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Wildlife poaching linked to Boko Haram funding

Michael Simire
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Wildlife poaching linked to Boko Haram funding

Illegal wildlife trade, including poaching has been identified as a major source of funding for the deadly terrorist organisation Boko Haram, a new report by the New Scientists has said.

The illegal trade, it has also been found, rake an estimated $20 billion a year from sale of ivory, rhino horn and tiger penis, part of which the report said is used to fund Boko Haram and their violent ideology.

Poached rhino
A poached rhino. Photo: www.telegraph.co.uk/ALAMY

Writing under the headline ‘How wildlife crime links us all to conflicts in Africa’ in a recent online version, the scientific journal disclosed that 23,000 African elephants were killed for their tusks last year, adding also that, “like many terrorist organisations in Africa, Boko Haram is funded by sales of illegal ivory.”

It also pointed out that elephant poaching, which is usually considered a conservation issue, is increasingly becoming a national security and humanitarian concern. Citing a recent report from Born Free USA and data analyst C4ADS, as stating that “ivory has become the “bush currency” militants, terrorists and rebels use to buy weapons and fund operations. Government corruption is thought to play its part too.”

Most of the ivory, it wrote, ends up in East Asia, where demand is high and rising, with a single tusk being sold at $15,000.

On the link between the abduction of more than 200 girls by Boko Haram in Borno and the 23,000 African elephants killed for their tusks last year, the journal wrote; “On the surface all these crimes have in common is that they happened on the same continent. But there is an intimate connection: like many terrorist organisations in Africa, Boko Haram is funded by sales of illegal ivory.”

“The fact that ivory is used to bankroll conflicts provides yet more ammunition that conservationists should exploit,” the report added.

“Of course, the ivory trade is only one part of a web of wildlife crime that is itself part of a global criminal network dealing in drugs, weapons and people.

“Cutting demand for ivory won’t on its own defuse Africa’s conflicts. Militants will simply plunder other resources such as hardwood or the mineral coltan, which may end up as furniture in your house or electrical components in your cellphone,” it noted, while highlighting other products that could be illegally traded for terrorism sponsorship.

By Onche Odeh

GEF beefs-up support for Small Island Developing States

Michael Simire
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GEF beefs-up support for Small Island Developing States

CEO of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Naoko Ishii last week announced at a gathering of global leaders in Apia, Samoa, the largest amount of GEF resources ever provided for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in its new four-year funding cycle.  For the period 2014-18, the GEF will make available a total of $256 million for projects to improve the environment, equivalent to an increase of 9% compared to the previous four-year period.

Naoko Ishii, CEO of GEF
Naoko Ishii, CEO of GEF

In addition to the dedicated country allocations, GEF resources are available from a special window on Chemicals and Waste, from the GEF’s International Waters programmes, its Sustainable Forest Management incentive programme, and its Capacity Development programme.  Specific support to SIDS countries to fulfil their reporting obligations under international environmental conventions is also available.

“The challenges that SIDS face are global challenges.  Namely, how can the globe’s ecosystems continue to sustain the world’s aspirations for economic growth and prosperity? However, nowhere is a healthy environment and prospects for growth and prosperity linked as closely as in SIDS”, said Ishii. “The long-term prospects for SIDS—in some cases, even their existence—are threatened by climate change and associated sea level rise and stronger and more frequent storms.  SIDS’ challenges are further exacerbated by its vulnerable and interlinked ecosystems, natural resource depletion (including marine resources), soil degradation and land and costal pollution.  In SIDS countries, sustainable development is not a choice, but a necessity.”

Aligned with the Apia Summit’s focus on “partnerships”, the GEF highlighted several new initiatives that are being prepared in support of SIDS countries.  One under development is the $22 million Pacific Islands Regional Oceanscape Program (PROP) where Pacific Islands are working with the World Bank, regional organisations and the GEF to support smart limits on tuna fishing that will increase their economic gains while helping stem losses of marine biodiversity, declines in fish stocks and threats to marine ecosystem health and services for the benefit of the people of the Pacific Region. It will empower coastal fishing communities to conserve critical habitats such as mangroves and coral reefs that support the fisheries and biodiversity.  And it will facilitate regional collaboration among Pacific Island Countries by harmonizing regional management approaches and facilitate effective sharing of market intelligence and other actions to advance the economic interests of countries.  The PROP is a phased engagement, with early participants in PROP including the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands.

