,312 suicide cases from the National Violent Death Reporting System.

Rates for each profession were calculated by the number of suicides per 100,000 population. For farming, fishing and forestry, the rating stands at 84.5.

Other job sectors ranked below farming, fishing and forestry were construction and extraction; installation, maintenance and repair; production; and architecture (with a rate of 32.2).

The group that encompassed arts, design, entertainment, sports and media was seventh, with a rate of 24.3.

The lowest rate of suicide, 7.5, was found in the education, training and library occupational group.

Approximately 40,000 suicides were reported in the United States during 2012 – the 10th leading cause of death among people aged 16 and over.

“Understanding suicides by occupational group provides an opportunity for prevention, but such data have not been reported recently for a broad population or examined by sex and occupation classification,” said the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report acknowledges that the findings are subject to limitations, such as human and computer errors in categorisation.

However, the researchers hope that forthcoming data, gathered in 2014 from across 32 states, might provide more representative findings and allow them to examine occupational trends over time.

How smallholder farmers can food secure Africa

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How smallholder farmers can food secure Africa

One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to “End hunger, achieve food security and adequate nutrition for all, and promote sustainable agriculture.”

Chairperson of the Committee for World Food Security (WFS), Amira Gornass
Chairperson of the Committee for World Food Security (WFS), Amira Gornass

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa number around 33 million, representing 80% of all farms in the region, thereby contributing up to 90% of food production in some sub-Saharan African countries.

These facts state the importance of this group of farmers in ensuring food security in Africa, especially if the regional governments could provide incentives, education, farm inputs as well as favourable policies that would strengthen their efforts towards mass food production.

As major producers of food, African governments must pay more attention to the smallholder farmers. They must be made to, in the first place, be food sufficient so that they could become non or less dependent on governments for subsistence. All farmers’ needs towards food production should also be made affordable in order to incite the zeal in them to support food security programmes of governments.

More so, African governments should partner with organisations like the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to enhance food security as well as boost nations’ agricultural productivities.

It is commendable to note that, through its Committee for World Food Security (WFS), the FAO is strengthening the African smallholder farmer in order to enable him contribute his quota in addressing global food insecurity.

The Chairperson of the Committee for World Food Security (WFS), Amira Gornass, disclosed in an exclusive interview during the organisation’s recent Regional Conference for Africa, which held in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast, that smallholder farmers make up the world’s largest producers of food. She added that they supply 70 percent of overall food production.

“Smallholders are at the heart of the agricultural sector by supplying 70% of the overall food production. They are at the centre of agro-food systems, mainly as producers, but also as consumers and labourers and increasingly as processors and traders. At the same time, 70% of the 1.4 billion poor people in the world live in rural areas with smallholders representing three quarters of these rural poor,” she said.

Gornass underlined the need to strengthen smallholder farmers’ role and their livelihoods because, according to her, policy interventions that address food insecurity and malnutrition should consider that they are engaged in a variety of interrelated markets (such as local and international, output and input, labour and financial) and perform multiple roles in rural areas.

“The CFS,” Gornass emphasised, had “developed a number of recommendations to address the specific challenges faced by smallholders. In 2011 and 2013, respectively, it endorsed policy recommendations on “How to increase food security and smallholder-sensitive investments in agriculture” and on “Investing in smallholder agriculture for food security and nutrition,” adding that, “currently, the committee is discussing a set of recommendations to strengthen smallholders’ access to markets, which are expected to be approved at the Plenary in October.”

The recommendations, she further stressed, resulted from extensive discussions and negotiations among representatives of member states, UN bodies, civil society and private sector organisations, financial and agricultural research institutions and were informed by the independent reports of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), the scientific arm of CFS.

She pointed out that “drawing on its analysis of the potential contribution of smallholders to the four dimensions of food security and nutrition (availability, access, utilisation and stability), the committee recognises that, with the support of adequate policies and public investments, smallholders can greatly contribute to economic growth, employment, poverty reduction, emancipation of marginalised groups and the reduction of social and economic inequalities.”

Gornass however posits that for smallholders to be able to contribute to food security and nutrition, “we not only need to better understand and recognise the importance of local and domestic food markets for smallholders and the need to strengthen markets’ data collection systems to better inform public policies; the potential role that smallholders can play in international markets, as well as the financial and capacity building opportunities they have, but also the challenges in terms of standards to be met and conditions to be faced; the importance of smallholders in creating stronger linkages between consumers and producers; and the reliance on smallholders’ production to support the development of public procurement programmes for vulnerable consumers.”

