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Tag: Biodiversity

  • Solar Power and Biogas Empower Women Farmers in Brazil

    Solar Power and Biogas Empower Women Farmers in Brazil

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    Leide Aparecida Souza, president of the Association of Residents of the Genipapo Settlement in the rural area of Acreúna, a municipality in central-western Brazil, stands next to breads and pastries from the bakery where 14 rural women work. The women’s empowerment and self-esteem have been boosted by the fact that they earn their own income, which is more stable than from farming, and provide an important service to their community. CREDIT: Marina Carolina / IPS
    • by Mario Osava (acreÚna/orizona, brazil)
    • Inter Press Service

    ACREÚNA/ORIZONA, Brazil, Apr 16 (IPS) – A bakery, fruit pulp processing and water pumped from springs are empowering women farmers in Goiás, a central-eastern state of Brazil. New renewable energy sources are driving the process.

    “We work in the shade and have a secure, stable income, not an unsteady one like in farming. We cannot control the price of milk, nor droughts or pests in the crops,” said Leide Aparecida Souza, who runs a bakery in the rural area of Acreúna, a municipality of 21,500 inhabitants in central Goiás.

    The bakery supplies a variety of breads, including cheese buns and hot dog buns, as well as pastries, cakes and biscuits to some 3,000 students in the municipality’s school network, for the government’s school feeding program, which provides family farming with at least 30 percent of its purchases. Welfare institutions are also customers.

    The bakery is an initiative of the women of the Genipapo Settlement, established in 1999 by 27 families, as part of the agrarian reform program implemented in Brazil after the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, which has so far settled 1.3 million families on land of their own.

    Genipapo, the name chosen for the settlement, is a fruit of the Cerrado, the savannah that dominates a large central area of Brazil. Each settled family received 44 hectares of land and local production is concentrated on soybeans, cassava and its flour, corn, dairy cattle and poultry.

    Six solar panels will reduce the costs of the women's bakery, installed on the former estate where 27 families were given land in Acreúna, in the Brazilian state of Goiás, as part of the country's ongoing agrarian reform program. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS
    Six solar panels will reduce the costs of the women’s bakery, installed on the former estate where 27 families were given land in Acreúna, in the Brazilian state of Goiás, as part of the country’s ongoing agrarian reform program. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

    Bakery empowers rural women

    The women of the Association of Residents of the Genipapo Settlement decided to create a bakery as a new source of income 16 years ago. They also gained self-esteem and autonomy by earning their own money. In general, agricultural and livestock income is controlled by the husbands.

    Each of the women working at the bakery earns about 1,500 reais (300 dollars) a month, six percent more than the national minimum wage. “We started with 21 participants, now we have 14 available for work, because some moved or quit,” Souza said.

    A year ago, the project obtained a solar energy system with six photovoltaic panels from the Women of the Earth Energy project, promoted by the Gepaaf Rural Consultancy, with support from the Socio-environmental Fund of the Caixa Econômica Federal, the regional bank focused on social questions, and the public Federal University of Goiás (UFG).

    Gepaaf is the acronym for Management and Project Development in Family Farming Consultancy and its origin is a study group at the UFG. The company is headquartered in Inhumas, a city of 52,000 people, 180 km from Acreúna.

    Due to difficulties with the inverter, a device needed to connect the generator to the electricity distribution network, the plant only began operating in March. Now they will see if the savings will suffice to cover the approximately 300 reais (60 dollars) that the bakery’s electricity costs.

    Iná de Cubas stands next to the biodigester that she got from the Women of the Earth Energy project in the municipality of Orizona, in the center-east of the Brazilian state of Goiás. The biogas generated benefits the productive activities of small farmers in rural settlements, as do solar plants on a family or community scale. Image: Mario Osava / IPS
    Iná de Cubas stands next to the biodigester that she got from the Women of the Earth Energy project in the municipality of Orizona, in the center-east of the Brazilian state of Goiás. The biogas generated benefits the productive activities of small farmers in rural settlements, as do solar plants on a family or community scale. Image: Mario Osava / IPS

    “It’s not that much money, but for us every penny counts,” Souza said. Electricity is cheap in their case because it is rural and nocturnal consumption. Bread production starts at 5:00 p.m. and ends at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. from Monday to Thursday, according to Maristela Vieira de Sousa, the group’s secretary.

    The industrial oven they use is low-consumption and wood-burning. There is another, gas-fired oven, which is only used in emergencies, “because it is expensive,” said de Sousa. Biogas is a possibility for the future, which would use the settlement’s abundant agricultural waste products.

    Alternative energies make agribusiness viable

    Iná de Cubas, another beneficiary of the Women of the Earth Energy project, has a biodigester that supplies her stove, in addition to eight solar panels. They generate the energy to produce fruit pulp that also supplies the schools of Orizona, a municipality of 16,000 inhabitants in central-eastern Goiás.

    The solar plant, installed two years ago, made the business viable by eliminating the electricity bill, which was high because the two refrigerators needed to store fruit and pulp consume a lot of electricity.

    The abundance of fruit residues provides the inputs for biogas production, an innovation in a region where manure is more commonly used.

    The refrigerators in which Iná de Cubas keeps the fruit and fruit pulp that she prepares for sale to schools in Orizona in central Brazil consume a great deal of electricity. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS
    The refrigerators in which Iná de Cubas keeps the fruit and fruit pulp that she prepares for sale to schools in Orizona in central Brazil consume a great deal of electricity. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

    “I only use an additional load of animal feces when I need more biogas,” said Cubas, who gets the manure from her neighbor’s cows, since she does not raise livestock.

    On her five hectares of land, Cubas produces numerous species of fruit for her cottage industry.

    In addition to typical Brazilian fruits, such as cajá or hog plum (Spondias mombin), pequi or souari nut (Caryocar brasiliense) and jabuticaba from the grapetree (Plinia cauliflora), she grows lemons, mangoes, oranges, guava and avocado, among others.

    For the pulp, she also uses fruit from neighbors, mostly relatives. The distribution of her products is done through the Agroecological Association of the State of Goias (Aesagro), which groups 53 families from Orizona and surrounding areas.

    Agroecology is the system used on her farm, where the family also grows rice, beans and garlic. The crops are irrigated with water pumped from nearby springs that were recovered by the diversion of a road and by fences to block access by cattle, which used to trample the banks.

    “The overall aim is to strengthen family farming, the quality of life in the countryside, incomes, and care for the environment, and to offer healthy food, without poisonous chemicals, especially for schools,” explained Iná de Cubas.

    Biodigesters made of steel and cement, solar energy for different purposes, including pumping water, rainwater collection and harvesting, are part of the “technologies” that the Women of the Earth Energy project is trying to disseminate, said Gessyane Ribeiro, Gepaaf’s administrator.

    In the area where Iná de Cubas lives, the project installed five biodigesters and seven solar pumps for farming families, in addition to solar plants in schools, she said.

    The eight solar panels on the roof of the Cubas family’s house, in the rural area of Orizona, make small agro-industrial processes viable, adding value to the wide diversity of native fruits from different Brazilian ecosystems, such as the Cerrado savannah and the Amazon rainforest, along with species imported throughout the country’s history. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

    Network of rural women

    The Women of the Earth Energy Network, brought together by the project and coordinated by Ribeiro, operates in six areas defined by the government based on environmental, economic, social and cultural similarities. In all, it involves 42 organizations in 27 municipalities in Goiás.

    The local councils choose the beneficiaries of the projects, all implemented with collective work and focused on women’s productive activities and the preservation of the Cerrado. All the beneficiaries commit themselves to contribute to a solidarity fund to finance new projects, explained agronomist Ribeiro.

    “The Network is the link between the valorization of rural women, family farming and the energy transition,” she said. “We chose family farmers because they are the ones who produce healthy food.”

    “We offer technological solutions that rely on the links between food, water and energy, to move towards an energy transition that can actually address climate change,” said sociologist Agnes Santos, a researcher and communicator for the Network.

    Recovering and protecting springs is another of the Women’s Network’s activities.

    Two solar panels run a pump installed in a spring in the forest to pump the water needed by the 29 cows owned by Nubia Lacerda Matias' family in Orizona, in the state of Goiás, near Brasilia. Thus the cows stopped drinking water in the springs, which are now fenced off, vital to protect the water source for local families living downstream. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS
    Two solar panels run a pump installed in a spring in the forest to pump the water needed by the 29 cows owned by Nubia Lacerda Matias’ family in Orizona, in the state of Goiás, near Brasilia. Thus the cows stopped drinking water in the springs, which are now fenced off, vital to protect the water source for local families living downstream. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

    Nubia Lacerda Matias celebrates the moment she was invited to join the movement. She won a solar pump, made up of two solar panels and pipes, which bring water to her cattle that used to damage the spring, now protected by a fence and a small forest.

    “It’s important not only for my family, but for the people living downhill” where a stream flows, fed by various springs along the way, she said.

    But the milk from the 29 cows and corn crops on her 9.4-hectare farm are not enough to support the family with two young children. Her husband, Wanderley dos Anjos, works as a school bus driver.

    Iná de Cubas’ partner, Rosalino Lopes, also works as a technician for the Pastoral Land Commission, a Catholic organization dedicated to rural workers.

    In his spare time, Lopes invents agricultural machines. He assembles and combines parts of motorcycles, tractors and other tools, in an effort to fill a gap in small agriculture, undervalued by the mechanical industry and scientific research in Brazil.

    © Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • No Turning a Blind Eye to Protection Dominican Republic’s Natural Resources, Says Environment Minister

    No Turning a Blind Eye to Protection Dominican Republic’s Natural Resources, Says Environment Minister

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    The island state of the Dominican Republic is extremely vulnerable to hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods. Furthermore, it is currently experiencing threats from climate change and pollution. This picture of Wallhouse, Dominica, was taken a few days after Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck the island. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS
    • by Jan Lundius (stockholm)
    • Inter Press Service

    STOCKHOLM, Apr 04 (IPS) – Ahead of the Dominican Republic’s elections, IPS spoke to Miguel Ceara Hatton, Dominican Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, about the challenges of protecting the environment as climate change and social change impact it.In 2020, general elections were held in the Dominican Republic. This took place while the COVID pandemic was becoming an increasingly serious threat, causing severe social and economic disruption. The elections were two months late as a result of the initial chaos COVID caused. The governing Dominican Liberation Party’s 16-year rule ended after the Modern Revolutionary Party’s candidate, Luis Abinader, received a majority of the votes. Elections are now scheduled for May 19 this year and IPS took the opportunity to ask Miguel Ceara Hatton, the country’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, how he perceived the past four years’ efforts to mitigate a global crisis that now threatens us all, namely climate change and environmental degradation.

    The island state of the Dominican Republic is extremely vulnerable to meteorological phenomena such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods. Furthermore, it is currently experiencing threatening effects from climate change and pollution. Increasing temperatures are causing drought, which reduces crop yields and negatively affects water supplies. However, in spite of this, the nation’s economy has, during the last ten years, experienced some of the fastest growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. The period saw a 24 percent upsurge in hotels, bars, and restaurants, while construction and the industrial sector were thriving. The middle class is increasing and poverty is declining. The country has transitioned from being an agricultural society to one dominated by vast metropolitan areas during the last 15 years; its urban population has doubled. Nevertheless, sectors such as agriculture, industry, construction, and tourism are highly dependent on increasingly scarce natural resources, such as water, timber, and land, while unsustainable practices continue to cause environmental degradation.

    To prevent pollution and further depletion of natural resources, the Ministry of Environment regulates all activities that present a potential risk to the environment, implementing policies that allow the Ministry to enforce an environmental management and adaptation plan to avoid further damage. One example of environment protecting laws is that, according to the Dominican Constitution, water is part of the nation’s heritage. Rivers, lakes, lagoons, beaches, and coasts are considered to be public property. A 60-meter coastal strip running parallel to the sea is also considered part of the nation’s public property, accessible to the public and cannot be exploited.

    At the beginning of IPS’ discussion with the Dominican Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Miguel Ceara, we asked him if environmental issues are a priority for the current government.

    Miguel-Ceara-Hatton
    Miguel Ceara Hatton

    Miguel Ceara: To a very high degree. The Ministry is rather new. It was created in 2000 as the result of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. We are currently trying to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all UN Member States in 2015. The goals of this agenda are all interconnected and safeguarding the environment is a transversal theme that concerns all levels of society, demanding coordination and collaboration of all ministries, particularly with the cabinets in charge of issues like education, water, construction, security, etc.

    Many challenges lay ahead of us. Most important is to foment a new, general culture that promotes environmental health management as well as economic growth to enable us to finance the transformation needed if our society will be able to confront such a formidable threat as the one posed by climate change.

    IPS: Before you accepted your current position, you served as Minister for Economy, Planification, and Development and have now been Minister of Environment for just two years. When you entered this office, what did you perceive as your main challenge?

    Miguel Ceara: Lack of respect for environmental laws and a high level of permisologia, i.e. an inclination to turn a blind eye to violations of rules and regulations, paired with a readiness to grant permits where they should not have been permitted. Furthermore, the wages have been far too low for technicians and other people involved in the protection of natural resources.

    IPS: Reforestation has long been a priority for Dominican governments, though it has often been stated that it has seldom been a particularly successful endeavor.

    Ceara: Quite right, but reforestation has now become urgent; in two years’ time, more than 200 000 km2 will be planted with 20 million seedlings.

    IPS: Are there any protected areas in the Dominican Republic?

    Ceara: Approximately one-fourth of the national territory is protected, as is an additional 11 percent of the marine waters.

    IPS: What does this protection imply?