The GEF is also ramping up its investments in renewable energy for the SIDS, and reiterated its commitment to support SIDS in this crucial sustainable development priority.  “Energy represents a major expense for many SIDS”, noted Ms. Ishii, “but SIDS counties have huge opportunities to tap their abundant renewable energy potential.  Both solar and wind are suited for both larger islands and remote corners of archipelago nations.”

The GEF is seeking to partner with a broad array of players, including for example the Clinton Climate Initiative, SIDS Dock and others, to put programs in place to assist SIDS in moving towards renewable energy.

For more than two decades, the GEF has supported SIDS countries to tackle their most pressing environment and development challenges.  In the past two decades, the GEF has provided close to $1 billion in support for sustainable development in SIDS.  The small size of SIDS, remoteness, and limited natural resource base means that successful development requires an integrated approach. The GEF is working with island countries in the Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean to tackle the food, water, energy and ecosystem nexus, through an ecosystem based approach known as Ridge to Reef. This approach is designed to reverse the degradation of coastal resources by reducing flows of harmful chemicals, nutrients and sediments from agriculture and forestry in catchments.

Essentially, under Ridge to Reef, Integrated Water Resources Management and Integrated Coastal Management plans come together to inform long-term sustainable use of the natural resources while limiting the impact on the fragile environment.  The Ridge-to-Reef Program was one among many projects highlighted in a joint UNDP-GEF publication “Island Innovations – UNDP and GEF: Leveraging the Environment for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States” that was launched at the Summit.  The publication showcases outstanding results from a series of environment and sustainable development projects from SIDS across the world.

SIDS need significant support to strengthen adaptation to climate change.  Sea level rise and more frequent storms will require significant preparatory planning and investments.  In addition, with more unpredictable weather, decisions about what and when to plant become more difficult.  “The GEF is putting strong emphasis on supporting adaption across SIDS”, Ms. Ishii noted.  “For example, we are pleased to support the GEF’s Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC ) regional project , for instance , is enhancing the capacity of 13 Pacific SIDS to adapt to climate change in selected key sectors by integrating climate change risks and adaptation measures into relevant development policies and plans”.

Ecocide emerges to tackle crime against environment

Michael Simire
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Ecocide emerges to tackle crime against environment

A new era in environmental protection has emerged in Nigeria and 94 other countries, where environmental violations by Transnational Corporations, especially those involved in oil and mineral exploration are rife, as new laws that stipulate stringent punishments for crimes against the environment in these countries are being worked out.

Dr Uyi Ojo of ERA/FOEN
Dr Uyi Ojo of ERA/FOEN

This may put an end to the era when multinational oil and other companies in the extractive industry that pollute the environment where they work, would rather than take responsibility by cleaning up the mess, preferred to engage in divide-and-rule as a strategy of evading justice as seen in Nigeria’s Niger Delta area.

It followed a resolution through an overwhelming vote by the United Nations Human Rights Council at a recent in Geneva against Transnational Corporations’ (TNC) voluntary mechanisms. The participants instead voted for an international legally binding mechanism to regulate the activities of TNCs relating to the protection of human rights.

The resolution was supported by over 610 organisations, 400 individuals, and 95 countries while 13 states abstained.

Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), who was at the meeting, gave insight on the resolution shortly upon arrival in the country, saying modalities are being worked out to domesticate the treaty in Nigeria.

He, however, said this victory ushers in a period to play up ecocide, as a crime that should go with a minimum life jail term for perpetrators.

Speaking in Lagos, Ojo said, “While we celebrate this victory we call on the United Nations to recognise the crime of ecocide being perpetrated at the sites of extraction on a global scale.”

Should ecocide become embedded in Nigeria’s law, he said, “TNCs and their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) who repeatedly and fragrantly take operational and managerial decisions that have repeatedly resulted in ecological destruction, loss of lives and livelihoods are guilty of ecocide or crime against humanity that must be punished.”

Ojo said a uniform binding mechanism would ensure that “environmental racism as practiced by TNCs, Shell and other oil companies in Nigeria will come to an end because the same standards deployed in Europe and America will be the same standards to be applied in Nigeria and elsewhere.”

He also disclosed that the new legal regime would end the disdain of Shell against national oversight agencies such as National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

“Recall that a fine of N1.84 trillion was imposed on Shell by NIMASA for compensation for lost livelihoods for over five million affected fishermen and women, and US$5 billion for administrative fine imposed by NOSDRA.