On the migration of the African smallholder farmer from traditional to modern methods of farming, Gornass noted that “smallholder farmers’ education, especially in the area of the application of farm inputs, is a worrisome impediment to the achievement of food security.”

She explained that the CFS had identified a set of major areas where increased support was “needed to improve smallholders’ productivity: water and land management, sustainable management of genetic resources, soil conservation practices, better transport systems and infrastructure, including feeder roads and rural electrification, in addition to appropriate pre and post-harvest handling and storage facilities.”

For the smallholder farmer in Africa, as elsewhere, these are necessary if he is considered a critical stakeholder in tackling the challenge of food insecurity and, considering the limited resources available to them, Gornass suggests that “smallholders should also make better and more efficient use of those resources to increase their productivity in a sustainable way.”

According to her, CFS had recommended the strengthening of “participatory research, extension and farming services to increase smallholders’ productivity and diversify their production, ideally by combining their traditional knowledge with the findings of the newest scientific research.”

Measured in terms of value, she views that “productivity strictly depends on prices of inputs, equipment and machines but in several developing countries, their reduced availability and higher costs make this increase in productivity more difficult to achieve. In addition, smallholders, when not acting collectively, are pure price takers. For this reason, we need to enhance smallholders’ access to inputs as well as strengthen their capacity to act and invest collectively in order to reduce individual costs and increase smallholder’s economic influence on prices.”

The CFS boss warned that higher levels of productivity that were associated with higher use of inputs and the development of labour-saving technologies might lead to a reduction in agricultural employment, which needed to be somehow addressed with corrective policies and investments. “In this context, the committee has recommended that rural non-farm economies should be supported in order to provide smallholders with alternative off-farm employment opportunities, to diversify their sources of income and to manage the associated risks. Last, investments should also be made to build local capacities, develop entrepreneurial skills and promote innovation in value chains,” she recommended.

By Abdallah el-Kurebe

Climate justice: Spectre at the Paris feast

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Climate justice: Spectre at the Paris feast

Michael Donoghue writes in this issue that Pacific Islanders are responsible for only a tiny fraction of GHG emissions, yet they are suffering the worst effects of global warming. This unjust situation should be at the heart of the climate debate but was overshadowed in Paris by the much-acclaimed progress made elsewhere. We would question how much progress can truly be made without a commitment to climate justice. Climate justice demands action from those who are contributing most to climate change and benefiting from resource depletion: developed countries and multinational corporations. This is the area that is crying out for philanthropic action predicated not on charity but directed towards systemic change.

Jubilation greeted the adoption of the Paris Agreement last December in Paris, France. Photo credit: unfccc.int
Jubilation greeted the adoption of the Paris Agreement last December in Paris, France. Photo credit: unfccc.int

The mindset required for action can be summed up in three words: conviction, compassion and commitment. By conviction we mean full agreement that global warming is happening and that it is primarily the result of human activity. By compassion we mean empathy with and care for the victims, to date mostly in the Global South. That conviction and compassion combine to require commitment to do something about the situation; to put our resources where our hearts are and curtail the toll being taken on the planet.

 

Is the Paris Agreement a turning point?
The Paris Agreement has been hailed as a turning point in global efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change. Nearly all countries, polluters and non-polluters, rich and poor, have for the first time agreed to do something about global warming. So at least there is conviction, but the value of conviction without action is limited. Will mere acknowledgement that climate change is urgent and that temperature increases above pre-industrial levels must be kept to 1.5 °C, or well below 2 °C, be enough to save life as we know it on the planet?

 

Key concepts of justice missing
The key concepts of justice, including common but differentiated responsibility, have barely survived on life support provided by the preamble to the Paris Agreement. This is an opportunity for philanthropy to back the countless groups such as Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth International and Third World Network advocating that northern nations increase their level of ambition in line with the requirements of common but differentiated responsibility. Apart from the lack of attention to climate justice, there are two big omissions from the agreement. First, as La Via Campesina, the international peasants’ movement, puts it (and as other articles in this issue have pointed out), ‘there is nothing binding for states, national contributions lead us towards a global warming of over 3 °C and multinationals are the main beneficiaries. It was essentially a media circus.’

 

No mention of fossil fuels
Second, the agreement made no mention of fossil fuels, the great culprit in the unfolding climate crisis.

