The Green Climate Fund (GCF) must not channel its money through two international commercial banks that are allegedly funding the coal industry, civil society groups meeting at the GCF’s Board in Songdo, South Korea, have said.
Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth U.S
In a statement released on Monday, the groups claimed that the GCF must reject applications for accreditation by big banks HSBC and Crédit Agricole, which are seeking to receive and manage GCF funds.
“The Green Climate Fund Board must reject HSBC and Crédit Agricole. Creating new business for big banks with large fossil fuel portfolios and poor records on human rights and financial scandal would undermine the very purpose of the Fund,” said Karen Orenstein of Friends of the Earth U.S.
“To accredit HSBC and Crédit Agricole is to short-change the vulnerable communities and the countries that the Fund is meant to directly benefit. There is no profit to be made in building the resilience of those adversely impacted by climate change. Public funds must be used to support local communities in developing countries, not to subsidise big banks,” said Sam Ogallah of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.
The GCF’s mandate to work directly with developing country institutions is what makes it innovative, the groups say. Targeted funding will help to build skills and expertise in poor countries, allowing governments to better meet the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable people in their countries.
Sam Ogallah of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)
“Accrediting HSBC and Crédit Agricole would be inconsistent with both the Paris Agreement, and with upholding high human rights standards. Any private sector partner of the GCF must have a credible strategy in place to make its entire portfolio and operations consistent with keeping global temperature rise to no more than 2 °C, let alone well below 1.5 °C,” said Annaka Peterson of Oxfam.
“The accreditation of these banking giants would jeopardise the reputation of the Green Climate Fund and expose it to unnecessarily high fiduciary risk. HSBC and Crédit Agricole provided US$7 billion and US$9.5 billion, respectively, to the coal industry between 2009 and 2014, and their coal financing does not show a clear downward trend. Moreover, HSBC is deeply embroiled in massive financial scandal,” said Yann Louvel of BankTrack.
A U.S. judge recently ordered the release of a report by an independent monitor overseeing the cleanup of HSBC’s massive money laundering – the report is said to be so damning that it would provide a “road map” for criminals seeking to launder money and finance terrorism.
About 172 NGOs released a statement calling for the rejection of HSBC and Crédit Agricole by the GCF. A copy of the statement can be found here. Appended to the statement are annexes on the fossil fuel financing trends of HSBC and Crédit Agricole, both of which fail to show a clear downward trend, while their renewables financing trails far behind their fossil fuel financing.
For generations, the Ekuri people have relied completely on their ancestral forest for all of their needs. It provides not only fruits, vegetables and other forest products but also their medicines and shapes their unique culture, language and identity. The Ekuri Initiative, an NGO, was established to protect their forests and has successfully brought development benefits to their villages at the same time. But now this forest, and with it the entire Ekuri way of life, is threatened with destruction.
The governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, has announced the construction of a 260 km superhighway to go from the coastal city of Calabar to a small town called Katsina-ala in Benue State to the north.
The superhighway will rip through the heart of the Ekuri rainforest, apparently opening it up to farming, logging and hunting on a massive scale.
The government has acquired a 20 km wide swathe of ancestral land of thousands of other forest-dependent villagers along the entire 260 km length of the six-lane superhighway.
The Ekuri know that their forest, homes and way of life are at stake. They intend to protect their forest through peaceful protest and are calling for international support.
The Ekuri blocked the arriving bulldozers from entering the forest and refused to accommodate the construction workers. The workers have since begun destroying the forest in a neighboring community.
“When citizens become dispensable as the superhighway project in Cross River State is suggesting, they rise up in defence of right and life. If Ekuri community and everyone else fail to speak out, the 33,600 hectares of pristine tropical forest in this community in addition to several thousand hectares of forest and farm lands in other locations in Cross River will give way to a superhighway,” said a source.
Ekuri people kick against the projectBulldozers at work clearing the Super Highway’s route passing through parts of BokiThe ineffectiveness of ban on logging in Cross River State is exposed as wanton timber extraction goes on in Boki, close to Boje, the LG headquarterTimber extraction in Boki
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has decried the controversy surrounding the promised monthly stipend to unemployed Nigerians, urging the Federal Government to convene a high-level committee on the National Basic Income Scheme.
Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria
One of the cardinal campaign promises of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last general elections was a monthly stipend to unemployed Nigerians when the party is elected to power at the center.
