Busani Bafana

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 7 déc (IPS) – Effatah Jele, une productrice de lait en Zambie, en Afrique australe, ne croit pas en un hasard agricole, mais au pragmatisme à cause des changements climatiques.

“On devrait enseigner aux fermiers les bonnes pratiques agricoles au lieu d’imputer tout aux changements climatiques”, a déclaré Jele, qui dirige une ferme laitière dans la province de Luanshya Cooperbelt, en Zambie, et est la vice-présidente de la ‘Dairy Association’ (Association des producteurs de lait).

“Les changements sont là, sans doute, mais il est également important pour les agriculteurs de disposer des bonnes pratiques agricoles pour résister à ces changements. Par exemple, certaines femmes produisent des légumes et, à cause de l’ignorance, creusent le sol jusqu’au bord du fleuve. Ensuite, quand il pleut, tout le sable est entraîné dans le fleuve et après quelques années, le flot devient peu profond. Et certaines personnes affirment que c’est à cause des changements climatiques”.

Jele a indiqué que les changements dans les conditions météorologiques présentent de graves implications pour des fermiers, comme elle, qui dépendent des ressources en eau de plus en plus rares pour garder un troupeau laitier viable. Les producteurs de cultures, a-t-elle dit, sont moins bien lotis, sauf si la science et des idées pratiques viennent au secours.

“Je pense que nos scientifiques devraient aller vers les agriculteurs pour leur parler et leur faire comprendre la différence entre les changements climatiques et les problèmes auto-infligés à travers l’utilisation des mauvaises méthodes agricoles. Cela est important, parce que, autrement, nous ne trouverons pas des solutions qui assureront la sécurité alimentaire”, a déclaré Jele.

“Certaines des choses que nous imputons aux changements climatiques relèvent de l’incapacité de notre part, en tant que fermiers, à faire la bonne chose au bon moment. Parce qu’il y a une chanson sur les changements climatiques; nous chantons tous ‘changements climatiques, changements climatiques’”, a affirmé Jele.

Les craintes par rapport aux effets des changements climatiques sur l’agriculture africaine sont réelles et en Afrique australe, les fermiers sont en train de prendre des mesures pour s’assurer que les négociateurs à la 17ème Conférence des parties (COP 17) à Durban comprennent le message.

La ‘Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions’ (Confédération des syndicats agricoles d’Afrique australe – SACAU) – qui a obtenu le statut d’observateur à la session de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) – veut que les négociations mondiales mettent fermement l’agriculture sur l’agenda des changements climatiques et établissent un programme de travail qui présentera et coordonnera des réponses nécessaires, telles qu’une allocation spécifique au secteur dans le cadre du Fonds vert pour le climat.

Des initiatives intelligentes face au climat, telles que l’agriculture de conservation, la récolte de l’eau, permettront non seulement aux fermiers de faire face aux conditions météorologiques extrêmes, mais aussi de s’assurer qu’ils réduisent les émissions de carbone. Selon des scientifiques, l’agriculture est responsable de 15 à 30 pour cent des émissions mondiales de gaz à effet de serre, telles que le dioxyde de carbone, qui influence la température de la terre.

Les agriculteurs font campagne pour un accord qui comprend spécifiquement l’agriculture, qui sera fortement touchée par les changements climatiques en termes de baisse de rendements agricoles et de la faiblesse de la productivité. Pour eux, les termes ‘productif’, ‘durable’ et ‘fermes’ constituent l’assurance contre les risques des changements climatiques.

Notant les liens étroits qui existent entre les défis de la lutte contre les changements climatiques et le fait de nourrir une population mondiale croissante, Kanayo Nwanze, le président du Fonds international de développement agricole (FIDA), doit demander à la COP 17 de se concentrer sur l’aide à accorder à un demi-milliard de petits fermiers dans les pays en développement pour qu’ils produisent plus de nourriture d’une façon écologiquement durable.

Selon une étude menée par le Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale, les changements climatiques feront baisser la productivité agricole, avec des projections d’une hausse des températures et d’une augmentation des sécheresses et des inondations, qui changeraient les saisons agricoles et entraîneraient une baisse des récoltes.

“Nos attentes en tant que fermiers d’Afrique australe, c’est que l’agriculture soit incluse dans le texte qui sera adopté à la fin de la COP 17 à Durban”, a souligné Stéphanie Aubin, chargée du développement des politiques à la SACAU.

“L’agriculture doit être incluse dans le texte spécifique afin qu’il existe un fonds particulier et une action spécifique qui soient mis en œuvre”.

Un projet de texte a été discuté et négocié au cours des réunions des COP passées, à Copenhague et à Cancun, mais a été abandonné parce que l’agriculture a été mise dans la même catégorie que les combustibles de soute.

“Il est important que l’agriculture bénéficie d’un traitement spécial lors des négociations de la CCNUCC parce qu’elle est spéciale en termes de moyens de subsistance pour des millions de personnes en Afrique et de sécurité alimentaire pour la planète, et c’est le secteur le plus sensible au climat qui peut en même temps contribuer aux efforts d’adaptation et d’atténuation”, a expliqué Aubin.

“Nous voulons un chapitre spécifique sur l’agriculture dans le texte et une action à long terme, puisque cela débloquera le financement dont le secteur agricole a besoin en Afrique pour répondre efficacement aux changements climatiques”.

Aubin était optimiste qu’avec la COP 17 qui est organisée actuellement en Afrique, les gouvernements africains feront l’effort nécessaire pour faire pression afin que l’agriculture soit incluse dans le texte final. (FIN/11)

Complejo de almacenaje de granos y oleaginosas en Mato Grosso. La agroindustria es clave en la promesa de Brasil de reducir sus emisiones de gases contaminantes. Crédito: Mario Osava/IPS

Por Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, dic (IPS) – Brasil pretende cumplir sus metas climáticas en el sector agrícola estimulando algunas técnicas ya conocidas, que reducen las emisiones de gas carbónico, pero que pueden incrementar el uso de agrotóxicos, según activistas.

La siembra directa, recuperación de pastizales, integración cultivos-ganadería-bosque, fijación biológica de nitrógeno, reforestación comercial y el aprovechamiento de residuos animales para producir biogás son las prácticas fomentadas por una línea de crédito blando, disponible desde agosto.

El Programa Agricultura de Bajo Carbono (ABC), adoptado por el gobierno, prevé eliminar de 142 a 173 millones de toneladas del gas carbónico que la agricultura liberaría hacia 2020.

Brasil asumió en 2009 en Copenhague, ante la 15 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, el compromiso voluntario de reducir entre 36,1 y 38,9 por ciento del dióxido de carbono que lanzaría a la atmósfera en 2020 si no adoptase iniciativas mitigadoras.

Eso significa evitar la emisión de entre 1.168 y 1.259 millones de toneladas de dióxido de carbono equivalente, dependiendo del crecimiento que logre de su economía.

El mayor aporte a esa meta será reducir la deforestación. La Política Nacional sobre Cambio Climático, fijada en ley de diciembre de 2009, obliga a reducir 80 por ciento los índices de deforestación amazónica, hasta 2020, en comparación con el promedio de 1996 a 2005.

La agricultura cumplirá su parte con avances en las seis buenas prácticas fomentadas por una línea de crédito de 3.150 millones de reales (1.750 millones de dólares), con “tres ventajas” en sus préstamos, aseguró Carlos Magno Brandão, director de Sistema de Producción y Sustentabilidad del Ministerio de Agricultura.

La tasa de interés de 5,5 por ciento al año, inferior a la inflación actual, un plazo máximo de 15 años y hasta ocho años de gracia son las condiciones ofrecidas para intensificar las medidas, especialmente la recuperación de 15 millones de pastizales degradados en 10 años, que responde por 60 por ciento de la meta agrícola, destacó Brandão a IPS.

La siembra directa ya se diseminó por Brasil en las últimas décadas, alcanzando a casi 25 millones de hectáreas, cerca de la mitad del área sembrada de granos en el país, estimó Brandão. La propuesta es ampliarla en ocho millones de hectáreas hasta 2020.

Pero esa práctica los grandes productores agrícolas aumentan el uso de agrotóxicos, empleados para desecar y tumbar los restos de la siembra anterior y también para combatir los hongos, favorecidos por el aumento de la temperatura y de la humedad del suelo cubierto de paja, señaló el ingeniero forestal Luiz Zarref.

Los agrotóxicos liberan gases de impacto mucho más intenso que el dióxido de carbono (CO2) en relación al clima, como el óxido nitroso (NO3), 300 veces más potente, observó Zarref, activista de la red internacional no gubernamental Via Campesina.

Además, el ABC fomentará el empleo de fertilizantes químicos compuestos de nitrógeno, también fuente de óxido nitroso y de otros gases como los derivados del petróleo, acotó a IPS.

El programa neutraliza parte de ese aumento, al incentivar la fijación biológica de nitrógeno, una tecnología desarrollada por la Empresa Brasileña de Investigación Agropecuaria (Embrapa) que ahorra gran volumen de ese fertilizante, con el uso de bacterias que lo captan del aire y lo fijan en las plantas, especialmente en la soja.

Pero aparte de la soja, esa tecnología todavía es solo “una promesa”, ya que afronta dificultades para extenderse a otras siembras, según Jean Marc von der Weid, fundador y dirigente de Asesoría y Servicios a Proyectos de Tecnología Alternativa (ASPTA), organización no gubernamental de apoyo a agricultura familiar y agroecología.

En su opinión, solo el crédito barato y con montos pequeños no permite superar la “complejidad” y las trabas a una expansión de la siembra directa, la recuperación de tierras degradadas y la integración cultivo-ganadería-bosques.

Los activistas critican la ausencia de la agroecología en el programa gubernamental. Pero se trata de “una opción compleja que depende de desconcentrar la tierra, diversificar la producción y evitar insumos químico-industriales”, ajena al espíritu del ABC pensado para “latifundios y monocultivos”, sentenció Zarref.

Brandão, por el contrario, considera que el programa se dirige a agricultores de pequeña y mediana escala, limitando al máximo de un millón de reales (550.000 dólares) cada préstamo, para “socializar” los recursos disponibles. “Los grandes (empresarios) tienen otras fuentes de crédito”, arguyó.

Mas allá del programa ABC, la crisis climática abre “nuevas oportunidades” para la agricultura y la investigación sectorial en Brasil, evaluó el jefe del Centro de Medio Ambiente de Embrapa, Celso Manzatto.

Se trata de desarrollar una “agricultura verde”, que comprende, por ejemplo, “fertilizantes inteligentes”, de liberación lenta y menos volátil, por lo tanto más eficientes y de pérdidas reducidas. También incluye el pago de servicios ambientales a agricultores que, además de producir alimentos, fibras y energía, conservan recursos naturales.

El aumento de la productividad es una forma de mitigar el recalentamiento global, y en la actividad agropecuaria hay un espacio enorme para ese avance, destacó Manzatto, quien hace 16 años que es investigador de Embrapa, el organismo estatal que tuvo un papel decisivo en la conversión de Brasil en potencia agrícola tropical.

Hay muchos lugares en Brasil donde la ganadería extensiva mantiene en promedio un animal cada dos hectáreas, ante lo cual es fácil duplicar la productividad, con resultados importantes en los factores climáticos, como es evitar la deforestación cuando se amplía la tenencia de vacunos, destacó.

El programa ABC exige un gran esfuerzo de transferencia de tecnología especialmente a los pequeños agricultores, anteriormente “marginado” de los avances logrados incluso por Embrapa, admitió.

La adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climático también abre grandes oportunidades a Brasil, por haber vencido el desafío “casi imposible” de desarrollar en las zonas tropicales una agricultura competitiva ante los grandes productores de clima templado, concluyó.

El compromiso brasileño de reducir sus emisiones de carbono se planteó para contribuir a un acuerdo mundial que permita evitar que la temperatura promedio del planeta aumente más de dos grados en este siglo. Fue una oferta voluntaria, de un país hasta ahora no obligado a ese esfuerzo por no pertenecer al mundo industrializado.

La reducción de la deforestación amazónica en los últimos años fortalece la imagen brasileña en esas negociaciones. En cambio, las críticas de ambientalistas proliferan ante los cambios en el Código Forestal que estudia el parlamento y que, en caso de ser aprobados, flexibilizará las reglas y penalizaciones a los terratenientes que destruyen bosques.

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9 (IPS) - The issue of money is still a substantial part of the negotiations at 17^thConference of Parties in Durban, South Africa. IPS spoke to Marcia Levaggi, manager of the Adaptation Fund Board, on the importance of ensuring that developing countries have the funds to deal with the effects of climate change.

Marcia Levaggi, manager of the Adaptation Fund Board. Credit: Zukiswa ZImela/IPS

The Adaptation Fund was established by the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Its aim is to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries.

Q: Talks in the previous COP’s tended to focus on mitigation but now increasingly the conversation is about mitigation and adaptation. Why is it important that developed countries have finance for adaptation plans?

A: First of all adaptation is one of the most pressing needs of developing countries to adapt to climate change. There are things that won’t change. Already the climate globally has changed and that has created difficult conditions for developing countries. There are new conditions in agriculture, there are droughts and food security is threatened. So it is important to address those issues and help those countries.

Q: One of the things stalling establishment and implementation of the Green Climate Fund is the question of where the almost 100 billion dollars per year needed by developing countries will come from?

A: The money comes from the two percent levy on the shares of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). That is an innovative feature of the fund, because it’s a tax on international corporations. We have also received some contributions from developed countries, namely Spain, Sweden and Germany, but our main source remains from the proceeds of the CDM.

Q: Can you give me an example of some projects that have been funded by the Adaptation Fund.

A: The Adaptation Fund started funding projects last year in September and in one year of operation it has funded eleven projects some in Mauritius, Senegal and Eritrea. The project in Senegal is a project about coastal protection. In South Africa we are working the South African National Biodiversity Institute we have heard that they are getting ready to submit a proposal.

Q: The Adaptation Fund relies on agreements made in the Kyoto Protocol. Other countries like Canada, Russia and Japan have already said that they are not going to be signing on for a second commitment period. What will this mean for you in terms of finance?

A:  Well I don’t know, but the situation will not get better if there are no clear signals after this meeting. We really plead with international community to strive for an agreement in Durban to help those countries. (END)

Farmers need help to prosper: but what kind of help? Credit: FISD/IPS

DURBAN, Dec 8 – (TerraViva) Global warming poses a threat to the livelihoods of millions of people who work the land; it is a critical issue for Africa’s climate change agenda. Campaigners agree that changing weather patterns and higher temperatures could spell disaster, but they are arguing for two contrasting responses here at the U.N. climate conference in Durban.

Speakers at a Dec. 3 event titled Agriculture and Rural Development Day called for agriculture to be recognised with a formal work programme in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process, to attract attention and funding for what is termed “climate smart” agriculture.

The key themes discussed included strengthening farmers’ ability to cope with climate shocks, while reducing greenhouse emissions from agriculture and sustainably increasing productivity to meet growing global demand.

The event was attended by numerous researchers and academics, the World Food Programme and U.N. rural agency the International Fund for Agricultural Development, donors like the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation and organisations such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Meeting future demand for food and securing rural prosperity, they argued, requires improving access to markets and agricultural research, the expanded use of inorganic fertiliser to build soil fertility, and credits for agricultural practices that would trap carbon in soil and biomass.

