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Our Lima COP 20 position, by civil society groups

Michael Simire
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Our Lima COP 20 position, by civil society groups

We, the representatives of Nigerian Civil Society under the aegis of Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet) held nation-wide consultations and mobilisation meetings on the imperatives of Climate Justice and Post-2015 Agenda as well as draw strategies and action plans for a robust participation in COP 20/CMP10. The meetings which took place from the 15th to 20th of November 2014 across the six regions in the country drew participants from Government, CSOs, Media, International Development Partners, grassroots community practitioners, trusts, farmer cooperatives, federations of slum dwellers and pastoralists, home based caregivers, youth, women and faith-based organisations, including those working on child welfare, the elderly, disabled and those focusing on livestock and animal welfare.

Participants at one of the sessions
Participants at one of the sessions

Recognising: the role of Nigeria to speak with one voice along with other African countries at the forthcoming Lima COP 20 and desirous that this one voice should be that of and be informed by realities of the local communities; and the fact that non-state actors contribution to the UNFCCC process and its outcome is essential for informed policy formulation and monitoring of its implementation at all levels;

Acknowledging: that these meetings held at a time that the world is expressing its deep solidarity with the families of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls and the people of North-East Nigeria, we hereby join the global call for solidarity and compassion with the Chibok families and we say “Bring Back Our Girls, Now and Alive”!

Affirming: the authority of the Nigerian Civil Society and communities, as the expression of the sovereign will and voice of the people;

Concerned: that Africa which contributes the least to the cause of climate change now suffers the most compared to other regions of the world;

Noting: the release of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report that cited evidence of increasing warming globe and its devastating impacts in Africa and Nigeria in particular;

Civil society groups during one of the sessions
A campaign by CSOs

Expecting: that the UNFCCC-COP 20 in Lima will produce the first draft of the Post 2020 Climate Agreement that should be adopted as legally binding Climate Change Treaty during the UNFCCC-COP 21 in Paris by 2015 and that this treaty will be responsive to the climate change challenges in Nigeria;

We hereby declare and adopt the following as the Nigerian position for LIMA COP 20:

 

Finance

Developed countries must begin to manifestly honour and deliver on their promises of providing $100 billion a year by 2020. In line with the Warsaw decision on finance, annex 1 countries must now scale up their pledges to fulfil their obligation to provide adequate, new and additional funds as this amount is far from all estimates of climate finance needed by developing countries.

As COP 20 beckons in Lima, developed countries should pledge at least $20 billion in grants towards the initial resource mobilisation of the Green Climate Fund. We consider it as vital that these pledges are announced before the COP so they do not become part of the bargaining in Lima.

 

Adaptation

Climate change, if not addressed in time, is expected to exacerbate Nigeria’s current vulnerability to weather swings and limit its ability to achieve national aspirations. We therefore call on our government to build resilience and define priority adaptation actions, building on the 2011 National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action on Climate Change (NASPA-CCN).

Agriculture as a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions still reels under the warming effect of climate change especially in developing countries through higher temperatures, greater demand for water for crops, more variable rainfall and extreme climate events such as heat waves, floods and droughts. We therefore call for concerted action and climate resilient mechanisms and strategies that will strengthen food security, adaptation and mitigation as well as contribute to sequestering greenhouse gas emissions and capturing carbon in the soil.

Adaptation efforts should systematically and effectively address gender-specific impacts of climate change in the areas of energy, water, food security, agriculture and fisheries, biodiversity and ecosystem services, health, industry, human settlements, disaster management, and conflict and security.

Developed countries must compensate Nigeria in particular for the full costs of avoiding harms, actual harms and damage, and lost opportunities for our development resulting from climate change. We oppose any efforts to establish adaptation as an obligation not a right, or to use adaptation as a means to divide or differentiate between developing countries.

 

One of the sessions held in Ibadan, Oyo State
One of the sessions held in Ibadan, Oyo State

Loss and Damage

The establishment of an international mechanism to provide expertise to help developing nations cope with loss and damage caused by climate impacts will remain an exercise in tokenism until the mandate and scope of the mechanism are strengthened to meet the needs of the vulnerable. In agreeing to establish a loss and damage mechanism, countries have accepted the reality that the world is already dealing with the extensive damage caused by climate impacts, and requires a formal process to assess and deal with it, but they seem unwilling to take concrete actions to reduce the severity of these impacts

 

Technology Transfer

Developed countries must remove intellectual property rights, pay full incremental costs of technology transfer to protect developing countries and contribute for peaking and declining of global emission. We oppose efforts to sell rather than transfer appropriate technologies, or to strengthen rather than relax intellectual property rights. Developed and developing countries should support the adoption and development of indigenous and locally innovated technology as well as ensuring efficiency in technology transfer and deployment.

