The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has described a Dutch court ruling today which held Shell liable for the pollution of fish ponds and farmlands in Ikot Ada Udo community in Akwa Ibom as a major watershed in the quest for environmental justice in the Niger Delta.
The group disclosed In a statement issued in Lagos that while it disagreed with the court’s position that the polluted farmlands and fishponds in Goi and Oruma, in Rivers and Bayelsa states respectively were due to alleged sabotage by local community people, the ruling on Ikot Ada Udo has set a precedent for global environmental accountability because companies can now be tried in their home countries for their acts or omissions in their host countries.
Four farmers, supported by Friends of the Earth (FoE), dragged Shell to the court in The Hague, Netherlands, thousands of miles away from their communities in Nigeria where Shell’s defective pipelines caused damage to their fishponds and farmlands in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Shell has consistently denied responsibility. It refused to clean-up the spill and did not pay compensation.
The Hague Civil Court said that the level of damages in the case of Ikot Ada Udo would be established at a later hearing.
It rejected claims by the two other communities, saying the pollutions were caused by saboteurs, and that, under Nigerian law, oil companies are not responsible unless they breach their duty of care. The Goi and Oruma communities have three months to appeal.
ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey, said: “Finding Shell guilty of the spill at Ikot Ada Udo is commendable but we want to see how Shell can celebrate the faulty conclusion reached by the court that they can be exonorated from the ecocide at Goi and Oruma. The company’s disdain for the wellbeing of communities that suffer the impacts of its reckless exploitation of oil in the Niger Delta has been legendary. The spill at Ikot Ada Udo went on for months and in open farmland and yet Shell had the temerity to fight to avoid culpability. It is just and fair that it is held accountable for this crime.
“This win for Ikot Ada Udo has set a precedent as it will be an important step that multinationals can more easily be made answerable for the damage they do in developing countries. We anticipate other communities will now demand that Shell pay for the assault on their environment.
“Until now it has been very problematic because it is difficult to bring cases against these companies in their home countries, because the legislation is often not advanced or properly applied.”
ERA/FoEN Director, Programmes and Administration, Godwin Uyi Ojo, noted: “While we commend the Dutch court ruling, it is now time the western countries pass laws compelling companies to enforce the same environmental responsibility standards abroad as at home.
“Shell’s volte face in the face of incontrovertible evidence has again shown the double standards of the oil companies in treating spills incidents in Nigeria differently from their pollution in Europe or North America. We are still optimistic that the Goi and Oruma communities will get justice. The ruling against the two communities will be appealed,” Ojo stressed.
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), who recently took a look at the current National Biosafety Agency (Establishment) Bill of 2010, have warned that the Nigerian government did not take into account the concerns of local farmers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and critical stakeholders in its formulation. The bill is presently awaiting the President’s consent.
At a forum held recently in Benin City, the Edo State capital, courtesy of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), participants observed that, if passed in its present state, the bill would be an open door for manipulation by multinational corporations and gene giants promoting genetically modified organisms (GMOs), acting in alliance with some research institutes.
A GMO is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. GMOs have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques.
“We do not need to endanger our environment and crop varieties on the altar of GMOs. We do not want GM cassava or GM rice purported to be fortified with Vitamins, we can get high amounts of Vitamin A from just eating carrots,” submitted the participants at the end of the daylong event.
According to them, the much-touted benefits of GMOs, upon critical analysis, are found to be myths.
“In 2008, over 400 scientists, 30 governments from developed and developing countries and 30 civil society organisations, concluded work under the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The report observed that modern biotechnology would have very limited contribution to the feeding of the world in the foreseeable future,” the communiqué noted.
It added: “Promoters of GMO and their allies have deliberately ignored the importance and the peculiarities of the African and indeed Nigerian culture, environment and agriculture in their aggressive attempts to impose their products in Nigeria and Africa. Rather than African governments getting committed to promotion of agro-ecological agriculture practices, they have become tied to the apron-strings of speculators and neo-colonial powers whose objective is to exploit, subjugate and destroy food production systems in the continent.