President Muhammadu Buhari, while in Saudi Arabia in an interactive session with Nigerians last week, reportedly said that the payment of the monthly handout of N5,000 as promised by the APC which is the platform on which he emerged as president, was not his priority.
In a statement issued in Enugu, ERA/FoEN described the president’s remarks as a double speak of the present administration on the issue, saying it is “unfortunate and smacks of taking Nigerians, particularly the unemployed, for granted”.
ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo, was quoted in the statement as saying: “We are perplexed that this issue has lingered with back and forths from the APC and the Presidency. Nigerians refuse to accept the current administration’s attempt to renege on this promise which is one of the several on which it rode to power. This is not acceptable.
“While ERA had welcomed the APC initiative when it was made during the elections, we had also pointed out that the N5,000 pledged was meagre and should be jerked up to above N10,000 to reflect the existing reality of massive poverty and disenchantment in the land. It is therefore a let-down that the APC-led government is now doing a u-turn by failing to implement the policy.”
According to him, the government should look for a way to generate funds to fulfill the pledge, even as he recommended that the ERA/FoEN proposal for sustainability of the initiative through a National Basic Income Scheme (NaBIS) for the unemployed is hinged on taxing wealthy Nigerians to pay those that are socially excluded.
He added: “The Federal Government should set up a high level National Task Force to explore ways of its implementation. ERA/FoEN suggests that a one percent tax on earnings exceeding N500,000 can complement budgetary provisions for NaBIS.
“From that source the nation can sustain the payment of the stipend. The NABIS is a social security system that ameliorates to an extent the inequality in the land and redresses the widening gap of inequalities.
“We cannot allow our people and particularly those willing to work to continue to wallow in poverty and idleness when a few are stinking rich and display their opulence in abominable abandon. This administration should do a rethink.”
China will this week release its 13th Five-Year Plan, a new economic, social and environmental blueprint for the country’s development through 2020.
After years of astronomical growth, China’s economic expansion has begun to slow. But instead of doubling down on the fossil fuel-intensive strategy that helped produce the country’s runaway growth, China’s leaders have stated that the old growth model has run its course, and that the country will build toward a more environmentally and economically sustainable model of development. Recent signs show that the country is already beginning to shift in this direction, and the new Five-Year Plan provides the opportunity to build on that progress.
China has made significant strides in decoupling energy use and emissions from economic growth – as of 2014 China was on track to exceed its 2015 energy and carbon intensity reduction targets. Three key trends have emerged:
Rebalancing the Economy: China’s leaders clearly intend to shift the impetus of the economy away from investment in heavy industry and toward consumer spending, services (such as retail businesses), innovation, and more innovative and efficient manufacturing. Under China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, services moved from 43 percent of the economy in 2010 to 51 percent last year, replacing manufacturing (which went from 47 percent to 41 percent of the economy) as the largest contributor to China’s GDP. Services continue to grow at a faster pace than manufacturing.
Limiting Coal: After years of steep growth in coal consumption, regional coal and carbon limits and new-coal-plant bans have been followed by a leveling off of coal use in 2014 and reduced output in heavy industries like steel (down 2 percent last year) and cement (down 6 percent). A continued shift away from these energy-intensive industries would weaken a major driver of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Non-Fossil Energy: China is the world leader in renewable energy, breaking records last year for installation of wind (32 gigawatts last year, 129 total) and solar power capacity (18 gigawatts last year, 43 total), and clean energy investment ($111 billion, nearly double U.S. investment).
Moreover, China-U.S. cooperation on climate has become an important driver of domestic, bilateral and global action. As part of last year’s breakthrough international agreement to address climate change, China committed to peak its carbon emissions around 2030 (with the intention to peak earlier), to derive around a fifth of its energy use from non-fossil sources by 2030, and to reduce the carbon intensity (carbon emitted per unit of GDP) of its economy by 60 to 65 percent from 2005 levels by the same date. These pledges complement the progress China is already making and set the stage for new action.
China’s New Five-Year Plan
China’s 13th Five-Year Plan will be an important foundation for this new action. The 12th Five-Year Plan outlined high-level policies and set development and environment-related targets, such as those for reductions in energy intensity and carbon intensity and an increase in the share of energy used from non-fossil sources. The new plan will likely define similarly broad goals and a framework for boosting further progress.
Early signs indicate that strengthening the shift to a sustainable development path will be a key focus. In a communique issued last fall outlining the broad contours of the plan, China’s leaders stressed the importance of innovation and the role of consumption in growth. They also emphasized environmentally sustainable development and called for greater accountability for environmental damage.