    Ceara: The exploitation of protected areas is forbidden. Unharmful and protective practices are allowed to help the vegetation evolve in a healthy, sustainable manner, safeguarding flora and fauna. However, it is expensive and quite difficult to preserve and protect these areas. Only within Los Haitises National Park are more than 400 soldiers deployed to protect it and apart from foresters and game wardens, we are in great need of expertise in nature preservation. We need geologists, geographers, agronomists, hydrologists, forest scientists, and biologists. The country already has a sufficient supply of marketers, economists, architects, and engineers. The government is currently supporting a Masters’ programme for 60 environmental technicians and more are needed.

    IPS: You mentioned a culture of permisologia, how do you deal with that problem?

    Ceara: We are currently digitalizing all permits and are at the same time checking and revising them. Transgressors are brought to court. We are trying to implement harsh laws to stop abuse, for example, by increasing vigilance to protect forests and vegetation around water sources. Extracting sand for cement production from riverbeds is strictly forbidden, sand can now only be harvested in mines; and harmful agricultural methods are also being limited and even forbidden.

    IPS: Can you mention some environmental threats that are unique to the Dominican Republic?

    Ceara: There are several. For example, sudden, huge downpours that have hit the island in recent times, possibly a result of climate change. On November 4, 2022, a precipitation of 266 mm was measured in the capital, the highest level ever recorded. Nevertheless, on November 19, 2023, the Dominican Republic received 431 mm of rain. Extreme precipitation caused floods, tearing down bridges and dams, while inundating fields and neighbourhoods. In the capital, the collapse of an overpass claimed nine lives.

    Another concern, caused by climate change, is algal blooms. Increasing temperatures are changing sea currents, which, in combination with fertilizing components reaching the sea, are stimulating Sargassum, a brown macro-algae, to experience a catastrophic bloom, creating dense layers on the sea surface. Occasionally, such huge carpets of algae move onto the Dominican coastline, destroying beaches and disrupting ecosystems, while creating a decomposing and stinking mess containing concentrations of heavy metals and arsenic. Currently, a moving eight thousand km2 expanse of 30 million metric tons of Sargassum is approaching Caribbean waters.

    The Dominican Republic is a low emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for approximately 0.08 of global emissions. The land use sector currently absorbs more CO2 than it emits. However, energy demand is steadily on the rise and emissions have, during a five-year period, increased by 20 percent. As soon as it came into power, this government committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 27 percent by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. 

    IPS: Are Dominicans in general aware of the lethal threats of environmental degradation and climate change?

    Ceara: Unfortunately, not! There are always uncertainties and unforeseen events that make planning difficult. Emergencies and rising investment costs are affected by forces we have no control over. Resources are limited. Consumption is increasing, and so are waste and pollution. Cars are becoming more common, as are air conditioners and other energy-consuming appliances. Plastic is suffocating water sources. Planning is constantly being made to meet needs and demands, as well as find alternative, sustainable energy sources, and not the least to support increased awareness about environmental threats to health and society. However, much more has to be done.

    To adapt an entire nation to the painful transition from fossil fuel dependency to a society based on renewable energy is a costly and painful endeavor, but it has to be done and can conceivably be achieved. For example, this nation’s economy was once highly dependent on the production of sugar, coffee, cacao, and tobacco. Foreign competition eventually destroyed these sources of income, but the nation proved to be capable of overcoming a painful transition and through the expansion of other sectors, the economy could be recuperated.

    I believe that people can be convinced to change their habits and concerns. Take as an example how smoking has diminished by efforts to make people aware of its dangers. A similar result can be reached if people become aware of the dangers involved with mindless pollution, inadequate waste treatment, and wasteful energy consumption. To take care of our natural environment, it has to be a collective endeavor. This is not primarily a law enforcement issue, we cannot have a policeman checking every Dominican citizen. Education and awareness campaigns have to be carried out to enable every citizen, every municipality, and every neighbourhood to participate in the care and protection of our natural environment.

    IPS: However, mitigation of the harmful effects of climate change and general pollution is not only a local, but also a global concern.

    Miguel Ceara: Of course, this is a serious concern for us. To be quite frank, the worst culprits are developed nations and they don’t care enough about the harm done to developing countries. Climate change is a global issue, with a vast array of components. It has to be addressed on a multilateral basis and in a synchronized manner. So far, this has not been done, at least not to the extent it should be done. Developing nations are always in the back seat while negotiating with nations that are better off.

    Take as an example the issue of COVID mitigation. The Dominican Republic had early on made an agreement with a pharmaceutical company for timely vaccine delivery, but when the vaccines were going to be delivered, they became unavailable after being sold to bigger, wealthier nations. We had to wait and when the vaccine finally appeared, we had to pay a price four times higher than we had originally agreed upon. We cannot sit and wait for wealthier nations to assist us in addressing urgent environmental issues, we have to begin by acting alone.

    Furthermore, we are sharing our eco system with Haiti, a nation that now has become a failed state, with criminal gangs running amok, turning into private armies, fomenting fear, chaos, and increasing poverty. The Dominican Republic cannot, on its own, mitigate a crisis that threatens not only peace and cooperation, but also the ecosystem of the entire island. We expect the international community to step in and help Haiti, first for the good of the Haitian people, who deserve to live with dignity and without fear, but also to safeguard the ecosystem of the entire island. Without a stable government and institutional counterparts, it is impossible for us to reach out to Haiti to coordinate environmental policies.

    IPS: At last, a personal question: the President urged you to become minister of environment after your predecessor had been murdered in this very office. I know you hesitated while being aware of the danger involved in accepting a post like this one, as well as the fact that you are an economist and not an environmental expert. Why do you think the President chose you and if the ruling party wins the upcoming elections, do you intend to stay in your post?

    Ceara: I am aware that my predecessor was killed for applying the strict laws related to granting, or denying, permits related to environmental issues and the protection of our ecosystem. I assume the President gave me the offer since he considered me to be a man of personal integrity and experienced in planning and coordination. After being confronted with the challenges connected with environmental management and safeguarding our eco system, I am fully committed to continuing, in any capacity, to environmental protection and efforts to counteract the harmful effects of climate change.

    This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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  • Rwandas Biodiversity Conservation Gains Momentum With Bird Sounds Recording

    Rwandas Biodiversity Conservation Gains Momentum With Bird Sounds Recording

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    Young Rwandan citizen scientists record bird sounds in the forests in a project that plays a pivotal role in the country’s bird protection. Credit: Planet Birdsong Foundation
    • by Aimable Twahirwa (kotiang, rwanda)
    • Inter Press Service

    KOTIANG, RWANDA, Jan 23 (IPS) – Claver Ntoyinkima wakes up early in the morning, at least three times a week, and goes into the Nyungwe rainforest to record bird vocalizations.

    Ntoyinkima is one of several community members in a remote village in rural southwestern Rwanda who volunteer with a group of scientists to help boost wildlife conservation.

    Relying on a voice application installed on his mobile phone, which is connected to a parabolic reflector with a dedicated cable, the 50-year-old tour guide and his team walk long distances every week to collect sounds from various birding hotspots in this area.

    “Love for birds is critical when it comes to engaging many young people in this career,” Ntoyinkima told IPS while referring to his second profession of bird sound recording.

    To better protect the birds, the veteran tour guide has been able to launch the Nyungwe Birding Club, bringing together about 86 members of local communities living in Gisakura, a remote village located on the outskirts of the Nyungwe rainforest in southwestern Rwanda. Thanks to this mobilization, members of the club, which also consists of 26 young students from primary and secondary schools, were equipped with skills on how to record bird sounds.

    The initiative is part of joint efforts by the Planet Birdsong Foundation, an international UK-based charity organization, and the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management at University of Rwanda seeking to connect people with nature through bird sound listening, recording, and audio processing.

    Conservation experts believe that birds are important indicators for the biodiversity and health of a habitat where they are sometimes visible but more widely audible. Researchers are now convinced that audio recognition skills are vital for effective monitoring and guiding, especially in forests and wetlands.

    “We are engaging youth from rural communities through local bird clubs, site guides, schools, and colleges,” Hilary MacBean, founder of the Foundation, told IPS.

    It is a major task to collect mass data covering the sounds of various species across various birding hotspots in this East African country.

    Nyungwe natural reserve is known to be home to 278 species of birds—26 of those are found only in the few forests of the Albertine Rift. The latest scientific estimates show that there are seven other important birding areas in Rwanda, including three wetland areas at Akanyaru (south), Nyabarongo river system (south), and Rugezi swamp (north), where there are efforts to recover the biodiversity from human activities that led to the degradation of these hotspots. The urban wetland in Kigali city has also received massive investment and is radically improving.

    “This task requires much practice for people so that they are able to decode all those different bird songs and calls,” Ntoyinkima said.

    At present, the first ever Rwandan citizen science initiative, which has been running since 2021, focuses on equipping young students, many from rural communities, with the skills to observe, audio record, and scientifically label birds by their sounds, songs, and calls.

    By using affordable sound recording equipment aimed at entry-level citizen scientists, participants are trained in audio-data collection, verification, preparation, and storage for both higher-level scientists and other citizen scientists.  Currently, different existing teams deployed across birding hotspots in Rwanda are divided into categories, including recordists and verifiers.

    Experts also point out that using the available dataset with multiple records of the songs and calls of the bird population has been crucial to ensuring the protection of species that are forest-dependent.

    Through the “Bioacoustics Recording” initiative, which the foundation and other stakeholders jointly run, MacBean has been involved in mentoring and training young bird guides from Rwanda for international tourism while also educating local guides and students about bird sounds.

    Hilary MacBean of Planet Birdsong Foundation has been involved in mentoring and training Rwandan young bird guides for international tourism while bringing awareness and knowledge of bird sounds to local guides and students. Credit: Planet Birdsong Foundation
    Hilary MacBean of the Planet Birdsong Foundation has been involved in mentoring and training Rwandan young bird guides for international tourism while bringing awareness and knowledge of bird sounds to local guides and students. Credit: Planet Birdsong Foundation

    “Key focus has been on equipping communities with skills on how to work with bioacoustics data collected in the field as a move to identify bird species in the recordings with confidence,” she said in an exclusive interview.

    During the implementation phase, data collection is done by using a smart phone with downloadable free apps and a ParaChirp an acoustic mirror designed for educational use to promote learning about birds and product design.  The technology focuses mainly on individual bird songs and calls collected in their natural or semi-natural habitat.

    The latest official estimates by the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) show that Rwanda boasts more than 703 bird species, making it one of the countries with the highest concentration of bird populations in Africa.

    However, Protais Niyigaba, the Nyungwe Forest National Park’s manager, told IPS that much effort has been put into providing migratory birds with safe habitats and breeding sites.

    “These solutions with available recording data are currently helping to understand the routes of these migratory birds and make sure visitors are able to locate them easily by sound,” Niyigaba said.

    The project had uploaded 226 recordings as of the time of the Foundation’s 2023 audit report, with 37 of those being in national parks. The number of recordings is constantly growing, with multiple records of the songs and calls of about 120 bird species across Rwanda.

    By December 2024, the Foundation has set a goal of generating 275 recordings, including 75 bird sounds, from existing national parks across Rwanda. The target set for 2025 is 300 species, according to official projections.

    “We create music from bird sound and, in the Rwandan context, focus on the community benefits of citizen science, bird sound collection for scientific monitoring, and building the identification skills of tourist guides,” MacBean said.

    With this integration of bird sound recordings to protect and preserve these species and their habitats, stakeholders focus on labeling the collected data so that their identification, locational and time data, behavioral data, and habitat data are all recorded. The sounds are then validated by assigned verifiers, processed, and stored for use in science.

    Recordings generated by Planet Birdsong’s citizen scientists are stored globally with e-bird, and researchers are collaborating with the Macaulay Library at Cornell University to ensure access to locally recorded bird sounds for both citizen scientists and specialists. For the specific case of Rwanda, data collected in Rwanda is also supplied to the Rwanda Biodiversity Information System for use in local natural science.

    Yet these innovations are playing pivotal roles in Rwanda’s bird protection, and some researchers believe that maintaining data availability is essential for effective bird biodiversity conservation.

    Professor Beth Kaplin, a prominent conservation scientist based in Rwanda, told IPS that getting local researchers, students, and youth involved in data collection and management is important to developing a sense of ownership and stewardship of the data recording for bird sounds.

    Despite current efforts, conservation experts point out that limited funding to support people and pay their fieldwork expenses is another major challenge affecting project implementation since the majority of local residents work mainly on a volunteer basis. Some individuals engaged in the project also have problems with equipment such as phones and PCs, plus the cost of the internet.

    Dr Marie Laure Rurangwa, a Rwandan female conservation scientist, told IPS that one of the challenges facing people engaged in this activity is much about processing time with much editing and the skillsets needed in terms of sound recognition for different bird species.

    Rurangwa is a co-author of the latest peer review study showing how land use change (modification from primary forest to other land use types) has affected bird communities within Nyungwe forest in Rwanda

    “Access to some of these remote birding hotspots has been another challenge for recordists because of limited resources and a lack of appropriate equipment to reach these remote areas,” Rurangwa points out.

    But in Gisakura, a remote village nestled on the outskirts of Nyungwe Forest, Ntoyinkima and his team are trying to use affordable means in their field recording by splitting into small groups of five people each.

    Before their deployment to various sites inside and outside the forest, each group has to travel several kilometers to reach the selected birding hotspots.

    As they walk quietly along a narrow trail and water flows beneath their feet, the team has to stop sometimes to better identify birds through their vocalizations.

    Yet most trained people are able to capture data and generate robust, sound recognition results. Expert verifiers are sometimes asked to provide support when some recordists are stuck for identification or to confirm when in doubt.

    “These young people are still volunteering here, but in most cases, the majority of them end up being hired as tour guides because they are well trained in bird vocalizations,” Ntoyinkima said.