The influence of the fossil fuel lobby was made most apparent at the Warsaw COP in 2013 when there was an official coal conference during the negotiations. It is estimated that the only way to keep temperature rises to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels is to stop burning fossil fuels by 2030. Philanthropy can and should fund the groups and coalitions organising and advocating for alternatives, while at the same time divesting its own endowments from fossil fuels. Some have already set the example, as shown by Ellen Dorsey, Sian Ferguson and Clara Vondrich and a recent Alliance interview with Stephen Heintz of Rockefeller Brothers Fund. But as 350.org leaders May Boeve and Bill McKibben also write, ‘(Big) philanthropy is not sufficiently involved. Many foundations, including some of the largest environmental funders, have not divested from fossil fuels.’

 

Need for funding for adaptation as well as mitigation
Wanjira Mathai and Sean DeWitt point to another area in need of philanthropic attention: grassroots movements fighting to preserve local ecosystems embodied in forests. While the Paris Agreement highlights carbon markets and the embedded carbon offsets, forest communities, especially those of indigenous peoples, see their trees and soils as arenas of life and culture and not as carbon sinks. Tackling global warming at the grassroots level means supporting groups fighting for their way of life and their culture. These fights provide opportunities for compassion which lead resolutely to commitment. Commitment demands action now, not simple intention. It requires philanthropy to fund adaptation on the scale that it has been funding the search for mitigation.

There are areas where justice has a still more obvious application. Nations have considered climate change to be a national security issue and their obstinate dependence on dirty energy has led to a form of climate warfare against protesters. While nations continue to see their interests tied up in big dams and fossil-dependent power generation, these sites have become the focus of protests. In some cases, protesters have become the targets of violence.

 

Emissions reductions determined by national interests
The linchpin of COP21was the so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). The INDC platform was set by COP19 in Warsaw. As the name implies, nations were required to submit the level of emissions reduction they would contribute towards limiting temperature increases above pre-industrial levels. The key attraction was that countries would set their own targets, in contrast to the Kyoto Protocol which required that countries reduce emissions in line with a global assessment of contributions, abilities and historical responsibility. In other words, under Kyoto, the emissions reduction plan was based on the reduction in emissions that was actually needed. Under the INDCs, national interests determine what actions should be taken. Analysts at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) indicate that with the INDCs the world is set for a 3-4 °C temperature increase at the minimum, which would mean irreversible loss of lives, species and habitats, territories and citizenship due to climate change.

 

Catastrophe pending
This sort of temperature increase would make Africa, for example, uninhabitable because the continent would suffer temperatures 50 per cent above global averages. Temperatures in the range of 4.5-6 °C would mean incineration of the continent, heatwaves, floods, catastrophic droughts and crop failures, among other calamities. Island communities and coastal regions would disappear under water. Maxine Burkett notes in her article, ‘in earth’s documented history, we have not seen the amount of carbon released combined with the speed at which we are depositing it in the atmosphere.’ As she suggests, climate-induced migration will need to be a funding priority of foundations. More starkly, Pablo Solon, former chief climate negotiator for Bolivia, remarked: ‘The Paris agreement will force us to choose (which) of our children will survive, because in a +3 °C world, not all will be able to live.’

 

How philanthropy can support climate justice
We have considered at length the reasons why the current climate negotiation pattern is leading us into more crises. The good news, however, is that grassroots communities are both innovative and resilient in the face of challenges. Thousands of climate justice groups around the world, including coalitions such as Climate Justice Now and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, are offering solutions from those most affected, including indigenous peoples, women and youth. They are being supported by funding from foundations including Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Chorus, Kendeda, Oak and Overbrook Foundations, some of whose efforts are profiled in this issue.

We urge philanthropy to become more committed: to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in renewable energy; to fund adaptive strategies developed at local and regional levels; to support people’s movements  putting pressure on world leaders; to make grants for the protests that will be erupting around the planet to shut down fossil fuel facilities; to fund alternatives such as wind and solar power; and, perhaps above all, to consider the issue of climate justice which should inform all our efforts to combat the various forms of climate change.