“Contrary to the arguments peddled by modern biotechnology industry, there are few or no tangible success stories on GMOs and Nigeria must not be used as ground for experiments for unverified technologies. Genetically engineered crops are being resisted and rejected in many countries in Europe as well as Africa and it is not correct to paint a picture of major strides being made by the proponents.”
Participants therefore urged government not to assent to the National Biosafety Bill in its current form in order to give opportunity for citizens and stakeholders’ input in line with the provisions of the Cartagena Protocol which Nigeria is signatory to.
“We urge the President not to give assent to the bill until it is further improved, because after three readings in the National Assembly, it is still defective in many aspects.”
They listed its flaws of include the fact that it: does not mention the issue of liability and redress; omits an important step in the development of GM crops from regulation; does not contain meaningful provisions ensuring effective public participation; does not take into account the precautionary principle; contains inconsistent language to an extent not acceptable; has no provision on co-existence; and, deliberately omits provision on labeling.
The activists urged government to put in place mechanism to monitor commercial importation of food to ensure that they are not contaminated by GMOs, even as they underlined the need for Nigeria to have a strict Biosafety law that adequately protects the nation’s food health and environment.
Apart from the ERA/FoEN, other groups that endorsed the communiqué included: Committee on Vital Environmental Resources (COVER), Community Forest Watch (Okomu Forest), Community Watch (Iguobuzuwa), Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Community Research and Development Center (CREDC), Collation for the Defense of Democracy and Good Governance, Healing Handsmaker, Budget Watch Group and Student Environmental Assembly (University of Benin).
Others were: Student Environmental Assembly (Delta State University), Edos Future, True Vine Initiative, Accurate Visions, Oasis Venture, Association of Women Farmers of Nigeria (AWFAN), Life Lift (Benin City), Cradle and Black Civilization Initiative Foundation for Good Governance and Social Change, Host Communities Aifesoba and Host Communities Network of Nigeria (HoCoN).
Living in Kpeyegyi community, one of the several satellite communities of Abuja, is really challenging.
The community is not only close to the nation’s seat of power but lack so much – they have no good roads, potable water, health facilities and good transport system. Majority of them live in accommodation not befitting the status of people associated with a Federal Capital City like Abuja.
In Kpeyegyi, absence of a health care facility, no proper drainage and toilet systems are indices of under development in the community.
Kpeyegyi is a small settlement after Jikwoyi community in Orozo Ward of AMAC, situated along the Karshi-Orozo Road but its residents’ worse nightmare is access to safe water.
Due to the absence of pipe borne water in the area, residents are forced to drink from open hand dug wells which are unhealthy to their wellbeing.
During our visit to the community, we discovered that other major sources of water supply in the area are local river and water vendors (mai ruwas) who fetch water from unknown sources only to sell to residents at exorbitant rates.
In the history of Kpeyegyi, there have been many occasions when hundreds of people have died due to water borne-diseases such as cholera, which has been spreading through the community by supply of polluted water to the people by Mai Ruwas.
Joseph Abah, an Accounting Officer in Vestergaard Frandsen Nigeria Limited, lives in Kpeyegyi.
“The water situation in this area is extremely bad. In this community, the only source of water is well water or privately individuals that own boreholes. We do buy water from the water vendors (mai ruwas) and a rubber cost N 20; by the time you calculated five rubbers, you’re spending N100 which you can use to do some other things that are very necessary and I don’t think most people can afford it.
“The problem of water in this community is a serious one that we need the Ministry of Water Resources to come to our aid. Sometimes people fetch water from the well to cook and I would not guarantee that is hygienic or safe water for one to use in cooking or to drink, even in bathing.”
He suggested that in order to ameliorate the sufferings of residents, the government should provide boreholes in several locations in the community.
“We are really passing time in this community especially in this harmattan season, the well gets dried up and the only means of getting water is from the borehole. A lot of people go as far as the river to get water, so if government can think about it and provide us with boreholes I think it will save and lot of life,” he said.