“Unfortunately till date Shell holds both institutions in disdain in the manner it has dismissed them and refused to pay up these fines,” Ojo said, adding that the non-implementation of the UNEP report and failure to set up $1 billion fund for the clean-up and restoration of the Ogoni were part of the evidence supporting the case for a legally binding mechanism.

“The Nigerian situation of resource violence worked seriously against TNCs and Shell’s activities in Nigeria, and Chevron refusal to pay over $9 billion by the Ecuadorian Supreme Court judgment were major evidences that swayed the votes in favour,” he said.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that the UN treaty will ensure that production costs cannot be externalised to third parties, but fully paid for in the production process including environmental remediation, compensation and risks management.

Meanwhile The ERA/FoEN boss has said ecological devastation and destruction of rural livelihood sources could be responsible for armed conflicts emanating across parts of Nigeria.

He said, “Since oil extraction has destroyed rural livelihoods in the Niger Delta, the environment of northern Nigeria is not less in devastation due to desertification. Western Nigeria is also faced with deforestation while eastern Nigeria is ravaged by gully erosion.

“In all these, rural people throughout Nigeria have been impoverished and sentenced to slow deaths thereby resulting in reactive tendencies that can no longer be ignored.”

Consequently he has recommended that a social security in the form of National Basic Income Scheme (NaBIS) of about N10,000 payable to all Nigerians who are unemployed could be the solution to the spate of resource conflicts and violence.

By Onche Odeh

Danger! Wild global weather looms

Michael Simire
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Danger! Wild global weather looms

In what looks like a doomsday prediction, meteorologists have said the weather is preparing to go wild before the end of this year, as the tropical climate system is primed for a big El Niño. Unfortunately, the world may be at its mercy, as they say no adequate preparation is on ground to contain it.

The El Niño, a splurge of warm water in the Pacific Ocean, as predicted by a cross section of Climate and Weather experts, will wreak havoc and deaths around the globe later this year, as it is set to unleash floods in the Americas, while South-East Asia and drought in Australia.

Prof. Olukayode Oladipo
Prof. Olukayode Oladipo

Although the effects have been predicted for South-East Asia and Australia, Nigeria may also get a bit of its effect, according to Climatologist, Prof. Emmanuel Olukayode Oladipo.

Oladipo said the consequence of the predicted wild weather events may have been captured by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) already.

“NIMET has noted in its annual predictions that Nigeria will witness shorter period of rainfall this year with droughts in parts of the north.

“This may force the herdsmen to move forward downwards. Unless urgent steps are taken to prepare ahead of time, this may still cause tension between them and the crop farmers,” Oladipo said, while also advising the government of Nigeria to immediately commission renown researchers and scientists to study the prediction, with a view to proffering steps to prevent and cope with any likely weather event.

“On occasions like this, the best approach would have been to get scientists and researchers to do studies on the prediction and also to hear from them how to get around the situation. Unfortunately, in Nigeria we are only interested in spending money on immediate situations.

“Why wait for a catastrophe before we act, when we can actually do a long-term preparatory programme?” he queried.

A big El Niño that occurred in 1997-98 killed not less than 20,000 people and caused almost $97 billion of damage. This year, it has been predicted that the weather would go wild causing floods, storms and droughts around the Pacific.

An El Niño begins when warm water near Indonesia spreads eastwards and rises to the surface of the Pacific. The warm water carries rain with it, so El Niño takes rain from Asia and Australia and dumps it on the Americas.

Meteorologist with Australia’s national research agency, in Melbourne, Wenju Cai, was quoted as saying the more heat in the Pacific, the bigger the El Niño, and that right now, 150 metres below the surface, a ball of warm water is crossing that ocean.

On May 5, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the odds of an El Niño would exceed 50 per cent this year.

It is expected that Asia and Australia will see less rainfall as a result of El Niño, leading to drought and wildfires. But, reports have said many impacts depend on how El Niño affects the monsoons, which is hard to predict. El Niño also brings warmer weather, which melts ice.

Lagos, Abuja host roadshows to promote clean energy financing

Michael Simire
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Lagos, Abuja host roadshows to promote clean energy financing

Roadshows in connection with the launching of the proposals for the Second Cycle of the West African Forum for Clean Energy Financing (WAFCEF 1) will take place in Abuja and Lagos on the 9th and 11th of September 2014.

Prince Lekan Fadina
Prince Lekan Fadina

The events are designed to share the successes of the WAFCEF 1 and to promote WAFCEFI 2 with the objective of increasing the pool and quality of applications for WAFCEF to project developers and prospective applicants.