Farmers were represented too, by people such as Stephen Muchiri, of the Eastern Africa Farmers’ Federation. “We want a fixed programme on agriculture. That will open up other possibilities,” he said.

Two days later, land and agrarian reform activists struck a very different tone as they marched in support of “food sovereignty’. This group, led by the global smallholder farmer group La Via Campesina, also recognises the need to reduce emissions and design adaptations to contain the threat posed to agriculture by climate change, but argues that the most vulnerable farmers (and the world’s supply of food) also face a threat from the way the economy and land ownership are set up around the world.

They say large corporations that dominate the production of seed and fertiliser, and in many cases determine the prices food and cash crops fetch are as much of a problem for small farmers as increasing climate shocks. They reject the use of chemical fertiliser or proprietary seed to boost productivity, preferring organic fertiliser and water-saving techniques such as permaculture.

For these campaigners, the key is to prevent agriculture and food production from being further dominated by business principles and big business. They are firmly against any attempts to set up a system to pay farmers to sequester carbon.

“We do not want agriculture in the negotiations because that will make it a business,” Via Campesina organiser Boaventura Monjane told TerraViva, referring to the efforts to get carbon credits for famers. “We farm to feed people not for business. If agriculture is included it will kill small-scale farmers because they will start using methods (simply) to increase carbon credits.”

They want to see measures that would give small farmers more independent control: control over their seed, control over their land, control over their wages and working conditions.

What Monjane wants from the 17th Conference of the Parties is a fresh commitment from developed countries to reduce emissions. “If there can be a treaty to influence the bloc to commit to reducing emissions. No second Kyoto Protocol without a commitment to reduce emissions by at least 50 percent.”

Muchiri, of the EAFF, does not see the Via Campesina approach as feasible. “One hundred percent organic farming is not 100 percent sustainable. If we want to increase output and meet food demands, we have to embrace different ways of improving our farming methods. Otherwise we will end up importing our food.”

They are optimistic that their calls will be heeded. With influential international organisations backing them, and South Africa’s Agriculture Minister, Tina Joemat-Petterson, among the high profile spokespersons pushing their agenda, they hope to make a mark in the conference’s final declaration.

Monjane is somewhat more pessimistic. “We do not believe in the COP. For twenty years leaders have been meeting but nothing has changed. COP is a place where government and corporate meet to use public funds and do business. Why must we believe in it?”

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

DURBAN, Dec 6 – (TerraViva) A just-published study of trends in temperature, rainfall, droughts and flooding in the Sahel region of West Africa over the past 40 years provides further evidence of the threat posed by climate.

New evidence of a changing climate in the Sahel – a semi-arid savannah that stretches across West Africa from Senegal in the west to Chad in the east – has major implications for food security and regional stability.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, the Sahel suffered devastating droughts and famine that killed thousands people and forced hundreds of thousands to migrate elsewhere,” says researcher Jakob Rhyner from the United Nations University.

The report, titled “Livelihood Security: Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in the Sahel”, was released at the U.N. climate conference in Durban, and adds to the pressure to reach a new international agreement to limit global warming as well as adapt to the changes that it is already too late to prevent.

The research is a joint effort by the U.N. Environment Programme, the U.N. office of the Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs, U.N. University, the International Organization for Migration, and the permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel, with technical input from the University of Salzburg’s Centre for Geoinformatics.

The study looked at regional trends in temperature, rainfall, droughts and flooding over the past 40 years and their implications for the availability of natural resources, sustainability of livelihoods, and increased migration and conflicts in 17 West African countries

The trends show significant changes in climatic conditions between 1970 and 2006, including an overall rise in temperature of approximately one degree, with the far eastern parts of Chad and the northern parts of Mali and Mauritania warming by between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The report identified 19 “climate hotspots” where changes have been the most severe, including sites far inland in Niger and Chad and coastal regions of Togo and Benin.

Dwindling resources make tasks like finding firewood a challenge. Credit: Ann Holmes/IPS

The report’s authors say the consequences can be seen in the loss of livestock and crops due to drought leading to not only higher food prices, but migration of farmers to find new opportunities. The changes have also increased conflict linked to competition for water and land among fishermen and farmers.

In their recommendations, the researchers said it would be important to follow-up by monitoring livelihoods throughout the region: keeping a close watch on changes in the availability of resources and any linked migration and conflict. Systematic data collection and early warning mechanisms will also be important.

Researchers urge investing in renewable energy sources to create jobs and income for farmers and herders, such as building and maintaining solar installations.

They called for support for smallholder farmers, including tips for farming in the new conditions and assistance to expand production of valuable organic cash crops for export. It may also be essential to introduce new crops that can withstand harsh climates.

Speaking to TerraViva separately, Nick Nuttal, from the United Nations Environment Programme, agreed. “Across the world, it is important that the right kind of crops are planted.”

Alongside support for agriculture, the researchers urge investing in renewable energy sources to create jobs and income for farmers and herders, building and maintaining solar installations for instance, to supplement their income.

They also warned that programmes must take care not to reinforce existing gender or ethnic inequalities, but should involve local participation and perspectives to reach the most vulnerable.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

DURBAN, Dec 7 – (TerraViva) At several sites across Southern Africa, school children are learning the principles of permaculture, a set of agricultural techniques which avoids disturbing the soil, instead keeping it covered with mulch to preserve water and fertility. TerraViva encountered a group of these children who were lucky enough to visit the U.N. climate conference along with two of their trainers.

Kerry Anne Smith and Mugrove Walter Nyika, who work for an NGO called Seeding Schools, brought ten primary school learners involved in the Regional Schools and Colleges Permaculture (Rescope) Programme in Malawi and Zambia to the 17th Conference of Parties to meet other people from like-minded organisations and broaden their exposure to environmental issues.

Q: What is the Rescope programme?
A: We are a project working in the area of permaculture. We work with communities and particularly with schools with the idea of using the school as a venue and a centrre to educate the broader and surrounding communities about the importance of permaculture. In rural areas, the school is often a multi-purpose venue for community meetings and church gatherings.

Q: What is permaculture?
A: It is an agicultural practice and a design system for creating sustainable human environments. It is a framework that farmers and communities can use which mimics the natural rhythms of nature and allows the natural processes to play their roles in the farming process.

In our project, we use a wide range of environmentally-friendly techniques such as ago-forestry and intercropping to build good agro-ecological land use systems that are in harmony with nature.

Q: How do farmers practically apply permaculture?
A: Permaculture farmers dont dig at all but prepare the land with deep sheet-mulch spread onto soil soon after the last harvest. The mulch includes crop residues, leaves, grass, termite mound dirt, compost and manure. Before the rain is expected, they make small holes in the mulch where they plant and cover the seeds.

So it is less expensive and also less work. Dry planting also gives seeds the longesst possible growing season, while a deep mulch keeps light away from weed roots so fewer weeds grow.

Q: Can you give an example of a success of your programme?
A: There have been many. There is primary school in Malawi which we transformed from a grey mud and cement structure into a beautiful green garden within a year. Complete with with trees and plants, thanks to the implementation of permaculture.

Q: How are the schoolkids involved?
A: Permaculture becomes part of their currriculum and subject areas at school – straddling geography, science and life skills – which has real practical value.

They help plant vegetable and fruit gardens. And they in turn educate their parents about using the permaculture method. It makes learning very real.

Q: You brought along a group of young people – what is the purpose of exposing them to the climate conference?
A: The children come from our different projects at schools in Malawi and Zambia. We saved up with the help of some kind individuals and organisations to make this trip.

We think it is important for them to experience this conference and learn more about environmental isuues. The trip affords them to chance to to be part of so many interesting things going on COP 17.

Q: What is the most important thing you think they will take away from the conference?
A: That we are not alone. That there are people who think like us. We met many people here who are just as passionate about permaculture.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Kofi Annan says lack of funds must not hold back the fight against climate change. Credit: Zuki Zimela/IPS

By Busani Bafana

Durban, Dec. 7 — The global financial crunch is not a reason to avoid climate-friendly investments that will help Africa’s agriculture grow says former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

“Global leaders are struggling with continuing financial turmoil, rising unemployment and increasing social tension,” Annan said at a panel discussion on climate-smart agriculture on the sidelines of COP 17 in Durban, South Africa.

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) involves conservation agriculture: this would include crop rotation, agro forestry, better weather forecasting and integrated crop-livestock management. CSA is aimed at environmentally friendly increases in food production, thereby reducing carbon emissions from agriculture. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated emissions from farming to be at 14% of the world total in 2007.
Annan says world leaders cannot ignore the crises faced by food production through climate change.

The former UN chief wants the developed world to own up the $100 billion they pledged in Copenhagen for the Green Climate Fund by 2020.

“The financial crisis has shown the gravity of waiting for disaster to strike before taking action.”

According to the Action on Climate Smart Agriculture policy brief, compiled by the African Union and South Africa’s Ministry of Agriculture, food security, poverty and climate change should be seen as one entity in the fight against climate change.

South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, says transformation of African agriculture is key through Climate Smart Agriculture.

Joemat-Petterson, however, wants the equivalent of a political revolution to deal with climate change.

“We need alternative ideas to overthrow what is holding the continent and the globe at ransom,” said Joemat-Pettersson. “We must end this dictatorship of climate change. We want to make sure that we all have an action plan for CSA. We have done the talking and now is the time for us to pick up our axe, to pick up our spade and roll up our sleeves and do the work.”

The World Bank, which is working with African Union to reach target set in Maputo in 2003 of 10 percent of national budgets spent on agriculture, agreed that climate-smart farming needs greater attention to transform African agriculture.

Finally, adding to the climate-smart agriculture discussions, the Africa Union Commission Chairperson, Jean Ping, wants water management high on Africa’s climate change agenda.

“Let us not neglect water, water is an important resource … we can eradicate famine with the management of water.”
(Ends)

Camino en la selva amazónica de Acre para transportar árboles caídos. Crédito: Mario Osava/IPS

Por Fabiana Frayssinet

RÍO DE JANEIRO, 7 dic (IPS) El Senado de Brasil aprobó un nuevo Código Forestal en medio de críticas ecologistas y elogios de sectores vinculados a la gran agricultura. El proyecto debe volver a la cámara baja y ser sancionado por la presidenta Dilma Rousseff para convertirse en ley.

Para los ambientalistas, el texto constituye un estímulo a la tala de la Amazonia, mientras el poderoso sector agropecuario ve en él un avance para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria de este país de 192 millones de habitantes.

La reforma, aprobada el martes 6 por 59 votos a favor y siete en contra, reglamenta la preservación de los bosques en relación a las actividades económicas que utilizan el suelo y los recursos naturales.

Se modifica así el Código Forestal vigente desde 1965, convirtiéndolo no en una “ley ambiental, sino en una ley más de uso agropecuario del suelo”, lamentó en un comunicado la organización Greenpeace.

El texto “tiene tres problemas: estimula la deforestación, amnistía delitos del pasado y disminuye la protección de las selvas todavía en pie”, resumió para IPS el coordinador de la campaña de Amazonia de Greenpeace Brasil, Márcio Astrini.

El punto más polémico es el que amnistía a los propietarios que hayan deforestado las  áreas de preservación permanente (APP) hasta 2008, si bien para evitar las multas el responsable tendrá que recuperar parte de lo talado y registrar su propiedad para futuras fiscalizaciones. En Brasil hay unos cinco millones de propiedades rurales.

Según al actual Código Forestal, las APP son aquellas que, “cubiertas o no por vegetación nativa, (tienen la) función de preservar los recursos hídricos, el paisaje, la estabilidad geológica, la biodiversidad, el flujo genético de fauna y flora, proteger el suelo y asegurar el bienestar de las poblaciones humanas”. Por ejemplo, las márgenes y nacientes de ríos y las cumbres y laderas de cerros.

De acuerdo con el Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza (WWF) la superficie de las APP sujetas a indulto suma 79 millones de hectáreas, equivalentes a los territorios combinados de Alemania, Austria e Italia.

“Será una tragedia para Brasil y para el mundo si ahora el país da la espalda a más de una década de conquista y vuelve al tiempo de las tinieblas de la deforestación catastrófica”, advirtió WWF en un comunicado.

El nuevo texto mantiene porcentajes de protección de la reserva legal, una zona “ubicada dentro de una propiedad o posesión rural, con excepción de la APP, necesaria para el uso sustentable de los recursos naturales”, según el código vigente.

En la Amazonia legal –delimitación política que incluye los estados parcial o totalmente cubiertos por ese bioma– la proporción de reserva legal en los predios agrarios en zonas selváticas es de 80 por ciento.

Si la propiedad se encuentra en zonas de sabana tropical de la Amazonia legal, la reserva es de 35 por ciento, y de 20 por ciento en el resto del país.

El proyecto, que debe volver a la cámara baja y después ser sancionado por Rousseff, exime de la reforestación a todos los predios de entre 20 y 400 hectáreas, según la región.

Si la propiedad se encuentra en estados amazónicos con más de 65 por ciento de su territorio ocupado por tierras indígenas o por unidades de conservación –parques naturales, áreas protegidas, etcétera– la superficie que debe preservar el productor disminuye de 80 a 50 por ciento.

“La legislación ambiental de Brasil era considerada como una de las más avanzadas. Esta alteración del Código Forestal destruye totalmente esta noción”, dijo a IPS la abogada ambientalista Rachel Biderman, consultora senior en Brasil del World Resources Institute.

“Este momento en que Brasil vive un gran crecimiento económico es acompañado por la banalización y debilitamiento de la legislación ambiental”, añadió.

El gobierno, que intentó mejorar algunos puntos aprobados previamente en la cámara baja, considera que el proyecto no es ideal pero es “el mejor posible”.

El senador Jorge Viana, del gobernante Partido de los Trabajadores y relator del proyecto, estimó que se cumple la misión de dar tranquilidad a los brasileños que necesitan tanto de alimento como de preservación ambiental.

“No conozco actividad como la agrícola que necesite más del ambiente para crear y producir. Así que no tiene sentido este enfrentamiento entre ruralistas y ambientalistas”, opinó.

Las autoridades creen que con controles más estrictos, ya en marcha, se conseguirán restaurar 24 millones de hectáreas deforestadas en reservas legales o APP.

Adriana Ramos, secretaria ejecutiva adjunta del Instituto Socioambiental, sostuvo que la ley “permite actividades agropecuarias en áreas críticas que en cambio tendrían que ser recuperadas”. Se trata de  un “mal proyecto” que “refuerza la cultura de la impunidad”, dijo a IPS.

Brasil es uno de los principales productores de alimentos, y es el primer exportador mundial de carne vacuna, café y jugo de naranjas. También es un gran productor de soja y maíz.

Para los representantes del agronegocio, como la senadora Katia Abreu del Partido Social Democrático, empresaria ganadera y presidenta de la Confederación Nacional de Agricultura y Pecuaria, se “pone fin a años de dictadura ambiental”.

El lunes 5, el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Espaciales (INPE) reveló que la deforestación amazónica sigue cayendo. La registrada entre agosto de 2010  y julio de 2011 fue de 6.238 kilómetros cuadrados, 11 por ciento menor a la del período 2009-2010.

Es, además, la menor tala registrada desde que el INPE inició estos controles satelitales, en 1988. Por entonces, la deforestación era de 29.000 kilómetros cuadrados por año.

Por eso Abreu insistió en que es posible compatibilizar la producción de alimentos con la preservación de la selva.