Further signs of alignment in this direction continue to emerge. Recently, China’s National Energy Administration stated that it would constrain the construction of new coal-fired power plants, particularly in regions with excess capacity. Authorities have halted approvals for new production capacity and called for eliminating unneeded capacity in coal mining and steel production. Several ministries called on the financial sector to withhold finance from industrial producers that fail to comply with environmental targets and policies. Further, China’s State Council recently issued a new urbanisation roadmap calling for resource and energy conservation and environmental protection.
And finally, for China to achieve its climate targets set out ahead of COP21 in Paris, it will need to pursue stronger action in both the short and long term. The 13th Five-Year Plan and its implementation will provide early signs of how it’s going to do this.
Don’t Expect the Five-Year Plan to Have All the Details
The plan will inform decision-making at all levels—the central government, ministries and agencies, provincial and local governments, and state-owned enterprises. However, the main document is broad and high level. Finer details – in particular those concerning climate and energy – will continue to be elaborated in 2016 and afterward, as specific sector and provincial targets and plans are established and responsibilities for implementation are allocated amongst the ministries.
China has made considerable progress in recent years. Signs are good – and expectations are high – that the 13th Five-Year Plan and follow-on sectoral plans will expand the country’s environmental protection efforts and launch a new wave of climate action.
The World Bank will hold a $20 million auction for carbon credits from projects designed to cut methane emissions, offering up to 10 times the current market value, the bank has said.
Greenhouse gas increases are leading to a faster rate of global warming. Photo credit: earthtimes.org
The auction, to be held on May 12 2016, comes at a time when investment in carbon-cutting projects under U.N. programmes has slowed as countries debate the design of a new global climate pact to come into force in 2020.
Methane is regarded as a highly potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 25 times that of carbon dioxide.
The so-called Pilot Auction Facility will offer tradable price guarantees, or a strike price, of $3.50 per ton for carbon dioxide emission reductions, compared with current traded prices around 0.35 euros ($0.38).
Participants will bid on the premium they are willing to pay for the contracts with the premium bid starting at $0.06 per tonne.
Negotiators from almost 200 countries agreed at last year’s climate talks in Paris to support the international trading of carbon credits as part of a new global deal but have yet to decide on the rules or the types of projects that could be included.
In the bank’s first auction, held in July last year, 12 winners secured $2.40 per credit for a total of 8.7 million credits.
Berta Cáceres, 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize winner, was on Wednesday night murdered in her home. Her assassins reportedly waited until well after dark before breaking into the house where she slept.
Berta Caceres
During her lifetime, the late Ms Cáceres rallied her fellow indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and waged a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam.
Since the 2009 coup, Honduras has witnessed an explosive growth in environmentally destructive megaprojects that would displace indigenous communities. Almost 30 percent of the country’s land was earmarked for mining concessions, creating a demand for cheap energy to power future mining operations. To meet this need, the government approved hundreds of dam projects around the country, privatising rivers, land, and uprooting communities.
Among them was the Agua Zarca Dam, a joint project of Honduran company Desarrollos Energéticos SA (DESA) and Chinese state-owned Sinohydro, the world’s largest dam developer. Agua Zarca, slated for construction on the sacred Gualcarque River, was pushed through without consulting the indigenous Lenca people – a violation of international treaties governing indigenous peoples’ rights. The dam would cut off the supply of water, food and medicine for hundreds of Lenca people and violate their right to sustainably manage and live off their land.
It is not yet known who is behind Cáceres assassination but, as an indigenous, environmental and human rights activist, she knew well the risks she faced, according to observers. In 1993, she co-founded the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (COPINH) to address the growing threats posed to indigenous communities by illegal logging, fight for their territorial rights and improve their livelihoods.
The work of COPINH is still sorely needed. Honduras has been called, “the deadliest place for environmental activists”, and is a country where corruption is a major problem. Twelve activists were killed last year alone for their efforts to defend land and the environment, according to a report by UK-based NGO Global Witness – more per capita than any other country (a record Honduras has held for the last five years). “This is a sad day for Honduras and the world,” said Jagoda Munic, chair of Friends of the Earth International, adding:
“Given the situation in Honduras, in which indigenous, environmental and human rights activists like Berta Cáceres are targeted by government and corporate security forces alike, international pressure is needed to bring the murderers to justice and protect those brave enough to speak out on behalf of their fellow citizens and the environment. Our condolences to her family, friends and all who worked alongside her.”