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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  • New Era: Unlocking Africas Agriculture Potential Through CGIAR TAAT Model

    New Era: Unlocking Africas Agriculture Potential Through CGIAR TAAT Model

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    Transforming food systems is key to solving food insecurity on the African continent. A powerful and unified effort is needed to ensure food systems are transformed to be robust enough to support the population. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
    • by Joyce Chimbi (nairobi)
    • Inter Press Service

    NAIROBI, Jan 16 (IPS) – As hunger and food insecurity deepen, Africa is confronting an unprecedented food crisis. Estimates show that nearly 282 million people on the continent, or 20 percent of the population, are undernourished. Numerous challenges across the African continent threaten the race to achieve food security; research and innovative strategies are urgently needed to transform current systems as they are inadequate to address the food crisis.

    Transforming food systems is key. A powerful and unified effort is needed to equip food systems to advance human and planetary health to their full potential. This was the message as CGIAR entered a new era under the leadership of Dr Ismahane Elouafi, the Executive Managing Director. Named one of the most influential Africans of 2023, she continues to stress the need to use science and innovation to unlock Africa’s potential to meet its food needs.

    Dr Ismahane Elouafi, the CGIAR’s newly appointed Executive Managing Director. Credit: FAO
    Dr Ismahane Elouafi, the CGIAR’s newly appointed Executive Managing Director. Credit: FAO

    During her inaugural field visit to an IITA center in Ibadan, Nigeria, alongside Dr Simeon Ehui, IITA’s Director General and CGIAR Regional Director for Continental Africa, she oversaw extensive discussions on transforming food systems and leveraging science and technology.

    “At COP28 in Dubai, UAE, there was high-level recognition and a wonderful spotlight on science and innovation. CGIAR has an opportunity to represent science and innovation at large, representing the whole community at large. We can cut down poverty and stop malnutrition, and we have the tools—we just need to bring them to the farmers,” she said.

    CGIAR continues to create linkages between agricultural and tech stakeholders, emphasizing digital innovation for agricultural development. CGIAR-IITA explores leveraging ICTs to tackle agricultural challenges, boost productivity, ensure sustainability, and enhance food security, featuring presentations, discussions, workshops, and networking across sectors.

    There was a significant focus on the CGIAR TAAT model as a tool to use technology to address Africa’s worsening food crisis. TAAT Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is a key flagship programme of the African Development Bank’s Feed Africa strategy for 2016 to 2025.

    “We have the technology, and all hands are on deck to ensure that no one sleeps hungry. There are severe food insecurities on the continent today, deepening rural poverty and malnutrition. We have the capacity to achieve food security,” Ehui emphasized.

    IITA’s Dr Kenton Dashiell spoke about TAAT in the context of strategic discussions around policy and government engagement. Emphasizing the need for the government, private sector, and other key stakeholders to create effective and efficient food systems transformation paths. As a major continent-wide initiative designed to boost agricultural productivity across the continent by rapidly delivering proven technologies to millions of farmers, TAAT can deliver a food-secure continent.

    Elouafi stressed the need to ensure that technology is in the hands of farmers. in line with TAAT, which aims to double crop, livestock, and fish productivity by expanding access to productivity-increasing technologies to more than 40 million smallholder farmers across Africa by 2025. In addition, TAAT seeks to generate an additional 120 million metric tons.

    IITA’s Bernard Vanlauwe spoke about sustainable intensification with the aim of increasing production and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers are increasingly dealing with higher temperatures and shorter rainy seasons, affecting the production of staple foods such as maize. Further stressing the need for improved crop varieties to meet Africa’s pressing food insecurities.

    Elouafi stressed that the needs are great, in particular, eliminating extreme poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition, turning Africa into a net food exporter, and positioning Africa at the top of the agricultural value chains. She emphasized the need to leverage progress made thus far, building on the commitments of Dakar 1, the 1st Summit of the World’s Regions on Food Security held in Dakar in January 2010, where representatives and associations of regional governments from the five continents noted that the commitments made at the World Food Summit in 2002 had had little effect and that the food crisis had only worsened.

    Elouafi said the UN Food System Summit in 2021 and the 2023 Dakar 2 Summit, with an emphasis on building sustainable food systems and aligning government resources, development partners, and private sector financing to unleash Africa’s food production potential, were important meetings to build on. The commitments made at these high-level meetings had already created a pathway towards ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition and transforming food systems to meet the most pressing food needs today.

    It is estimated that Africa’s agricultural output could increase from USD 280 billion per year to USD 1 trillion by 2030. The visit and ensuing discussions highlighted how investing in raising agricultural productivity, supporting infrastructure, and climate-smart agricultural systems, with private sector investments, government support, and resources from multinational financial institutions, all along the food value chain, can help turn Africa into a breadbasket for the world. Private sector actors will be particularly urged to commit to the development of critical value chains.

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  • Amidst a Horrendous 2023, Civil Society is Fighting Back Society

    Amidst a Horrendous 2023, Civil Society is Fighting Back Society

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    • Opinion by Farhana Haque Rahman (toronto, canada)
    • Inter Press Service

    TORONTO, Canada, Dec 22 (IPS) – The year 2023 has brought so much tragedy, with incomprehensible loss of lives, whether from wars or devastating ‘natural’ disasters, while our planet has seen yet more records broken as our climate catastrophe worsens.

    Farhana Haque RahmanAnd so as the clock ticks towards the (mostly western) New Year, readers are traditionally subjected by media outlets like ours to the ‘yearender’ – usually a roundup of main events over the previous 12 months, one horror often overshadowed by the next.

    So forgive us if for 2023 IPS takes a somewhat different approach, highlighting how humanity can do better, and how the big depressing picture should not obscure the myriad small but positive steps being taken out there.

    COP28, the global climate conference held this month in Dubai, could neatly fit the ‘big depressing’ category. Hosted by a petrostate with nearly 100,000 people registered to attend, many of them lobbyists for fossil fuels and other polluters, it would be natural to address its outcomes with scepticism.

    However, while Yamide Dagnet, Director for Climate Justice at the Open Society Foundations, described COP28 as “imperfect”, she said it also marked “an important and unprecedented step forward in our ‘course correction’ for a just transition towards resilient and greener economies.”

    UN climate chief Simon Stiell acknowledged shortcomings in the compromise resolutions on fossil fuels and the level of funding for the Loss and Damages Fund. But the outcome, he said, was also the “beginning of the end” for the fossil fuel era.

    Imperfect as it was and still based on old structures, COP28 hinted at the possible: a planetary approach to governance where common interests spanning climate, biodiversity and the whole health of Earth outweigh and supersede the current dominant global system of rule by nation states.

    As we have tragically witnessed in 2023, the existing system – as vividly reflected in the repetitive stalemate among the five veto-bearing members of the UN Security Council – is failing to find resolution to the major conflicts of this year, Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza. Not to mention older and half-forgotten conflicts in places like Myanmar (18.6 million people in need of humanitarian aid) and in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (seven million displaced).

    The unrestrained destruction of Gaza and the disproportionate killings of over 17,000, (now the death toll is “at least 20,000 people” according to Palestinian officials) mostly civilians– in retaliation for 1,200 killings by Hamas and 120 hostages in captivity– have left the Palestinians in a state of deep isolation and weighed down by a feeling of being deserted by the world at large.

    The United Nations and the international community have remained helpless– with UN resolutions having no impact– while American pleas for restrained aerial bombings continue to be ignored by the Israelis in an act of defiance, wrote IPS senior journalist Thalif Deen.

    The hegemony of the nation-state system is surely not going to disappear soon but – without wanting to sound too idealistic — its foundations are being chipped away by civil society where interdependence prevails over the divide and rule of the existing order. And so for a few examples encountered in our reporting:

    CIVICUS Lens, standing for social justice and rooted in the global south, offers analysis of major events from a civil society perspective, such as its report on the security crisis gripping Haiti casting doubt over the viability of an international plan to dispatch a Kenya-led police contingent.

    Education Cannot Wait, a global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, lobbied at COP28 for a $150 million appeal to support school-aged children facing climate shocks, such as the devastating drought in Somalia and Ethiopia, and floods in Pakistan where many of the 26,000 schools hit in 2022 remain closed.

    Leprosy, an ancient but curable disease, had been pegged back in terms of new case numbers but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 made it harder for patients to get treatment and for new cases to be reported. Groups such as the Sasakawa Health Foundation are redoubling efforts to promote early detection and treatment.

    With 80 percent of the world’s poorest living closer to the epicenters of climate-induced disasters, civil society is hammering at the doors of global institutions to address the challenges of adaptation and mitigation.

    Lobbying on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai was activist Joshua Amponsem, co-director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund who questioned why weather-resilient housing was not yet a reality in Mozambique’s coastal regions despite the increasing ferocity of tropical cyclones.

    “My key message is really simple. The clock is ticking,” Dr Simeon Ehui told IPS as the newly appointed Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture which works with partners across sub-Saharan Africa to tackle hunger, poverty and natural resource degradation.

    Dr Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which has received record-breaking pledges in support of its largest ever replenishment, warns that under current trends 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030.

    “Hunger remains a political issue, mostly caused by poverty, inequality, conflict, corruption and overall lack of access to food and resources. In a world of plenty, which produces enough food to feed everyone, how can there be hundreds of millions going hungry?” he asked.

    Empowering communities in a bid to protect and rejuvenate the ecosystems of Pacific communities is the aim of the Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity conservation effort launched at COP28 by Palau’s President Surangel Whipps who noted that the world was not on track to meet any of the 17 sustainable development goals or climate goals by 2030.

    A scientist with a life-long career studying coral reefs, David Obura was appointed this year as the new chair of IPBES, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

    “We really have reached planetary limits and I think interest in oceans is rising because we have very dramatically reached the limits of land,” says Dr Obura, “What the world needs to understand is how strongly nature and natural systems, even when highly altered such as agricultural systems, support people and economies very tangibly. It’s the same with the ocean.”

    An ocean-first approach to the fight against climate change is also the pillar of a Dalhousie University research program, Transforming Climate Action, launched last May and funded by the Canadian government. Traditional knowledges of Indigenous People will be a focus.

    As Max Roser, an economist making academic research accessible to all, reminds us: for more people to devote their energy to making progress tackling large global problems, we should ensure that more people know that it is possible.

    Focusing on the efforts of civil society and projecting hope amidst all the heartbreak of 2023 might come across as futile and wasted, but in its coverage IPS will continue to highlight efforts and successes, big and small, that deserve to be celebrated.

    Farhana Haque Rahman is the Executive Director of IPS Inter Press Service Noram and Senior Vice President of IPS; she served as the elected Director General of IPS from 2015 to 2019. A journalist and communications expert who lived and worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America, she is a former senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD.

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  • Charting Out a Sustainable Path for Island, Coastal Communities Facing Climate Crisis

    Charting Out a Sustainable Path for Island, Coastal Communities Facing Climate Crisis

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    On Arborek Island, Indonesia, shrubs and coral blocks are planted to prevent erosion of the beach. Credit: Alain Schroeder/Climate Visuals
    • by Umar Manzoor Shah (dubai)
    • Inter Press Service

    DUBAI, Dec 11 (IPS) – There is an irreparable connection between culture and the seas: loss of land due to rising sea levels and loss of livelihood due to changing fish migration patterns are having a massive impact on coastal communities.

    This formed the core of discussions at an event titled Tackling Climate Change for Sustainable Livelihood in Island and Coastal Communities at COP28 in Dubai.

    The panel included experts and climate advocates from across the globe, all sharing a common mission: to confront the intricate challenges faced by some of the world’s most vulnerable regions and explore sustainable solutions.

    The Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Policy Research Institute, the Palau Conservation Society, the National Institute of Oceanography and Marine Sciences of Sri Lanka, the University of Namibia, the Maldives National University, the University of the West Indies, and the Columbian Institute for Marine and Coastal Research were all involved in organizing the event.

    Together, they sought not only to dissect existing challenges but also to share successful practices and foster potential partnerships for a sustainable future.

    Farhana Haque Rahman, Executive Director, IPS Noram Masanori Kobayashi, Senior Research Fellow, Ocean Policy Research at the Institute of Sasakawa Peace Foundation, moderate a panel on the impact of climate change on coastal communities. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS
    Farhana Haque Rahman, Executive Director, IPS Noram, and Masanori Kobayashi, Senior Research Fellow, Ocean Policy Research at the Institute of Sasakawa Peace Foundation, moderate a panel on the impact of climate change on coastal communities. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

    The panel discussion, co-moderated by Farhana Haque Rahman, Executive Director, IPS Noram, and Masanori Kobayashi, Senior Research Fellow, Ocean Policy Research Institute of Sasakawa Peace Foundation, included a rich tapestry of insights with diverse perspectives.

    Rahman stressed the need for tailored solutions, emphasizing that the vast challenges faced by coastal communities often remain obscured in the shadows of mainstream international media. She passionately urged for a collective effort to illuminate these issues globally.

    Dr Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen, Director General of the Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency, offered a scientific perspective, delving into the predicted impact of climate change on fisheries. She highlighted the dual threat posed in terms of abundance and distribution, stressing that science indicated a potential shift of biomass from exclusive economic zones to high seas, signifying a significant loss for coastal nations.

    For countries heavily dependent on oceans, like those in the Pacific, fisheries were not just a source of sustenance but also a lifeline for economic development and government revenue.

    An artist and environmental advocate, Uili Lousi, representing the Kingdom of Tonga, infused the discourse with cultural significance. He passionately articulated the inseparable connection between their heritage and the oceans. Lousi drew attention to the existential threat that melting ice caps and the potential migration of tuna due to rising sea temperatures pose.