Pero esto no convence a los ambientalistas.

“Brasil pierde la oportunidad” de construir “un código de desarrollo sostenible” basado en prácticas modernas “como el pago por servicios ambientales y promoción de sistemas agroforestales sostenibles, con apoyo y desarrollo de comunidades locales”, opinó Biderman.

Astrini apuntó que el país podría incumplir tratados ambientales internacionales y socavar los esfuerzos para frenar el cambio climático.

Las organizaciones que integran el Comité de la Floresta se movilizarán para exigir un veto de la presidenta Rousseff. “Le cobraremos el compromiso que hizo por escrito de que no aceptaría un texto que tuviese amnistía y promoviera más deforestación”, recordó Astrini.

Este país adoptó la meta de reducir sus emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero entre 36 y 39 por ciento para 2020, dependiendo del crecimiento del producto interno bruto, para lo cual necesita disminuir en 80 por ciento la deforestación amazónica respecto del período 1996-2005.

Brasil es el sexto mayor emisor de gases invernadero en el mundo. Y la principal fuente es la pérdida de su selva tropical, causada en gran medida por la expansión agropecuaria. (FIN)

Dorah Marema, coordinator of Gender and Climate Change in Southern Africa. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

And those in rural areas, who depend on agriculture for survival, will be even worse off.

Dorah Marema, coordinator of Gender and Climate Change in Southern Africa, a network of gender civil society organisations, activists, and experts spoke to IPS about the importance of highlighting gender at the climate negations at the 17^th Conference of Parties (COP17) in Durban.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Q: Do you find that enough attention is being paid to gender issues at this year’s climate change negotiations?

A: Well there has definitely been a shift when we consider how gender issues have been considered in the previous COP’s. At this COP there is a lot of motioning of gender issues, there are over thirty side events focusing on women and climate change. Whether this indicates a substantive positive change we don’t know, so we are unable to evaluate whether they are making an impact.

Q: You advocate for climate justice as gender justice. Can you explain why you want to separate gender from the mainstream conversation and place it as a top priority on the climate change agenda?

A: When we talk about climate change and the issue of justice we talk about the global South being impacted the most. We then zoom in and say that Africa will be the worst affected in the South, simply because it is a poor continent.

…Although climate change will affect all countries, its impacts will be differently distributed among various regions, generations, age and income groups, occupations and genders. The poor, the majority of whom are women, will be disproportionately affected.

Over the past decade, the relationship between climate change and poverty in countries where people’s livelihoods depend on natural resources and environmental services has increasingly become a developmental issue.

This relationship between climate change and people’s livelihoods is seen to have strong linkages to poverty. To this nexus is an added strong gender component, which if ignored could lead to inappropriate policy measures and increased poverty, especially amongst the disadvantaged, poor population.

We say that women are poor in those nations and we say that women are the majority of the poor and we know that they are very reliant on natural resources.

They are also the food producers who are very reliant on agriculture. Those two things, including water (scarcity), mean that they are vulnerable because they are dependent on rain, and they are dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

Q: What sort of recourse are you looking for for women and how do you think they can be better empowered to adapt to climate change?

A: One example that I can give is that now there is the conversation around finance, the Green Climate Fund. What we are asking for is direct access to the funds.

(We want access) not just for countries, but also for organisations with projects that work with empowering women. They need that money so that they can implement adaptation and mitigation projects.

Also in terms of mitigation we need to consider the gender issues there. There are a lot of high-tech mitigation projects, which are not talking about empowering women.

So what we are doing is advocating for jobs that are decentralised so that women would be able to benefit by getting jobs. (END)

DURBAN, Dec 7 – (TerraViva) Agriculture is the sector worst affected by climate change and various farmers’ groups are here at the global climate conference in Durban, to make sure that their issues are not left out.

Limpopo farmer Mack Sekete marches for food sovereignty. Credit: Henrietta Mongala/TerraViva

On Dec. 5, hundreds of people took part in a march organised by La Via Campesina, which represents farmers and landless people all over the world. Nqobiziwe Siphiwe Mabaso from South Africa’s Landless People’s Movement, said they helped to organise the march to put pressure on world leaders.

Braam Fischer Road came to a standstill as hundreds of demonstrators, under heavy police guard, marched from Durban’s Botha Park to City Hall, not far from the COP 17 venue at the International Convention Centre, to hand over a memorandum demanding food sovereignty, meaning enough quality food for all as well as the freedom for producers and consumers to make decisions about how to get this food, rather than corporations. The marchers also demanded changes to secure land ownership for the poor, especially women, and decent wages and working conditions for farm workers.

Via Campesina is arguing for these changes as part of a shift to agro-ecology, a more sustainable model of farming to replace agribusiness-dominated, chemical-intensive agriculture that is dominant today.

Mack Sekete is a farmer from Mathlomoleng, a village in Mopane District, of the northern South African province of Limpopo Province; he and other members of the Mopane Farmers Union say that as small scale farmers, climate change impacts directly on them and affects their income.

He is in Durban at the 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) together with members of a group called Itireleng, meaning “Do it yourself” and he explains his demands in simpler terms.

“We do not want genetically-modfied seeds, we do not even want fertiliser any more, because it is killing us,” Sekete said. “We want organic farming.”

While Via Campesina and its allies took to the streets, the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions, a regional grouping of farmers, chose the corridors inside the ICC to lobby for agriculture. SACAU is pressing for the Green Climate Fund to be established, and to include mitigation finance for farmers. The idea is that farmers would be paid to use techniques that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and instead absorb carbon into plants and the soil.

People passing SACAU’s stall are invited to show their support by playing a game, throwing a ball through holes in a makeshift wall that correspond to the various demands.

Many passersby were happy to win a prize. We are yet to see if agriculture will win an instant prize at COP 17.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Cartel del IPCC en Durban. Crédito: IPS Africa

Por Kristin Palitza

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 6 dic (IPS)  Suecia, Gran Bretaña y Alemania ocupan los primeros lugares en el Índice de Protección Climática 2012, cuyos resultados fueron publicados este martes en la conferencia de las Naciones Unidas que se realiza en esta oriental ciudad sudafricana.

Con todo, los tres primeros lugares de la clasificación quedaron vacíos porque ningún país hace lo suficiente para contener el cambio climático, de acuerdo a los criterios del Índice.

De acuerdo a criterios estandarizados, el Índice evalúa y compara la conducta de protección climática de 58 países que, juntos, son responsables de más de 90 por ciento de las emisiones mundiales de dióxido de carbono (CO2) vinculadas a la producción y consumo de energía.

Suecia, con baja cantidad de emisiones de CO2, 50.600 toneladas por año y una tendencia positiva de reducción, según los últimos datos de la Administración de Información de Energía de Estados Unidos (EIA), ocupa el cuarto lugar.

El Índice es realizado todos los años por las organizaciones Germanwatch y la Red de Acción Climática (CAN por sus siglas en inglés).

“Los resultados de este año muestran que, pese a que las emisiones globales siguen aumentando, ninguno de los grandes contaminantes hizo los verdaderos cambios que se necesitan”, indicó el director de CAN Europa, Wendel Trio. “Ninguno hizo lo suficiente”, añadió.

La política climática de Suecia no fue lo bastante ambiciosa y se quedó corta en cuanto al objetivo de que la temperatura media mundial no aumente más de dos grados centígrados, un umbral que podría dar paso a un cambio climático desastroso.

En tanto Gran Bretaña, en quinto lugar, no logró ajustar los topes de las emisiones de carbono. Mientras, los gases liberados por Alemania siguieron muy altos como para ubicarla mejor que el sexto lugar.

“La calificación promedio de las políticas nacionales e internacionales es baja”, señaló el investigador Jan Burck, de Germanwatch, uno de los autores del estudio.

“La mayoría de los especialistas no están ni de cerca satisfechos con los esfuerzos de sus gobiernos para no sobrepasar el límite de dos grados”, agregó.

Países como Turquía, en el lugar 58, Polonia, 56, y Croacia, 53, están en las peores posiciones debido a la evaluación de sus políticas climáticas.

Mientras ejerció la presidencia del Consejo de la Unión Europea, Polonia bloqueó la propuesta de reducir en 30 por ciento las emisiones contaminantes del bloque hasta 2020.

La tendencia de las emisiones y la desfavorable evaluación de sus políticas hicieron que Holanda (42) perdiera 12 lugares.

“Es de especial preocupación que no cese la tendencia global de quemar carbón” y petróleo de las arenas alquitranadas, alertó Burck. “Es la principal razón de que aumenten las emisiones respecto del producto interno bruto en muchos países”, añadió.

Suiza quedó en el noveno lugar, detrás de Brasil y Francia. El país sudamericano solía ser un ejemplo a seguir, pero perdió su posición por el aumento de sus emisiones de gases invernadero, incluso las liberadas por la deforestación.

Estados Unidos subió dos lugares y se ubica en el 52 debido a la disminución de emisiones, consecuencia de la crisis económica y financiera. Pero sigue en lo más bajo de la clasificación por la mala evaluación de sus políticas y la enorme cantidad de gases que arroja a la atmósfera.

India, una de las economías emergentes, bajó 13 lugares por su peor rendimiento, en especial en la tendencia de las emisiones.

“El Índice ofrece datos duros y tendencias en el contexto de unas negociaciones climáticas que suelen permanecer difusas. Esperamos que los países lo utilicen como motivación para elevar sus ambiciones en la lucha contra el cambio climático”, indicó Trio.

El desempeño de China está lleno de contradicciones, según los autores del estudio. Es el mayor emisor de dióxido de carbono, con 7,7 millones de toneladas al año, según la estadounidense EIA, y registra un drástico aumento de gases liberados a la atmósfera, pero su política nacional para reducirlos se intensifica con rapidez.

“China está construyendo la mitad de la capacidad mundial instalada de energías renovables al año”, indicó Burck, quien prevé que su ubicación en el Índice “mejore drásticamente” en cuanto esto empiece a reflejarse en la tendencia de las emisiones.

El gigante asiático, México, Corea del Sur y Sudáfrica tienen las evaluaciones más favorables en materia de políticas para contener el fenómeno climático.

Sudáfrica muestra un mejor desempeño año a año, pero está en el lugar 38 porque sus emisiones son todavía relativamente altas y mantiene su dependencia del carbón.

Australia tomó medidas alentadoras y trepó 10 lugares. Los especialistas reconocieron el nuevo impuesto al carbono como una iniciativa muy positiva. Pero sus emisiones muy altas hacen que permanezca entre los más contaminantes, en el puesto 48.

Pese a su mala ubicación, “Australia presenta una tendencia muy positiva”, señaló Trio. “Se unió al Protocolo de Kyoto solo en 2007, pero ahora adoptó nuevas e importantes políticas para reducir sus emisiones de dióxido de carbono”, añadió.

El tratado, firmado en 1997 y en vigor desde 2005, obliga a los países industriales que lo ratificaron a reducir sus emisiones para 2012 a volúmenes 5,2 por ciento inferiores a los de 1990.

La 17 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas contra el Cambio Climático está reunida en Durban desde el 28 de noviembre hasta este viernes 9 para discutir nuevos compromisos de reducción de gases contaminantes.

Los países peor ubicados en la tabla son Kazajstán, Arabia Saudita y Estonia. (FIN)

La falta de acceso al agua requiere una solución urgente en África austral. Crédito: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

Por Joshua Kyalimpa

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 6 dic (IPS) Cobran impulso los esfuerzos para que el agua se incluya como capítulo con peso propio en las negociaciones internacionales sobre el cambio climático que se desarrollan hasta este viernes 9 en Durban, Sudáfrica.

Según expertos en temas hídricos, se lograría así más énfasis en el desarrollo de políticas y en la atracción de recursos hacia este sector mediante programas de adaptación.

“Lo primero que cada uno de nosotros usa al levantarse es agua, y también cuando se va a la cama. De todos modos la damos por sentada”, dijo Chris Moseki, gerente de investigaciones en la sudafricana Comisión de Investigación del Agua, que integra la Asociación Mundial para el Agua.

La falta de agua es un problema grave en África austral, donde afecta a casi 100 millones de personas. La región se volverá más caliente y más seca en los próximos 50 y 100 años, lo que pondrá en riesgo el suministro hídrico de establecimientos agrícolas, industrias y hogares, además de amenazar los ecosistemas, indican modelos trazados por el sudafricano Consejo de Investigación Científica e Industrial.

A expertos y políticos les preocupa que la planificación sobre cambios en la disponibilidad de agua no esté recibiendo el destaque que merece.

El secretario ejecutivo del Consejo de Ministros Africanos sobre el Agua, Bai-Mass Taal, dijo que el grupo está trabajando para elevar el perfil de los temas hídricos en la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, cuya 17 Conferencia de las Partes (COP 17) tiene lugar en Durban.

“Les decimos a las partes: apreciamos lo que están haciendo en otros sectores, pero sin abordar los temas hídricos directamente todo eso habrá sido en vano”, dijo Taal.

De momento, los asuntos relativos al agua se discuten como parte de la planificación, adopción de prioridades e implementación de la adaptación a un clima cambiante.

Mientras se espera que cada vez más países padezcan escasez hídrica, la actual posición del agua en las conversaciones climáticas es inadecuada, dijo la secretaria ejecutiva de la Asociación Mundial para el Agua, Ania Grobicki.

“El producto interno bruto (PIB) de muchos países menos adelantados depende del agua. Más de 50 por ciento de los alimentos del mundo procederán de África en el futuro, y esto depende de la disponibilidad de agua”, señaló.

“Es por eso que este debate debería ir más allá”, agregó.

Más de 70 por ciento de la población de la Comunidad para el Desarrollo de África Austral depende directamente de la agricultura, principalmente de la que se obtiene solo con agua de lluvia.

Las proyecciones del Consejo de Investigación Científica e Industrial están entre las muchas que llaman la atención sobre el efecto que tendrán sobre la población africana los cambios pronosticados en los patrones de lluvias, los limitados recursos destinados a la adaptación y la falta de instituciones para regular el aprovechamiento de los ríos.

Desafíos similares se pronostican para el resto del mundo, pero la falta de riego y de infraestructura general en África es un factor que multiplica la necesidad de una intervención urgente.

La respuesta de África

Al cambiar los patrones de las precipitaciones, África enfrenta crisis importantes. En 2010, millones fueron víctimas de la hambruna en Níger y Mali a raíz de una sequía que afectó a los productores agropecuarios.

Este año, el Cuerno de África padece su peor sequía en 50 años, y millones sufren hambre por ese motivo.

Según el Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA) de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, unos 12,3 millones de personas necesitan asistencia de emergencia en esa zona.

La comisionada de la Unión Africana para la Economía Rural y la Agricultura, Rhoda Peace, señaló que cuando los líderes del continente hablan sobre el cambio climático invariablemente se refieren a sequías e inundaciones, lo que muestra que el agua ya es una prioridad.

En 2008, los jefes de Estado africanos resolvieron colocar el agua y el saneamiento como prioridad continental.

“Los gobernantes acordaron asignar por lo menos 0,5 por ciento de su presupuesto nacional al agua”, dijo Peace.

“Que ese sea realmente el caso es otra historia, pero a algunos países les está yendo muy bien y pueden lograr sus objetivos”, agregó.