Munic adds: “At Friends of the Earth International, we have for a long time admired the work of Cáceres and COPINH, and at times worked together. In 2013, Friends of the Earth supporters joined voices around the world in support of Cáceres when she and other activists were facing prison sentences.”
On threats to her own life:
“The army has an assassination list of 18 wanted human rights fighters with my name at the top. I want to live, there are many things I still want to do in this world but I have never once considered giving-up fighting for our territory, for a life with dignity, because our fight is legitimate. I take lots of care but in the end, in this country where there is total impunity I am vulnerable… when they want to kill me, they will do it.”
— Berta Cáceres, 24 December 2013
Last year, Cáceres was interviewed about the death of a fellow activist, Tomás Garcia – who was shot at close range during a peaceful protest at the site of the same Agua Zarca hydro-electric dam. This is how she ended that interview:
“We truly believe in solidarity and in hope despite how hurtful this process is. And we can only think of how our brother, Tomas, is no longer with us, of how much he is missed, not just by his family – his sons and daughters, but by COPINH as well. And despite everything that’s happened, we still have hope in our people’s struggle.”
— Berta Cáceres, 9 December 2015
Nigeria will begin the long-awaited clean-up of the polluted Niger Delta region by month’s end, Environment Minister, Amina Mohammed, has said.
The Niger Delta region in Nigeria is believed to be one of the most polluted spots in the entire universe
She made the disclosure recently in Abuja in a presentation at the FOSTER Technical workshop on “Niger Delta way forward: From stabilisation to sustainable development.”
Stressing that the clean-up “is something that has been on the table for many years,” Ms. Mohammed noted that the authorities would from this week seek consultations in that regard.
She said: “The President made this commitment in his campaign; he reiterated it as he visited Nairobi. The nNew NEP report is amazing. It didn’t have so much buy-in at first but I can tell you that today it is like the gospel in the Niger Delta. It is one document that everyone revolves around and it is waiting for implementation. We have to be responsive to the current situation we have.
“We are working on beginning the clean-up by the end of March, we will seek consultation from Government in those areas to Government in the Niger Delta from this week going on. It is complex. It is incredibly a protracted situation so therefore things that we think should be common sense are not, things don’t add up. Overtime, people have been neglected, resources have been misused and not appropriated properly.”
According to her, a recent visit in the company of the Minister of State to Forcados at an oil spill site “illustrated how difficult it was even to communicate with representation. How difficult it was that when you not in the eye of the TV screen a lot that could happen in terms of ambition doesn’t happen because it doesn’t matter, it is just another spill. We have huge challenges and we are not to underestimate them.”
She adds: “For me, perhaps the greatest concern in environment is that it probably is quite easy to get us around cleaning banded around cleaning up, but how do we stay clean the day after, for a year, for two years, and 20 years after? That is what is complex and we must take into account and communicate in terms of the expectations that we need to meet the people of the Niger Delta. It would of course start with Ogoniland that is put on everyone’s radar, nationally and internationally. We have to recognise that the issue of oil pollution is a Niger Delta challenge.
“We will have to look inwards. The oil companies clearly have a responsibility towards that to ensure that what they are company to clean remains clean. We are also looking at the third party challenges that we have to the oil spills, we need to see how to better own our environment, to have a stake in it. That means, government has to provide the environment for that stability, means what is the stake of young people; of those in the Niger Delta in terms of their future, livelihood matters? People see that there is a horizon there that they can move towards. It is important that what we say in terms of the diversification of the economy, it is a big thrust that this economy has, what is the role of the Niger Delta, discussions that you have that look at life beyond oil and that has to be a national discussion.
“More often we hear people speak of smart agriculture, industrialisation, what does that mean in the Niger Delta and how do we accommodate that in the sense of discussion? Encouraging ownership and accountability again is going to be critical. We have said, corruption and the rule of law is important. How do we do this at the level of state governments and local governments and the communities themselves, what are the checks balances that we put in? How do we better utilise our people in civil societies so that we can strengthen the independent feedback that we need to make sure that we are doing the right thing? It is important that we define roles and responsibilities to ensure we don’t have distractions that are there in who is playing what parts and this applies to all major stakeholders in the environment, our ministries but also the state and local governments, business and partners.