The event will provide guidance on the essentials of project proposals as well as highlight the benefits of the WAFCEF programme to prospective applicants. The events are organised by the CTI Private Financing Advisory Network, USAID, Sustainable Energy Fund Africa and Winrock International.

According to the organisers, the events will assist participants to have better understanding of the necessary requirements for project development and financing.

Prince Lekan Fadina of the Centre for Investment, Sustainable Development, Management & Environment (CISME) added that, after the roadshows, participants would be better placed to access the Clean Energy Financing facility.

Fashola advocates citizens’ right to vote out non-performing government

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Fashola advocates citizens’ right to vote out non-performing government
Fashola
Fashola

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has said that the citizens should have the courage to vote out any government that is non-performing to their expectation and should reward the performing one by keeping it in office as long as the constitution allows.

 

The governor gave the advice during the 15th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture series with the theme, “The Power of Your Vote: A catalyst for A Stable and United Nigeria”.

 

The event was part of the Lecture and Awards Ceremony for the Mike Okonkwo Educational and Youth Initiative Essay Competition (MOEYI) which took place at the Shell Hall of the MUSON Centre, Onikan.

 

Fashola said it was no longer democratic when the people have allowed a bad government to serve out its full terms before saying it should be changed.

 

Base on this, he charged that just as the voting public must be ready to change a bad government, it must also work vigorously to keep a good one in government, adding that that is where the choice is inherent and embedded in a democracy.

 

The governor explained that the United States of America and the United Kingdom have had several scores of Presidents and Prime Ministers in position but no one can easily recall the names of at least a quarter of them off hand because in those countries the voting public have been quick to remove those who perform below expectation and also kept those who performed very well for as long as the constitution allowed it.

 

Noting that there was a connection between politics and what happens in the day to day life of every individual, Fashola said people who are fond of saying they cannot participate in politics fail to realize the fact that everyone is a political animal stressing that everybody should show interest in who and how they are governed.

 

While quoting from a Social Scientist: Berthold Bretch to buttress his point, he said: “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he hears nothing, and he sees nothing. He takes no part in political life, he doesn’t seem to know that the cost of living, the prices of beans, flour, rent, medicine and all depend on political decision. He even prides himself on his political ignorance, sticks out his chest and say he hates politics, he doesn’t know that from his political non- participation comes the prostitute, the abandoned child, the robber and worst of all corrupt officials- the lackeys of exploitative multinational corporations”.

 

He stressed that after several voting exercises and the results were released, it is often observed that not more than 35 percent of the registered voters come out to exercise their voting rights, saying another opportunity now beckons as it does once in four or five years period for citizens to exercise such rights.

Man, 23, found bleeding in street after being stabbed several times

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Man, 23, found bleeding in street after being stabbed several times
The man was found on Oldham Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, in the early hours of this morning.
The man was found on Oldham Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, in the early hours of this morning.

A man was found bleeding in the street after being stabbed repeatedly early this morning.

The 23-year-old was taken to hospital following the attack, on Oldham Road in Ashton-Under-Lyne, at around 5am on Friday.

He had suffered multiple stab wounds to the leg, and separate head and chest injuries, police said.

Officers believe he was attacked by a group of men near the junction of Cranbourne Road, north of Ashton town centre, in the early hours.

A spokesman for the North West Ambulance Service confirmed that three teams – an ambulance crew, rapid response vehicle and separate paramedics – were sent to Oldham Road at 5.01am.

They found a man in his 20s with stab wounds to his legs and other chest and head injuries. The man was taken to the Manchester Royal Infirmary by ambulance. Hospital staff were notified in advance that the victim was on his way.

It is not yet known how seriously he was injured.

Lufthansa pilots hold another strike

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Lufthansa pilots hold another strike

Lufthansa airplaneLufthansa said a pilots’ strike later on Friday will mean cancelling 200 flights and hit the travel plans of about 250,000 passengers.

 

The German airline has been locked in a dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit union over an early retirement scheme.

 

Lufthansa said short-haul and medium-haul flights leaving Frankfurt airport, Europe’s third largest, will be hit.

 

Pilots at Lufthansa’s budget carrier Germanwings went on strike last week over early retirement.

 

Friday’s strike will involve a six-hour stoppage from 1500 GMT.

 

“We will continue to strike until Lufthansa brings an end to the confrontational way in which they deal with staff,” union official Joerg Handwerg told the Reuters news agency.