By Nnimmo Bassey (founder/director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation and chair of Global Greengrants Fund) and Terry Odendahl (president and CEO of Global Greengrants Fund)

Global Witness: Chinese miner’s role in Congo gold rush

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Global Witness: Chinese miner’s role in Congo gold rush

Chinese-owned mining company exporting to Dubai gave armed groups AK-47s for access to gold, alleges Global Witness, an international NGO that works to break links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses 

Sophia Pickles, Senior Campaigner, Global Witness
Sophia Pickles, Senior Campaigner, Global Witness

Armed groups in Shabunda territory, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, received gifts of arms and cash from a Chinese mining company and made up to $25,000 per month extorted from local miners during a recent two-year gold boom. In just one year, up to $17 million of gold produced by Kun Hou Mining, the Chinese-owned company, went missing and was likely smuggled out of Congo into international supply chains, Global Witness has revealed.

At the same time, the Congolese state lost out on tax revenues on up to $38 million of artisanal gold produced per year during the gold rush, due to smuggling and misconduct by provincial authorities. The gold rush focused on the Ulindi River reached its peak in 2014 and 2015 and continues to this day. Evidence gathered by Global Witness also shows a provincial authority colluded with armed groups in illegal taxation of miners while another altered official export documents so gold looked as though it was coming from legally-operating mines.

Global Witness’ investigation reveals the extent of the problems in eastern Congo’s artisanal gold sector. Eastern Congo has seen an uptick in gold production in recent years, the revenues from which could have been used to address the region’s desperate poverty but have instead often funded armed groups and corrupt officials. Most of eastern Congo’s artisanal miners – around 80% – work in the gold sector. Recent international reforms have aimed to stop Congo’s mineral wealth funding armed groups. Global Witness warns today that the Congolese government needs to hold companies and government officials involved in such abuses to account in order for these reforms to work.

Armed groups, known as Raia Mutomboki, received at least two AK-47 assault rifles and $4,000 in cash from Kun Hou Mining, which operates mechanised gold dredging machines along the Ulindi River in Shabunda territory, South Kivu province of eastern Congo. In addition, the armed men taxed artisanal miners operating locally-made dredgers extracting gold along the river. Local authorities also collaborated with the Raia Mutomboki, through a tax sharing deal. The taxes collected by authorities appear to have disappeared, depriving Congo of much needed revenue which could be used for health and education.

“There were over 500 cases of malnutrition reported in Shabunda town in 2014 and yet the significant revenues generated by this gold boom benefitted armed men and predatory companies instead of the Congolese people,” said Sophia Pickles, Senior Campaigner at Global Witness. “The Congolese government must enforce its own laws to ensure that companies in its gold sector do not produce or trade gold that has funded armed groups. Any company breaking these laws must be held accountable for their actions. Provincial mining authorities that fail to properly govern the minerals sector must also be held liable.”

Global Witness’ research shows that almost half a million dollars’ worth of Kun Hou’s gold was exported to a Dubai company through official channels. The rest of the company’s estimated $17 million of gold production is likely to have been smuggled out of the country.

Global Witness has also found evidence that mining officials in the provincial capital, Bukavu, deliberately falsified documentation to obscure links to Shabunda. Officials changed the gold’s origin on official export documents to show instead it came from the handful of legally-operating artisanal mines in South Kivu. This pattern has been repeated with other mines in the province. As a result, it is much more difficult for international buyers to be sure that gold has not funded armed groups.

“Provincial authorities overseeing Shabunda’s boom have, by their actions over the past two years, directly undermined international and the national government’s efforts to reform eastern Congo’s artisanal gold trade,” said Pickles. “States have a responsibility to ensure that companies do no harm, including checking supply chains for links to conflict and human rights abuses – Congo and the United Arab Emirates have dramatically failed in this respect.”

Global Witness’s report River of Gold also shows that:

  • South Kivu’s provincial government and mining authorities continued to support Kun Hou Mining despite repeated legal violations by the firm and repeated requests from Congo’s national government in Kinshasa to shut down its operations.
  • Mining officials in Shabunda town working for SAESSCAM, a governmental body mandated to support artisanal miners, ran an illegal taxation racket in areas where the local dredgers operated, including in collaboration with Raia Mutumboki armed groups.
  • Gold from Shabunda’s boom was sold on to a gold trading house in Bukavu that then sold it to their sister company, Alfa Gold Corp DMCC, in Dubai. Neither firm carried out supply chain due diligence to international standards, which would have revealed that the gold had been obtained in direct contravention of Congolese law and UAE Guidelines. Alfa Gold Corp DMCC has a wholly owned UK subsidiary registered in London’s Hatton Garden jewellery area. Alfa Gold in Dubai and London did not respond to request for comment.
  • Documents show that a French citizen Frank Menard, who worked for Kun Hou Mining, is deeply implicated in the company’s wrongdoing. Raia Mutomboki armed groups wrote to Menard in February 2015 to thank him for the two AK-47 assault rifles and $4,000. Menard also signed an official document confirming the sale of Kun Hou’s gold to Alfa Gold’s Congolese office. Global Witness’ attempts to contact Franck Menard were unsuccessful.