 

Mitigation

Developed countries must commit to cutting their domestic greenhouse gas emission to keep with the IPCCC AR5 and to keep global warming well below 1.50C to peak by 2015 and decline thereafter to at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Developed countries should provide financial and technical resources for clean, accessible, sustainable energy, low-carbon development and the implementation of effective, pro-poor adaptation measures in Nigeria.

 

Post-2015 Agenda

We believe that the year 2015 is critically important as processes that will potentially shape development frameworks across the globe will be concluded by 2015:

  1. Negotiations for the new Climate Change treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCCC)
  2. Negotiations for the new development framework to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) spearheaded by the United Nations.

We view the aforementioned processes as inter-related and dependent on each other. Sustainable Development Goals cannot be attained if the global community fails to heed the recommendations by science and act decisively on climate change. At the 2012 Rio+20 Conference, all countries agreed that climate change is a major obstacle to sustainable development and poverty eradication.

This is supported by the experience of people living in poverty and vulnerability and major UN reports feeding into Post-2015.

Science further underlines the immediate need for action in all areas including international development. The urgency for action is underpinned by climate science and the window of opportunity for avoiding dangerous climate change is rapidly closing.

The Post-2015 Framework must therefore help to make climate action in all countries happen without further delay and must support poor people, particularly in Africa and Nigeria to build resilience so as to adapt to climate impacts they are experiencing already.

The post-2015 framework should address all risks and hazards, both natural and human-made, including conflict. Moreover the framework must be part of, not separate from other development and environmental frameworks so that disasters, development, poverty and climate change are strategically integrated, particularly at the community level. The framework should be underpinned by the four guiding principles agreed at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2013: inclusion, equity, people-centred and environmental sustainability.

The post-2015 framework should prioritise support to high-risk countries like Nigeria and populations disproportionately impacted by natural and human-made hazards and disasters.

The post-2015 framework should provide strategic guidance for the redirection of resources from post-disaster recovery towards disaster risk reduction and sustainable development that addresses underlying causes of disasters risk.

The post-2015 Agenda should prioritise high frequency, low-severity weather-related disasters, particularly in African countries and areas of insecurity, insurgency and fragility.

With many countries, cities, and states billed to hold elections this year and next, Civil society calls on citizens of such countries to pile up pressure on their aspirants until climate change becomes embedded in their manifestoes, not just as an environmental issue but a political agenda necessitating urgent attention of all.

Climate action bordering on climate-smart agriculture, re-shoring the economy, sustainable land planning, alternatives to the car-culture, energy sobriety, eco-housing, ethical finance, social and environmental conversion of manufacturing, ethical consumption, a new share of wealth and work, community support, waste reduction and recycling, preservation of common goods such as water, soil, and forests should be on the front burner as 2015 beckons.

With a membership of over 50 organisations cutting across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, Climate & Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet) brings together organisations, comprising grassroots community practitioners, trusts, federations of slum dwellers and pastoralists, home based caregivers, youth, media, women and faith-based organizations, including those working on child welfare, the elderly, disabled and those focusing on livestock and animal welfare, to commonly promote and advocate pro-poor, climate-friendly and equity-based responses to climate change.

CSDevNet aspires to unify and coordinate isolated civil society efforts on climate change advocacy in Nigeria to ensure that people-centred response mechanisms are accorded desirable attention and relevance as climate change is increasingly mainstreamed in national and global poverty reduction and sustainable development strategies and actions.

Nnimmo Bassey: Why Nigeria does not need GMOs

Michael Simire
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Nnimmo Bassey: Why Nigeria does not need GMOs

In keeping with our tradition of seeking ways to build common understanding on critical issues, no matter how complex, today we are considering “The Food We Want” and the need to have wholesome food. It is a great honour to examine this topic with you, members of The Young Environmentalists Network (TYEN). Being children from primary and secondary schools we can rightly say that you hold out the hope for our nation to overcome her challenges, to produce healthy foods and protect our environment.

A group photo at the 5th Sustainability Academy in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria
A group photo at the 5th Sustainability Academy in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

As we all know, food means more than merely something that we place in a pot, cook and eat. Agriculture means more to us than merely going to the farm to plant some seeds or stems.  Good food makes you grow healthy and strong. Bad food can make you sick and keep you from going to school.

Going to farm is almost like going to school. At the farm we learn about crops, trees and our culture. We learn to know which seeds have to be preserved after harvest for planting at the next season. We see our parents share seeds with neighbours and also share food. Agriculture and food help to build and unite us in our communities.

On a global scale, food is so important that when the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals were prepared the first goal was the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. It was hoped that between 1990 and 2015 the number of people suffering from hunger would be reduced by fifty per cent.