    “Our culture and our heritage are our ocean, and as the Arctic is melting, we are sinking.”

    The event showcased voices from the frontlines of climate change impacts—Rondy Ronny, acting chief of Eco Paradise in the Republic of Palau, spoke of how fisheries were not just livelihoods but the very pulse of family well-being.

    Climate change was disproportionately impacting livelihoods, particularly those of women, and there was a pressing need for solutions, Amin Abdullah, the warden in charge of marine parks and reserves in Tanzania, said while highlighting the vulnerability of coastal communities in the western Indian Ocean, where 25 percent of the population lives along the coast.

    Alvin S Jueseah, chair of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences at the University of Liberia, provided a stark portrayal of ground reality. He underlined the realness of climate change, with rising sea levels displacing residents, destroying fishing gear, houses, and, tragically, lives.

    This had resulted in the necessity of building sea walls and implementing early warning systems to aid those facing climate change-related crises.

    Collaboration was needed, Dr Hamady Diop, CEO of DnS Consulting, said, and he warned of the potential for transboundary conflicts arising from climate change, especially in regions where fishing is an industry. The industry was valued at USD 25 billion.

    “With 38 coastal countries in Africa depending on fisheries, the implications of sea-level rise and temperature increases were dire,” he said.

    The director of the Maldives Specie Research Agency, Ahmad Niyad, shed light on the critical importance of data availability.

    Niyad stressed that one cannot manage what one cannot measure. The scarcity of data was a significant challenge faced by their organization, prompting a year-long focus on analyzing the situation and obtaining satellite monitoring data. He highlighted the unique economic reliance of island nations on tourism, an industry intricately linked with climate conditions.

    “We island nations are together. We have one ocean, and we have to share it together,” was his message to COP28.

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  • Farm to Fork: COP28 Provides RoadMap to Fix Africas Broken Food Systems – IFAD

    Farm to Fork: COP28 Provides RoadMap to Fix Africas Broken Food Systems – IFAD

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    In Nahoualakaha, Côte d’Ivoire, rice productivity increased with drought-resistant seed. With the endorsement of the Food and Agriculture Declaration by 130 countries at COP28 in Dubai there is the opportunity to address the nexus between agriculture and climate change. Credit: ©IFAD/David Paqui
    • by Joyce Chimbi (dubai)
    • Inter Press Service

    DUBAI, Dec 10 (IPS) – In the absence of sufficient urgency to curb greenhouse gas emissions, it is becoming too hot to farm in Africa. Confronted by extreme, intense, and frequent climate events such as record-breaking prolonged dry spells, current agriculture and farming systems are ill equipped to adapt to or alleviate climate change.

    For millions of farmers, the sun’s intensity has increased, and rainfall is far and in between. Unlike their forefathers, when farmers could look at the clouds and smell the air to predict the weather, these time-honored techniques no longer work as the climate has morphed into something unforeseeable. Consequently, food basket regions are being wiped off Africa’s agricultural belts in a growing number of African countries.

    Against a backdrop of agricultural and food systems that are losing the battle to climate change, there is now hope for millions of smallholder farmers to put food on the table at home and across the world.  The Food and Agriculture Declaration, which more than 130 world leaders endorsed at COP28 in Dubai, is now the key to breaking the deadlock between food and agriculture systems and climate change.

    “For the first time in the history of COP summits, we have a critical declaration that captures the most pressing issues facing the world today. We have agriculture and food on one hand and climate on the other. This presents us with a two-fold solution: to build sustainable agriculture and climate-resilient food systems on the one hand, and to address agriculture’s contribution to overall emissions on the other. Agriculture is responsible for 22 to 27 percent of all global emissions, and food systems contribute one-third, or 33 percent,” says Jyotsna Puri (PhD), Associate Vice President, Strategy and Knowledge Department at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

    Puri leads IFAD’s strategy work in key areas targeting agriculture, climate, gender, nutrition, youth, and social inclusion, with a focus on rural populations, providing the vision for evidence-informed advice on program designs and implementation.  IFAD is both a UN organization and an International Financial Institution (IFI), and the landmark inaugural agriculture declaration is particularly critical as it aligns with every aspect of IFAD’s work to build food systems that can withstand ongoing climate change shocks.

    As an international financial institution, IFAD provides financing through loans, grants, and a debt sustainability mechanism. As a UN organization, IFAD works in remote rural areas where poverty and hunger are at their deepest, so that rural populations are not left behind and are equipped to lift themselves out of poverty.

    Jyotsna Puri, Associate Vice President, Strategy and Knowledge Department at IFAD, is pictured at COP28 in Dubai. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
    Jyotsna Puri, Associate Vice President, Strategy and Knowledge Department at IFAD, is pictured at COP28 in Dubai. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

    “The Declaration is additionally critical because solutions must be just and equitable. They must be people-centered, taking on board those most burdened by the uncertainties triggered by climate change and the increasing variabilities of climate change. In Africa, for instance, 20 to 80 percent of the overall food and agriculture production would be significantly challenged by climate uncertainties if left unmitigated, extensively affecting crop production and nutrition patterns,” she emphasized.

    She therefore called for a laser-focused approach to building stronger local value chains rather than global value chains, for the former has greater potential to transform food systems in line with local challenges and possible solutions.

    “Bringing food and agriculture into the climate agenda is significant; 70 percent of the food is produced by smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia, and they are also the most climate-impacted constituencies. There are about 500 million small farms in the world, and this means 80 percent of the world’s farms are family-owned. The declaration is a lifeline, for it presents an opportunity to transform food and agriculture systems in a just, equitable way without leaving anyone behind,” Puri says in an exclusive interview with IPS.

    Puri further spoke about the undeniable and intricate nexus between sustainable agriculture and climate-resilient food systems and climate. The effects of increasing global emissions have manifested through low production and increasing hunger, pushing the world off track from the global goal to address hunger and poverty in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

    “Weather patterns are now unrecognizable from what your parents and grandparents were taught about what, when, and how to plant. These changes are radical, and we must rethink agriculture so that farmers are equipped to overcome these challenges through technology and digital options that help read the weather more accurately and make timely decisions—looking at the ground to read the weather is no longer practical,” she says.

    Puri told IPS that other changes include a shift in how farmers interact with markets as the European Union food imports regulations ban agricultural produce linked to deforestation and forest degradation. Stressing that this presents new opportunities for farmers to shift to indigenous or ancient crops such as cassava that are aligned with climate goals, resilient food systems, and high nutritional value.

    “In the Upper Tana River valley, for instance, IFAD realized that the Nairobi River was losing its momentum due to the growth of Eucalyptus trees in the upper regions of the Tana. We work with smallholder farmers and provide compensation—through the Water Fund—for them to transition from eucalyptus to crops that are less water-absorbing and climate-resilient without compromising the economic and nutritional value of these crops to the farmers.”

    On whether the landmark Agriculture Declaration will be the silver bullet for Africa’s smallholder farmers, Puri said the magic of the declaration will be in its implementation and the amount of money that will be committed to effecting it. Stressing the importance of financing and investments in agriculture, food systems, and value chains within the context of climate change. Members states must therefore build back better to address fragilities caused by climate change through partnerships with the private sector.

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  • COOP28: Sowing Seeds of Change in Fertile Hearts and Minds

    COOP28: Sowing Seeds of Change in Fertile Hearts and Minds

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    Changing the climate means getting everyone involved. Credit: Earth Child Institute
    • by Umar Manzoor Shah (dubai)
    • Inter Press Service

    DUBAI, Dec 09 (IPS) – In the heart of Earth Child Institute’s mission to nurture the future stewards of our planet, the story of Eric Hansel unfolds as a testament to the transformative power of educating children on environmental responsibility. Hailing from Pennsylvania, USA, Hansel’s journey took a poignant turn when his career as a respiratory therapist plunged him into the harsh realities of a trauma unit, witnessing families losing their children to various diseases. It was during these challenging moments that Hansel resolved to be part of a movement that aimed to instill eco-consciousness in the hearts of the young.

    Now, at COP 28, representing the Earth Child Institute, Hansel passionately shares the impact of their initiatives. The Earth Child Institute, founded by Donno Godman at the UN two decades ago, boasts observer status at the United Nations. Their unwavering mission is to mold children into climate leaders through educational programs that span 25 countries, 15 of which are in Africa.

    The organization employs a hands-on approach, sending trainers to develop curriculum and work closely with teachers in schools. The programs encompass diverse topics such as clean drinking water, sanitation, and the critical role of planting trees in safeguarding coastlines. The trainers remain on-site until the initial implementation, ensuring a seamless transition to the school system. The Earth Child Institute further supports these initiatives through a grant program, providing essential financial aid to sustain and expand the programs.

    Eric Hansel represents Earth Child Institute at COP28. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS
    Eric Hansel represents the Earth Child Institute at COP28. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

    “The crux of their approach lies in recognizing the unique power children hold in driving change. When educated about environmental issues, children become advocates within their families, spreading awareness and influencing behavioral shifts,” says Hansel, emphasizing the effectiveness of teaching kids about planting trees to protect coastlines, a message that resonates differently with the young compared to adults preoccupied with immediate concerns like putting food on the table.

    The organization’s reach extends far beyond urban landscapes, covering hundreds of schools in rural areas across the globe. Their ambition is to collaborate with ministries of education in various countries to streamline program implementation and amplify their impact. Through partnerships with organizations like Brazil’s Global Action Classroom program (GAC), Nigeria’s HACEY, and collaborations with local schools and ministries, Earth Child Institute tailors its approach to the unique needs of each region.

    In Brazil, the GAC program facilitates connections among kids and young people to discuss environmental issues, bridging gaps between urban and rural communities. In Nigeria, a collaborative effort between HACEY, local schools, and the Ministry of Environment focuses on water, sanitation, and hygiene education. Ghana sees the Earth Child Institute working in tandem with the Ministry of Education, the Forestry Department, and local institutions to emphasize environmental education and tree planting.

    Even in regions like Qatar and the Seychelles, where the challenges may be unique due to their geographical and geopolitical contexts, Earth Child Institute adapts its strategies. In Qatar, youth leaders collaborate with local schools in Doha to identify school teams for participation, while in the Seychelles, partnerships with the Ministry of Environment tackle climate change in an endangered small island state.

    “However, the real magic happens when these programs resonate with the children. The lifelong relationships forged with schools and the lasting commitment to sustainability that grows over time. When children comprehend the direct impact of practices like proper handwashing on their health, they become the torchbearers of this knowledge within their families, setting in motion a ripple effect that extends far beyond the classroom. Indeed, the seeds of change are best planted in the fertile hearts and minds of the next generation,” Hansel told IPS.

    According to the UNICEF report, the number of children potentially exposed to climate risks and their effects is alarming. Currently, over half a billion children are living in areas with extremely high levels of flood occurrence, and nearly 160 million live in areas of high or extremely high drought severity. Most of them live in some of the world’s poorest countries, with the least capacity to manage these environmental risks.

    It adds that overlaying maps of projected temperature changes with projected child population data indicates that, under a business-as-usual scenario, by 2050, 1.45 billion children are projected to live in zones where the maximum average surface temperature will change by greater than 2ºC.

    Under a moderately ambitious action scenario, this number is projected to drop to around 750 million children. Under a highly ambitious action scenario, the number would drop to 150 million children.

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  • Combating Corruption to Address the Triple Planetary Crises

    Combating Corruption to Address the Triple Planetary Crises

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    Indigenous Peoples from Alianza Ceibo fight to counter environmental degradation and protect more than 2 million hectares of primary rainforest in four provinces and 70 communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Credit: Alianza Ceibo
    • Opinion by Marcos Athias Neto (new york)
    • Inter Press Service

    NEW YORK, Dec 07 (IPS) – The triple planetary crisis of climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and pollution is a threat to the well-being and survival of millions of people around the world. Corruption, in its many forms, worsens these multiple crises.

    From illegal logging and wildlife trafficking to bribery in environmental permits, to lax enforcement of regulations, corruption inflicts severe damage on our already affected fragile ecosystems.

    In the forestry sector alone, close to 420 million hectares of forest have been lost between 1990 and 2020 as a result of deforestation enabled by corruption.

    Climate change interventions are currently worth US$546 billion and, although difficult to measure accurately, Transparency International estimates suggest anywhere between 1.4 and 35 per cent of climate action funds have been lost to corruption, and only in 2021, over 350 land and environmental defenders were murdered.

    UNDP has been recognizing and championing Indigenous Forest Defenders like Nemonte Nenquimo, the Indigenous Waorani activist from Ecuador, co-founder of the Alianza Ceibo— UNDP Equator Prize winner of 2014, named among the 100 most influential people of 2020 by the Time Magazine. There are 275 Equator Prize winners many of whom are defending land rights.

    Anti-corruption is a development financing issue.

    Corruption siphons off funds from urgently needed climate financing and the green energy transition. Effective, transparent, and inclusive governance mechanisms and institutions are prerequisites for combating corruption and will help not only ensure that financing achieves its maximum impact, but also contributes to the trust required for the releasing of additional funds.

    If we can tackle corruption, we can improve our efforts to successfully protect our environment. However, we must act now, and we must work together. Anti-corruption tools, including those powered by digital advancements, have the potential to help countries reach their climate goals.

    Resources lost in illicit financial flows and to corruption each year can be used in targeted investments in governance, social protection, green economy, and digitalization. This is the ‘SDG Push’ scenario which would prevent as many as 169 million people from being driven into extreme poverty by 2030.

    Governance mechanisms must be in place

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is working to promote the investment of over $1 trillion of public expenditure and private capital in the SDGs. A portion of these investments are likely to be directed towards climate finance.