“It maybe this time that we have to try to right the wrongs that we could begin to think constructively on how to reduce the trust deficit, that means addressing what people don’t trust about one another. How do we bridge those gaps? Maybe we are not the right people to it in government, maybe there are other parties that can do in better. What is the mix that we have for that?
“The Niger-Delta like the rest of Nigeria is full of assets and the biggest assets that we have neglected are its people and that requires a lot of attention and that is not easy. It is people that are here for the long term. There are no quick fixes to what we have messed up over the years. This is just a solid step to make that foundation to recovery real.”
“Climate change is real, we know the many issues that affect us, from the drying up of Lake Chad to the flooding we have to coastal erosion and much of what we see in the country. So taking climate actions, what are the specific actions we can begin to take? We have a lot of support to create a robust Climate Change Department in the Ministry and last but not the least, it is about a policy thrust that talks about building our green economy and creating jobs, taking climate action, protecting our environment and environmental governance.
“The Ministry has a huge remit for regulation for affecting some of the laws that we have, it is the least strengthened that and it is not seen in tangible ways. So when our two agencies NOSDRA and NESREA who have that responsibility are often accused of not being as strong as they should be, it is because we don’t make investment in what we don’t have. We will not remake things; we will build on strengthening things like our Green Wall.
“When I came into office, we had what we call an INDC and that was our intended national contributions to how we would reduce emissions for climate change. That would be revised after the Climate Change Agreement to actually effectively have a plan that involves sectors and I think that is another strength in this environment that you see Ministers all the time working together because of integration, coordination, coherence has got to be the theme of the day. Here the INDC ends up being an NDC in the next few months.”
“Agriculture must cease from being treated as development programme; agriculture must be treated as business. Our goal will be to pursue government supported private sector agriculture value chain to make agriculture more productive, efficient and competitive.” – President MuhammaduBuhari
President Muhammadu Buhari. Photo credit: informationng.com
Since his assumption of office in May last year, Muhammadu Buhari, president of Nigeria, has repeated at many fora that the nation’s economy must be diversified in order to meet up the job quests, wealth creation and other developmental needs.
The drastic fall of oil prices in the international market has directed the thinking of the Buhari administration to diversify the economy to other sources of revenue generation, specifically agriculture. Oil is Nigeria’s major source of revenue.
Most recently, speaking at a meeting of members of the Council of Saudi Arabian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the president: “With the down turn in the global prices of oil, we now have to prospect our solid minerals. We have to return to agriculture.”
The important aspect of these repeated pronouncements is Mr President’s seeming seriousness about it. He wants to create wealth for the citizenry; employment opportunities for the youth; economic boost for the nation and opportunities for foreign investment.
“We have to return to agriculture,” Buhari has repeatedly said. But what form of agriculture could effectively replace oil in revenue generation? What form of agriculture could provide food security for the over-growing population? What form of agriculture could provide job opportunities for the youth and create wealth for the people?
The following questions must be taken into consideration if agriculture is truly sort out as the alternative driver of the nation’s economy: Should the country continue to rely on traditional methods of farming? Are traditional methods still reliable means for mass food production? Should budgetary allocation to Agriculture continue to fall short of the 10 percent of national annual countries as recommended by the Maputo Declaration to which Nigeria is signatory?
Among many other things that would propel Nigeria’s agricultural potential to adequately take place of oil, are modern farming methods (biotechnology) and an upped budgetary allocation.
Biosciences could boost food security in Nigeria. As such, Nigeria’s diversified growth requires increased investments that would harness biosciences as a tool for sustainable development in agriculture.
Not only should the provision of soft loans and fertilisers to farmers be the focus of government, there must be an assurance for innovative research and capacity building in agriculture in order for farmers and other stakeholders to respond to food security challenges.
And, to act in the way that portrays the administration’s understanding of the potentials of agriculture as a diversifying option that is capable of transforming Nigeria’s economy, the budgetary allocation of N76,753,672,273 to agriculture in the 2016 Appropriation Bill, must be revisited. That is less than the 10 percent, which Nigeria agreed to implement along with other African countries in Maputo.
It is however commendable that the country has taken certain steps towards joining other nations in the adoption of biotechnology in agriculture. To start with, the Biotechnology Policy was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2001. That led to the establishment of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA).
Because of some health concerns expressed in certain quarters if the technology is introduced, NABDA, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders, facilitated the passage of the National Biosafety bill into law. The law established the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), a full-fledged agency that provides regulatory frameworks for sustainability.