Although some progress has been made in this direction, over 800 million people do not have enough food to live healthy lives.  The death of 3.1 million children (or nearly half the number of deaths among children) between ages 1-3 years has been linked to not having wholesome or nutritious food. And many children still go to school hungry every day.

Global hunger and malnutrition are still key issues in the world as of today.

 

Overcoming Hunger

You will agree with me that people are not hungry because there is no food in the market or at the farms. There are many factors that keep people hungry.  In fact most of the hungry people in the world today are farmers. They sell their harvests so as to use the money to pay school fees for their children, pay house rent, pay medical bills and also for transport and other costs.

Farming has become big business and the support for farmers that community life used to provide is being reduced by what we now term as modern life.

To overcome hunger we need to look at the root causes and tackle them rather than seeing hunger as an opportunity to manipulate the system and make more profits from the misery of the poor.

 

Are GMOs the answer?

In 1996 the world saw the commercialisation of genetically modified organisms popularly known as GMOs. These are plants, animals and other living organisms genetically modified by scientists in the laboratory. The scientists cut desirable genetic materials from one organism and insert or paste them into another organism to produce totally new organisms that would otherwise not exist in nature. These are often done across species boundaries. For example, a gene can be taken from a pig and inserted in rice or corn or banana.

Most crops are modified to do either of two things or both:

  1. To withstand chemicals that would kills every other plant
  2. To kills particular pests that are known to usually attack a plant

So far the major crops that have been genetically modified and are planted in large commercial quantities are: soybeans, corn, cotton and canola or rapeseed. There are few countries that plant GMOs in the world today. These include: USA, Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada, China, Paraguay, Pakistan, South Africa, Uruguay, Bolivia, Australia, Philippines, Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Mexico and Spain.

 

Problems with GMOs in Agriculture

Many people think that any fruit that is bigger than the usual ones are GMOs. This is not true. The biggest advantage of GMOs is that they make big farming easier for the farmer. The problems with this are many.

  1. They do not support mixed cropping but support monocultures
  2. They are not good for our agriculture, as the system requires that farmers must buy seeds and not save and reuse or share them.
  3. Some of the crops are engineered to produce infertile seeds
  4. They contaminate other natural varieties of crops and animals/fish
  5. They reduce the varieties of particular crops available and this creates more problems as unexpected diseases can wipe out vast quantities of crops
  6. They require the use of large quantities of toxic chemicals some of which are manufactured by the companies that genetically modify the seeds
  7. Those engineered to kill particular pests also kill other organisms that were not a threat to the crops
  8. They sometimes look like normal crops and can pass undetected making it difficult to control or withdraw it once released into the environment
  9. There is no scientific certainty about the safety of these crops.

The major global convention governing the production, movement and use of GMOs is the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This convention has a particular protocol known as the Cartagena Protocol that has an important principle known as the Precautionary Principle. This principle requires that nations should exercise precaution whenever there is doubt about the safety of any new organism to be introduced into the environment.

The CBD also requires that countries must put in place measures to regulate, manage or control the risks associated with the release or use of GMOs that are likely to affect natural biodiversity and human health. It particularly Article 8(j) of the CBD requires that nations put in place measures to “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities relevant for the conservation of biological diversity…”

As we said earlier, once GMOs are released into an environment the contamination cannot be controlled and the only persons that gain is the company that makes the crop or organism. In fact in many cases where there are no laws to regulate the introduction of such organisms what the companies do is to ensure the contamination of the environment and then the government would be forced to make weak laws to protect their activities and allow for more contamination and possible takeover of the agricultural sector.

GMOs are useful in production of drugs and in certain other manufacturing processes. Here we are concerned with GMOs in agriculture and food.

 

What is happening in Nigeria?

There has been a very serious desire by companies that make GMOs to open up the Nigerian environment for their control and business. Working with their local and international agents they are making effort to have a weak law in place that would allow introduction of GMOs without any provision for holding them liable if there are accidents or contaminations.

We believe that Nigeria does not need GMOs. And that what we need is to adequately support our farmers who have been feeding us and keeping our environment healthy. We also need to make farming attractive to young people, provide rural infrastructure, and create food processing/preservation facilities. We need more agricultural extension officers and agriculture should not be used as a means of punishment in schools.

Only wholesome, natural foods can ensure adequate nourishment for you children. GMOs have been fed to farm animals since 1996 and some food products for humans contain GMO products. If anyone tells you they are safe, ask them for the proof. There is no scientific evidence to show that GMOs are safe. The makers of GMOs and their agents want to turn Nigeria, Africa and the world into their laboratory for experiments. Will you accept to be used for experiments?