Another resident, Mrs. Joy Aaron, a trader, was worried about the health implication the sources of water in the area to residents relying on the sources.
“The source of water in this area is well water and rivers that emanated from the rock. It is bad because people wash, bathe and also drink from the same water. Some people also use dirty fetchers or container to fetch from the well water.
“This well water also smells a lot. Our lives are in danger because these sources of water can cause water borne diseases such as typhoid. Also, some boreholes are bad therefore are not drinkable. If you boil the water the particles that will come out of the water will not allow someone to use or drink it”.
She also appealed to the government to come to their aid by providing portable and safe water for them.
Speaking in the same vein, Thompson Ngene, a student, said: “In this area, we are lacking good drinkable water because the well water which is the source of water here is very dirty. The well water smells a lot and after using it to wash; it makes my cloths to smell.
“Everybody cannot afford to buy water from the private owned bore holes. Therefore, I beg the government to provide portable water for us because we are suffering a lot especially the less privilege among us. Some drink from this well ignorantly inviting sicknesses,” he added.
The available sources of water remain unsafe, residents get little or no good health from drinking from these sources. When will succour comes to the people closer to the seat of Nigerian power?
Against the backdrop of the Equator Prize bestowed on it by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Ekuri Initiative has lamented that the efforts of the community are not locally acknowledged despite its international recognition.
Ogar
Edwin Ogar, who heads the project, disclosed that, consequently, the community is in dire need and mired in poverty.
His words: “In Nigeria, the successes of the Ekuri community forestry initiative in climate change mitigation, watersheds protection and carbon sequestration that benefits the entire world does not receive the accolade it deserves. The Ekuri community is languish in infrastructure poverty, high illiteracy and poverty, and even though they own the rich Ekuri community forest totalling 33,600 hectares (ha) worth several billions of Naira, in the past 30 years, they have decided to conserve this forest for the sustainable development of Nigeria and the world at large.
“However, despite the supreme sacrifice to keep the forest in lieu of deforestation beneficial to everyone in Nigeria, the Ekuri community is denied basic facilities to make life a bit comfortable and to strengthen their resolve in the conservation of this forest. We are highly disappointed that, instead of government, corporate bodies or individuals coming to the aid of Ekuri and address identified priorities, the community is still struggling despite local efforts and few donors’ support.
“The honouring of the Ekuri Initiative by United Nations is another attestation that ‘a Prophet is honoured everywhere except in his home town’.
“Ekuri Initiative is not honoured in Nigeria; rather, it is regarded as a back bencher by government officials whose agenda for such attitude is highly incomprehensible. This seemingly poor attitude towards the Ekuri community and, by extension, the Ekuri Initiative, is worrisome but is wholly incapable of changing the vision of the Ekuri and we remain resolute in our idea conceived in 1982.”
He, however, expressed appreciation to the UNDP for the award, saying that it “will strengthen the Ekuri community through her Ekuri Initiative in the conservation of biodiversity for the purpose of community development and poverty reduction.”
He added: “We thank the UNDP particularly the Equator Initiative for chronicling the success stories of recipients of the Equator Award as s mechanism to enhance policy change and to inspire other communities south of the equator to emulate these examples.
“We know that the task of conservation is onerous and several challenges do crop up, but the beauty of it is the ability to resolve them timely and forge ahead. This we have demonstrated over the years and we will continue to do same.”
In a reaction, climate change expert, Prof. Olukayode Oladipo, stated: “You have started a process that cannot be stopped, as long as you do not give up. When you started to push me in those days, you never knew what will come out with such a success.
“Thus, my advice is that you should not give up, especially in view of the REDD+ programme that is ongoing in the state (Cross River State). In addition, you may think of developing specific proposals for donor support using the Equator Initiative award as a baseline.”
National Coordinator, UNDP GEF-Small Grants Programme, Ibironke Favour Olubamise, described the Ekuri Initiative as a grantee of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-Small Grants Programme.