    In Sri Lanka and Uganda, UNDP is using data and digital monitoring tools to tackle illegal environmental practices and promote integrity and transparency in environmental resource management.

    UNDP has also recently launched its Energy Governance Framework for a Just Energy Transition to contribute to achieving more inclusive and accountable energy transitions. In Eswatini, UNDP is supporting inclusive national dialogues to identify mini-grid delivery models and clarify priority interventions for an inclusive and integrated approach to off-grid electrification.

    A mini-grid delivery model, determined by the national government with active multi-stakeholder engagement, is the cornerstone of a country’s over-arching mini-grid regulatory framework. It defines who finances, builds, owns and who operates and maintains the mini-grids.

    Technology must be promoted

    To ensure that crucial financial resources are used for their intended purposes and are not manipulated by corruption, we must ensure that transparency mechanisms exist. With appropriate safeguards in place, technology can be a game-changer for addressing corruption. Big data analytics, mobile applications and e-governance systems are valuable tools in the prevention, detection and investigation of corruption.

    In Ukraine, a new e-platform supported by UNDP is increasing transparency in procurement. UNDP in partnership with the EU and the National Agency on Corruption Prevention has also developed a new basic online course to train anti-corruption officers.

    Partnerships against corruption must galvanize global efforts

    UNDP and the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Nazaha) are jointly launching a new global initiative for measuring corruption at the 10th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), hosted by the United States in Atlanta from 11 – 15 December 2023.

    The objective of this new partnership is to strengthen international cooperation to fight corruption and enable countries to track and monitor progress on tackling corruption. This new initiative will develop evidenced-based indicators to evaluate progress and efforts of countries to end multiple forms of corruption.

    It will identify policy recommendations and reforms to enable countries to achieve national anti-corruption objectives, as well as address the SDG16 targets for reducing corruption and illicit financial flows.

    UNDP remains committed to being united against corruption and to advance the spirit and letter of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption by driving new efforts to measure corruption, with our partners from the UN and beyond.

    The Anti-corruption Day is commemorated on 9 December, along with the 20th Anniversary of UNCAC.

    Marcos Athias Neto is UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

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  • Revolutionizing the Building Sector for Sustainable, Resilient Cities

    Revolutionizing the Building Sector for Sustainable, Resilient Cities

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    Three programmes were announced at COP28 including a greening and forest partnership. This picture shows an example of landscaping for urban spaces and high-rises in Singapore.
    • by Umar Manzoor Shah (dubai)
    • Inter Press Service

    DUBAI, Dec 06 (IPS) – In the spirit of global cooperation and environmental commitment, COP 28 launched a groundbreaking initiative aimed at transforming the building and construction sectors. Titled ‘Buildings and Construction for Sustainable Cities: New Key Partnerships for Decarbonization, Adaptation, and Resilience,’ the initiative marks a turning point in addressing the environmental challenges posed by the construction industry.

    Three major frameworks were announced at the launch: Buildings Breakthrough, Cement Breakthrough, and the Forest and Climate Leader’s Partnership’s Greening Construction with Sustainable Wood initiative. These frameworks seek to catalyze collaboration between governments and stakeholders, providing a comprehensive solution for mitigating climate change, adapting to its impacts, and building resilience in the sector.

    The sector accounts for nearly 40% of global energy-related CO2 emissions and 50% of extracted materials, which highlights the urgency of the initiative. Additionally, the sector generated one-third of global waste, highlighting the critical need for coordinated efforts to guide its transformation.

    The global leaders and representatives, during the event, highlighted the urgency of the building and construction sector’s transformation. Their shared commitment to sustainability, resilience, and decarbonization set the stage for a new era of international collaboration, offering hope for a future where cities are built with a conscious effort to mitigate climate change and adapt to its inevitable challenges. The success of this initiative hinges on the continued dedication of nations, organizations, and communities to work together toward a sustainable and resilient future for all.

    The COP28 panel at the launch of the ‘Buildings and Construction for Sustainable Cities, New Key Partnerships for Decarbonization, Adaptation, and Resilience’ commitment. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS
    The COP28 panel at the launch of the ‘Buildings and Construction for Sustainable Cities, New Key Partnerships for Decarbonization, Adaptation, and Resilience’ commitment. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS

    Maimunah binti Mohd Sharif, the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, emphasized the sector’s role in greenhouse gas emissions and stressed the importance of accelerating the transition to more sustainable practices.

    “The way we build our cities now will determine future emissions. Housing and buildings are also at the core of resilience. We need to accelerate the transition to regenerate the material. We need to ensure that the sector is decarbonized along with a lifecycle and increasingly resilient to natural disasters,” she said.

    Stafen Wanzel, Deputy Director General of International Climate Action at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action for Germany, echoed the sentiments, focusing on the pivotal role of cement and steel in achieving net-zero and resilient buildings. “Germany pledged 20 million euros for an international climate initiative to fund advancements in building materials, showcasing their commitment to holistic approaches that consider the energy, environment, and climate nexus,” she said.

    Ditte Juul-Jorgensen, Director General of the ENER European Commission, reinforced the need for action to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. She highlighted the potential to design and construct buildings more efficiently, using greener materials, and improving energy efficiency. This, she argued, aligned with the global commitment to triple renewables and double energy efficiency, essential for staying on track with the Paris Agreement’s targets.

    “Today’s initiative is a necessary contribution to our work to mitigate climate change and to mitigate emissions, and it is completely aligned with the global pledge for tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency. To respect our 1.5 degrees as agreed in Paris, this initiative is really part of it,” she said.

    Abdel Khalek Ibrahim, the Assistant Minister for Technical Affairs at the Ministry of Housing Utilities in Egypt, emphasized the initiative’s global scope. With over 500,000 informal areas, Egypt faces the challenge of balancing housing demand with green climate resilience.  He said that the Egyptian government established a national council for green housing and urbanism to formulate a roadmap for gradually transforming housing to be more resilient and energy efficient. “We need to think about how to strike a balance between housing demand and green climate resilience, as Egypt has more than 500,000 informal areas.”

    Ali Zaidi, assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor of the USA, highlighted the transformative potential of the initiative for people’s lives. Focusing on building codes and transitioning from fossil-based to electricity-based heating, the U.S. emphasized a worker- and community-centered approach. Zaidi stressed the importance of grants, design standards, and enforcement to facilitate the sector’s transformation.

    “Buildings are the places where we worship, where we live, play, and breathe. There will be a visible difference in the lives of so many people in the coming time. This is the opportunity we must deliver for our citizens. This transformation we are making here must be worker-centered and community-centered,” Zaidi said.

    Jo da Silva, Global Sustainability Director for ARUP, discussed the challenges faced by her organization in driving change amid diverse jurisdictional rules. While acknowledging the success keys in Europe, Asia, and the U.S., she emphasized the unique opportunities in Africa, where 80% of the buildings needed in the next two decades are yet to be built. Da Silva urged governments to create a level playing field, facilitating collaboration rather than competition, to unlock the full potential of innovation and industrialized construction in the sector.

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  • Role of Women Irreplaceable in Management of Natural Resources

    Role of Women Irreplaceable in Management of Natural Resources

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    #ActOnThe Gap, the COP28 Gender Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership was lauched at the climate negotiations in Dubai. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS
    • by Umar Manzoor Shah (dubai)
    • Inter Press Service

    DUBAI, Dec 05 (IPS) – Women bear the brunt of the climate crisis, and inclusion at both the highest level and in the community is key to mitigating its impact. Today, the announcement of the COP28 Gender Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership put women at the centre of climate solutions—with a collective endorsement that symbolized a paradigm shift in global commitment.

    Gender Equality Day at COP28 saw ministers and high-level officials convene for a high-level dialogue to advance gender-responsive just transitions to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement. During the event that Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, a UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, was leading, the COP28 Presidency announced the new partnership.

    During the panel discussions on its importance, in which many distinguished world leaders participated, Dr Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, Minister of Environment for the Republic of Rwanda, painted a poignant picture of the intersectionality between climate change and gender. She emphasized the requirement of the Paris Agreement to create high-quality jobs.

    “The harsh reality is that women, constituting the majority of humanity, bear the brunt of climate change impacts. There are dire consequences of climate change being faced by my own country, Rwanda, grappling with floods and untimely rains, rendering streets impassable and schools inaccessible,” Mujawamariya told the conference.

    The Minister underscored the urgent need to build a resilient future for women, urging investments in education, decision-making positions, and gender-responsive financial mechanisms.

    “When a woman is a victim, the entire family suffers,” she added.

    Sigrid Kaag, the Minister of Finance for the Netherlands, asserted that the catalyst for genuine change lay in anchoring climate action and gender-responsive budgeting. Kaag made it unequivocally clear that this was not merely an environmental concern but a matter of fundamental rights, underscoring the gravity of the agenda at hand.

    Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, the co-chair of C40 cities, brought the municipal lens into the discourse. Speaking on behalf of nearly 100 cities, she expressed the collective engagement of mayors in the lives of their residents, over 50 percent of whom were female. Aki-Sawyer detailed the Women for Climate initiative, a testament to the proactive involvement of women in finding solutions to climate challenges. However, she acknowledged the systemic hurdles, emphasizing the need for dedicated spaces and resources to enable women to develop and implement these solutions.

    Andrew Mitchell, the Minister of State in the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, injected an international development imperative into the dialogue.

    “It is vital that we promote gender equality to ensure that this is a just and effective transition. We know that when women participate in the management of natural resources, it results in better governance and conservation, and when they are better represented in national parliaments, tougher climate change policies tend to be adopted. The evidence is clear, yet women are not given the chance to play their part. Women suffer disproportionately from climate change and conflict,” Andrew said. His call to endorse the gender-responsive pledge served as a rallying cry to collectively ascend the metaphorical mountain of challenges that lay ahead.

    Celeste Drake, Deputy Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), took the stage, weaving a narrative around the ILO’s birth from conflict and its steadfast commitment to social justice.

    Drake elucidated the profound impact of climate change on women and work, projecting statistics that forewarned of substantial job losses due to heat stress.

    “ILO estimates that by 2030, more than 2 percent of the total working time will be lost because of heat stress. It is equivalent to 80 million full-time jobs. We need to create more inclusive jobs for our women and girls. The ILO estimates that effective climate policies could create, by 2035, about 12 million jobs in Nigeria and 50 million jobs in America.

    But the question is, will those jobs be available to men and women equally? Will these jobs be gender responsive?” Drake asked. Drake dissected the complexities of women’s compounded inequalities in the labor market, emphasizing the need for intentional, gender-responsive transitions. She called for dismantling barriers and proactively ensuring that women had active access to training, skilling, and reskilling.

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  • Electrifying Cooking: Decarbonizing Africa’s Electricity Grid Towards Net Zero

    Electrifying Cooking: Decarbonizing Africa’s Electricity Grid Towards Net Zero

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    In Africa, the average amount of time spent collecting firewood is 2.1 hours, which robs women and girls of hundreds of hours every year. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
    • by Joyce Chimbi (dubai)
    • Inter Press Service

    DUBAI, Dec 05 (IPS) – Across the African continent, many first-born children in poor and vulnerable households do not go to school as they spend their school days collecting biomass fuel. The regional average of the amount of time spent collecting firewood is 2.1 hours, robbing women and girls in particular of hundreds of hours in a year and crippling their capacities to engage in learning and productive activities.

    “I was one of those children that arrived to school late every day or not at all. I grew up in Limuru, Central Kenya, near the Kinare Forest. Every day, I would rush to the forest first thing in the morning to collect the firewood needed to prepare porridge and then dash to the neighbor’s house to borrow fire,” Njambi Muigai, a climate activist and COP28 delegate, told IPS.

    “I would carry a dry firewood and light it up at the neighbor’s fireplace and rush back home with the burning firewood to light our cooking place. In the evening, I would repeat the same routine. Discussions around climate, clean energy, and women’s empowerment must find space in such high-level forums if there is to be any meaningful progress towards net zero.”

    Muigai was speaking on the sidelines of a session dubbed ‘Electrifying Cooking: A Just Journey Toward Net Zero’ at the ongoing COP28 Summit in Dubai, UAE. As climate change increasingly becomes the most pressing issue facing humankind today, countries are urged to pursue ambitious climate actions towards net zero—the cutting of greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere by ecosystems such as oceans and forests.

    Scientific evidence shows that to avert a climate catastrophe, already signaled by an increase in climate-induced disasters such as fatal floods and crippling droughts, global temperature increase needs to be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

    UN’s research shows that currently, the Earth is already about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the late 1800s, and emissions continue to rise. To keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C, as called for in the Paris Agreement,  emissions need to be reduced by 45 percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

    Speaking during the event, COP28 CEO Adnan Z Amin, who also served as the founding Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency, made a strong case for electrifying cooking and its place in accelerating climate action towards net zero.

    “One of the major priorities for COP28 is in the broad area of energy, and within that, to increase access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. This represents an important strategy in our efforts to reach our global net-zero goal. Evidence shows that one of the most reliable paths to reaching the goal is based on electrification without decreasing the use of renewable energy,” he said.

    He stressed that despite progress made towards access to electricity over the last decade, improved access to modern cooking remains overlooked. Nearly a billion people, or 940 million, in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies. The rampant use of biomass for cooking has negative consequences for health, gender, climate, and the environment.

    A clean cooking report shows that in sub-Saharan Africa, a staggering 29 countries have access to clean cooking at a rate below 20 percent, with half of the nearly one billion people without access to clean cooking concentrated in five countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda.

    Indoor air pollution from biomass is one of the top 10 risks for the global burden of diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Household air pollution is responsible for an estimated 3.8 million premature deaths globally.