 

Last word

This Sustainability Academy has been organised to share information with you so that you can know what is happening around the world and in our nation. Although only few items on the market shelves that have GMOs are so labelled, it is important to check the labels – especially for products that contain soybeans and corn. The future belongs to you. Shine your eyes.

 

  • Presentation by Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), at the 5th Sustainability Academy of HOMEF held at Eghosa Grammar School, Benin City, Nigeria on 25 November 2014 in collaboration with The Young Environmentalists Network (TYEN)

Reactions trail UNEP Emissions Gap Report release

Michael Simire
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Reactions trail UNEP Emissions Gap Report release

The recent release of United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Fifth Emissions Gap Report is attracting a growing number of voices, including those of the 900 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working together in Climate Action Network (CAN), which are calling for governments to scale up climate action to achieve a phase out of carbon pollution to zero by mid-century.

Achim Steiner of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Achim Steiner of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Similarly, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres, has welcomed the report, which underlines how the world can keep a global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius.

Figueres said: “This important report underscores the reality that at some point in the second half of the century, we need to have achieved climate neutrality – or as some term it zero net or net zero – in terms of overall global emissions.

“The report also emphasises the wider important contributions that can be made to local and national sustainable development goals, if climate change is effectively addressed.”

The UNEP report comes on the back of another blockbuster report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, which was released on November 1 and endorsed by governments. It said that the only way the world economies can still prosper is if countries phase out fossil fuel pollution entirely while adapting to the impacts of climate change.

The UNEP report makes plain that if governments scale up climate action now, they will unlock the benefits of action for their communities, such as better public health, more secure livelihoods and a reduction in poverty.

Christiana Figueres of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Christiana Figueres of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The concept of a global carbon budget shared by all nations – put forward by both the IPCC and UNEP – and the bold NGO call for phasing down emissions to zero by 2050 have now both been added to new draft negotiating texts for the international agreement to limit climate change due to be finalised in December 2015 in Paris.

At the major UN climate negotiations in Lima next month, governments can support these concepts in the text as way to guide collective climate action. They can sign off on a platform that would support countries to roll out more renewable energy, invest in energy efficiency and build smarter ways of powering our lives.

In early 2015, governments will table a commitment to take climate action which will speed up the ongoing transition of our economies away from reliance on fossil fuels that drive climate change and towards 100% renewable energy – a shift more and more citizens, businesses, investors and scientists are demanding and driving.

“To maximise benefits and ensure a safer world, we can and must use the powerful combination of short and medium term efforts to reduce emissions and increase resilience, together with a clear vision of our collective long term destination,” said Figueres.

The UNEP Gap Report also focuses on the urgency to act now to achieve ever higher ambition before 2020. This year’s edition of the Emissions Gap Report focusses on opportunities from scaled up action on energy efficiency. These actions range from appliances, lighting standards and labeling to tighter building codes and vehicle fuel standards.

The report suggests that improved energy efficiency has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 3 to 7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2 e) a year.

Other key findings of the report underline the wider, sustainable development imperative of addressing climate change.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that seven million people die prematurely each year from indoor & outdoor air pollution, mostly in developing countries.

Energy efficiency improvements reduce fossil fuel use and thereby also air pollution emissions, and save lives. One study states that 100,000 premature deaths could be avoided every year by 2030 in the US, the EU, India, Brazil, China and Mexico.

Further benefits:

  • Greater access to energy: Improving energy efficiency lowers energy costs and makes energy more accessible to poor and middle-class households.
  • Jobs: Energy efficiency projects provide millions of jobs worldwide with estimates ranging up to seven million people through an acceleration of energy efficiency.
  • Increased industrial productivity: Improving energy use leads to lower energy use per unit of output which extends the life-time of equipment, reduces waste disposal costs, and lowers maintenance.

International Conference of Urban and Regional Planning (ICURP) 2014 in photos

Michael Simire
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International Conference of Urban and Regional Planning (ICURP) 2014 in photos

Efforts to tackle the growing challenge of urbanisation on the African continent were revisited recently as settlement development practitioners gathered for three days in Lagos to explore the emerging African Urban Agenda.

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Lagos in Nigeria hosted professionals and students from around the world to discuss the continent’s human settlements trials.

The conference, with the theme: “The Urban Agenda for Africa: Realities, Challenges and Potentials”, was aimed at providing a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder platform to discuss and debate the subject.

The forum was graced by dignitaries such as Prof Leke Oduwaye (Chairman, Technical and Scientific Committee), Dr Muyiwa Agunbiade (Rapporteur), His Excellency Louis Lulu Mnguni (South African High Commissioner to Nigeria), Mr Ibrahim Dikko (Director, Regulatory Affairs, ETISALAT Nigeria), Mr Nicola Rizk (Head, West Africa, Dar al Handassah Group), Professor Tunde Agbola (Chair, Association of African Planning Schools, University of Ibadan, Nigeria), Prof Vanessa Watson (Co-Chair, AAPS/African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Mrs Mariam Yunusa (Manager, African Urban Agenda and Head of Inter-Agency Branch UN- Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya).