The Ekuri Initiative along with the Smallholders Foundation are winners of the Equator Prize award from Nigeria. The case studies were developed by the award group at the UNDP headquarters as part of the efforts to mark the 10-year anniversary of Equator Initiative.
The Equator Prize is awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding and exemplary community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Olubamise said: “It is worthy of note that GEF Small Grants has supported the sustainability of the conservation effort by helping to reduce threats to wildlife which became apparent despite all the efforts to protect Ekuri forest, through extensive environmental education and provision of alternative livelihood activities. GEF-SGP is also supporting replication which intends to incorporate other surrounding communities, from where the threats to wildlife emanated, in conservation effort, as reported in the case study.”
Nigeria needs an environmental agenda to enable it grow sustainably.
Asiodu
President of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Chief Philip Asiodu, stated this during the 11th Chief S. L. Edu Memorial Lecture held recently in Lagos.
According to him, the country is faced with various environmental challenges like forest degradation, marine and fresh water depletion, as well as pressure on available land spaces.
He pleaded with the Federal Government to incorporate environmental studies into the curriculum of schools in the country to shape the minds of children and youths to be responsible for their environment.
Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, Professor Joy Ogwu, who was the guest speaker, in a presentation on the linkage between environment and security, called for re-evaluation of what poses security challenges to the country.
She explained that conflict and war is not only about guns and ammunition but a control over available natural resources like available arable land, shrinking water bodies and drought.
These increasingly scarce natural resources have been found to be responsible for war and conflict in countries like Somalia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Haiti, Jordan and Israel, she disclosed.
According to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report, 40 percent of intra-state conflicts is due to control over natural resources.
Also, a World Bank report states that 70 percent of the world’s poor live in rural communities who depend on agriculture both for food and livelihood.
Ogwu said the rate of global poverty and hunger can be reduced if more priority is given to small and subsistence farmers who support national growth by food production.
She speculated that, with the reduction in size of water bodies like the Lake Chad which has reduced to one-fifth of its original size since in the 1960s, water would be a source of conflict among neighbouring countries.
She called for collaboration between government agencies to address security challenges, active reclamation of degraded land and protection of available resources, as well as facilitating local resilience to ensure rural and sustainable development.
According to the NCF, it has in the last seven years supported academic research and development in the areas of science and sustainable development by offering grants to doctoral students, in respect of which 14 students have so far benefited.
A couple of endeavours aimed at providing sustainable solutions to local people in Nigeria have become a shining light in the annals of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
This is because the programmes – operated by the Smallholders Foundation and Ekuri Initiative – have both been decorated by the UN organisation, albeit in the course of the decade-old history of its Equator Initiative (EI), a scheme designed to reward indigenous communities advancing innovative sustainable development solutions that work for people and for nature.
In a recent publication to mark its 10 years in operation, the EI chronicles a series of case studies of past awardees, in an apparent attempt to detail such works so as to inspire policy dialogue and serve as models of replication.
Winner of the EI award in 2004, the Ekuri Initiative is operated by the Ekuri community, which is located in Cross River State. The neighbourhood of 6,000 inhabitants manages a 33,600-hectare community forest adjacent to the Cross River National Park.
Community forest management began in the 1980s, when the villages of Old Ekuri and New Ekuri united in response to the proposed logging of their forest. The project would have included the construction of a road linking the villages to local market centres; instead, the community decided to sustainably manage the forest as a community asset, generating income, subsistence materials and food.
Levies on the sale of non-timber forest products by community members financed a road that eventually reached Old Ekuri in 1990 and New Ekuri in 1997. In addition to allowing farm and forest products to reach new markets, the road has also made possible the transport of construction materials for two schools, a health centre, and a civic centre where the community meets to discuss forest governance decisions.
The Cross River National Park has also been included as a key site in Nigeria’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme, with three REDD+ pilot projects considered from Cross River State. One of these projects includes the Ekuri forests, along with neighbouring community forests in Iko Esai, Okokori, Etara-Eyeyeng, and Owai, and Ukpon River Forest Reserves, comprising an approximate total of 214,000 hectares. The Ekuri Community’s engagement with the state’s incipient REDD+ programme has further helped to strengthen ties between Ekuri and the state government.