In the same vein, towards addressing the concerns and misconceptions on the benefit of agricultural biotechnology and its potentials to drive development, NABDA, NBMA, the Programme for Biosafety System (PBS), Washington DC and the Nigerian chapter of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) in Africa, are collaborating to organise a workshop to hold in March in Abuja.
With a theme: “The Role of Agricultural Biotechnology in the Achievement of Food Security and Economic Diversification in Nigeria,” the Assistant Director with NABDA and Country Coordinator of OFAB, Dr. Rose Gidado, said: “The workshop aims to build confidence in the Nigerian public, biotechnology practitioners, crop developers and the industry, paving the way for the use of science and technology in agriculture, which in turn will hasten the speed of the ‘wind if change’ of the Buhari Administration.”
Stating the objectives of the workshop, Director General of NBMA, Chief Rufus Ebegba, said: “It is aimed at bringing biotechnology to the front burner in the diversification of Nigeria’s economy under a sound biosafety regulatory framework.
“It is also to accurately educate participants on issues of biotechnology and biosafety so that decisions by policy makers are effectively understood and communicated to the general public and also to sensitize the general public on genetic modification, biosafety and best practices in GM research and development.”
Contributing, Dr. Gidado added that the workshop would “encourage the research communities and developers of products of agricultural biotechnology to intensify their activities in line with the ‘change agenda’ of the federal government as it relates to Agriculture.”
The workshop is in two opening and technical sessions. The opening session would be attended by ministers of line ministries directly involved in biotechnology/biosafety issues – ministries of Trade and Investment, Environment, Agric and Rural Development and Science and Technology.
At the opening, Prof. Lucy Ogbadu, Director General of NABDA, will deliver a paper titled: “Introduction to Biotechnology and Its Place in Agricultural Development” while the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, will deliver a keynote address titled: “The Role of Science and Technology in Economic Diversification.”
The technical sessions for days one and two are deliberately made to be rich with various presentations from notable agric scientists.
The Federal University of Technology in Minna (FUT Minna), Niger State has produced its second set (or ‘Batch B’) of graduates under a special scheme being bankrolled by the German government.
Eight out of the total 10 members of the “Batch B” M. Tech graduates in CCALU under the WASCAL programme at FUT Minna during the graduation ceremony on February 27, 2016
Tagged the Master Programme on Climate Change and Adapted Landuse (CC&ALU), it is being implemented under the West African Centre for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) initiative involving Nigeria and several other countries in the sub-region.
The 2013 batch of 10 WASCAL graduates joined 2,741 others at the 25th Convocation Ceremony of their host university in the Niger State capital recently. The graduates, who completed their programme in October 2015, returned to formally participate in this year’s graduation ceremony as they joined 464 other Masters degree holders. But, in their case, they were awarded Master of Technology (M. Tech) in Climate Change and Adapted Land Use.
The degree was awarded after 15 months of intense course work and nine months of research, which focused on the “food basket” of Nigeria, which are the North Central states of Niger, Kogi, Nassarawa and Kwara.
The Director of the Centre in FUT Minna, Dr Appollonia Okhimamhe, one of the key objectives of WASCAL is to conduct credible research to safeguard the “food basket” of West Africa from the ravages of the impacts of climate change.
According to her, six of these graduates were competitively selected in their various countries and would soon commence their PhD in different WASCAL host universities. She is getting set to welcome the 2016 Batch of students, 10 of whom had been selected competitively after “a very rigourous” selection process that included a “face-to-face” interview at the country level.
Assessment of vulnerability of agroforestry trees to climate change in Niger State (Allakonon)
Analysing climate change projection on water availability for rainfed agriculture in Awan basin, Kwara State (GBangou)
Evaluation of root and tuber crops yield under the changing climate conditions in Kwara State (larbi)
Assessment of climate change and land use impact on groundwater resources in Kogi State, using GIS techniques
Assessment of the impact of climate change and land use/land cover in Kogi State (Daou)
Impact of land use and climate change in vegetation dynamics of Doma Forest Reserve in Nasarawa State (Moussa)
Site selection for urban forestry development as a mitigation of climate change in Ilorin area, Southern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria (Asonibare)
Household vulnerability and adaptation to water stress induced by climate change on Downstream Kaduna River Basin (Okafor)
Remote sensing and GIS-based assessment of land degradation driven by climate land use/change in Nasarawa State (Bissadu)
Assessment of crops lands changes using remote sensing and GIS and adaptation strategies to climate extremes in Lapai Local Government Area.