    “This is a problem in Asia and Latin America, but the numbers are particularly concerning in Africa. Four of the five families in Africa use primitive cooking stoves made of wood. A woman spends up to four hours a day collecting firewood, and she is robbed of her time. WHO says half a million women die prematurely due to respiratory diseases caused by primitive cooking. The women cook while pregnant, which affects health in the womb, and they cook with babies on their backs, causing lung problems for the babies,” said Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.

    “Europe is a neighbor of Africa; in my culture and in many of our cultures, neighbors help each other in times of trouble. I cannot believe that these numbers are unfolding in front of our eyes. This, to me, is the most important gender issue, a big injustice that can easily be solved.”

    “Not only are half a million women dying prematurely in Africa alone from biomass pollution as they walk long distances in search of firewood, but they also have to cross borders and contested territories, placing them in harm’s way.

    “If half a million people were dying per year in war, we know what we would do, and this is happening every single year. For me, coming from the global south and being an African woman, it is even more depressing because it is as if the world is saying that because they are dying in Africa, it is not as important as if they were dying in another part of the world. There are all these social aspects that determine how we move forward.”

    Nigeria’s Damilola Ogunbiyi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Chief Executive Officer for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair UN-Energy, Sustainable Energy for All, said that “if half a million people were dying in a war, we would know what to do, and this is happening every single year.”

    Observing that coming from the global south and being “an African woman, it is even more depressing because it is as if the world is saying that it is not as important as if they were dying in another part of the world. There are all these social aspects that determine how we move forward.”

    She spoke about prevailing misconceptions about the source of harmful emissions. An analysis of Nigeria shows that despite the 45 gigawatts of diesel and petrol generated, the biggest emissions are actually from the cooking sector. Stressing that clean cooking is as important, if not more important than electrification, as it buys women time to engage productively in society, lifts people out of poverty, and accelerates the growth of a country’s GDP.

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  • Lebanon's Christians feel the heat of climate change in its sacred forest and valley

    Lebanon's Christians feel the heat of climate change in its sacred forest and valley

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    BCHARRE, Lebanon — Majestic cedar trees towered over dozens of Lebanese Christians gathered outside a small mid-19th century chapel hidden in a mountain forest to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, the miracle where Jesus Christ, on a mountaintop, shined with light before his disciples.

    The sunset’s yellow light coming through the cedar branches bathed the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Church, Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, as he stood at a wooden podium and delivered a sermon. Then the gathering sang hymns in Arabic and the Aramaic language.

    For Lebanon’s Christians, the cedars are sacred, these tough evergreen trees that survive the mountain’s harsh snowy winters. They point out with pride that Lebanon’s cedars are mentioned 103 times in the Bible. The trees are a symbol of Lebanon, pictured at the center of the national flag.

    The iconic trees in the country’s north are far from the clashes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops along the Lebanon-Israel border in recent weeks against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war. The Lebanese government says Israel’s use of white phosphorus and other incendiary weapons has burned tens of thousands of olive trees and other crops in the border area, and impoverished Lebanese farmers fear the shells have contaminated their soil.

    But the long-term survival of the cedar forests is in doubt for another reason, as rising temperatures due to climate change threaten to wipe out biodiversity and scar one of the country’s most iconic heritage sites for its Christians.

    The lush Cedars of God Forest, some 2000 meters (6,560 feet) above sea level near the northern town of Bcharre, is part of a landscape cherished by Christians. The preserve overlooks the Kadisha Valley — Aramaic for “sacred” – where many Christians took refuge from persecution over Lebanon’s tumultuous history. One of the world’s largest collections of monasteries remains hidden among the thick trees, caves and rocky outcroppings along the deep, 35-kilometer (22-mile) valley.

    The United Nations’ culture agency UNESCO in 1998 listed both the cedar forest and the valley as World Heritage Sites. They’ve become popular destinations for hikers and environmentalists from around the world. A growing number of Lebanese of all faiths visit as well, seeking fresh air away from the cities.

    “People from all religions visit here, not just Christians … even Muslims and atheists,” said Hani Tawk, a Maronite Christian priest, as he showed a crowd of tourists around the Saint Elisha monastery. “But we as Christians, this reminds us of all the saints who lived here, and we come to experience being in this sacred dimension.”

    Environmentalists and residents say the effects of climate change, exacerbated by government mismanagement, pose a threat to the ecosystem of the valley and the cedar forest.

    “Thirty or 40 years from now, it’s quite possible to see the Kadisha Valley’s biodiversity, which is one of the richest worldwide, become much poorer,” Charbel Tawk, an environmental engineer and activist in Bcharre – unrelated to Hani Tawk — told The Associated Press

    Lebanon for years has felt the heat of climate change, with farmers decrying lack of rain, and forest fires wreaking havoc on pine forests north of the country, similar to blazes that scorched forests in neighboring Syria and nearby Greece. Residents across much of the country, struggling with rampant electricity cuts, could barely handle the summer’s soaring heat.

    Temperatures have been above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in Bcharre, not uncommon along Lebanon’s coastal cities but unusual for the mountainous northern town.

    Nuns in the medieval Qannoubin Monastery, perched on the side of a hill in the Kadisha Valley, fanned themselves and drank water in the shade of the monastery’s courtyard. They reminisced about when they could sleep comfortably on summer nights without needing much electricity.

    Already, there are worrying signs of the impact on the cedars and Kadisha.

    Warmer temperatures have brought larger colonies of aphids that feed on the bark of cedar trees and leave a secretion that can cause mold, Charbel Tawk said. Bees normally remove the secretion, but they have become less active. Aphids and other pests also are lasting longer in the season and reach higher altitudes because of warmer weather.

    Such pests threaten to stunt or damage cedar growth.

    Tawk worries that if temperatures continue to change like this, cedars at lower altitudes might not be able to survive. Fires are becoming more of a potential danger.

    Cedar trees usually grow at an altitude from 700 up to 1,800 meters above sea level. Tawk’s organization has planted some 200,000 cedars over the years at higher altitudes and in areas where they were not present. Some 180,000 survived.

    “Is it climate change or whatever it is happening in nature that these cedars are able to survive at 2,100 to 2,400 meters?” Tawk asked, while checking on a grove of cedars on a remote hilltop.

    Local priests and environmental activists have urged Lebanon’s government to work with universities to do a wide-ranging study on temperature changes and the impact on biodiversity.

    But Lebanon has been in the throes of a crippling economic crisis for years. State coffers are dried up, and many of the country’s top experts are rapidly seeking work opportunities abroad.

    “There is nothing today called the state … The relevant ministries, even with the best intentions, don’t have the financial capabilities anymore,” Bcharre Mayor Freddy Keyrouz said. He said he and mayors of nearby towns have asked residents to help with conservation initiatives and Lebanese diaspora abroad to help with funding.

    The Maronite Church has strict rules to protect the Cedars of God forest, including keeping development out of it. Kiosks, tourist shops and a large parking lot have been set far away from the forest.

    “We don’t allow anything that is combustible to be brought into the sacred forest,” said Charbel Makhlouf, a priest at Bcharre’s Saint Saba Cathedral.

    The Friends of the Cedar Forest Committee, to which Tawk belongs, has been looking after the cedar trees for almost three decades, with the church’s support. It has installed sensors on cedar trees to measure temperature, wind, and humidity, watching for worsening conditions that could risk forest fires.

    Below the forest in the Kadisha Valley, Tawk points to other concerns.

    In particular, the spread of cypress trees threatens to crowd out other species, “breaking this equilibrium that we had in the valley,” he said.

    “We’ve seen them increase and tower over other species, whether it’s taking sunlight, wind, or expanding their roots,” he said. “It will impact other plants, birds, insects, and all the reptile species down there.”

    Steps to protect the valley have actually hurt its biodiversity by removing human practices that had been beneficial, Tawk said.

    In the past, herders grazing their goats and other livestock in the valley helped prevent the spread of invasive species. Their grazing also reduced fire hazards, as did local families collecting deadwood to burn in the winter.

    But residents left the valley when it became a heritage site and the Lebanese government implemented strict regulations. Few live there now other than a handful of priests and nuns.

    “Trees have overtaken places where people lived and farmed,” Tawk said. “Now a fire could move from one end of the valley to the other.”

    Sitting in a cave near the Qannoubine Monastery, Father Hani Tawk listened to the variety of birds chirping in the valley. He said he believes in the community’s faith and awareness of nature, engrained since their ancestors took refuge here.

    “When you violate that tree, you’re intruding on a long history, and possibly the future of your children,” he said.

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Why Agroecology Should Be Considered as Key for Climate Negotiations

    Why Agroecology Should Be Considered as Key for Climate Negotiations

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    The land at St Denis Libolina primary, a school for physically challenged has been transformed into food forests and gardens using agroecology and feed the children, teachers. They have now sent a challenge to the community to do the same. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS
    • by Isaiah Esipisu (dubai)
    • Inter Press Service

    DUBAI, Dec 02 (IPS) – Students of St Denis Libolina Primary have used agroecology farming techniques to transform the entire school garden and any free space into food forests and gardens for different vegetable varieties, legumes, and herbs.

    Now the students, who are physically challenged, have challenged their parents, villagers, and farmers in the outskirts of Myanga Township, in Kenya’s Bungoma County, in the Western region, to do the same.

    “Barely one year ago, teachers had to contribute money to buy green vegetables to be used by staff members,” said Gladys Orlando, the school head teacher, told IPS during a recent media visit. “But today, there are always more than enough vegetables, not just for the teachers but for all students in our boarding facility.”

    With rainwater harvested from classroom rooftops, several trenches dug on the school garden, and the use of cover crops, the school has managed to sustainably trap water and soil moisture to support farming of diverse crops, not limited to vegetables, cereals, fruits, tuber crops such as cassava, sweet potatoes, and arrowroots, among others.

    “I have never known that this area can be this productive,” said Naomi Sitati, a parent at the school and a smallholder farmer who has always cultivated maize and beans. “I have since been coming here to learn alongside the pupils, and now I have established my own agroecology unit on a half-acre piece of land at home.”

    According to experts at the ongoing climate negotiations (COP 28) in Dubai, UAE, such agroecological farming techniques are key to the continent’s food systems because they optimize the use of local resources such as manure and local water sources for irrigation, thereby minimizing the ecological footprint and enhancing the sustainability of agricultural practices.

    “Techniques such as rainwater harvesting, use of cover crops, and drought-resistant crops help conserve water,” said Dr Million Belay, the General Coordinator for the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa.

    “This is especially vital as climate change is expected to make water sources more unpredictable and scarce,” he said during an event on the sidelines of the 28th round of climate negotiations in Dubai.

    According to Xavier Emodo, the teacher in charge of the farming project at St Denis Libolina School, all organic waste in the school and rubbish collected under tree sheds are all used to make compost manure to keep the soils nourished.

    “We have particular students who are always dedicated to the management of compost manure in this school; others are dedicated to pest control and crop management; and we even have a treasurer who takes record of any income generated from the surplus,” said Emondo. “These students are very passionate about whatever they are doing, given that our new teaching system, also known as competency-based curriculum, calls for such practical lessons as part of the syllabus.”

    Each and every block at the school has small vegetable gardens in front of classes. Each garden is managed by learners from those particular classes. “Students from these classes are always competing to outdo each other,” said Emodo.

    So far, the school has acquired two dairy cows, whose cow dung is instrumental in composting the manure, and they provide milk for the learners.

    “We have found that by leveraging traditional knowledge and practices, agroecology empowers communities (such as St Denis Libolina School) to be stewards of their own land and resources, fostering local innovation and self-reliance in the face of climate change,” said Belay, who is now pushing for agroecology to be included in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) future negotiations agenda.

    “We are calling for agroecology’s diversified cropping systems to be recommended for climate resilience because the techniques reduce the risk of total crop failure, providing a safety net for food production systems,” he said.

    During last year’s climate negotiation (COP 27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the “Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security” was adopted by all parties. The four-year joint work includes implementation of the outcomes of the Koronivia joint work on agriculture and previous activities addressing issues related to agriculture, as well as future topics, recognising that solutions are context-specific and take into account national circumstances.

    One of the objectives for the joint work was to promote a holistic approach to addressing issues related to agriculture and food security, taking into consideration regional, national and local circumstances, in order to deliver a range of multiple benefits, where applicable, such as adaptation, adaptation co-benefits and mitigation, recognising that adaptation is a priority for vulnerable groups, including women, indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers

    Evidence-based studies have demonstrated that diversification inherent in agroecology provides farmers with multiple income sources, such as different kinds of crops, livestock, and value-added products, thereby reducing economic vulnerability to climate-related shocks.

    “It integrates food production’s ecological, economic, and social aspects, thereby promoting sustainable and equitable systems while also addressing farm-level production and socio-economic processes like markets and distribution,” said Belay.

    So far, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has repeatedly recommended the use of agroecological principles and practices, among other approaches that work with natural processes to support food security, nutrition, health and well-being, livelihoods and biodiversity, sustainability, and ecosystem services in adaptation to climate change.

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  • Restoring Indigenous Trees: New Mission to Combat Climate Change in Rwanda

    Restoring Indigenous Trees: New Mission to Combat Climate Change in Rwanda

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    Nearly 30 species of indigenous species have been identified to guide tree planting in various locations, including in urban areas, to restore ecosystems and the advantages and services we receive from them in Rwanda. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS
    • by Aimable Twahirwa (kigali)
    • Inter Press Service

    KIGALI, Dec 01 (IPS) – With the ongoing national tree-planting campaign, Rwanda seeks to replace its degraded forest resulting from charcoal production and firewood and increase the need for construction materials with new indigenous trees to combat climate change.

    By using the power of carbon markets to fight climate change, Rwanda aims to reduce 4.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions across different key sectors, including forest, through its ambitious climate action agenda that features a 38 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to business-as-usual by 2030.