“My community has experienced climate change but has not been engaged in mechanisms to adapt to climate change due to poor knowledge on how to go about it. However, we are engaged in climate change mitigation through the REDD+) programme, although this is still in its infancy,” said Chief Edwin Ogar, who heads the Ekuri Initiative.
Ogar
Using revenues from the sale of sustainable forest management products, the initiative has been able to scale up activities in five neighbouring communities – Okokori, Etara, Eyeyeng, Owai and Mfaminyin – which cover 10,000 people. Project expansion has been made possible through awareness-raising, needs assessments, infrastructure development, capacity building, and the introduction of a range of income-generating opportunities. The initiative model has been shared with several communities in Nigeria and others from Cameroon, Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa.
Ikegwuonu
Equator prize winner in 2010, the Smallholders Foundation on the other hand promotes sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation through educational radio programmes. Smallholder Farmers Rural Radio broadcasts daily programmes on agricultural management, environmental conservation and market access, which reach over 250,000 smallholder farmers. Broadcasts are done in the local Igbo language, and reach listeners in three local government catchments in Imo State.
UNDP Administrator, Helen Clark
Information shared on broadcasts help farmers improve their farming practices and broaden their access to markets, thereby increasing their incomes. The Foundation also broadcasts information on environmentally responsible farming techniques as well as on household hygiene, sanitation and nutrition.
The primary objective of the Smallholders Foundation is to empower rural farmers in south-eastern Nigeria with the information needed to overcome poverty and protect the environment.
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon
“Biodiversity conservation leads to sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor. This must be made a national priority,” said Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, Executive Director, The Smallholder Foundation, adding: “Climate change is our new challenge. An opportunity exists, however, to use media like radio to inform, educate, and improve the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers.”
The prospects of two urban centres came under focus recently as human settlement practitioners gathered for the umpteenth time to take stock of the fortunes of cities on the African continent.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
At the Sixth Edition of “Africities” held several weeks ago in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, local administrators from Burkina Faso and South Africa highlighted challenges facing the cities of Ouagadougou and Cape Town respectively.
Mayor of Ouagadougou, Simon Compaore, in a presentation, assessed the extension of the metropolis, which is the largest city in the country. With an estimated population of N1.2 million inhabitants,
Ouagadougou is divided into 30 sectors, with the 20 sectors of the periphery considered under-equipped. The city centre contrasts sharply with the zones of the periphery in the level of infrastructure and services provided. There appears to be limited resources for services in the growing urban area.
But Compaore stated that the city had been expanding and efforts made to cope through systematic planning.
Similarly, delegates also talked about the issue of densification of Cape Town, a policy that aims to improve the city’s efficiency and sustainability as well as improve the quality of the built environment. It was adopted last year February.
Cape Town, South Africa
Densification implies the increased use of space, both horizontally and vertically, within existing areas/properties and new developments, accompanied by an increased number of units and/or population threshold.
Rapid and continuous low-density development in Cape Town is threatening the long-term sustainability of the city, and has created a number of challenges, including long travel distances, the erosion of urban vibrancy, loss of urban agricultural land, limiting access to opportunities, and causing operational inefficiencies and a wastage of supporting economic resources.
While hoping to achieve a minimum, average gross-base density of 25 dwelling units per hectare (ha) across the city as a whole, officials disclosed that densification can take place in the development areas of the city, on vacant infill sites within the developed areas, and on greenfield sites that are within the city’s planned growth direction.
At the close discussions generally, participants underlined the need for African countries to work together to bring African perspectives on related issues to the fore. The forum tagged the absence of the Association of African Planning Schools (AAPS) as significant, saying the body’s presence would have lent weight to the need for issue of curriculum development in planning schools in Africa.
Participants likewise underlined the need for higher level of collaboration between the AAPS and other continent-based organisations such as the African Planning Association (APA), the umbrella body of all professional planning institutions on the continent. The issue of languages came to the fore and one of the suggestions made is that planning schools should endeavour to make foreign languages as part of their curriculum.