A technical session at the conference
A technical session at the conference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Participants at the forum
Participants at the forum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conference exhibition
Conference exhibition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning & Urban Development, Toyin Ayinde (third from right); with Prof Leke Oduwaye (second from right); a representative of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Orelope Adefulire (middle); Dr Taibat Lawanson (third from left); Dr Immaculata Nwokoro (second from left); Moses Ogunleye (left); and Prof Toba Olarenwaju (right)
Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning & Urban Development, Toyin Ayinde (third from right); with Prof Leke Oduwaye (second from right); a representative of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Orelope Adefulire (middle); Dr Taibat Lawanson (third from left); Dr Immaculata Nwokoro (second from left); Moses Ogunleye (left); and Prof Toba Olarenwaju (right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His Excellency Louis Lulu Mnguni, South African High Commissioner to Nigeria delivering a keynote address
His Excellency Louis Lulu Mnguni, South African High Commissioner to Nigeria delivering a keynote address

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Participants at the close of the conference. In the front row in green is Mrs Mariam Yunusa, Manager, African Urban Agenda and Head of Inter-Agency Branch UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya
Participants at the close of the conference. In the front row in green is Mrs Mariam Yunusa, Manager, African Urban Agenda and Head of Inter-Agency Branch at UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya

 

 

 

Planners devise modalities for realistic African Urban Agenda

Michael Simire
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Planners devise modalities for realistic African Urban Agenda

Participants made up of representatives of academics from 25 universities and research institutions in eight countries, public and private sector built environment practitioners, independent researchers, civil society organisations, professional bodies, international development agencies including ICF International, UN-HABITAT and the media recently brainstormed for three days in Lagos.

City centre and skyline of Lagos Island. Photo credit: Wikipedia
City centre and skyline of Lagos Island. Photo credit: Wikipedia

The event was the International Conference of Urban and Regional Planning (ICURP) 2014, organised by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Lagos, Nigeria. The conference rose, devising key recommendations whose implementation the promoters feel will contribute significantly to the development of an Urban Agenda for Africa.

The theme of the conference was: “Urban Agenda for Africa: Realities, Challenges, Potentials.”

While Prof Leke Oduwaye was Chairman, Technical and Scientific Committee, Dr Muyiwa Agunbiade performed the role of Rapporteur. Similarly, keynote addresses were delivered by: His Excellency Louis Lulu Mnguni, South African High Commissioner to Nigeria; Mr Ibrahim Dikko, Director Regulatory Affairs, ETISALAT Nigeria; Mr Nicola Rizk, Head West Africa, Dar al Handassah Group; Professor Tunde Agbola, Chair, Association of African Planning Schools, University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Prof Vanessa Watson, Co-Chair, AAPS/African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa; and, Mrs Mariam Yunusa, Manager, African Urban Agenda and Head of Inter-Agency Branch UN- Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr. Taibat Lawanson, Conference Chair, listed the recommendations to include:

  1. The major issues confronting African cities are poverty, inequality, and a lagging sustainable infrastructure deficit. Therefore, there should be practical concerns for addressing these issues.
  2. The desire to focus on strategic improvement of African cities should be led by Africans. This requires customised approach in solving specific, rather than generic urban challenges. There must be appropriate commitment to good urban governance. This will encourage deliberate efforts to efficient management of Africa national resources.
  3. Urban and Regional Planning should be vigorously promoted as a major tool through which economic development and the distribution of resources can be equitably distributed.
  4. Conscious efforts should be directed at promotion of integrated national urban policies, partnerships, institutional and legal reforms.
  5. Africa must continue to align with global trends in developing its communities into smart habitats with appropriate technology and digital infrastructure. The dynamics of technology should be well aligned with the dynamics of population and city growth through proper planning.
  6. Developing spatial data infrastructure should be paramount if Africa is to evolve evidence informed policies.
  7. Informality must be recognised as an African urban reality. There should be deliberate improvement in collaborations between the formal and informal sectors of the economy.
  8. There is imperative for better quality and inclusive urban service delivery to the citizenry in order to generate business growth, taxable revenue and employment.
  9. Considerable efforts should be directed at planning with the people rather than for the people through better engagement across the various stakeholders: government, planners and communities.
  10. It is important that there is continued support and partnership between the public and private sectors for projects that are beneficial to all citizens.
  11. To effectively deliver on the above will require: knowledge management, research funding, advocacy and political influence.
  12. Research on African Urbanisation must centre on co-production of knowledge, inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary discourse geared towards providing solutions.
  13. In order to produce world class researchers with the skills and competencies to provide workable solutions to peculiar African challenges, collaborative research and academic mentoring must be encouraged.
  14. Pan-African research and development networks such as the Association of African Planning Schools, African Urban Research Initiative must be encouraged.