    Rwanda’s ambitious carbon market strategy has been designed to enhance forest protection and significantly boost the country’s capacity to absorb carbon emissions, but some scientists believe that while planting trees is important, what is very critical is what species of tree to plant and where to plant it.

    “People need to underpin the tree planting with knowledge of what ecosystems were before this massive land cover change,” said Professor Beth Kaplin, the Director of the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resources Management of the University of Rwanda, while referring to the current situation in Rwanda.

    Experts emphasize the need for a shift so that the country ends the homogenization of the landscape, where all riparian zones should not be all one tree species, like it is the case today across different remote rural parts of Rwanda.

    “We need to have these native trees scattered around the Rwandan landscape to maximize nature’s contributions to people,” Kaplin told IPS in an exclusive interview.

    The Center of Excellence in Biodiversity and Natural Resources Management at the University of Rwanda has identified 29 indigenous species that can help guide tree planting in the appropriate locations to restore ecosystems and the advantages and services we receive from them in Rwanda.

    But the critical step, according to researchers, is for local community members to gain knowledge of these native trees, how they grow, and their multiple values.

    Soil erosion control in particular suffers the most with plantation-style forest restoration, while native tree species can sequester carbon and attract birds, insects, and pollinators that can serve the surrounding agricultural landscape, according to the researchers.

    One of the latest studies conducted by a team of researchers from different Rwandan and Swedish universities has demonstrated that shifts in seasonal variations in rainfall and temperature recorded across the East African region, with high mountains and Great Lakes, are likely to affect tree species composition and the carbon balance of tropical forests.

    Dr. Aloysie Manishimwe, one of the co-authors of the study from the Department of Biology, College of Science and Technology, University Rwanda, told IPS that in most cases, tree plantations have an advantage only in wood production, but they are not as helpful as restoring natural forests when it comes to the conservation of biodiversity.

    “When restoration goals are about environmental benefits, we should aim to restore native forests,” she said.

    While findings show that montane rainforests are very productive and contain more biomass and carbon than their indigenous counterparts, they are mostly grown in a warmer climate.

    Currently, Rwandan officials urge farmers to change their misguided mindset if they are to take an interest in planting indigenous trees.

    According to Concorde Nsengumuremyi, the Director General of the Rwanda Forestry Authority, the majority of farmers still prefer non-indigenous species such as Eucalyptus, which make quick profits in the short term, instead of adopting recommended indigenous species.

    Rwanda has exceeded its 30 percent forest cover target by 2020, and the country has achieved 30.4 percent, according to figures from the government.

    Although some officials seem to lack information and are missing the big picture of the environmental, health, and economic benefits of indigenous trees in Rwanda, some experts point out that there is still a vast underrecognized opportunity, such as planting these species on road edges and urban areas, where they can greatly contribute to green urbanization.

    “Urban parks, road edges, and landscaping around buildings—these can all use native species and replace the non-native species,” said Kaplin, who backs the initiative.

    Native tree planting is usually among the most warmly welcomed green options that can help accelerate climate action—voluntary and compliance carbon markets in Rwanda in line with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015.

    Currently, researchers are looking to engage with local administrative officials to establish a list of indigenous trees in line with the Spatial Biodiversity Assessment as a tool to guide restoration practices, including native tree planting.

    “Our youth are growing up without knowing what the native trees look like in Rwanda; we need to have these native trees scattered around the Rwandan landscape to maximize nature’s contributions to people,” Kaplin said.

    The Rwanda Forest Authority predicts that the country will plant 4.9 million fruit trees, 6.7 million ornamental trees, 273,590 bamboo trees, 34.2 million agro-forestry trees, and 16.5 million trees in general for different purposes.

    Rwanda is not the only country that is planting trees. Earlier in November, the Kenyan government declared a public holiday to encourage the planting of trees, aiming for 15 billion trees by 2032.

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  • ITPGRFA Seeks Close Collaboration with CBD on Benefit-sharing | News | SDG Knowledge Hub – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    ITPGRFA Seeks Close Collaboration with CBD on Benefit-sharing | News | SDG Knowledge Hub – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    The Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) highlighted the need to ensure close collaboration with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), particularly in the context of the negotiations to enhance the functioning of the Treaty’s Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) and ongoing talks under the CBD towards a multilateral mechanism on benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources.

    ITPGRFA aims to conserve crop diversity and share its benefits for human and planetary well-being.

    The theme of the tenth session of its Governing Body (GB 10) was ‘From Seeds to Innovative Solutions, Safeguarding Our Future: Contributing to the Implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework for Sustainable Food Systems,’ which highlighted the importance of crop diversity for food security, environmental sustainability, and socioeconomic well-being in the face of global challenges. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary report of the meeting notes that convening less than a year after the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the meeting “underscored farmers’ contributions to agricultural biodiversity, and drew attention to the interlinkages between the Treaty and [CBD].”

    “Four Working Group meetings are planned for the next biennium,” ENB highlights, “to allow for progress on the negotiations…

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  • Give Wildlife a Seat at the Table

    Give Wildlife a Seat at the Table

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    • Opinion by Gavin Bruce (uckfield, uk)
    • Inter Press Service

    UCKFIELD, UK, Nov 23 (IPS) – As we stand at a critical crossroads in climate change, we must recognise the inextricable link between nature and climate. This connection has been overlooked for far too long. IAR’s COP28 campaign, ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table,’ is gaining support from prominent figures such as Joanna Lumley, Peter Egan, and Jo Brand, who are joining forces with the organisation to address the urgent need for wildlife representation.

    The campaign aims to push world leaders to seriously consider the planet’s wildlife and the biodiversity crisis during COP28 discussions.

    As the world gears up for COP28, the urgency of addressing climate change has never been more apparent. However, it is crucial to recognise that climate change is not a standalone issue; it is intricately linked to biodiversity loss and, ultimately, the health and wellbeing of humanity. It is important to understand the critical role that conserving wildlife, habitats, nature, and ecosystems plays in mitigating climate change and safeguarding our shared future.

    The toll on people and wildlife from climate change is not a distant threat; its impacts are already being felt across the globe, affecting both human populations and wildlife. Communities are already experiencing the adverse effects of rising sea levels, extreme weather events, flooding, droughts and severe storms.

    Similarly, the changes to global weather patterns due to climate change pose direct threats to ecosystems worldwide. These changes disrupt habitats, pushing hundreds of thousands of species to the brink of extinction. As ecosystems unravel, the intricate web of biodiversity is compromised, affecting the delicate balance that sustains life on Earth.

    We are now at a critical moment in global climate action. This urgency is underscored by a year of record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events across the planet. COP28 serves as an evaluation of the progress since the promises made in Paris at COP21 and how effective these commitments have been in limiting long-term global temperature rises.

    At COP28, we are hopeful that world leaders will come together, representing their countries, and step up their commitments to slow global heating. They will also consider the funding and adaptations needed to support the communities most affected.

    The central question arises: Is it right that wildlife does not have a voice at the table where decisions impacting the entire planet are made? Wildlife must be given due representation in these discussions. Wildlife must have a seat at the table! International Animal Rescue (IAR) is leading the charge to ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table,’ mobilising 10,000 voices to implore world leaders to prioritise wildlife and biodiversity during the discussions.

    IAR envisions a world where humans and animals thrive together in sustainable ecosystems. Conserving biodiversity is not just about protecting endangered species; it’s about preserving the intricate web of life that sustains our planet. Healthy ecosystems, thriving with diverse plant and animal species, act as a natural buffer against climate change.

    IAR’s conservation programme, IARconserves, embraces a holistic, one-health approach. By adopting community-centric, grass-roots strategies, the outcomes positively impact people, wildlife and the environment. Through IARconserves, we have improved the health and prosperity of forest edge communities; in turn, this has reduced the environmental impact of human activity.
    By conserving wildlife and their habitats, forests are protected, ensuring that millions of tonnes of carbon remain stored in the flora and deep peat below.

    As we approach COP28, the call to ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table’ becomes more urgent. The success of this campaign hinges on collective action – individuals, communities, and nations coming together to advocate for a more sustainable and inclusive approach to climate discussions.

    It is imperative that the international community recognises the inextricable link between climate change, biodiversity loss, and human health. Conservation efforts must be elevated on the global agenda, with a commitment to preserving wildlife, habitats, nature, and ecosystems. By doing so, we not only mitigate the impacts of climate change but also foster a world where both human and non-human inhabitants can thrive.

    The urgency is palpable; the time for action is now. The ‘Give Wildlife A Seat At The Table’ campaign by International Animal Rescue calls for world leaders to consider the planet’s wildlife and biodiversity during COP28 seriously.

    With a target of 10,000 signatures on the petition, the campaign aims to ensure that the voices of wildlife are heard in decisions that affect all of us – people, animals, forests, and the entirety of our interconnected ecosystems. You can find out more here.

    Gavin Bruce is Chief Executive of International Animal Rescue

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  • Deforestation, Encroachment Threaten West Africas One Health Plans

    Deforestation, Encroachment Threaten West Africas One Health Plans

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    Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary – a conservation center dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and protecting Sierra Leone’s national chimpanzee. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
    • by Stella Paul (freetown)
    • Inter Press Service

    FREETOWN, Nov 03 (IPS) – Thirty-three years ago, Bala Amerasekaran – a Sri Lankan by birth – visited Freetown, Sierra Leone. Since then, the West African nation has been his home, where Amerasekaran has dedicated his life to conserving the chimpanzee – Sierra Leone’s national animal.

    In 1995, with support from the national government, he founded Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary – the country’s first conservation center that rescues, rehabilitates, and protects chimpanzees, often hunted, traded, and killed for their meat. Currently home to 100 chimpanzees, the conservation works of the sanctuary also help prevent the spread of any possible diseases transmitted from primates to humans.

    However, 20 years later, Amerasekaran’s enthusiasm is declining as he has witnessed massive encroachment within the sanctuary, destroying its forest cover and threatening the sustainability of the conservation program itself.

    “I am beginning to feel that I have wasted my life for 28 years because there is no safety for this place,” says a visibly upset Amerasekaran.

    Wildlife Connection to Africa’s Zoonotic Disease Trail

    “At least 75 percent of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of humans—including Ebola, Marburg, Henipavirus, and zoonotic avian flu—have an animal origin, according to Hellen Amuguni – Associate Professor in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. “Chances are that when the next illness like COVID-19 emerges to threaten global health, it will originate in animals before it passes to humans, a process known as spillover,” Amuguni says.

    West Africa has a long history of recurring zoonotic disease spillovers, the biggest of which occurred in 2014 when the region witnessed a devastating Ebola virus outbreak. The outbreak spread quickly across the entire region, including Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where about 11,000 people died.

    A 2018 study led by Caroline Huber of Precision Health Economics estimated that the disease outbreak also caused an economic and social burden worth over USD50 billion. Researchers later traced the origin to a spillover event: a two-year-old boy in Guinea likely infected while playing near a tree where bats roosted.

    Since then, the conservation of biodiversity, especially the natural habitats of wildlife, has gained attention in the region to prevent any quick transmission of a zoonotic pathogen from animals to humans. But almost all the major forests and key wildlife habitats also face increasing stress from loggers, hunters, traders, and illegal builders.

    An example is the Upper Guinean Forest, which covers the lowland forests of West Africa from Guinea to Togo. This forest is a global biodiversity hotspot and contains the world’s second-largest rainforest, the Congo Basin. However, studies have found that the forest has lost 84 percent of its original area, mostly due to agricultural expansion, commercial logging, charcoal burning, and human settlement.

    Within the borders of Guinea – where the 2014 Ebola outbreak occurred first – 17.1-kilo hectares of humid primary forest disappeared between 2002 -2022, according to Global Forest Watch (GFW). To put it in perspective, this is the loss of a forest area as big as the city of Washington, DC.

    GFW has also tracked large-scale deforestation in Equatorial Guinea –the country that reported the first cases of Marburg – a deadly viral zoonotic disease in May this year that claimed 12 lives. According to GFW’s estimates, in 2010, Equatorial Guinea had 2.63 mega hectares (Mha) of tree cover, extending over 98 percent of its land area, but by 2022, it lost 7.76 thousand hectares (kha) of tree cover, which is roughly the size of Paris.

    Sierra Leone’s Vulnerable Forests

    In Sierra Leone, several dense forests are habitats of many endangered wildlife species, including 6000 chimpanzees. These include Kangari Hills and Nimini Hills forests, Outamba-Kilimi National Park, and the Gola Rainforest – one of the largest remaining West African tracts extending to neighboring Liberia.

    While deforestation has occurred in all these forests owing to illegal logging, unsustainable land use, infrastructural development, and charcoal production, it is particularly high in Gola Forest. According to a 2017 Purdue University research, the Gola forest has been losing its green cover at an annual rate of 4.18 percent. These losses are largely due to the expansion of rice farms within the forest area, says John Christian Abu-Kpawoh, who conducted the research.

    In comparison, Tacugama Sanctuary is a tiny patch of forest of only about 40 hectares. Yet its proximity to the national capital, Freetown, a 40-minute drive away, makes it a prime target for encroachers. About 30 percent of the sanctuary has been encroached upon by builders, many of whom are powerful and well-connected.

    “Last year, the Ministry of Lands deployed soldiers here (to protect the chimpanzee sanctuary). Yet every name that is coming up in the recent encroachments is of a soldier,” Amerasekaran reveals, indicating deep-rooted corruption in the government.

    Worrying News for One Health

    Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the One Health Approach to prevent a future zoonotic disease spillover has gained traction. The One Health approach recognizes the interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health and emphasizes an integrated approach to prevent any health crisis, especially related to infections transmitted from animals to humans.