APA Chairman, Waheed Kadiri, stated: “West African cities need to learn from approach to city improvement in other parts of Africa especially in the area of densification to achieve compactness. Other areas include the right of the citizen to the city – cities are for citizens and not cars. Open spaces should be given more prominence and, above all, the issue of informality in cities should be taken into consideration in future plans.”
Former South African president and patron of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, Thabo Mbeki, at the opening ceremony, submitted: “All of us Africans (need) to act in unity to defend our collective right to African self-determination, to act in unity to advance the objective of the Renaissance of our continent and the African Diaspora, and to advance practically, expeditiously and rationally towards the achievement of the objectives of African Unity.”
The event featured three segments: the thematic sessions during which the theme of the summit was analysed and discussed; special sessions organised at the request of institutions, agencies or network wishing to work with the local governments; and political meetings.
There was also the Africities Exhibitions which was aimed at offering an “opportunity to public and private sector companies, public and private institution to civil society and international solidarity organisations as well as to local governments and their association”.
Contrary to statements credited to the Nigeria Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), activist Nnimmo Bassey insists that genetically modified crops pose a threat to the nation’s food security
Bassey
Food production and hunger continue to be issues of major concern in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole. The continent has been the poster child of hunger and malnutrition since the structural adjustment programme (SAP) policies decimated the agricultural sector from the early 1980s. This picture has remained persistent for a number of reasons. Some of these include the occasional food shortages experienced in parts of the continent as a result of weather events that impact the agricultural sector and the way these shortages are managed.
Some of us believe that African agriculture has been quite resilient and can be improved upon without having to be pushed into the mould fabricated by the policies whose aims are to make the continent dependent on imports and on so-called food aid.
In this article we are responding to views credited to the Director General of the Nigeria Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) as published in the Vanguard newspaper of 31 December 2012 in a report captioned “BT Technology Can Assist Nigeria’s Food Security – Solomon”.
We can understand the struggle of the head of agency set up to develop modern biotechnology seeking to perform their duties, but this must be within the realm of global reality, facts and fears concerning the ideas and products being plied.
Before we look at the contentious issues, it is important we state that the idea of setting up the Nigeria Biotechnology Development Agency was hasty as it was set up in a situation where Nigeria did not have and still does not have an adequate regulatory framework such as a Biosafety Law. Secondly, an agency for the development of biotechnology should only have been set up after the need for such an agency had been clearly and publicly seen to exist. We must see danger signals when Prof Solomon states, “My major concern is that we should not be over regulated”. Generally, commercial proponents of genetic engineering abhor regulation, and it is surprising that the NABDA boss should toe this line.
Another preliminary issue here is that food security can best be attained within the context of food sovereignty. Food security is mainly concerned with availability and accessibility of food, keeping down the numbers of the hungry. Food sovereignty on the other hand goes beyond this to demand that such foods must be wholesome, culturally appropriate and are produced on the principles of agro-ecology to ensure maintenance of environmental integrity. Clearly modern biotechnology is against the achievement of food sovereignty as its products go against the grain of local contexts/environments and do not respect local knowledge but rather are dictated by corporate interests and those of governments who are bent on promoting the corporate takeover of food production and marketing systems around the world.
The NABDA boss informs us that Nigeria already has three genetically engineered crops in confined field trial. He names them as BT cowpea in Zaria, the African bio-fortified sorghum also in Zaria and the Cassava plus at the National Root Crops Institute at Umudike, Abia State. It will be proper for the agency to publish the results of their confined field trials as well as notify Nigerians as to where the crops were engineered and for what purposes. Could it be that our agencies and institutes are merely surrogates for experimentation on behalf of foreign/commercial interests? Have these test crops already been smuggled into the farms? Are we eating them already?