Peru activists murder in spotlight ahead COP 20

Michael Simire
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Peru activists murder in spotlight ahead COP 20

A new report by Global Witness sheds light on what’s driving the high number of killings of environmental defenders in Peru, less than a week before the country hosts the UN climate talks in Lima. Peru’s Deadly Environment calls into question the commitments of Peru to protect its carbon-rich forests and the people who live in them, in light of unfettered illegal logging, disregard for indigenous land claims, and new laws that favour industrial exploitation over environmental protection.

Deforestation in Peru. Photo credit: archive.peruthisweek.com
Deforestation in Peru. Photo credit: archive.peruthisweek.com

The report comes on the heels of the killings of four indigenous leaders in Ucayali in September, including prominent anti-logging activist Edwin Chota and three of his fellow Ashéninka leaders from the Peruvian Amazon.

“The murders of Edwin Chota and his colleagues are tragic reminders of a paradox at work in the climate negotiations,” said Patrick Alley, Co-Founder of Global Witness. “While Peru’s government chairs negotiations on how to solve our climate crisis, it is failing to protect the people on the frontline of environmental protection. Environmental defenders embody the resolve we need to halt global warming. The message is clear, if you want to save the environment, then stop people killing environmental defenders.”

Peru is the fourth most dangerous country to be an environmental defender, behind Brazil, Honduras and the Philippines. At least 57 environmental and land defenders were killed in Peru between 2002 and the present day, more than 60% of them in the last four years, according to new Global Witness data. Most of these deaths involved disputes over land rights, mining and logging. 72% of Peru’s indigenous communities still have no way of demonstrating their land tenure rights, and over 20 million hectares of land claims have not yet been processed.

Peru’s Deadly Environment is being launched at an award ceremony in which the Alexander Soros Foundation will honour Chota and his colleagues with its annual Award for Environmental Activism. Diana Rios Rengifo, daughter of one of the murdered men, will accept the award on behalf of her father and their Ashéninka community, which has been fighting for more than a decade for the right to gain titles to its land.

“They may have killed my father and his friends, but I am still here,” said Diana, daughter of Jorge Rios. “And I will continue to fight for the rights to our territories and for the rights of the other indigenous peoples of Peru.”

Peru presides over an area of rainforest roughly the size of the US state of Texas, and recently committed to reduce net deforestation to zero by 2021 as part of a $300 million deal with Norway. In 2012 deforestation rates in Peru doubled from the previous year and forest loss now accounts for nearly half the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Illegal logging is worth 1.5 times the value of legal timber exports in Peru, and allegations contained in Peru’s Deadly Environment hint at collusion between loggers and government officials. Edwin Chota had received numerous death threats for his resistance to the loggers who were gutting his community’s forests, but his appeals to the authorities were ignored. Before he died, Chota sent local police photographs of the illegal loggers who are now charged with his murder, and the locations of their logging sites.

Across Latin America, strengthening indigenous rights to their land has proven links to healthier forests and lower carbon emissions – evidence that will take centre stage at the upcoming Lima climate conference. Meanwhile hosts Peru invoked a new law in July 2014 that grants extended land use rights to investors for the expansion of large-scale agriculture, mining, logging and infrastructure projects.

“Peru’s credibility as a forest protector hinges upon providing land and resource rights to the country’s indigenous and rural populations,” said David Salisbury, a University of Richmond professor who has spent time with Edwin Chota’s community of Saweto, and who will speak at the award ceremony in New York. “If you want to keep forests standing, you have to invest in people who live in them, as they have the most at stake in the sustainable development of those areas. Saweto is a perfect example. The government should recognize there are people in the forests, and give them rights to them. How can you maintain standing forest, and mitigate climate change, if the defenders of the forest are being assassinated?”

Lima should deliver 2015 climate deal draft, CSOs insist

Michael Simire
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0
Lima should deliver 2015 climate deal draft, CSOs insist

The meeting of nearly 200 governments in Lima, Peru in December for the 20th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 20) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must produce the first draft of a global deal to cut emissions, a coalition of Nigerian civil society organisations (CSOs) has said.

Lima, Peru. Photo credit: UNFCCC
Lima, Peru. Photo credit: UNFCCC

At the 2014 Global Week of Action for Climate Justice, Atayi Babs of the Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet) decried the slow progress at the last round of talks in Warsaw in Poland, implying that significant progress is needed in key areas including climate financing and how to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

According to him, the meeting in Lima in December is a staging point towards a crunch summit in Paris in 2015 when it is hoped world leaders will agree, for the first time, a global deal on cutting emissions that includes both rich and poor countries.