Brindar un acceso adecuado al agua en toda África costará miles de millones de dólares. Y para los muchos gobiernos africanos que no honran compromisos previos, no será posible recaudar las sumas necesarias sin apoyo.

El coordinador para África oriental de la Asociación Mundial para el Agua, Simon Thuo, dijo estar sorprendido de que incluso las propuestas del grupo de negociadores africanos mencionen el agua solo superficialmente.

Como otros expertos, Thuo cree que aun si las negociaciones climáticas abordan de manera específica la administración de este elemento esencial, no recibirá la atención ni el financiamiento necesarios.

Women from the Eastern Cape at the Rural Women's Assembly. Credit: Khanyisa Sinqe/TerraViva

The women – including farm workers, farm owners, and farm dwellers from inside South Africa, and as far away as Zimbabwe and Malawi, Kenya and Senegal – were not accredited participants in the air-conditioned venue in the city centre.

Their discussions, with thoughtful analysis of issues from a truly grassroots perspective enlivened by singing and seed exchanges, took place in a marquee tent at the People’s Space, the alternative conference held at the University of Kwazulu-Natal.

Rural women are the most affected by global warming, they say. They have seen weather patterns change, causing boreholes to dry up and harvests to weaken.

Phelokazi Dlikilili, from Dimbaza in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, says that as a woman depending on natural resources, her life has been changed by a changing climate.

She and her sisters can no longer rely on the gardens they cultivate for food to eat and sell because of strange weather. “Since I was born, I have never experienced snow in the Eastern Cape, particularly in my village. But this year, Dimbaza was covered by snow. That was foreign to us.”

‘They are putting money before people’s lives. It’s not fair.’ – Constance Mogale, Landless People’s Movement

Aminata Seck, who led a group of women farmers from Senegal, said women in the West African country had been trying for a decade to persuade their government to buy into their ideas to protect small farmers from the changes.

“In 2001, we as rural Senegal women organised ourselves and came up with an initiative to build shelters where we plant organic food. We have also built dams, that will store water when it rains,” she said.

The women took an active role in the civil society march through on the Dec. 3 Global Day of Action. Addressing the crowd outside the International Convention Centre, Constance Mogale, chairperson of Landless Movement of South Africa, blamed the United States for holding up progress on a global climate pact. “The U.S is dragging its feet on this matter while people are dying. They are putting money before people’s lives. It’s not fair.”

The Rural Women’s Assembly drafted a set of five demands to the official conference, demanding that women’s role in fighting climate change be recognised, with a radical programme to grant women access to and control over half of the world’s land. They pointed out that women produce 80 percent of food eaten in Africa, and called insisted that any financial support for climate change adaptation to reflect this.

The women rejected “false climate solutions” such as carbon markets, genetically-modified organisms and biofuels, instead demanding that indigenous knowledge be at the centre of policies to promote biodiversity and repair ecosystems and livelihoods. They blamed the existing global economic system for unsustainable use of the earth, and called for trade sanctions against the countries historically responsible for most of the pollution if they refuse to cut emissions.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Nalifu Yussif sostiene cestas bolga en la COP 17, que se realiza en Durban, Sudáfrica, del 29 de noviembre al 9 de diciembre. Crédito: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS.

Por Isaiah Esipisu

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 5 dic (IPS) Talata Nsor, originaria de la norteña comunidad ghanesa de Bolgatanga, lleva buena parte de sus 54 años de vida tejiendo las cestas típicas de la zona. Pero en los últimos tiempos se le hace muy difícil conseguir la materia prima.

La actividad fue redituable para Nsor en el pasado, pues le permitió incluso pagar la escuela de sus hijos. Sin embargo, ahora cada vez se puedan producir menos cestas bolga, famosas en África occidental y vendidas en mercados de Europa y América, porque el material usado, conocido como hierba de elefante, se extingue, debido al cambio de las condiciones climáticas.

“Hace 10 años caminaba hasta cualquier pantano cercano, en el norte de Ghana, y cortaba la hierba sin costo alguno. En cambio, ahora tengo que ir muy lejos o, incluso, llegar hasta Kumasi, a unos400 kilómetros, para comprarla”, explicó.

La hierba de elefante solo crece en pantanos, que ahora la población de la zona los utiliza para cultivar y paliar la inseguridad alimentaria ante la falta de lluvias.

“La gente prefiere convertir los pantanos en granjas hortícolas frente al fracaso de la agricultura dependiente de la lluvia”, indicó Nafisatu Yussif, oficial de programa de Abantu, organización que promueve políticas con perspectiva de género en África.

“Las precipitaciones ya no son confiables y la gente necesita cultivar en zonas donde la irrigación esté asegurada”, apuntó.

Nafisatu Yussif es una de las muchas representantes de comunidades rurales de todo el mundo que lograron llegar hasta esta ciudad sudafricana para alzar su voz en la  17 Conferencia de las Partes (COP) dela Convención Marcode las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, de dos semanas que terminará este viernes 9.

“Recibimos a diferentes mujeres de distintos ámbitos”, señaló Samantha Hargreaves, de ActionAid Internacional (http://www.actionaid.org/?intl=), una de las organizadoras de la Asamblea de Mujeres Rurales, que se realiza en forma paralela a la COP 17 (http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/), que comenzó el 29 de noviembre.

“Más de 500 mujeres en este foro comparten experiencias de diferentes países sobre cómo seguir adelante y mostrar las mejores prácticas. El resultado de la asamblea se presentará al Grupo Africano de Negociadores como posición común de las representantes de los países más pobres”, indicó Hargreaves.

Según las participantes de la asamblea, las mujeres de países pobres afrontan dificultades similares.

“En mi país, las mujeres trabajan duro en la huerta, pero a la hora de cosechar, los hombres asumen la responsabilidad de recaudar el dinero. Me acabo de enterar de que lo mismo ocurre en África y otros países asiáticos”, indicó María Estela Jocón González, quien representa a las campesinas de tres regiones de Guatemala propensas a inundaciones, fenómeno que se agravó en los últimos tiempos.

“Cuando hay inundaciones, los pozos se llenan de agua sucia. Según nuestra cultura, es responsabilidad de la mujer garantizar la suficiente cantidad de líquido para beber y otros usos domésticos”, dijo a IPS.

González pide a la comunidad internacional, reunida en Durban, que asegure la implementación de sistemas para contener las crecientes inundaciones.

“Quiero escuchar que los países se comprometen a reducir las emisiones de gases contaminantes que causan el calentamiento global. Es bueno pensar en el desarrollo, pero no tiene sentido sin un ambiente sano”, observó.

Mientras hay inundaciones en Guatemala, faltan lluvias en el sur de Senegal.

Faty Khody, de la comunidad rural senegalesa de Kaulak, dijo a IPS que las lluvias en esa zona disminuyeron de900 milímetros, en2001, aentre 300 y400 milímetros, en la actualidad.

“Solíamos cultivar verduras que vendíamos en el mercado local. Pero ya no es posible, a menos que tengamos irrigación”, indicó Khody, oficial de promociones de Interpench, una organización que reúne a más de 7.700 campesinas senegalesas.

“El patrón de lluvias cambió, las sequías son más pronunciadas y, cuando llueve, hay inundaciones, que causan sufrimiento en la población rural, en especial mujeres, niños y niñas, añadió.”

Con apoyo de la organización no gubernamental Horizon 3000, Interpench lanzó un proyecto llamado “Una mujer, un árbol frutal”, como forma de adaptación al cambio climático.

“Decimos un árbol porque es el primer paso. Se entrega el almácigo de forma gratuita para plantar el primero y se le da el nombre del que lo haga, como recordatorio. Pero la idea es motivar a las mujeres a participar, no solo en la plantación de un árbol, sino en que este sea frutal”, explicó Khody.

“Esperamos que los debates enla COP17 concluyan con ideas que apoyen iniciativas femeninas de adaptación al cambio climático”, remarcó Hargreaves.

Pero para que esos proyectos tengan éxito, deben erigirse sobre los sistemas de conocimiento indígenas, insistió.

“El Grupo Africano de Negociadores no debe sucumbir ante la presión de los países ricos enla COP17”, remarcó.

“La mayoría de las negociaciones se realizan en salas de reuniones sin involucrar a la gente de a pie”, coincidió Elizabeth Kakukuru, oficial de programa de la Unidadde Género de la Comunidadde Desarrollo de África Austral (http://www.sadc.int/).

“Pero las recomendaciones elaboradas deben ser implementadas por campesinas. Llegó la hora de que las partes afectadas participen de forma directa en estas importantes negociaciones”, indicó.

En lo que respecta a la transferencia de tecnología para adaptarse al cambio climático, Kakukuru observó que todos los proyectos deben ser apropiados y desarrollados en consulta con las comunidades indígenas. (FIN)

By Busani Bafana

Durban, 5 Dec. — Negotiators at the 17th Conference of Parties owe it to the world’s more than seven billion people to deliver a deal with a work plan for agriculture, a sector that is expected to be the worst affected by climate change.

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, CEO of Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Advocacy Network told participants at the Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARRD) event on the sidelines of COP 17 that what was need was a work programme for agriculture. She said she hoped that South Africa’s minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat Patterson would take up the cause.

“We believe she will send the message to the right messenger to make sure we deliver a deal that will talk to farmers, the private sector and everybody who needs food to survive,” Sibanda said.

On behalf of a grouping of agriculture and advocacy organisations, Sibanda presented an open letter to Patterson calling for the inclusion of agriculture as an adaptation approach in the text to be agreed on by climate change negotiators. The groups have warned that COP 17 should be the show time for agriculture, which has been repeatedly taken off the agenda in two previous climate change negotiations.

“The turnout for COP 17 has been overwhelming and we believe we are on the right track,” said Sibanda. “This is a sign of commitment and sign of more ambassadors for our message that we are presenting to the minister to take to the boys and girls upstairs.”

Cash for crops
A work programme for agriculture is a blueprint for action that agriculture groups, farmers and development actors believe will unlock the cash to help agriculture, on which millions of smallholder farmers globally depend for their livelihoods, adapt to climate change.

In a firmly worded letter, the 16 agricultural groups said farmers have demonstrated their resilience to producing food in difficult conditions by experimenting with options for achieving climate-change adaptation and mitigation through more sustainable crop production, livestock rearing and management of soils, water, fish, forests, agro forestry species, and other biodiversity.

“The most vulnerable regions of the world – developing countries – are disproportionately affected by climate change, despite contributing little to carbon emissions,” said the letter. “People in developing countries depend heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods, yet are increasingly challenged in their ability to produce sufficient food for their families and for markets.”

Climate smart agriculture, the letter said, will enable the transformation of agriculture, especially in Africa.

The letter further said that despite agriculture’s potential to provide a solution to climate change, it was underfunded. As a percentage of total investment, agriculture has dropped from 22 percent in 1980 to approximately six percent today.

Fair deal
The groups including the World Bank, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), FANRPAN, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) and the World Farmers’ Organisation, said nothing should be short of a fair deal that includes agriculture.

Accepting the letter, Pettersson said agriculture, climate change and food security were inseparable. She cited the need to scale up and transform food and farming systems which need to be supported by
policy change and investment.

“There are people around the world who have come to Durban with a lot of expectations,” Pettersson said. “We would request that whoever goes to the negotiation and who even has the slightest influence on any negotiations will help us make our ambitions a reality and help us make climate smart agriculture a reality.”

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 925 million people in the world go hungry every day. As the ballooning world population set to hit the 10 billion mark in 40 years will need food, the focus is on climate smart agriculture to deliver even though the sector has the lion’s share of global water use.

Speaking at the same event, Ireland’s former President Mary Robinson, who is presentation her foundation which bears her name, said innovation and progress on practical tools for climate smart agriculture are emerging but knowledge gaps underlie the need for more agriculture research.

“This is the logic behind the call for a work programme on agriculture under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” said Robinson adding that, “This COP must deliver action on the links between climate change and food and nutrition security. I hope that a high-level decision can be agreed which acknowledges the importance of agriculture to Africa and the rest of the world.”

Prior to the ARRD event, the agricultural organisations briefed negotiators on the need for a work programme. During the briefing, questions were raised on what comes first, the text or the work programme.

“We have had meetings on this and we are frustrated by the absence of a work programme,” SACAU CEO, Ishmael Sunga lamented. “We have discussed whether we need to have the content of the work programme before the text or not and we think it does not really matter. The fight for now is to have that defined and we can work on the details later.”

The International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movement (IFOAM) bemoaned that while the discussion of agriculture was important in the climate change negotiations, farmers had to be represented in person.

“How are farmers being involved so that they can actively inform this process?” asked an IFOM representative. “This is like discussing gender issues without having any women in the room that is what it feels like to us and we would really appreciate for a major effort that we are represented physically in this process.”

Senior trade policy advisor in the United States Department of Agriculture, Mark Manis, told the briefing of negotiators organised by the grouping of agricultural organisations that the issue of a work programme had been clearly articulated and agreed on the need to bring farmers into the dialogue through the work programme.

“In terms of the negotiating positions, we are here to get a deal and are willing to talk and will do our best to make that happen,” said Manis. “We can spend a lot of time on what we think should be in the work programme but this has been article and should not be an impediment to initiating the exercise. But if we do not get a decision here there is nothing and frankly that is not acceptable and on the basis of a positive note we are going upstairs to make it happen.”

Bruce Campbell, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security told IPS that momentum is building for the inclusion of a Work Programme on agriculture at the climate negotiations this year. He said this was clear from the more than 500 participants at this year’s Agriculture and Rural Development Day that this is the single priority issue that needs to be addressed.

“Leading agricultural groups, from farmers and researchers to policymakers and development organisations, have all come together to call on COP17 negotiators to address the need for a Work Programme on agriculture,” Campbell said. “Now, it is up to negotiators to heed our joint call-to-action and allow agriculture to play its part in building resilience amongst vulnerable populations, helping farmers adapt to more unpredictable and extreme weather conditions and mitigating future climate change.”

End/

DURBAN, Dec 5 – (TerraViva) “Durban is green! I can see it!” exclaimed Nomasikizi Khonza, Mayor of Amathole Municipality in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province.

Khonza led a delegation of eight from East London to attend the 17th Conference of Parties and the deliberations over a response to climate change.

Tornado damage in Amathole, Eastern Cape. Credit: TerraViva

The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces highly affected by climate change. In recent years there has been poor rainfall as well increasing numbers of extreme weather events such as tornadoes.

Farmers in a province already struggling with poverty must now cope with damage to their homes, reduced harvests and loss of livestock.

In June 2009, Khonza’s Amathole Municipality hosted a provincial conference on climate change, attended by representatives of provincial departments as well as academics, teachers and schoolchildren.

That meeting was a response to the drastic changes in weather patterns in the district. Local authorities in Amathole commissioned a study on vulnerability to climate change, and this year adopted a plan to address these weaknesses – the first municipality in the Eastern Cape to do so.

Amathole District delegation at COP 17. Credit: Phumza Sithole/TerraViva

The plan focuses on sanitation, air pollution, disaster management and infrastructure development to contain the damaging impacts of climate change.

Khanyiso Wonci, who is the municipality’s biodiversity environmental officer, said, “Amathole is participating in COP 17 by exhibiting about both funded and unfunded environmental projects, which contribute (to the response to) climate change.”

The climate conference has also given the municipality a chance network and interact with potential funders, while also getting new ideas from other stakeholders who may face similar challenges.