We have had cause to argue that Nigeria does not need genetically engineered cassava, for instance, when research institutes have already developed varieties that are capable of fighting the major diseases that plague the crop. The Umudike trials were for cassava fortified with higher levels of vitamin A. We certainly do not need to endanger our environment and crop varieties for such purposes when simple education to ensure that citizens eat crops such as carrots with high vitamin A content would suffice.
One understands the frustrations of the promoters of genetically engineered crops. To start with the technology is fast becoming old fashioned as more aggressive varieties of ways to tamper with nature are being developed. We refer here to the vastly unregulated fields of nanotechnology and synthetic biology. In the light of recent developments, the NABDA boss’s claim in the interview that this is the era of biotechnology is farfetched.
Our experts on genetic engineering keep parroting sales information from the likes of Monsanto whom the NABDA boss characterises as “the leader” in the field while speaking about the spread of Bt cotton. According to him, Monsanto is “the one giving the technology to Burkina Faso.” The last cotton harvest in Burkina Faso was a fiasco for the poor farmers who have been trapped in the Bt cotton web.
Burkina Faso Bt cotton farmers harvested cotton with shorter fibres than the traditional varieties they used to plant and thus suffered loses. Why are our genetic engineering promoters not sharing this sad information with the public? In the past, the false example of Bt cotton success in Africa used to be the Makathini Flats in South Africa. The remarkable failures there and the abandonment of the crop have led to silence on that.
Professor Solomon singles out Friends of the Earth as opposing the development of biotech in Europe. The truth is that there are many groups, including farmers and social movements, who are absolutely opposed to modern biotechnology in agriculture not only in Europe but also around the world. If the Europeans solved their food problems as alleged was this done via the genetic engineering route?
Another claim that requires a quick response is where the report claims that “the Germans have suddenly developed the industrial potatoes and already, the Irish that we named the Irish potatoes after have taken the German potatoes and are already growing it. So, it now pleases them to do that. In Spain they are already growing BT rice and many part of Europe BT crops are already being developed.”
The truth is that although there was an industrial starch GM potato developed in Germany, and approved at EU level nobody has grown it because a conventional variety already existed. In fact Europeans generally do not want to grow a GM crop even for industrial use.
Unlike the impression the report seeks to give, there is only one very small trial for GM blight resistant potatoes in Ireland and even this little trial is widely opposed. And we should state here that although Spain does grow Bt maize it does not grow GM rice. In fact there is no commercial GM rice openly grown anywhere in the world. There was a global uproar in 2006/2007 when a GM variety labelled Liberty Link Rice was found on market shelves (through monitoring and testing) in some countries including in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and elsewhere in 2006 and 2007. With little or no monitoring of our markets there is likelihood that we may be assailed by these illegal products already.
Genetically engineered crops are being resisted and rejected in many countries in Africa and it is not correct to paint a picture of major strides being made in East Africa. There are no such wide open doors.
It is vital to mention here that a report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) issued in April 2008 clearly showed that modern biotechnology is not the key to the future of food production in the world. Bodies such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) sponsored the report that was prepared by up to 400 scientists and related experts. About 60 countries including Nigeria have endorsed this report.
The so-called Open Forum being run by NABDA once a month in various parts of the country to press for the signing of the Biosafety Bill by the president are anything but open. Nigerians deserve to have truly open debates on these very important issues so that citizens can weigh the options and decide if they want their genetic resources contaminated, eroded and taken over by corporate interests without regard to our sovereignty and right to wholesome food. Genetic engineering poses serious and unpredictable risks in the environment. The crops do not yield more than traditional varieties; they are not more nutritious and require extensive chemical external inputs made and sold by the same promoting corporations. African researchers should be concerned with methods of agro-ecological agriculture, cooperating with nature and using knowledge accumulated over centuries of practice.
The group disclosed In a statement issued in Lagos that while it disagreed with the court’s position that the polluted farmlands and fishponds in Goi and Oruma, in Rivers and Bayelsa states respectively were due to alleged sabotage by local community people, the ruling on Ikot Ada Udo has set a precedent for global environmental accountability because companies can now be tried in their home countries for their acts or omissions in their host countries.