“If what we want by Paris 2015 is a new binding global climate agreement, then Lima must produce a solid working draft,” said Babs.

The civil society network believes that “significant progress would also need to be made in Lima on the Green Climate Fund (a mechanism to transfer money from the developed to the developing world), the issue of “loss and damage” (whether rich countries should pay poor ones for damage caused by climate change) and a UN scheme to tackle emissions.”

The CSDevNet recently-held 2014 Global Week of Action for Climate Justice, according to Babs, are in line with the need for awareness campaigns and massive mobilisation of Nigerians on climate justice as well as the imperatives of Nigeria’s effective and gainful involvement in international climate negotiations, in the build-up to a new climate treaty in Paris 2015.

The events featured during the Week included: Pre-COP 20/Post-2015 National Consultative Workshop in Abuja; Post-2015 Agenda And Scaling Up Of Climate Justice Awareness in Akwa Esuk Eyamba community, Akpabuyo LGA, Cross River State ; Climate Justice & Post-2015 Mobilisation Meeting for Farmers in Firo Village, Gnajuwa LGA, Bauchi State; and a Climate Justice/Post-2015 Agenda Workshop for Selected Youth Organisations in South-West Nigeria, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

COP 20 Interministerial Committee Meeting in photos

Michael Simire
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COP 20 Interministerial Committee Meeting in photos

On Friday, 21 November 21 2014, the Climate Change Department (CCD) of the Federal Ministry of Environment in Abuja hosted an Interministerial Committee on Climate Change (ICCC) Meeting towards the 20th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP 20) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), scheduled to hold in December in Lima, Peru.

The Lima conference is expected to advance negotiations and produce a universal and concrete legally binding agreement that will elaborate a shared determination by all Parties to deliver significant national contributions to build a low carbon climate resilient future.

Besides updating core negotiators and ICCC members on the current negotiation status, the daylong meeting was likewise utilised to update the gathering on national preparation towards Nigeria’s effective participation at the conference, as well as provide information on logistics and coordination.

Incidentally, Dr Samuel Jare Adejuwon, Nigeria’s climate chief and Director at the CCD, was a year older that on the day. The gathering celebrated with him, praying and joining in the cutting of his birthday cakes.

A cross-section of participants at the ICCC meeting
A cross-section of participants at the ICCC meeting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From left: Peter Ekweozoh of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Prince Lekan Fadina of the Centre for Investment, Sustainable Development, Management & Environment (CISME) and Prof. Daniel Gwary of the University of Maiduguri
From left: Peter Ekweozoh of the Federal Ministry of Science & Technology; Prince Lekan Fadina of the Centre for Investment, Sustainable Development, Management & Environment (CISME); and Prof. Daniel Gwary of the University of Maiduguri

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ICCC members and CCD staffers with Dr. Adejuwon
ICCC members and CCD staffers with Dr. Adejuwon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Adejuwon with members of staff at the CCD
Dr. Adejuwon with members of staff at the CCD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Adejuwon with members of staff at the CCD
Dr. Adejuwon with members of staff at the CCD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Adejuwon's birthday cakes
Dr. Adejuwon’s birthday cakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cutting the cake...
Cutting the cake…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Adejuwon addressing the gathering
Dr. Adejuwon addressing the gathering

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bread of Life clamours end to open defecation

Michael Simire
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Bread of Life clamours end to open defecation

As Nigeria joined the world to mark the World Toilet Day during the week, the Bread of Life Development Foundation (BLDF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has called on the citizenry to collectively work to make open urination and open defecation history. It also called on government bodies at federal, state, and local council levels to declare safe sanitation a human right as part of an overall strategy to achieve universal access to safe sanitation in the country.

Babatope Babalobi
Babatope Babalobi

Babatope Babalobi, Executive Director of the BLDF, disclosed: “It is a big shame that, in the 21st century, up to 105 million Nigerians still don’t have access to safe toilets; and, out of this figure, 34million Nigerians practice open defecation. And what is even more deplorable and unacceptable is the fact that at the existing rate of progress, as reported by a recent UNDP Human Development Index Report, Nigeria may not meet the sanitation MDG target until 2076.

“Nigeria cannot continue to lament this national challenge, but we need to take action to turn out lamentations to success stories. The 2014 World Toilet Day offers an opportunity for individuals, institutions, and government duty bearers to urgently implement measures and practices that ensure every home has a safe toilet, every public place has an accessible safe toilet within 500 meters, and every institution, school, company, and office has a safe toilet that is accessible to all categories of users including the physically-challenged.