In recent years there have been significant international efforts to tackle the link between violent conflict, human rights abuses and the minerals trade in Congo and elsewhere including international supply chain guidance set out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) five years ago, which has been a legal requirement in Congo since 2012. The US also passed a law and most recently industry supply chain guidelines based on the OECD standard were agreed in China. The Chinese guidelines set a precedent for Chinese companies to recognise and reduce supply chain risks and if adhered to should allow companies sourcing minerals from high-risk areas to do so responsibly.

Kun Hu Mining refused to comment in response to three requests from Global Witness. SAESSCAM have strongly denied that its agents collaborated with armed groups.

NASA’s Juno space probe arrives Jupiter’s orbit

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NASA’s Juno space probe arrives Jupiter’s orbit

The NASA spacecraft Juno successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit on Monday, marking what seems like a huge achievement in a five-year and $1.8 billion journey to investigate the largest planet in our solar system

Juno probe enters Jupiter’s orbit
Juno probe enters Jupiter’s orbit

Braving intense radiation, a NASA spacecraft reached Jupiter on Monday after a five-year voyage to begin exploring the king of the planets.

Ground controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin erupted in applause when the solar-powered Juno spacecraft beamed home news that it was circling Jupiter’s poles.

The arrival at Jupiter was dramatic. As Juno approached its target, it fired its rocket engine to slow itself down and gently slipped into orbit. Because of the communication time lag between Jupiter and Earth, Juno was on autopilot when it executed the tricky move.

“Juno, welcome to Jupiter,” said mission control commentator Jennifer Delavan of Lockheed Martin, which built Juno.

Mission managers said early reports indicated Juno was healthy and performed flawlessly.

“Juno sang to us and it was a song of perfection,” JPL project manager Rick Nybakken said during a post-mission briefing.

The spacecraft’s camera and other instruments were switched off for arrival, so there weren’t any pictures at the moment it reached its destination. Afterward, NASA released a time-lapse video taken last week during the approach, showing Jupiter glowing yellow in the distance and its four inner moons dancing around it.

The view yielded a surprise: Jupiter’s second-largest moon, Callisto, appeared dimmer than initially thought. Scientists have promised close-up views of the planet when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion mission.

The fifth rock from the sun and the heftiest planet in the solar system, Jupiter is what’s known as a gas giant – a ball of hydrogen and helium – unlike rocky Earth and Mars.

With its billowy clouds and colourful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that likely formed first, shortly after the sun. Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed.

Named after Jupiter’s cloud-piercing wife in Roman mythology, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter.

Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for nearly a decade, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth.

Juno’s mission: To peer through Jupiter’s cloud-socked atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles. Among the lingering questions: How much water exists? Is there a solid core? Why are Jupiter’s southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

“What Juno’s about is looking beneath that surface,” Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton said before the arrival. “We’ve got to go down and look at what’s inside, see how it’s built, how deep these features go, learn about its real secrets.”

There’s also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiter’s atmosphere is shrinking.

The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometres), took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Along the way, Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise that far out powered by the sun, beating Europe’s comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments.

In the coming days, Juno will turn its instruments back on, but the real work won’t begin until late August when the spacecraft swings in closer. Plans called for Juno to swoop within 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometres) of Jupiter’s clouds – closer than previous missions – to map the planet’s gravity and magnetic fields in order to learn about the interior makeup.

Juno is an armoured spacecraft – its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.

Like Galileo before it, Juno meets its demise in 2018 when it deliberately dives into Jupiter’s atmosphere and disintegrates – a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planet’s potentially habitable moons.

Courtesy: AP

Climate: Ogun distributes seeds ahead tree planting spree

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Climate: Ogun distributes seeds ahead tree planting spree

The Ogun State Government has concluded plans to distribute free seedlings of teak, gmelina and other species of trees to individuals and residents of the state in order to curb the effects of climate change as well as environmental degradation.

Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal
Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal

Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, made this known recently while addressing stakeholders during an official visit to Sagamu, Iperu, Ago-Iwoye and Owode-Egba forest ranges.