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

Nalifu Yussif holds a few Bolga baskets at the ongoing COP 17 in Durban, South Africa. Materials for making these hand woven baskets are becoming more difficult to source due to climate change. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 5 (IPS) – Talata Nsor, a 54-year-old woman from Bolgatanga community in Northern Ghana, has been weaving the cultural Bolga baskets, which are named after her community, her entire life.

It has been a successful enterprise for her, and she has even managed to put her children through school with proceeds from her sales.

However, she is concerned that soon her community may no longer be able to continue making the baskets, which are famous in the entire West African region, with a market in Europe and America.

This is because the raw material used to make the baskets, commonly known as elephant grass or Veta vera as it is known scientifically, is becoming extinct due to what Nsor refers to as changing climatic conditions.

“Just 10 years ago, I would walk to any nearby wetland area within Northern Ghana and harvest the grass free of charge. But today, I have to walk very far, or travel to Kumasi, about 400 kilometres away, in order to buy the raw material,” said Nsor.

The elephant grass can only grow in wetlands. But according to experts from the area, people are converting wetlands into agricultural land as a means of coping with the lack of rain and rising food insecurity.

“People prefer turning wetlands into horticultural zones because rain-fed agriculture is failing. Rain patterns are no-longer reliable, and people need to farm in places where they are assured of water for irrigation,” said Nafisatu Yussif, Programme Officer at ABANTU, an organisation that engages policies from a gender perspective in Africa.

She is one of the many women representing their communities from all over the world who have made their way to the ongoing United Nations climate change negotiations in Durban, South Africa, in order to have their voices heard.

“We are hosting different women from different walks of life,” said Samantha Hargreaves of ActionAid International, one of the conveners of the Rural Women’s Assembly running alongside the 17th Conference of Parties.

“More than 500 women in this forum are sharing experiences from different countries, suggesting the way forward, and showcasing their best practices. The outcome of the assembly will be presented to the African Group of Negotiators as a common position of women from the world’s poor countries,” said Hargreaves.

However, according to the assembly’s participants, women from poor countries have predicaments that are almost similar.

“In my country, women toil on the farms, but when it comes to harvesting, the men take the responsibility of collecting the money. I have just learnt that the situation is the same in Africa and other Asian countries,” said María Estela Jocón González, who is representing rural women from three rural regions in Guatemala.

The western, southern and northern regions of Guatemala are areas prone to floods, a situation which has worsened in the recent past, González said.

“When the floods come, the water wells get soaked up with dirty flooding water. Yet according to our culture, it is the sole responsibility of a woman to ensure that the family has enough safe water for drinking and other domestic uses,” she told IPS.

She is calling for the international community meeting in Durban to ensure systems are put in place to keep in check the increasing floods.

“I want to hear of commitments for countries to reduce emissions of gasses that cause global warming. It is good to think about development, but development without a sound environment is useless,” she said.

While there is flooding in Guatemala, southern Senegal is experiencing a lack of rainfall. Faty Khody from Kaulak, a rural community found in the southern part of Senegal, told IPS that rainfall in the area has dropped from an average of 900 millimetres in 2001, to between 300 and 400 millimetres currently.

“We used to grow vegetables and sell them in the local market. But currently, this is not possible unless it is done through irrigation,” said Khody, who works as a promotional officer for Interpench, a community-based organisation that brings together over 7,700 women from rural Senegal.

“The rain patterns have changed, droughts have become extreme, and when it rains, it results in floods, which often cause suffering to the rural people, especially women and children.”

With support from the non-governmental organisation Horizon 3000, Interpench has started a project called “One woman, one fruit tree” as a way of adapting to climate change.

“We say one tree because it is the first step. The seedling for the one tree is given out free of charge, and it is named after whoever plants it as a reminder. However, it is supposed to be a motivation for women to participate largely in not only the planting of trees, but planting fruit-producing trees,” Khody said.

“We are hoping that the deliberations at COP 17 will come up with ideas that will support such women- driven climate change adaptation initiatives,” said Hargreaves.

However, she insists that for such projects to succeed, they must be built on indigenous knowledge systems.

“The African Group of Negotiators must not succumb to the pressure from the developed countries at COP 17,” she said.

Similar views were shares by Elizabeth Kakukuru, the Programme Officer for the Gender Unit at the Southern African Development Community.

“Most negotiations have always been done in boardrooms without involving the person on the ground. Yet the recommendations made are supposed to be implemented by a woman who lives in a rural area. Time has come for the affected parties to be involved directly in such important negotiations,” she said.

With regards to the use of technology transfer for climate change adaptation, Kakukuru observed that all projects must be appropriate, and should be developed in consultation with indigenous communities.

(END/2011)

photos by Khanyisa Sinqe – Zithethele Community Newspaper*

DURBAN, Dec 4 – (TerraViva) “Unite against climate change” was the order of the day on Dec. 3, when Greenpeace successfully coordinated a march through the streets of Durban. Several thousand people took part, including both South African activists and campaigners from around the world who have come to Durban to make their voices heard on the issue of responding to global warming.

“World leaders are discussing the fate of our planet, but they are far from reaching a solution to climate change,” said Desmond D’Sa, a Durban environmental activist and one of the protest’s organisers.”

“Never trust a COP”, “Climate Justice Now” and “Ensure the survival of coming generations” were just some of the messages held aloft by demonstrators.

The march had to overcome an early conflict at its outset in Durban’s Botha Park, when a group of young people dressed in the green tracksuits issued to COP 17 volunteers attempted to take up a position at the head of the procession. They said they represented the African National Congress Youth League and had come to show support for President Zuma who they felt was being unfairly targeted by some of the placards and banners posters displayed by protesters.

Marshals managed to contain briefly violent confrontation between this group and members of the Democratic Left Forum; organisers negotiated an agreement that the Youth League group would march further back, with the steadying presence of members of the Rural Women’s Association between them and the DLF marchers.

The march route led through the city centre, pausing outside the International Convention Centre where the 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) deliberating over global climate treaty is taking place. Here marchers listened to speeches from representatives of youth, organised labour and the environmental movement.

A list of demands was presented to COP 17 president Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres.

Responding to the marchers’ call for greater attention to adaptation and strong support for women who form the backbone of Africa’s food production, Figueres acknowledged the importance of civil society to the process. “These are the voices we hear from the developing countries. We will make sure that the decisions taken at COP 17 will take adaptation forward.”

On her part, Nkoana-Mashabane promised the summit would be run in a transparent and manner inclusive manner. “We will ensure that we use this gathering to make sure that the demands of the many people you are representing are heard.”

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END)

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 4 (IPS) – The combined effects of ballooning populations, poor productivity and threatened water resources present fresh pressures on agriculture to deliver food, money and livelihoods in Africa.

The food system needs urgent reform in the face of climate change which accelerating the speed of change on the farms and on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) told IPS reporter Busani Bafana that changing the course means a new agriculture revolution that delivers smart solutions to the current challenges posed by climate change.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

Kanayo F. Nwanze

A: The whole discussion we are having right now is basically how to achieve a climate smart agriculture which essentially means getting the maximum out of smallholder farmers who make up the large population of farmers in Africa and who are mostly women. They have to have access to basic inputs and financial services. If it will be climate smart, it has to respond to all the current issues that have to do with the impact of climate change on agriculture.

We have to talk about sustainable agricultural systems. The Green Revolution was successful because it focused on very clear messages: increase fertiliser use, increase improved seeds and irrigation. But we found out in the long term that it is not sustainable. So now we need to look for sustainable approaches to production that do not destroy the environment and are available to a wide spectrum of farmers in Africa and in the world as a whole and that help farmers to adapt to climate change and to be able to mitigate by their own activities. This is sustainable intensified agriculture.

A new green revolution is needed to meet the challenge of feeding more than nine billion people in 2050. There is no magic bullet for eliminating hunger overnight because I do not believe that ideas can feed people. Ideas for a new green revolution are needed and climate smart agriculture can deliver those ideas.

Q: Agriculture is threatened by many factors, what is the first step to make it sustainable?

A: The first step we need to take is on the policy agenda. We must have a commitment from the highest level of policy makers of government to say agriculture is a priority and they must put their money where their mouth is.

Q: You have expressed concern with the slow progress of negotiations. What are your expectations?

A: We are dealing with an issue that transcends what we call simple equations. You are dealing with an issue that brings a lot of political arguments and then people lose the sense of priority. It becomes very slow.

We are negotiating a political issue and there are a lot of things at stake. We are negotiating simple issues that are founded on facts and are fact-based arguments. Some people today are still denying there is climate change. How do you negotiate with someone who does not believe? That is the problem we have. We need real leadership. South Africa is doing a fantastic job leading this whole argument of putting agriculture on the agenda.

One sentence on agriculture is key. What is it? Agriculture drives economic growth and social development.

It is impacted by climate change but agriculture is also a solution to climate change because agriculture is at the cross roads of food security and climate change. So we cannot ignore it in climate smart business.

Q: Agriculture is facing challenges, but what have we done well in agriculture development in Africa?

A: Ten years ago you would not hear people talking about agriculture because it was always at the bottom of the pile but with the events of 2007/8 with the (food) price hikes and volatility, with riots, now people say agriculture equals food security, food security equals political stability and global peace. With that kind of linkage, you cannot ignore agriculture and that is something we have done well.

(Ends)

By Kristin Palitza

Dubbing Saturday the “Global Day of Action”, demonstrators from international and national non-governmental groups as well as labour, women, youth, academic, religious and environmental organisations came together to highlight civil society’s demands for politicians all over the world to take serious action to fight climate change.

“We are asking for 100 percent change. Today will be the beginning of a strong movement that is going to challenge the rich nations of the world,” said Global Day of Action subcommittee convenor Desmond D’Sa. “World leaders are discussing the fate of our planet, but they are far from reaching a solution to climate change.”

Protesters said it was time for climate change negotiators to listen to the voices of ordinary people. They marched holding banners which said: “Never trust COP17”, “Unite against Climate Change”, “Climate Justice Now” and “Ensure the survival of coming generations”.

There was a general feeling that ordinary people remained largely excluded from important debates on important issues that directly affected their lives.

“We want to ensure that the one percent on the inside [of the conference] will hear what the 99 percent on the outside have to say,” explained Bobby Peek, one of the organisers of the protest and director of Friends of the Earth South Africa. “We demand immediate, drastic emission cuts by rich countries that have caused climate change.”

Widespread anger could be felt about the slow progress made during the first week of the climate change negotiations, mixed with fear that the summit will end without tangible results.

Peek said he was gravely disappointed about the outcomes of the first week of negotiations. “It was generally a disastrous first week. There is no evidence of moving forward on [emission reduction] targets.”

Greenpeace international executive director Kumi Naidoo agreed, lashing out at the United States for never having ratified the Kyoto-Protocol, the only global, legally binding instrument to cut carbon emissions: “This is not a dress rehearsal. A week of belligerence, bickering and backstabbing needs to now give way to real deals about the future of our planet. Those who are not interested in saving lives, economies and environments, like the US, must now stand aside and let those with the political will move forward.”

Chanting slogans and signing protest songs, a large throng of demonstrators walked from Durban’s city centre to the entrance of the International Convention Centre where the climate change summit is being held, to hand over a list of their demands to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Civil society requests that governments meet the following targets by the end of the conference on December 9:

• Ensure a peak in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2015.
• Ensure that the Kyoto Protocol continues and provide a mandate for a comprehensive, legally binding instrument.
• Deliver the necessary finance to tackle climate change.
• Set up a framework for protecting forests in developing countries.
• Ensure global cooperation on technology and energy finance.
• And ensure international transparency in assessing and monitoring country commitments and actions.
Activists criticised rich, industrialised nations for using the global financial crisis as an excuse to give national interests priority before international ones. After a week of negotiations, it remained unclear how money to finance climate mitigation and adaptation projects – measures particularly important to developing nations – will be generated.

“So far we don’t even know where the money will come from. There is a real risk we walk away from Durban with empty pockets. And that failure will be measured in lives, economies and habitats,” warned Tove Ryding, Greenpeace co-ordinator for climate policy. “If governments don’t move forward, the final agreement will be stripped of any possibility of protecting the climate.”

Demonstrators voiced strong concern about a lack of political commitment to put in place legally binding and comprehensive agreements. The protest march was therefore particularly meant as a message to the heads of state and ministers from around the globe, which are expected to arrive at the summit on December 5.

“We demand urgent and strong action on climate change. We can’t just keep talking and keep wasting time,” said ActionAid international climate justice coordinator Harjeet Singh. “We march today to show our outrage. We want to give the ministers, who will arrive next week, a clear message: You cannot continue to make excuses.”

(Ends)

By Joshua Kyalimpa

DURBAN, South Africa, 2 Dec (IPS) – Civil society organisations are urging Africa to remain steadfast in its demands for a commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and not to be bulldozed into a new agreement.

“The African nations are watching you,” Bobby Peek, of Friends of the Earth, told the Africa group during a press conference in Durban. The conference, led by Friends of the Earth and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, comes as negotiators continue to struggle to reach an agreement.

“People in Africa are already paying the price of two hundred years of industrial pollution by the developed world. Africa must fight to ensure that developed countries deliver on their legal and moral obligation to cut the emissions that are putting the lives of millions of people at risk,” said Peek.

Tetteh Hormeku, of the African Trade Network, says if Africa were to shift its position, the consequences could be grave. Hormeku says targets in the expiring protocol are not adequate and should have been raised, but the biggest emitters are looking to hinder the process.

There are also fears that South Africa, the biggest polluter on the continent, may attempt to side with the developed world. Michele Maynard, of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, says: “South Africa has a leading role to play, as the chair of these talks here in Durban.

“The South African chair of the talks must not let South Africa down. African nations must stand shoulder-to-shoulder to deliver radical action to cut emissions, and substantial finance to allow Africa to adapt to the impacts already being felt.”

Augustine Njamushi, of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, says Africa is already feeling the impacts of climate change and delays in agreeing to a legally binding document means the continent will continue burning as others benefit. “The future of African agriculture, food and survival is at stake that is why it’s important that the continent sticks to its position.”

Martin Khor, of the South Centre, says developing countries are already doing quite a lot compared to the developed world. “It’s not fair to treat the developing countries with big populations like developed countries when their per capita carbon is incomparable.”
(Ends)

Niños apoyan en Durban los esfuerzos para la reducción de emisiones de carbono. Crédito: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

Por Stephen Leahy

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 2 dic (IPS)  La sociedad civil alertó en Durban sobre el peligro de convertir tierras africanas destinadas a la producción de alimentos en cultivos con vistas a comerciar créditos de carbono.

Representantes de organizaciones no gubernamentales reclamaron este viernes 2 a Sudáfrica, país anfitrión de la 17 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP 17), que no incluya la llamada “agricultura climáticamente inteligente” en las negociaciones.

El presidente sudafricano Jacob Zuma declaró que la agricultura debería ser parte de un nuevo tratado climático. Otros funcionarios de este país ya habían dicho antes a IPS que querían incluirla para que hubiera “fondos específicos y acciones específicas” en el contexto de la Convención Marco.

“Poner a la agricultura en un futuro tratado climático es como un premio consuelo para África porque los países ricos no pudieron acordar objetivos legalmente vinculantes” para la reducción de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, dijo Teresa Anderson, de la Gaia Foundation, una organización no gubernamental con sede en Londres.