    Across West Africa, several large projects are already being implemented where multidisciplinary experts, including veterinarians, zoologists, epidemiologists, social behavior scientists, and risk communicators, are working together to prevent a new spillover.

    The USAID-funded STOP Spillover, PREDICT and RESPOND, the Eco Health Alliance projects, and the West African One Health actions for understanding, preventing, and mitigating outbreaks are some examples.

    These projects, among others, are engaged in studying and monitoring animal-human interaction, assessing risks of a possible disease breakout, putting surveillance measures in place to detect the early warning of spillover, and raising awareness among locals about the importance of conserving forest and wildlife to prevent a disease outbreak.

    Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary is also working with local communities to address some of the threats being faced by the rainforest-dwelling species. For example, the sanctuary is helping to establish livestock rearing projects, setting up swamp rice plantations, improving fuel efficiency of cooking, setting up tree nurseries for sustainable harvesting of wood and food products, and running education programs for school children.

    But the uncontrolled development and encroachment on the forest land pose serious threats to the success of these activities, the biggest of them being the shrinking of space between humans and animals.

    Although the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak and spillover were attributed to bats, chimpanzees can also be responsible for a new Ebola outbreak as they can contract and succumb to the virus. Ebola has been a major reason for the declining chimpanzee population across Africa. Once humans come in contact with an infected chimpanzee or its body fluids, the deadly disease can be transmitted to humans – leading to a viral spillover.

    This means every unmonitored handling of a chimpanzee, including its capture, to sell it as a pet or kill for meat poses a risk of a disease breakout simply because the hunter or the capturer cannot know whether the animal has contracted Ebola virus. On the other hand, protecting a chimpanzee’s natural habitat and ensuring it stays within that habitat not only leads to its conservation but also prevents it from passing on any deadly pathogen, such as Ebola, to humans.

    ‘Learn from East Africa’

    Considering the spillover risks, conserving the habitats of key wildlife species, especially those known to transmit viral zoonotic diseases to humans, is vital. Many feel West Africa can learn from its East African neighbors who have set examples of protecting their wildlife reserves by creating a safe distance between the wildlife and humans.

    “Look at countries like Rwanda or Kenya, then you will see that where there is a wild reserve, they create a buffer zone of 2-3 kilometers,’’ says the founder of Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

    The failure to maintain this distance can pose serious risks to the region’s One Health goal, says Frederick Jobo Moseray, Assistant Conservation Manager at the sanctuary.

    “When the forest goes, the animals become homeless. They then come to human colonies. Here, we are talking about chimpanzees. They are hunted, killed, and also kept as pets. All of this is dangerous. We are talking about preventing a zoonotic disease spillover, but first, we must stop the shrinking of safe space between humans and chimpanzees,” Moseray concludes.

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  • Communities Taking a Sting Out of Poaching With Alternative Livelihoods

    Communities Taking a Sting Out of Poaching With Alternative Livelihoods

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    IFAW recently translocated elephants into Kasungu National Park, which is on the Malawi-Zambia border. IFAW is implementing the Room to Roam initiative so that these elephants can have safe passage in the corridor. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS
    • by Charles Mpaka (chipata, zambia)
    • Inter Press Service

    CHIPATA, ZAMBIA, Nov 01 (IPS) – As we approach the forest in the village to appreciate Andrew Mbewe’s beekeeping enterprise, a bee from a hive close to the edge of the natural woodland stings him on the cheek.

    He steps back quickly, waving everyone away from danger, as he grimaces and grumbles in pain while trying to take out the stinger to prevent his face from swelling.

    “That’s one of the duties they are performing,” he says through his gritted teeth about his 18 beehives in this forest.

    He examines the tips of his index and thumb fingernails to see if he has taken out the bee’s poison-injecting barb.

    “These bees are guardians of this forest,” he says. “They protect it from invaders. That’s one of the reasons this forest is still standing today.”

    Across the villages along the Chipata-Lundazi road, which cuts through a landscape that stretches between Kasungu National Park in Malawi and Lukusuzi and Luambe National Parks in Zambia’s Eastern Province, one feature is likely to catch the eye: impressive stands of natural forests among villages and smallholder farms.

    Andrew Mbewe (left) explains honey harvesting to a visiting entourage. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS
    Andrew Mbewe (left) explains honey harvesting to a visiting entourage. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS

    In Mbewe’s village in Chikomeni chiefdom in Lundazi district, these indigenous forests are home to over 700 beehives belonging to more than 140 families.

    The forest protection duty that the bees are providing is an unintended consequence of the beekeeping enterprise. Fundamentally, the communities are sucking money out of the honeycombs in these beehives through sales of both raw and processed honey, some of which find space on the shelves of Zambia’s supermarkets.

    It is one of the livelihood activities which Community Markets for Conservation (Comaco), in partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), are implementing within the broader wildlife conservation strategy in the Malawi-Zambia landscape.

    Comaco’s driving force is that conservation can work when rural communities overcome the challenges of hunger and poverty.

    It says these problems are often related to farming practices that degrade soils and drive deforestation and biodiversity loss.

    Therefore, Comaco works with small-scale farmers to adopt climate-smart agriculture approaches such as making and using organic fertilisers and agroecology to revitalise soils so farmers achieve maximum crop productivity.

    It also supports small farmers to add value to their produce and attractively brand the products so they are competitive in the market.

    With burgeoning carbon trading as another revenue stream, this wildlife economy is raking in promising sums for both individual members and their groups, communities say.

    The cooperative to which Mbewe belongs has used part of its revenue to purchase two vehicles – 5-tonne and 3-tonne trucks – which the group hires out for income. The money is invested in community projects such as building teachers’ houses and hospital shelters.

    Luke Japhet Lungu, assistant project manager for the IFAW-Comaco Partnership Project, tells IPS that these activities are making people less and less reliant on exploiting natural resources for a living.

    “You will not find a bag of charcoal here,” Lungu challenges.

    “Because of the farming practices we adopted, people are realising that if they destroy the forest, they also destroy the productivity of their land and their income will suffer,” he says.

    Along the way, people are also learning to live with the animals.

    “Animals are able to move from one forest to another without disturbance. For the bigger ones, such as elephants, which would cause damage to our crops, we have a rapid communication system through our community scouts who work with government rangers.

    “We have occasions of elephant invasions from the three parks. However, we have learnt to handle them better to minimise conflict. It’s a process,” Lungu says.

    One man who has learnt to manage the animals he once hunted is Mbewe himself.

    A battle-scared poacher for nearly a decade from the 1980s, he terrorised the 5,000-square-kilometre conservation area on poaching missions.

    For his operations, he used rifles he rented from some officials within the government of Zambia, he claims.

    “They were also my major market for ivory and other wildlife products,” he says.

    Apparently, without knowing it, Mbewe was actually supplying a far bigger transnational market.

    For over 30 years, from the late 1970s, the Malawi-Zambia conservation area was a major source and transit route for ivory to markets in China and Southeast Asia.

    Elephant poaching rocked the landscape resulting in the decline of the species. In Kasungu National Park, for example, according to data from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife in Malawi, elephant numbers dwindled from 1,200 in the 1970s to just 50 in 2015.

    In 2017, IFAW launched a five-year Combating Wildlife Crime project whose aim was to see elephant populations stabilise and increase in the landscape through reduced poaching.

    The project supported park management operations and constructed or rehabilitated requisite structures such as vehicle workshops and offices.

    It trained game rangers and judiciary officers in wildlife crime investigation and prosecution.

    It provided game rangers with uniforms, decent housing, field allowances, patrol vehicles and equipment.

    It supported community livelihood activities such as beekeeping and climate-friendly farming.

    It also thrust communities to the centre of planning wildlife conservation measures.

    Erastus Kancheya is the Area Warden for the Department of National Parks and Wildlife for the East Luangwa Area Management unit where Lukusuzi and Luambe National Parks lie.

    He says he sees these measures as enabling degraded protected areas like Lukusuzi National Park to “rise from the long-forgotten dust awakening on the long road of meaningful conservation”.

    Kancheya says engaging communities in co-management of the protected areas is also proving to be effective in the landscape.

    Now, IFAW is leveraging this community partnership to sustain the achievements of the Combating Wildlife Crime project through its flagship Room to Roam initiative.

    Patricio Ndadzela, Director for IFAW in Malawi and Zambia, describes Room to Roam as a broad, people-centred conservation strategy.

    “This is an initiative that cuts across land use and planning, promotes climate-smart approaches to farming and ensures people and animals co-exist,” he says.

    The approach aims to deliver benefits for climate, nature and people through biodiversity protection and restoration.

    Room to Roam intends to build landscapes in which both animals and people can thrive.

    In the process, some people are being transformed. Mbewe is one such person. From being a notorious poacher, he is now a ploughshare of conservation as chairperson of the Community Forest Management Group in his area. The cooperative enforces wildlife conservation and sustainable land management practices.

    It is not easy work, he admits.

    “There are hardened attitudes to change, and patience is required to teach. Sometimes, the earnings from the livelihood activities are insufficient or irregular. For instance, you don’t harvest honey every day or every month,” he says.

    Yet, he says, the prospects are good and the challenges he faces now rank nowhere near what he encountered when he was a poacher.

    One incident still makes him shudder: Stalking a herd of elephants at their drinking spot in Kasungu National Park one day, he came under unexpected gunfire from rangers.

    “I was an experienced poacher. I knew at what time of the day to find the elephants and at what location. But the rangers saw me first. I was dead. I don’t understand how I escaped,” he says.

    Today, on reflection, he regrets having ever lived the life of a poacher.

    “I went into poaching for selfish reasons,” Mbewe says thoughtfully.

    “Poaching was benefiting me only; the conservation work I am doing now is benefiting the entire community and future generations,” he tells IPS while rubbing the spot of the bee sting and looking relieved.

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  • Human Action Pushing the World Closer to Environmental Tipping Points, UN University Warns

    Human Action Pushing the World Closer to Environmental Tipping Points, UN University Warns

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    COP 15 in Paris. A reminder of global warming and glacier melting. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS
    • by Alison Kentish (saint lucia)
    • Inter Press Service

    SAINT LUCIA, Oct 26 (IPS) – A new report by the University lists six areas of grave concern and states that in the absence of behavior and priority change, the world could face catastrophe in areas like groundwater depletion and species extinction.Melting mountain glaciers. Unbearable heat. An uninsurable future. Space debris. Groundwater depletion. Accelerating extinctions. The United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security said this week that these six environmental “tipping points” can have “irreversible, catastrophic impacts for people and the planet.”

    The University released its 2023 Interconnected Disaster Risks Report on October 25. It states that climate change and human behavior are among the drivers of these tipping points.

    “Human actions are behind this rapid and fundamental change to the planet. We are introducing new risks and amplifying existing ones by indiscriminately extracting our water resources, damaging nature and biodiversity, polluting both Earth and space and destroying our tools and options to deal with disaster risk,” it stated. 

    In terms of accelerated extinction, it states that the current species extinction rate dire – at as much as hundreds of times higher than usual due to human action.

    It says the life-saving resource groundwater, which is stored in reserves known as “aquifers,” is a source of water for over 2 billion people and is used overwhelmingly (around 70%) in the agriculture sector. It adds, however, that 21 of the world’s 37 major aquifers are being used “faster than they can be replenished.”

    In terms of space debris, while satellites make life easier for humanity, including providing vital information for early warning systems, only about one-quarter of the objects identified in orbit are working satellites. This means that satellites critical for weather monitoring and information are at risk of colliding with discarded metal, broken satellites, and other debris.

    According to the report, climate change and increasing extreme weather events have resulted in skyrocketing insurance prices in some parts of the world. The report warns that rising coverage costs could mean an uninsurable future for many.

    Another tipping point, unbearable heat, is a cause for major concern. The report states that, “currently, around 30 percent of the global population is exposed to deadly climate conditions for at least 20 days per year, and this number could rise to over 70 percent by 2100.”

    And a warming earth is resulting in glaciers melting at twice the speed of the last two decades.

    Report authors say the six risk areas of concern are interconnected, which means that going beyond the brink of any tipping point would heighten the risk and severity of others.

    “If we look at the case of space debris, it has to do with the practice of putting satellites into our orbit without regard for handling the debris that comes as a result. At present we are tracking around 34,000 objects in our orbit and only a quarter of these are active satellites. We’re planning thousands more launches in the coming years. We may reach a point where it gets so crowded in our orbit that one collision can create enough debris to set off a chain reaction of collisions that could destroy our space infrastructure entirely,” said Dr. Jack O’Connor, Senior Scientist at UNU-EHS and Lead Author of the Interconnected Disaster Risks report.

    “We use satellites every day to monitor our world. For example, we observe weather patterns that can give us data to generate early warnings. We sometimes take these warnings for granted, but can you imagine if we pass this space debris tipping point and we are no longer able to observe weather patterns? Now a storm is coming to a populated area, and we can’t see it coming,” he said.

    While the report is sobering, its authors are quick to point out that there is hope. Lead Author Dr Zita Sebesvari suggests using the tipping points’ interconnectivity as an advantage for finding solutions.

    “These tipping points share certain root causes and drivers. Climate change is cutting across at least four out of the six points. Therefore, decisive climate action and cutting our emissions can help to slow down or even prevent; accelerating extinction, unbearable heat, uninsurable future, and mounting glacier melting,” she said.

    The report was published just one month before the United Nations Climate Conference (COP28). Dr O’Connor says the report can be instructive for policymakers.

    “I think the report is connected to the COP process. Reducing our emissions is key, and we will need to integrate this with other contributing factors such as global biodiversity loss.”

    The authors say passing these tipping points is not inevitable. They say the points are meant to spur action, to adequately plan for future risks, and to tackle the root causes of these serious issues.

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