Chief Lawal described planting of trees as crucial in sustaining the ecosystem as, according to him, the benefits derivable from planting trees are immense and vital to human survival. He added that, apart from its economic importance, the effects of climate change would be mitigated with a significant reduction in the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through gaseous exchange.

The commissioner said that government had decided to encourage private bodies and individuals to plant trees across the state, calling on them to key into the tree planting exercise by applying for free tree seedlings in the Ministry of Forestry just as the government on its own was embarking on a tree planting campaign that will be flagged-off soon.

Speaking at the occasion, the Chairman, Ogun State Association of Processed Wood Producers and Marketers, Chief Adetola Dosumu, appealed to the state government to consider creating a forest reserve in the Remo axis to revive the moribund saw-mills in the area.

Meanwhile, the Divisional Forest Programme Officers in the state have been called upon to intensify efforts on revenue generation in their respective forest ranges and ensure wood merchants play according to the rules of operations.

Chief Lawal gave the charge while addressing foresters in Sagamu, Iperu, Ago-Iwoye and Owode Egba free area ranges.

Chief Lawal said irrespective of the fact that the ranges were free zones had not precluded them from generating more revenue, advising that they should map out strategies towards the objective of raking revenue into government coffers.

The Commissioner however ordered that all saw-mills yet to renew their operational licenses in defiance of government directive on the payment of operational licences, should be sealed off immediately.

He therefore urged the DFPOs to ensure that contractors renewed their property hammers, hackney permit for felling machine and timber lorries in accordance with the rules guiding forest operations in the state.

Countries move to enforce maiden illegal fishing treaty

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Countries move to enforce maiden illegal fishing treaty

More than 30 countries have formally deposited their instruments of adherence with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to enforce the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), the world’s first international treaty designed specifically to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, globally.

Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO
Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO

Adopted by FAO members in 2009, the treaty marks a big step beyond self-regulation of the seafood sector, from which illicit activity siphons off up to $23 billion a year.

Now in force, the PSMA, according to Jose Graziano da Silva, the Director General of the FAO, would reduce the number of fishing activities which, findings say that last year alone, one of every fish sold around the world was caught illegally.

“Under this new agreement, parties are obliged to ensure that any fishing vessel that comes to its port, even for refueling, must announce that it is doing so and submit to an inspection of their log book, licenses, fishing gear and, to be sure, their actual cargo. Port State authorities agree to share information on violations, thus making it harder for rogue fishermen to shift their practices elsewhere,” da Silva stated.

According to the DG, those in illegally fishing business, “who not only profit but also jeopardise coordinated efforts to manage global marine resources in a sustainable manner so that fishing can prosper as a viable activity and people everywhere can enjoy its nutritional benefits – face higher operating costs and the serious risk of being caught.”

However, the treaty, which presently only applies to countries that have consented to it would, da Silva explained, require more traction and accelerated effectiveness and impact, if more countries joined.

“As they do, there will be ever fewer port-hopping opportunities for rogue vessels determined to flaunt laws that regulate catch levels, usually to protect biodiversity and stock levels. But have no doubts. History’s net has been cast. Membership is destined to grow,” he assured.

The DG congratulated the parties to the treaty, which include Australia, Barbados, Cabo Verde, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, the European Union (on behalf of its member states), Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Guyana, Iceland and Indonesia.

Others are Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Palau, Republic of Korea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Tonga, United States of America, Uruguay, Vanuatu.

The Treaty Seeks to:

  • Make it harder for improperly caught fish to enter the market, disrupting a critical step in seafood’s complex ocean-to-table supply chain
  • Ensure compliance by adhering to the treaty
  • Ensuring that ports that offer services to outlaws will not escape notice

FAO views the stand as a turning point in the struggle against illegality in the fisheries sector and the PSMA is a concrete step towards healthier oceans, as called for by Goal 14 of the new Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

FAO emphasised how sustainable development required integrated efforts and relied on network effects – which in turn could catalyze positive feedback loops.

“The requisite port state inspections, for example, may indirectly complement other global concerns, including the use of slave labor in fishing-industry, illicit trade in endangered species and better management of Marine Protected Areas,” da Silva concluded.