“Now is the time to ensure the sight of people squatting along road paths to defecate, men and women pulling down their clothes to urinate along the  streets, citizens squatting on waste dumps to defecate, and students entering bust paths to defecate, becomes history. With individual and collective action, open urination and defecation can become history in Nigeria, just as the Ebola virus has gone into the history books of our public health.”

Proposing measures to end open defecation and improve personal and public health, BLDF says it starts by prioritising sanitation issues, putting it in the front burner of national discourse, away from the back burner it is presently relegated by political and security issues.

“Unless we openly discuss open defecation, we may not be able to put an end to open defecation. Until we stop pretending our personal ‘shit’ is not a problem, and admit there is a challenge in safely managing and disposing of our personal and collective ‘shits’, we may not make an headway in accelerating access to safe sanitation for 105 million Nigerians who don’t have access to safe toilets, and 35 million Nigerians who presently defecate in the open..”

Other measures recommended by the BLDF are listed to include the following:

  • The Federal Government should send a positive signal of its commitment to universal access to safe sanitation in Nigeria, by seizing the opportunity of this year’s World Toilet Day celebration to declare the right to safe sanitation for all Nigerians, and work with other arms of government and stakeholders towards progressive realisation of this right at households, community and institutional levels.
  • The Federal Government should honourably fulfil financial commitments for the sanitation sector made at various high-level meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2000, United Nations Assembly, New York in 2010, African Sanitation and Hygiene conference, eThekwini in 2011, and the Sanitation and Water for All meeting in Washington, in 2012. Specifically, the Federal Ministry of Finance should ensure progressive annual increases in budget allocation and ensures that at the minimum up to 0.5% of Nigeria’s national budget is allocated to sanitation.
  • State and local governments should as a matter of emergency and necessity also create budget lines for water-related sanitation, particularly hygiene promotion, and safe disposal of human faeces.
  • Several states are yet to adopt the implementation of Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach for scaling up rural sanitation; as such the National Task Group on Sanitation should catalyst efforts in this regard, working with various state and local governments, as well as rural communities to ensure every Nigerian village is declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) within the next five years.
  • Institutionally, urban sanitation is presently an ‘orphan’ particularly at the state level, as many states do not have any agency charged with urban sanitation policy formulation, coordination, and service provision. To address this gap, every state should set up a State Task Group on Sanitation for state level policy coordination; and go a step further by saddling the task of provision of sanitation facilities in urban public places in an appropriate agency. In the same vein, state governments should empower their Rural Water and Sanitation Agencies to develop sanitation service in rural levels, where the body should be created in states where it does not presently exist.
  • Government and NGOs should consciously mainstream equity and inclusion issues in all sanitations projects to ensure sanitation facilities are accessible and usage by the 20 million Nigerians who are physically challenged, and not able to access conventional sanitation facilities.

Biodiversity convention launches compendium on Protected Area Governance

Michael Simire
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Biodiversity convention launches compendium on Protected Area Governance

A new compendium providing the latest and best professional information needed for protected area practitioner capacity development was released this week in the margins of the 6th IUCN World Parks Congress.

Titled “Protected Area Governance and Management,” the compendium provides information to support capacity development training of protected area field officers, field managers and executive-level managers for improving governance and management of protected areas effectively.

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

“This compendium will significantly contribute to developing the capacity of managers of protected areas, at all levels, to deliver effective governance and management of protected areas,” said Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). “Such capacity development is absolutely necessary for effective implementation of the Programme of Work for Protected Areas of the CBD, which will facilitate achievement not only of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets but also of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 development agenda.”

The compendium, launched by Dias and Jane Smart, Global Director, Biodiversity Conservation Group of IUCN, was compiled by 169 authors and edited by Graeme Worboys, Michael Lockwood, Ashish Kothari, Sue Feary and Ian Pulsford.

“This compendium needs to be read by all those involved in the management of protected areas – from the heads of protected area authorities to the field managers and field officers on the ground,” said Ms. Smart. “Acting on the rich compendium of information provided in this book will help ensure that the world moves towards achieving Aichi Target 11: protected areas which are conserving the most important places for biodiversity, and which are connected, well managed and governed.”

Graeme Worboys, chief architect and driving force behind the book, said, “This information-rich compendium text book on protected area governance and management is an investment in today’s protected area managers and the next generation of park practitioners. Through their improved knowledge and competent management, it is also an investment in better biodiversity conservation and a healthier planet.”

The CBD is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. It opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entered into force in December 1993.

With 194 Parties up to now, the Convention has near universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous peoples and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community.

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing are supplementary agreements to the Convention. The Cartagena Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. To date, 168 Parties have ratified the Cartagena Protocol. The Nagoya Protocol aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies. It entered into force on 12 October 2014 and to date has been ratified by 57 Parties.

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