 

The pilots, who staged a three-day nationwide strike in April over the same issue, want Lufthansa to retain a 50-year old scheme that allows pilots to take early retirement at 55 and still receive up to 60% of their pay.

 

The carrier, which had wanted to scrap the scheme entirely, wants to increase the average age at which its pilots retire to 61.

 

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr has said changes are necessary to keep the airline’s costs down.

 

Although Friday’s strike will not cause as much disruption as April’s industrial action, it coincides with the end of the summer holiday period in some German states.

 

Last Friday’s Germanwings strike meant the cancellation of more than 100 flights, hitting the plans of about 15,000 passengers.

Tukur tasks politicians on equity, justice

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Tukur tasks politicians on equity, justice
Bamanga Tukur
Bamanga Tukur

The immediate past National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador (Dr) Bamanga Tukur, has called on Nigerian politicians to ensure the enthronement and sustenance of equity and justice in their political crusade and dealings.

 

According to him, equity and justice remain the bedrock for the consolidation of democratic structures and ideals.

 

Speaking during a one-day sensitization seminar organized by the Party’s State Executive in Yola for elected PDP delegates for Saturday PDP Governorship Primaries, Tukur said that the exclusion of fair play, equity and justice in our political dealings will have catastrophic effect on our resolve to use democracy our choice of government.

 

He said that it was such vices of exclusion of equity and justice that have given room for acts of dictatorship and imposition in our political structure and parties.

 

Ambassador Tukur warned that the act of imposing candidates on political parties was absolutely adverse and negative to democratic principles and ideology.

 

He made it clear that democracy is an avenue through which people choose and decide who will rule or govern them in elections that are free and fair.

 

He added that one of the cardinal policies and principles he introduced and fought for as the National Chairman of the Party was election instead of imposition; discipline; equity and justice.

 

 

He urged Nigerian electorates to stick to the exercise of their Constitutional rights by always using their votes to vote-in people they want and vote-out people they do not want.

 

Tracing the history of PDP formation of which he is a founding member, he submittedthat the founding fathers formed the PDP as a Party for the people by the people and for the people.

 

He warned of the dangers of imposing people from opposition parties against the interest of consistent and loyal members of the Party who have suffered for the Party for the sake of being the flag-bearers of their new party on executive or legislative elections.

 

 

Tukur finally urged the delegates to always use their votes wisely saying their votes should not be for sale and any act to make their votes a mercantile affair will be inimical to internal democracy of our political parties and political dispensation.

 

A former Federal Minister of Education, Dauda Birmah, who also addressed the delegates, commended Ambassador Tukur for his efforts and struggles for the enthronement and sustenance of democracy in in Nigeria.

 

He remarked that Tukur was one of those who fought for the democracy we are enjoying today even at the risk of their lives.

 

 

The Deputy Chairman of the State PDP Executive, Jingi Rufai, who spoke earlier also thanked Tukur for his services to the Nation and the PDP.

 

 

The Deputy Governor of former Gongola State, who served as Deputy Governor to Bamanga Tukur, Barristerr David Barau described Tukur as a detribalized Nigerian who has no place for tribe, ethnicity or religion.

 

The delegates sensitization seminar ended on Thursday, 4th September, 2014.

Jonathan’s government, agent of darkness —APC

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Jonathan’s government, agent of darkness —APC

Davies Ibiamu IkanyaThe All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State Chapter, has chided the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, describing it as an agent of darkness.

 

“It is a big shame that despite endless promises of improved power supply and billions of naira sunk into the purported power reform programme of the Jonathan administration, the power situation in the country today is worse than ever,” Rivers APC said in a statement issued Thursday in Port Harcourt by its Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya.

 

The party refereed to a new report by the international sustainable energy charity Ashden which showed that Nigeria has the highest number of citizens without electricity in Africa, accounting for about 10 per cent of the total 1.3 billion people in Africa who are without electricity.

 

Rivers APC also referred to the recent statement of Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, admitting that 120 million Nigerians, representing 60 per cent of the country’s estimated 170 million population, are yet to be connected to the national grid.

 

“Even for those connected, it does not make much difference since the Jonathan administration has only succeeded in perfecting the culture of epileptic power supply,” Rivers APC said, adding:

 

“All this go to show that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is nothing but an agent of darkness.

 

Nigerians, however, do not have to continue to wallow in darkness as they have a golden opportunity to vote out this agent of darkness during the 2015 elections and cast their vote for an APC Presidency, which will end this evil covenant with darkness and give Nigerians stable power supply as obtains in other progressive societies of the world.”

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