By Abdallah el-Kurebe

Uganda supports gender-responsive biodiversity conservation

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Uganda supports gender-responsive biodiversity conservation

Uganda, a country renowned for its rich biodiversity, is taking strides to integrate gender considerations into its national policies, plans and programmes to implement its obligations under the Convention and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. The efforts by Uganda are said to be contributing to the ongoing global effort to achieve gender equity and equality, as reflected in the 2015-2020 Gender Plan of Action under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

According to gender roles, women are responsible for domestic chores, including food production, cooking, cleaning, caring for the children, and fetching water. Photo credit: projecthavehope.org
According to gender roles, women are responsible for domestic chores, including food production, cooking, cleaning, caring for the children, and fetching water. Photo credit: projecthavehope.org

At a workshop held in Kampala from 13-14 June 2016, participants underscored the important role of women and issues of gender in the conservation and sustainable use of the country’s biodiversity. The workshop brought together women and men working in the fields of gender and environmental conservation from civil society and government organisations, to learn about international and national policy frameworks that support biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Most significantly, they reviewed the country’s revised National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) to identify relevant gender considerations. These discussions were followed by a day-long national workshop on 15 June, involving representatives from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the United Nations Development Programme, as well as representatives from academia and civil society. Recommendations on the integration of gender issues will be considered by government for inclusion in the final revised NBSAP.

The workshops were part of a project being implemented by the Secretariat of the CBD in collaboration with the Global Gender Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with funding from the Government of Japan through the Japan Biodiversity Fund. Uganda is one of three pilot countries in this project, aimed at building capacity of developing countries to integrate gender considerations into their biodiversity policy, planning and programming. The workshop was jointly organised by NEMA and IUCN. NEMA coordinates the implementation of the CBD and NBSAP on behalf of Government of Uganda, and has coordinated the process to review and update the NBSAP.

According to the CBD, Uganda’s rich biodiversity offers a significant opportunity to support the country’s poverty reduction efforts through sustainable tourism, sustainable agriculture and other natural resource-based sectors. It adds that the conservation and sustainable use of these rich biological resources are also essential to maintain clean water, fertile soil, and the provision of ecosystem services, upon which the rural and urban poor depend.

“Sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity requires effective engagement of all of the users of biological resources – indigenous peoples and local communities, women, men, boys and girls – in decision-making, planning and implementation, and ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of benefits,” CBD notes, adding that a revised NBSAP that clearly incorporates gender issues will set the stage for Uganda to take an effective, inclusive approach to implementing its obligations under the Convention and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011- 2020.

Lessons and outputs from this and the other two pilot projects will be shared with delegates at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from 4 to 17 December 2016.

Why ecosystem services should be mainstreamed into agriculture

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Why ecosystem services should be mainstreamed into agriculture

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have launched a technical guidance document which aims to promote mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services into agriculture through national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs), and thereby contribute towards achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity

The technical guidance document, titled: “Mainstreaming ecosystem services and biodiversity into agricultural production and management in East Africa”, was launched in May to coincide with the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi and in celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity (22 May).

“With climate change bringing more frequent and more extreme weather events, we need to build more
resilient agricultural landscapes and food systems,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive
Secretary. “A key strategy to achieve this goal is through sustainable ecological intensification of
agriculture, including a reduced reliance on agrochemicals for increasing and improving yields, while
minimizing negative impacts on the environment by integrating the ecosystem services delivered by
biodiversity into agricultural production systems.”

The report points out that agriculture must achieve the twin goals of food security and environment
conservation, while simultaneously increasing production to meet global food demands. In this context,
biodiversity and ecosystem services lie at the heart of many solutions for sustainable increases in
agricultural productivity that not only deliver better outcomes for food security and nutrition, but also
reduce the negative externalities of current agricultural systems.

The environment-agriculture discussion is presently shifting from a polarised debate of trade-offs to a
discussion of mutually supporting agendas. To that end, FAO is collaborating with the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the CBD, through a European Union funded project supporting
African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. The goal is to strengthen regional and national
institutional capacity for the synergistic implementation of target multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) related to chemicals and biodiversity, for example providing alternative options to unsustainable agricultural practices, including the overuse of inputs such as agrochemicals. The document was prepared for the East Africa region to help build institutional capacity for synergistic implementation of MEAs, including the CBD and other biodiversity and chemicals related conventions, and to provide information on how ecosystem services and biodiversity can be mainstreamed into agriculture. Specifically, it provides practical guidance for implementation of ecosystem based solutions that benefit production, and policy measures for mainstreaming ecosystem services in agriculture to support the integration of agricultural concerns at the national level, through the development and implementation of their NBSAPs.

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