“Este premio consuelo es un cáliz envenenado. Conducirá a la apropiación de tierras y pondrá a los agricultores africanos en manos de los inconstantes mercados de carbono”, declaró Anderson a IPS.

La agricultura es una importante fuente de gases invernadero, como el carbono y el metano, que representan entre 15 y 30 por ciento de las emisiones contaminantes mundiales. Cuando se incluye a todo el sistema de producción de alimentos, las emisiones totales derivadas de la agricultura equivalen a casi la mitad de todas las emisiones. Por esos motivos hubo esfuerzos previos para incorporar esta actividad en un nuevo tratado climático.

Los cambios en las prácticas agrícolas pueden reducir las emisiones en gran proporción. Sin embargo, la mejor manera de hacerlo es mediante regulaciones, no a través de un tratado climático ni de créditos de carbono, según Anderson.

“¿Por qué ahora los mercados se ven como la única solución, cuando hace menos de 10 años ni siquiera estaban en la mira?”, planteó.

El Banco Mundial, la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO) y otras entidades están a favor de una “agricultura climáticamente inteligente”. Esta adopta prácticas sustentables, aumenta la productividad y la resiliencia a los cambios meteorológicos y reduce y/o elimina los gases invernadero. La sociedad civil objeta esto último.

“Todo esto tiene que ver con nuevos mercados de carbono. El Norte todavía no hizo los necesarios recortes de emisiones y quiere esto para poder simular que reduce sus emisiones”, sostuvo Helena Paul, de la organización ambientalista EcoNexus.

Esto plantea un profundo peligro para la agricultura, “con un potencial real de que haya más apropiaciones de tierras y expansión de monocultivos para poder cosechar créditos”, dijo Paul.

Según Anderson, los gobiernos africanos ven los 144.000 millones de dólares del mercado de carbono europeo y piensan que pueden ser una gran fuente de financiamiento. Pero mucho menos de uno por ciento terminó en proyectos reales, agregó.

El primer proyecto para vender créditos de carbono del suelo en África está en marcha en Kenia. Financiado por el Banco Mundial, unos 15.000 agricultores y 800 organizaciones agrícolas cambian sus prácticas para secuestrar carbono por un periodo de 20 años.

Los costos de establecer el Proyecto de Carbono Agrícola de Kenia, junto con los que implica medir el carbono y comerciar los créditos, se estiman en más de un millón de dólares, dijo Anne Maina, de la filial keniata de la African Biodiversity Network.

Con los actuales precios del carbono, los agricultores recibirán apenas un dólar al año por sus esfuerzos, cuando les prometieron mucho más, enfatizó Maina. Solamente los dueños de grandes predios pueden esperar algún beneficio. Los grandes terratenientes, los consultores y otros expertos serán quienes se quedarán con la mayor tajada, dijo a IPS.

“África ya está sufriendo una epidemia de concentración de tierras. La carrera por el control de los suelos para el comercio de carbono solo puede empeorar esto”, añadió.

El Proyecto de Carbono Agrícola de Kenia promueve prácticas agrícolas sustentables como la agroforestería, que son buenas para la tierra y aumentan la producción alimentaria, reconoció. Sin embargo, sería mucho mejor financiarlo con los fondos para la adaptación al cambio climático que prometieron aportar los países industrializados.

“Los mercados de carbono son altamente volátiles”, dijo Steve Suppan, del Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, con sede en Estados Unidos.

En noviembre, la tonelada de carbono se cotizó a apenas seis dólares, 50 por ciento de su precio de enero. En buena medida, esto es consecuencia de la crisis financiera europea. Los precios del carbono simplemente son demasiado poco confiables para que la mayoría de los inversores los consideren a largo plazo, señaló Suppan.

Además, medir cuánto carbono se secuestra es un procedimiento extremadamente técnico e incierto a largo plazo, así que inversores como el Banco Mundial reducen 60 por ciento su valor.

“Los créditos del carbono del suelo solo generarán ganancias diminutas para los agricultores, permitiendo que los mayores contaminadores sigan contaminando”, dijo Suppan.

Lo que necesita la agricultura africana es reducciones reales de las emisiones, junto con un sustancial financiamiento para la adaptación al cambio climático, agregó.

Nnimmo Bassey, presidente de Amigos de la Tierra Internacional, dijo que “los créditos de carbono del suelo son una falsa solución” al cambio climático.

Bassey reclamó a los países ricos, responsables de la crisis climática, que reafirmen sus compromisos de establecer “recortes legalmente vinculantes de las emisiones, en línea con la ciencia y la igualdad”.

“El presidente sudafricano Jacob Zuma debe apoyar a África y ser intransigente… Necesitamos que los países ricos hagan recortes profundos, drásticos y vinculantes de las emisiones, y finanzas climáticas reales y públicas, no un mandato para una nueva ola de colonialismo financiero” a través de disposiciones contenidas en el Fondo Verde para el Clima, señaló en un comunicado el activista Bobby Peek, del capítulo sudafricano de Amigos de la Tierra.

Only owners of large tracts of land can be expected to benefit from soil carbon credits. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

By Stephen Leahy

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 2 (IPS) – Civil society has warned of the danger of turning Africa’s food-producing lands into “carbon farms” so that rich countries can avoid making cuts in their carbon emissions.

On Friday, they called on host country South Africa to refrain from forcing so-called “climate smart” agriculture into the United Nations climate treaty negotiations known as the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17).

South African President Jacob Zuma has stated that agriculture should be part of a new climate treaty. South African officials have previously told IPS they want it included so there will be “specific funds and specific actions” for agriculture under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“Putting agriculture into a future climate treaty is supposedly a consolation prize to Africa for failure by rich countries to agree to legally binding targets,” said Teresa Anderson of the Gaia Foundation, an international non-governmental organisation based in London.

“This consolation prize is a poisoned chalice. It will lead to land grabs and deliver African farmers into the hands of fickle carbon markets,” Anderson told IPS.

Agriculture is a major source of global warming gases like carbon and methane – directly accounting for 15 percent to 30 percent of global emissions. When the entire food production system is included, total agriculture emissions represent nearly half of all emissions. For those reasons there have been previous efforts to incorporate agriculture under a new climate treaty.

Changes in agricultural practices can greatly reduce emissions.  However, the best way to do that is through regulations, not a climate treaty and carbon credits, said Anderson.

“Why are markets now seen as the only solution when less than 10 years ago they weren’t a focus at all?”

The World Bank and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and other organisations favour what they call “climate smart” agriculture that is defined as forms of farming that are sustainable, increases productivity and resilience to changing weather while reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases. It is the latter that civil society objects to.

“This is all about new carbon markets. The North still has not made the necessary emission cuts and want this so they can pretend to reduce their emissions,” said Helena Paul of EcoNexus, an environmental NGO.

“There is a profound danger to agriculture here, with real potential for more land grabbing and expansion of monocultures in order to harvest credits,” said Paul.

African governments see the 144 billion dollars in the European carbon market and think this would be a great source of funding, said Anderson. But in fact very little of this money, much less than one percent, ended up in actual projects, she said.

The very first project to sell soil carbon credits in Africa is underway in Kenya. Funded by the World Bank, some 15,000 farmers and 800 farmer groups are changing their practices to sequester carbon for a 20-year period. The costs to set up the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project along with the costs involved in measuring the carbon and marketing the credits are estimated at more than one million dollars, said Anne Maina of the African Biodiversity Network in Kenya.

At current carbon prices, farmers will get just a dollar a year for their efforts when they were promised much more, said Maina. Only owners of large tracts of land can be expected to benefit. Large landowners and the consultants and other experts will get most of the money, she told IPS.

“Africa is already suffering from a land grab epidemic – the race to control soils for carbon trading could only make this worse.”

The Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project does promote sustainable farming practices such as agroforestry that are good for the land and have increased food production she acknowledged. However, it would be far better to fund these with the adaptation funding that has been promised by developed countries.

“Carbon markets are highly volatile,” said Steve Suppan of the Institute for Trade and Agriculture, a United States-based civil organisation focused on agriculture.

In November the carbon price was just six dollars a tonne, 50 percent of what it was in January largely as a result of the European financial crisis. Carbon prices are simply too unreliable for most investors to consider as long-term investments, said Suppan.

Moreover, measuring how much carbon has been sequestered is extremely technical and uncertain over the long term and so investors like the World Bank discount the value by 60 percent.

“Soil carbon credits will only generate tiny revenues for farmers and allows biggest polluters to continue to pollute,” Suppan said.

What African agriculture needs, is real emissions reductions along with substantial adaptation funding, he said.

“Soil carbon credits are a false solution,” to climate change, agreed Nnimmo Bassey, chairperson of Friends of the Earth International.

Bassey called on rich industrialised countries, which are responsible for the climate crisis, to reaffirm their commitments “to legally binding emissions cuts in line with science and equity.”

At a press conference at COP 17, Bassey and other members of African NGOs called on African delegates to stand together to make sure this meeting ends with radical action to legally binding emissions cuts in line with science and equity.

“South African President Jacob Zuma must stand with Africa and be uncompromising…. We need deep and drastic binding emissions cuts by the rich countries and real, public climate finance, not a mandate for a new wave of financial colonialism through a private sector “facility” in the new Green Climate Fund,” said Bobby Peek of Friends of the Earth South Africa said in a statement.

(END/2011)

Isak Kruiper fears his generation will outlive its home in the Kalahari desert. Credit: Ramatamo wa Matamong/TerraViva

DURBAN, Dec 2 — (TerraViva) Isak and Toppies Kruiper have made their way across the country with a message, travelling all the way from their home in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa’s Northern Cape Province to the United Nations Climate Conference taking place in the port city of Durban on the eastern coast.

The two men have come to the 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) following in the footsteps of David Kruiper, the late headman of the Bushmen, who worked throughout his life to defend the rights and way of life of his people.

“Jy weet, ek was gebore in die Kalahari,” says Isak Kruiper. “I was born and bred in the Kalahari. I love the Kalahari and would like to someday die in the Kalahari. But what is busy happening now, it looks to me that the Kalahari will die before us. And that is the reason why we are here at COP17.”

The two men spoke to TerraViva outside Durban’s International Convention Centre, slightly awed by their surroundings but determined to get their message across.

“We don’t know all the fancy technology of today we are just ordinary people who wants ordinary things. Look after our kids and the Kalahari,” Kruiper continued.

“The Kalahari, where we stay, is hot and dry and getting increasingly hotter and dryer by the day. The natural resources that we had, like the vegetation, are dying out due to the very little rain and this makes food scarce for the wild (animals), so they move further and further away from us. You know we cannot jump over the fences but they can.”

According to a report from the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, rising temperatures, dune expansion and increased wind speeds results in the loss of vegetation and impacts on traditional cattle and goat farming practices.

The Bushmen are in many cases forced to live near boreholes drilled by the government, dependent on these for water.

Global warming is also causing similar problems elsewhere – in the Namib Desert, indigenous people are struggling to make a living. Far away in Asia, herders in Mongolia are enduring winters with temperatures more than 30 degrees below zero, killing off livestock and driving them to settle in towns.

Back in the Kalahari, Isak Kruiper fears for his way of life. “It becomes impossible to transfer our indigenous knowledge to our kids, because we must always look for something to eat. We want the government and every concerned group to please listen and help us.”

“Met armoede gaan ons te gronde,” said Kruiper.  “Any help to the San communities would be welcome and appreciated.”

* Community media coverage of COP 17 is being supported by the Media Development & Diversity Agency of South Africa, which is promoting the participation of local journalists through a programme of training and reporting on climate change.

(END/2011)

(END)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 2 déc (IPS) – La Communauté de développement d’Afrique australe (SADC) veut que l’eau soit présentée comme un point distinct dans les négociations sur les changements climatiques – la décrivant comme étant trop importante pour être laissée à la périphérie.

L’eau – dont l’agriculture est le plus grand consommateur – a été identifiée par des scientifiques comme une victime des changements climatiques. La croissance démographique, la pollution et la distribution inéquitable en ont également rajouté au stress de l’eau en Afrique australe.

“L’adaptation est la principale priorité”, a déclaré le ministre sud-africain de l’Eau et des Affaires environnementales, Edna Molewa, aux délégués lors du lancement de la ‘SADC Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Strategy for Water’ [Stratégie d’adaptation de la SADC aux changements climatiques (CCA) pour l'eau] durant la 17ème Conférence des parties (COP 17) des Nations Unies à Durban, en Afrique du Sud.

“Nous savons que les discussions sur l’atténuation sont importantes, mais nous croyons que nous devons faire beaucoup plus de travail par rapport à l’adaptation afin qu’en tant que continent et en tant que SADC, nous puissions nous adapter aux effets des changements climatiques dont nous commençons à voir les impacts quotidiennement”, a indiqué Molewa.

Molewa a appelé pour des actions globales et intégrées afin de s’attaquer à l’effet des changements climatiques sur la précieuse ressource en eau. Certaines de ces actions comprennent la gestion des inondations et l’utilisation de l’eau.

La stratégie de la SADC sur l’eau est destinée à améliorer la résistance aux changements climatiques dans la région et guidera les Etats membres dans les négociations à la COP 17 où la pression monte sur les dirigeants du monde pour qu’ils mettent un frein au réchauffement de la planète en réduisant les émissions de dioxyde de carbone.

“Nous ne pouvons pas rester derrière et dire que nous voyons les effets des changements climatiques sans pouvoir faire quelque chose”, a déclaré Molewa, ajoutant que “quelque chose doit être faite dans les négociations, la COP 18, et la COP 19 et… nous espérons que nous n’atteindrons pas la COP 28 sans une solution. Mais, en attendant, nous devons nous adapter”.

La Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) est responsable du cadre global des efforts intergouvernementaux visant à faire face au défi des changements climatiques. Elle reconnaît que le système climatique est une ressource partagée dont la stabilité peut être affectée par les émissions industrielles et autres de dioxyde de carbone et de gaz à effet de serre. Après 17 années de discussions, les émissions de carbone continuent d’augmenter.

Le professeur Mark New, directeur de la ‘Africa Climate and Development Initiative’ (Initiative sur le climat et le développement en Afrique), à l’Université du Cap, a déclaré que bien que l’eau soit importante et doive être mise en évidence, elle doit être intégrée dans d’autres questions.

“Je pense que le désir de séparer la question de l’eau découle d’une perspective importante que l’eau est l’un des facteurs importants autour de l’adaptation aux changements climatiques. La rendre distincte signifie que l’eau est séparée de beaucoup d’autres questions auxquelles elle est liée”, a souligné New à IPS.

“L’eau est importante pour l’énergie et l’agriculture. En Afrique, spécialement en termes de maîtrise de l’évolution démographique pendant que nous passons d’une société rurale à une société plus urbaine, nous devons être en train de penser de manière intégrée à la façon dont les changements climatiques affecteront (l’eau) et comment les décisions que nous prenons dans un domaine, autour de l’eau, interagiront avec d’autres secteurs qui nous intéressent”.

New a indiqué que le principe fondamental de la convention sur le climat est d’éviter des changements climatiques dangereux et que l’eau était donc implicitement prise en compte parce que les effets des changements climatiques auront une incidence sur l’eau, ensemble avec tous les autres secteurs.