Dr Okhimamhe disclosed that the vision of WASCAL on research is that at least a paper is published from the final output of each student’s masters research thesis.
Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Mubau Adewunmi Akanji, expressed the institution’s gratitude to the German Ministry of Education and Research for funding the WASCAL programme, adding that FUT Minna has kept its vision for a robust academic development.
“Our 2015 annual report offers and introspective perpective of an institution committed to promoting academic excellence through autonomous intellectual partnerships,” he disclosed.
Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Prof. Rufa’i Ahmed Alkali, urged the graduating students to see the degrees and grades as work in progress.
His words: “You must see your graduation today not as an end to the journey. Rather, you must see today as the beginning of the beginning. You must rise to the occasion and always aspire to do better. Opportunities and challenges await you in the world ahead.”
Chancellor of FUT Minna, Eze Eberechi N. Dick, the Eze Udo I of Mboko Ngwa Amaise, described the event as unique in the sense that “the graduands will be the first that I will confer with degrees and diplomas as the chancellor of the university.
The Eze, who is also Chairman, Abia State Council of Traditional Rulers, said: “I feel a deep sense of pride to be here with you all on this auspicious occasion where some of you who have been found worthy in character and learning are being bestowed with certificates as a reward for your academic exploits.
“As you may be aware, this university was established to provide the much-needed manpower for the development of the country in the areas of science and technology and the university has remained committed to its mandate.”
Countries under the WASCAL programme include Nigeria, Benin Republic, Niger Republic, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia and Ghana.
Dr Okhimamhe described WASCAL as a regional centre for capacity building in climate change across West Africa. She added that WASCAL is also designed to help tackle challenges of climate change thereby enhancing resilience of human and environmental system to climate change and variability.
A tropical rainforest more than twice the size of France is at risk of being cut down, following news from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that the government is considering re-opening its forest to new logging companies.
Lars Løvold of Rainforest Foundation Norway
This comes at a time when the governments of Norway, France, Germany, the UK, and the European Union, are assessing whether to support a billion-dollar plan proposed by the DRC government to protect the country’s 1.55 million square kilometres of forests.
A coalition of environmental and anti-corruption organisations is calling on the DRC government to maintain its moratorium on the allocation of new logging licenses, which has been in place since 2002.
Irène Wabiwa Betoko of Greenpeace Africa, said: “The large-scale logging of DRC’s rainforest was and is a disaster. It not only harms the country’s environment, but also fuels corruption and creates social and economic havoc.”
Lars Løvold of Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) said: “At a time when the global community is working together to protect the world’s last rainforests, a vital defense against climate change, the DRC government seems to be undermining the commitment to reducing emissions that it presented in Paris.”
The DRC Environment Minister Robert Bopolo Bogeza recently stated that measures are being undertaken to lift moratorium on the allocation of new logging licenses, while outlining his priorities for 2016, citing the financial benefits this could bring.
Joesph Bobia of Réseau Ressources Naturelles (RRN) said: “The argument that logging can significantly contribute to government revenues is completely unfounded. Around a tenth of the DRC’s rainforest is already being logged. And yet, in 2014 the country obtained a pitiful USD8 million in fiscal revenues from the sector – the equivalent of about 12 cents for every Congolese person,”
Simon Counsell of the Rainforest Foundation UK said: “Expansion of industrial logging in Congo’s rainforests is likely to have serious long-term negative impacts on the millions of people living in and depending on those forests. We urge the government of DRC to instead promote community based forest protection and alternatives to logging that will help the country’s population prosper.”
Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) is an international effort under the UN climate treaties to combat carbon emissions by protecting the world’s forests. DRC’s national strategy for REDD has been under negotiation for six years and will be submitted to international donor governments for approval this year.
“We call upon the DRC government to keep the present logging moratorium in place,” Ms Wabiwa Betoko concluded.
The moratorium on the allocation of new logging titles was issued by Ministerial decree in 2002, in an attempt to regain control of the country’s timber industry, which was riddled with illegal logging and corruption, which came at a significant social and environmental cost.
DRC’s forest accounts for around one tenth of the world’s remaining tropical rainforests. Many species, such as the bonobo and okapi, are only found in these ecosystems. Some 40 million people in the country rely on these forests for their livelihoods, including food and fuel.