Au cours de septembre 2011, les ministres de la SADC chargés de l’Eau ont instruit le secrétariat de l’organisation de faire pression pour que l’eau soit un point distinct dans les négociations avec la CCNUCC. Il y a un débat sur les défis et les possibilités d’avoir l’eau comme un élément séparé dans les négociations.

Phera Ramoeli, directeur des programmes, des infrastructures et des services de l’eau au sein du secrétariat de la SADC, a déclaré à un groupe de discussion, après le lancement de la stratégie de la CCA, que le fait d’avoir l’eau comme un point distinct pour les négociateurs de la CCNUCC, renforcerait son profil pour attirer des financements pour l’adaptation.

“Nous pensons qu’il est important que l’eau soit un point spécifique dans le débat sur les changements climatiques, car l’eau est un moteur et un catalyseur pour le développement socioéconomique et est liée au PIB (produit intérieur brut) dans la plupart de nos pays où le PIB augmente de trois pour cent là où il y a plus d’eau, et de moins d’un pour cent là où il y en a moins”, a souligné Ramoeli. (FIN)

Zambian dairy farmer, Effatah Jele, does not believe in farming luck. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 1 (IPS) – Zambian dairy farmer, Effatah Jele, does not believe in farming luck but in pragmatism because of climate change.

“Farmers should be taught about good farming practises instead of blaming everything on climate change,” said Jele, who runs a dairy farm in the Luanshya Cooperbelt Province of Zambia and is the vice chairperson of the Dairy Association.

“Changes are there, no doubt, but it is also important for farmers to have the right farming practises for them to survive those changes. For example, some women are growing vegetables and, due to ignorance, dig the soil right up to edge of the river. Then, when it rains, the soil is all washed into the stream and after a few years the stream becomes shallow. And some say this is because of climate change.”

Jele said changes in the weather pattern have serious implications for farmers like her who depend on increasingly scarce water resources to keep a viable dairy herd. Crop farmers, she said, are worse off unless science and practical ideas come the rescue.

“I feel our scientists should go around talking to the farmers and making them understand the difference between climate change and self-inflicted problems through using the wrong ways of farming. That is important, because otherwise we will not find solutions that will ensure food security,” Jele said.

“Some of things we blame on climate change are failures by us farmers to do the right thing at the right time. Because there is a song of climate change, we are all singing ‘climate change, climate change’,” said Jele.

Fears of what climate change will do for African agriculture are real and in southern Africa farmers are taking action to ensure that negotiators at 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) in Durban get the message.

The Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) – granted observer status at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) session – wants the global negotiations to put agriculture firmly on the climate change agenda and establish a work programme that will outline and coordinate necessary responses such as a specific allocation to the sector under the Green Climate Fund.

Climate smart initiatives such as conservation farming, water harvesting will not only help farmers cope with extreme weather but also ensure they curb carbon emissions. According to scientists, agriculture is responsible for between 15 to 30 percent of global emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which affects the earth’s temperature.

Farmers are campaigning for a deal that specifically includes agriculture, which will be heavily affected by climate change in terms of reduced crop yields and low productivity. For them productive and sustainable and farms are the insurance against the risks of climate change.

Noting the close links between the challenges of addressing climate change and feeding a growing global population, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) President Kanayo Nwanze is to call on COP 17 to focus on helping half a billion smallholder farmers in developing countries to grow more food in environmentally sustainable ways.

According to research by the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research, climate change will shrink agriculture productivity with projections of a rise in temperatures and an increase in droughts and floods, which would alter agricultural seasons and decrease harvests

“Our expectations as farmers of Southern Africa is to have agriculture included in the text that will be agreed at the end of the Durban COP 17,” said Stephanie Aubin, SACAU Policy Development Officer.

“Agriculture must be included in the specific text so that there are specific funds and specific action that are implemented.”

A draft text was discussed and negotiated during the past COP meetings in Copenhagen and Cancun but was dropped because agriculture was lumped together with bunker fuels.

“It is important that agriculture has special treatment at the UNFCCC negotiations because its special in terms of livelihoods for millions of people in Africa and food security for the planet and it’s the most climate sensitive sector which at the same time can contribute adaptation and mitigation efforts,” said Aubin.

“We want a specific chapter on agriculture in the text and long term action as it will unlock funding needed by the agriculture sector in Africa to response efficiently to Climate change.”

Aubin was optimistic that with the COP 17 being held in Africa, African governments will put the required effort to push for agriculture in the final text.

A grouping of 15 global and regional organisations have endorsed a call to action for COP 17 climate change negotiators stating that whilst agriculture is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it has significant potential to be part of the solution to climate change.

“At the upcoming climate change negotiations in Durban, we call on negotiators to recognise the important role of agriculture in addressing climate change so that a new era of agricultural innovation and knowledge sharing can be achieved, said a grouping of global and regional, ” said the statement issued ahead of the Agriculture and Rural Development Day event to be held at COP 17.

“Specifically, we ask that they approve a work programme for agriculture under the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice so that the sector can take early action to determine the long-term investments needed to transform agriculture to meet future challenges.”

Bruce Campbell, Director of the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), told IPS that agriculture has been neglected in the negotiations so far, despite the sector accounting for between 16 to 29 percent of total emissions. Additionally, he said farmers, especially poor farmers in the developing world, are going to be particularly hard-hit by climate change.

“The agricultural sector must be empowered to take early action to determine the long-term investments needed to transform agriculture to meet future food and energy challenges effectively,” Campbell said. “The Agriculture and Rural Development Day will not only reflect this call-to-action, but it will also showcase a series of success stories in agriculture, which specific actions could be further scaled up with further investment and a coordinated approach to implementation.”

(END/2011)

Climate change wreaks damage on infrastructure, ecosystems, livelihoods and lives in developing countries. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

By Tim Ash Vie *

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 1 (IPS) – As climate talks get underway in Durban, South Africa this week, progress on a Green Climate Fund is one of the hottest, most contentious tickets in town. It is also one of the great prizes to be won.

The fund would, in theory, provide a new, substantial source of funds to help developing countries adapt to the negative impacts of climate change and pursue low carbon development; it is meant to be a major vehicle for delivering 100 billion dollars a year in climate finance to developing countries by 2020.

Agreement on the structure of the fund and on sources of cash (at least for the medium term) must be secured in Durban, to keep this ambition on track. Developing country observers believe such an agreement on climate finance is vital. Why is it so urgent?

The Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period expires late next year, and international leaders have not yet agreed a framework to succeed it. With the clock ticking on this legal deal, there will be a gap until any new version is adopted.

As developing countries press for a new global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions, caution dictates that they must prepare to adapt to a world in which climate change wreaks damage on infrastructure, ecosystems, livelihoods and lives.

In the words of Professor Robert Watson, former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, developing country decision makers are calling for a “two degree world” – where the average global temperature is curbed at two degrees above pre-industrial levels – but must prepare to adapt to a “three or four degree world.”

For developing countries, this means bracing for rising sea levels that will make atolls and coastal settlements less habitable. Droughts will become more prolonged and frequent, and rainfall patterns far more erratic.

The current drought in the Horn of Africa, and the devastating floods in El Salvador last month and Durban, South Africa this week are indicative of the weather extremes that will become more frequent by mid-century as climate change takes hold. These impacts will be felt even in a “two degree world”, but in a “three or four degree world” they will become even more severe and unpredictable.

Climate finance is not just a story about preparing for the worst, though. Developing countries also recognise opportunities to attract investment in low carbon technologies, which will increase their global competitiveness.

What could be a more compelling prospect that to leapfrog past soon-to-be obsolete technologies that guzzle fossil fuels, and avoid some of the carbon lock-in experienced by industrialised nations?

The Government of Rwanda will launch its National Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy at the 17th Conference of the Parties in Durban next week.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said he sees low carbon development as a win-win situation for Rwanda. It could reduce Rwanda’s dependence on foreign imported oil and create an economic stimulus by redirecting payments toward clean energy production at home, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

However, financial support from foreign governments and the private sector will be needed in order to realise such ambitions.

Developing countries’ hopes for progress on climate finance in Durban are set against a background of frustrated ambition. They are approaching the end of the so-called “fast-start finance” commitment period that was agreed in Copenhagen in 2009.

The aspiration set out in the Copenhagen Accord was to raise 30 billion dollars of new and additional funding over the three years until 2012. Have industrialised countries even delivered on this deal?

The trouble is fast-start finance has no easily identifiable form, being typically delivered through existing channels of delivery and disbursement. Therefore, trying to track that funding has proved difficult and confusing.

Even seasoned observers cannot get an accurate handle on how much money has been allocated, and for what ends. While some “new and additional” funding has certainly been allocated, examples abound of projects being re-branded “fast-start” even when they pre-date Copenhagen and there is a large gap between pledges and good intention, and disbursement.

Chair of the African Group of Negotiators in the climate negotiations, Tosi Mpanu Mpanu has simply put it: “Fast start has not really delivered – only 10 percent of fast start is new and additional.”

A new online portal developed by the United Nations may start to address these issues but in the current circumstances, mistrust pervades.

The 2010 to 2012 fast start period was only ever just that: a start. Currently, we do not know where the money is going to come from to reach the loftier ambition to provide developing countries with 100 billion dollars a year by 2020.

Ideas for specific sources of revenue have been proposed, such as an air passenger levy, a tax on financial transactions and a carbon levy on polluting emissions from shipping.

Yet, mobilising such sources could take several years, which raises the prospect of a serious funding gap after the fast start period ends in 2013.

We know for sure that public sources will not fulfil that promise alone, and private sector money will be needed. In the meantime, developing countries expect public sources to lead the way.

The private sector role in the GCF is not a question of syphoning off scarce public funds. It is about using at least some of this public money to catalyse private investment at scale, to accelerate low carbon development. With public funds under pressure in many Annex 1 countries, the private sector role is going to be critical.

As well as hard cash, the institutional set up for financing climate compatible development is important. A good outcome from Durban would be if the GCF were formally established in line with the recommendations put to theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by its Transitional Committee on Finance.

Having the fund’s operational structure agreed would enable commitments made in Copenhagen and Cancun to be taken forward while meeting aid effectiveness principles.

A variety of other climate finance mechanisms already in operation, such as the Adaptation Fund, will also need to be shored up, and this would need to be done in parallel with agreements on the capitalisation of the GCF.

The prevailing economic climate makes discussions of climate finance difficult, but the time to deliver this fund is now.

World leaders must leave Durban with a clearer picture on what climate finance can be delivered between 2013 and 2019, beyond the fast-start period.

The form of the GCF and its capitalisation could be the “crown jewels” of a South African climate conference. They would provide real impetus for developing countries to step up climate action themselves.

* Tim Ash Vie is Head of Negotiations at Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

(END/2011)

DURBAN, Afrique du Sud, 1 déc (IPS) – Les changements climatiques à travers le monde peuvent être désormais observés depuis l’espace grâce aux satellites de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO).

La FAO a lancé une nouvelle technologie qui peut étudier les forêts dans le monde via des satellites et fournir un tableau plus fiable et global des menaces communes à l’environnement, telles que la déforestation, la dégradation ou l’exploitation forestière illégale.

Utilisant une technologie d’étude par télédétection, la FAO a pris et analysé plus de 13.500 images satellitaires à haute résolution dans 102 pays. Ces images aideront les nations à évaluer avec précision l’état de leurs forêts. Le suivi du changement des forêts a des implications importantes pour la conservation de la biodiversité, le stockage du carbone et les moyens de subsistance humaine.

Les pertes de forêts dans le monde entier peuvent être désormais quantifiées pour la première fois, a annoncé la FAO lors de la 17ème Conférence des parties de l’ONU sur les changements climatiques, qui se déroule du 28 novembre au 9 décembre à Durban, en Afrique du Sud.

“C’est une étude très globale des forêts du monde. Pour la première fois, nous avons des données mondiales et régionales à long terme, cohérentes et comparables sur la perte des terres forestières. Jusqu’à présent, la plupart des informations disponibles viennent en nombre, et non sous forme de cartes (sur la base d’images satellitaires)”, a expliqué Adam Gerrand, un scientifique responsable du suivi des forêts à la FAO.

En conséquence, très peu de pays ont pu surveiller, dans le temps, l’effet des changements climatiques et l’intervention humaine sur leurs forêts de façon constante.

“Nous manquons de bonnes informations sur la déforestation et avons d’urgence besoin de plus de détails sur la dynamique de la perte des forêts. Nous n’avons pas obtenu toutes les données jusqu’ici”, a ajouté Gerrand.

Les premiers résultats obtenus à partir des données satellitaires à haute résolution montrent que la superficie forestière mondiale totale a diminué de 14,5 millions d’hectares en moyenne par an, entre 1990 et 2005. Cela s’est largement produit sous les tropiques, probablement en raison de la conversion des forêts tropicales en terres agricoles.

“Le taux de perte de forêts est passé de quatre millions d’hectares dans les années 1990 à six millions d’hectares entre 2000 et 2005″, a déclaré Gerrand. “Nous perdons le stockage de carbone vital, la biodiversité et d’autres valeurs qu’offrent les forêts”.

Toutefois, il existe aussi quelques bonnes nouvelles. L’étude montre que la déforestation ne se produit pas aussi vite que des pays le signalent. Les nouvelles données ont montré une perte nette de 73 millions d’hectares entre 1990 et 2005 par rapport à la précédente estimation de 107 millions d’hectares de perte nette pour la même période.

Pendant ce temps, la perte des forêts était la plus forte sous les tropiques, où se trouvent un peu moins de la moitié des forêts du monde, suivis de l’Afrique. L’Asie était la seule région à afficher des gains nets pour des terres forestières dans ces deux périodes. La déforestation s’est produite ici aussi, mais la plantation extensive d’arbres qui a été annoncée par plusieurs pays d’Asie, principalement la Chine , a dépassé les zones forestières qui étaient perdues.

Toutes les images satellitaires sont prises à des centaines de kilomètres et comprennent une superficie de 10 kilomètres carrés. Elles sont classées, étiquetées, puis transmises aux pays où elles ont été prises, de sorte que les gouvernements puissent examiner et confirmer les données.

“C’est un cadre que les pays peuvent utiliser pour améliorer les ressources forestières”, a expliqué Gerrand.

Certains pays ont déjà bénéficié de la nouvelle technologie satellitaire. En Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée, un petit pays en Océanie, par exemple, qui est à 65 pour cent couvert de forêts, 41 images satellitaires ont été prises pour établir l’effet que les changements climatiques ont eu sur sa couverture forestière.

“Notre pays n’avait pas la technologie pour évaluer la dégradation des forêts. Les nouvelles images satellitaires améliorent la crédibilité des données”, a affirmé Dr Joe Pokana, chef du bureau national de lutte contre les changements climatiques en Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée. “Nous envisageons désormais d’installer un système de surveillance national solide qui nous aidera à comprendre le niveau de dégradation et développer des politiques”.

De même, l’Angola a commencé à étudier la menace de déforestation grâce aux cartes photographiques fournies par les satellites. Les forêts constituent actuellement 43,4 pour cent de ce pays d’Afrique australe.

“Nous disposons d’importantes informations sur la façon dont nos ressources forestières sont utilisées, sur les stocks de carbone, les problèmes environnementaux, les causes de dégradation et de déforestation”, a indiqué Mateus Andre, chef du département des forêts de l’Angola. “Pour la première fois, nous avons des informations de qualité sur lesquelles nous pouvons fonder des décisions”.

Les nouvelles données sont particulièrement importantes pour des régions en développement comme l’Afrique, où les informations existantes sont souvent dépassées ou de mauvaise qualité à cause du manque de capacité. Elles diffèrent des précédentes conclusions de la FAO dans le rapport intitulé ‘Global Forest Resources Assessment of 2010′ (Evaluation des ressources forestières mondiales 2010), qui étaient basées sur une compilation de rapports nationaux qui avaient utilisé une grande variété de sources.

“La déforestation prive des millions de personnes de produits et services forestiers qui sont cruciaux pour les moyens de subsistance en milieu rural, le bien-être économique et la santé environnementale”, a expliqué Eduardo Rojas-Briales, sous-directeur général de la FAO , responsable des forêts.

“Les nouveaux chiffres satellitaires nous donnent un tableau global plus cohérent. Ensemble avec la gamme variée d’informations fournies par les rapports nationaux, ils offrent aux décideurs, à tous les niveaux, des renseignements plus précis”. (FIN/IPS/11)

Geoffrey Ndung’u earns a living growing watermelons on his dry land. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 1 (IPS) – On a Sunday evening, a track loaded with 10 tonnes of watermelons leaves Geoffrey Ndung’u’s homestead in Kanyonga village in semi-arid Eastern Kenya. It travels past a village shopping centre were people have formed a queue to receive food aid because of a prolonged drought in the area.

While his fellow villagers are feeling the effect of the drought, Ndung’u has turned it into a business and his harvest will earn him 2,000 dollars, from farming just 1.2 hectares of dry land.

“It is now two years since I learnt how to co-exist with the drought, thanks to support from ActionAid International and the Ministry of Agriculture,” says the 56-year-old father of five.

A host of humanitarian organisations in partnership with the government have undertaken to train people from drought-stricken areas in Kenya on how to take advantage of worsening conditions. “We have introduced a new project known as ‘Drought Coping Training’, where we train members of communities from arid and semi-arid areas on how to co-exist with the ever-changing climatic conditions,” says Francis Njoroge, the officer in charge of ActionAid International – Kenya in the larger Embu region.

The need for finance for adaptation measures like this forms part of the African position at the ongoing 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa.

“Africa’s commitment to addressing the change is evident across the continent. We have seen people engage in adaptation projects from the grassroots at personal and community level. Yet we are sure that this can be scaled up to national levels and eventually continental levels,” said the Permanent Secretary for Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources Ali Mohammed.

Kenya’s constitution recognises the importance of protecting the environment. It stipulates that farmers should ensure that at least 10 percent of their farms have trees in order to increase forest cover, while at the same time addressing the issue of climate change mitigation.

“All we need to see in Durban is for the developed world – which consists of countries that hold the biggest responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions – commit themselves to providing funds for adaptation measures, capacity building and technology transfer,” added Mohammed.

The Angolan delegation to COP 17 has also called for funding for adaptation projects. The country wants to focus on agriculture as a means of providing food security, employment and a source of income and is looking for innovative methods of food production that can withstand the changing climatic conditions.

Angola also has an action plan for alternative sources of energy.

“We are championing for the use of alternative sources of energy, especially in rural areas, in order to save forests. We are at the same time encouraging farmers to engage in sustained charcoal farming, so that trees are grown specifically for fuel production,” said Abias Huongo, the head of Angolan delegation. Angola is also seeking funding for climate monitoring mechanisms that will enable the government to put in place early warning systems for climate-related disasters.

However, the African delegation noted that the continent might fail to make further progress if there is no commitment from the developed countries to finance adaptation projects.

“The African Group of Negotiators is concerned by the insufficient transparency and slow disbursement of the financial resources pledged by developed countries as ‘fast start’ finance for the period 2010-2012. To address this, the African Group proposes a common reporting format for finance pledges,” said Seyni Nafo, the spokesperson of the African Group of Negotiators.

Head of Programmes at the Third World Network – Africa, Tetteh Hormek, echoed his sentiments. He said that the developed world should come out clearly to support developing countries to adapt to climate change.

“As the Kyoto Protocol enters into the second phase by the year 2012, we are calling upon the developed world to cut down on carbon financing mechanisms, which are like a double edged sword,” said Hormeku. (END)

Kashmir's rice paddies are giving way to horticulture for water shortages. Credit:Athar Parvaiz/IPS

By Athar Parvaiz *

SRINAGAR, Nov 30, 20112011 (IPS)  Sammad Sheikh of Tangchekh village in north Kashmir cannot understand why the rice fields that his family cultivated for generations are drying up.

“It is a mystery as to why water is getting scarcer in summers,” he says. “This has been happening for the past few years though there have been one or two good summers in between.”

With no assurance of water availability, Sheikh, like his fellow farmers in the region, is looking for alternatives to paddy cultivation.

“I have heard that most of the farmers in central and south Kashmir have switched from agriculture to horticulture. I am now seriously thinking of putting a portion of my seven acres under crops that are not water-intensive,” he told IPS.

Farmers in this Himalayan region have heard of climate change and wonder why the government is yet to step in with improved irrigation facilities to help them tide over the summer months.

“The government has constructed water ponds in some areas for water harvesting, but much more has to be done to cover the entire area,” says Mukhtar Naikoo.  “Anyone can see that the droughts have become frequent and rainfall scarcer and more erratic.”

According to the study ‘Recent Trends in Meteorological Parameters over Jammu & Kashmir (1976 to 2007)’, by A. K. Jaswal and G. S. Prakasa Rao of the Indian Meteorological Department, temperatures are increasing over this state, often likened to Switzerland for its alpine charms and snow-capped mountains.

The study showed an annual increase in the maximum temperature in the Kashmir region from 0.04 to 0.05 degrees Celsius over the period and a corresponding rise in the minimum temperature in the Jammu region from 0.03 to 0.08 degrees C per year.

“Annual rainfall and rainy days are decreasing in both the regions of the state except at Jammu where rainfall trend is significantly increasing (12.05 mm per year),” says the study.

Naikoo has vivid memories of the farmer-friendly weather in Kashmir: “It would rain for days together. And, at times, we would perform a ‘bandar’ (an oblation) seeking God’s pleasure for cessation of rains.”

Like Sheikh, Naikoo is baffled at the creeping dryness. “May be God is not happy with our deeds. We are a sinful lot.”  Naikoo is not yet ready to switch to horticulture. “I am still hopeful that God will not let us down. Things will get better.”

Scientists in Kashmir are worried at the rapid conversion of paddy lands for horticultural use and the mushrooming of commercial establishments and residential colonies in the areas which were farming lands.

According to official figures, 80 percent of Kashmir’s seven million people are directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture and allied sectors. Much Kashmir’s total area of 2.4 million hectares is mountainous or forested.

Official statistics indicate the 151,352 hectares of land that used to be under cultivation in the state, a few decades ago, has now shrunk to 46,943 hectares.

“This is a dangerous trend,” warns Zaffar Ahmad Reshi, a professor in Kashmir University’s Botany department. “The government in Kashmir has no land-use policy and has failed to provide proper irrigation facilities to the farmers.”

Reshi told IPS that one glaring adaptation to climate change required in Kashmir is augmentation of the irrigation network for farming.  Irrigation networks have become all the more important in the wake of climate change.

According to the Kashmir government’s Economic Survey report for 2010-11, only 41 percent of agricultural land is covered by irrigation facilities with the rest dependent on rain.

Reshi stresses that Kashmir cannot afford to lose all its agricultural land to horticulture and built-up areas. “Rice is the staple food of Kashmiris and it is a primary commodity here. We are already importing more than 50 percent of our rice,” he said.

Naikoo has a similar perception, though from a personal point of view. “For generations our family never bought rice in the market. We grow what we need and more in our rice fields. We can’t think of any other way,” he told IPS.

But, other farmers are more adventurous and have been shifting away from paddy to cash crops like apple, almond and walnuts.

“The trend could be a consequence of climate change as farmers find it increasingly difficult to irrigate their rice fields,” says Shafiq Ahmad Wani, director of research at Kashmir’s Agriculture University.

“In the Brang area of south Kashmir, we have observed an almost total conversion from agriculture to horticulture with farmers attributing it to lack of irrigation facilities and the absence of a marketing system.”

According to Akhtar Hussain Malik, a botanist at Kashmir University, the drop in rice and maize cultivation has resulted in a lack of fodder for cattle. “Our animals are already suffering from insufficient fodder with the degradation and shrinking of pastures in Kashmir.”

Farooq Ahmad Lone, director at Kashmir’s agriculture department says the state government has plans to providing bore wells to farmers whose lands are dependent on rains.

“We suffered a 25 percent loss in maize production this year. We intend to mitigate these losses by providing bore well facilities to farmers in the hilly areas,” Lone told IPS.

* This article is one of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

David Lessole (left) with Phera Ramoeli

By Busani Bafana

DURBAN, South Africa, Nov 30 (IPS) — The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) wants water to be tabled as a standalone item on climate change negotiations – describing it as too important to leave on the periphery.

Water – of which agriculture is the largest consumer – has been identified by scientists as a victim of climate change. Growing populations, pollution and unfair distribution have also added to water stress in southern Africa.

“Adaptation is the main priority,” South Africa’s Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa told delegates at the launch of the SADC Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Strategy for Water during the United Nations 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) in Durban, South Africa.

“We know that discussions around mitigation are important but we believe we need to do much more work in relation to adaptation so that as a continent and as SADC we can adapt to the impacts of climate change whose daily impacts we are beginning to see,” said Molewa.

Molewa called for comprehensive and integrated actions to tackle the impact of climate change on the precious water resource. Some of the actions include flood management and water use.

The SADC strategy on water is meant to improve climate resilience in the region and will guide member states with negotiations at COP 17 where pressure is on for global leaders to put the brakes on global warming by cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

“We cannot sit back and say we are seeing the impact of climate change but we cannot do something,” said Molewa, adding that, “something has to be done in the talks, COP 18, and COP 19 and … we hope we will not reach COP 28 without a solution. But, in the meantime, we need to adapt.”

The U.N. Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is responsible for the overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge of climate change. It recognises that the climate system is a shared resource whose stability can be affected by industrial and other emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. After 17 years of discussions, carbon emissions are still growing.

Professor Mark New, director of the Africa Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town, said while water was important and should be highlighted, it must be integrated with other issues.

“I think that the desire to make it water stand alone stems from an important perspective that water is one of the important factors around climate change adaptation. Making it stand alone means that water is separated from many other issues it is linked with,” New told IPS.

“Water is important for energy and agriculture. In Africa, specifically in terms of coping with the changing demographics as we move from a rural society to a more urban society, we have to be thinking in a integrated manner about the way climate change will impact and how decisions we make in one area, around water, will interact with other sectors we are interested in.”

New said the underlying principle of the climate convention is to avoid dangerous climate change and water was therefore implicitly included because the impacts of climate change will affect water along with all other sectors.

During September 2011, SADC ministers responsible for water instructed the SADC Secretariat to push for the inclusion of water as a standalone agenda item under the UNFCCC negotiation. There is debate on the challenges and opportunities of having water as standalone agenda in the negotiations.

Phera Ramoeli, Head of Water Programmes, Infrastructure and Services at the SADC Secretariat told a panel discussion after the launch of the CCA strategy that having water as standalone agenda item for UNFCCC negotiators would raise its profile to attract funding for adaptation.

“We feel it is important that water is a specific agenda item on climate change debate because water is an engine and catalyst for socioeconomic development and is linked to the GDP in most of our countries where GDP is increasing by three percent where there is more water and less than one percent where there is less,” Ramoeli said.

However, David Lessole, a negotiator for Botswana, differed. He said there is need to see water as a broad issue before putting up as a major agenda items for UNFCCC.

“For something to become major agenda it has to benefit me as well,” said Lessole. “As a negotiating partner I must see something in it, for example, in the case of agriculture I can sell you technology, you get more food and become climate resilient and therefore it’s a win-win but for water no, why should I do the job that your government should be doing.”

Lessole argued that there was plenty of water but it was being wasted and was not included in development planning. Hence until such a time that water was seen as broad issue and people were ready to talk about water technologies, they should not be pushing it on the UNFCCC agenda.

(END/2011)

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) wants to put water as a standalone agenda item on the COP17 agenda.

By Joshua Kyalimpa

DURBAN, South Africa, Nov 30 (IPS) – Managing the impact of increased disasters due to climate change will only be possible if such efforts are led by local communities, say non-governmental organisations working in climate change.

“We cannot use the excuse of money – or the lack of it – not to do anything. Yes, developed countries have to make financial commitments, but what if they don’t?” asks Charles Hopkins of the charity CARE International in Ethiopia, an international humanitarian organisation.

A deal on climate change at Durban might still be a far-fetched dream, but climate change-related disasters are already taking a toll around the globe.

According to a report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), increases in some extreme weather and climate events have already been observed and further increases are projected over the 21st century.

The Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, evaluates the role of climate change in altering characteristics of extreme events. It assesses experience with a wide range of options used by institutions, organizations, and communities to reduce exposure and vulnerability, and improve resilience, to climate extremes.

Speaking at a press conference at United Nations 17th Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa, IPCC executive director Dr. Kristie Ebi highlighted that while total economic losses from natural disasters could be high in developed countries; economic losses expressed as a proportion of GDP could be higher in developing countries.

Ebi says the IPCC will soon start meeting policy makers and politicians around the world to urge them take up measures for disaster reduction: “We are committed to outreach events over the coming months with a hope that politicians and policy makers will be encouraged to advance climate change adaptation.”

According to the IPCC report, deaths from natural disasters occur much more in developing countries. Information obtained from 1970 to 2008 by the experts’ shows that more than 95 percent of deaths from natural disasters were in developing countries.

Most governments have, however, not put in place policies for disaster risk reduction. Hopkins says governments, especially those in Africa, have to take to protect people and their property.

“People have to be given the right information because information on disaster reduction remains at the top and often the affected people don’t even get it,” says Hopkins

Professor Richard Klein, of the Stockholm Environment Institute and a member of the international panel of experts, says people actually don’t have to rely on international agreements.

“Local actions by the people need to be supported because they are the most vulnerable and are more likely to put effort into adaptation measures,” says Klein.

Klein says risk management works best when tailored to local circumstances.

But Nurudeen Adebola Olanrewaju of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, a Nigeria- based policy centre, says that while the report talks about what people are already experiencing, more was needed to drive action.

“Risk management requires actions, ranging from improving infrastructure to building individual and institutional capacity, in order to reduce risk and respond to disasters but these require money which politician must make available,” says Olanrewaju.

A separate report released by the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), the technical arm of the Climate for Development in Africa programme, based at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa shows that of the 29.2 billion dollars pledged since 2009, only between 2.8 and 7.0 billion dollars is “new” (i.e. not previously pledged).

The total amount of funds that are both “new and additional” (i.e. on top of aid budgets) would be less than 2 billion dollars. While 97 percent of the promised 30 billion dollars has been pledged, only 45 percent has been “committed”, 33 percent has been “allocated” and only about 7 percent has been “disbursed”.

The report released today on the sidelines of the climate talks here in Durban finds that there are many lessons to be learnt from the current “fast start finance” system. This system, agreed at the Copenhagen climate conference, was supposed to deliver 30 billion dollars in “new and additional” funding to developing countries.

Launching the report, Yacob Mulugetta, senior energy and climate specialist at the ACPC said: “The experience with the ‘fast-start’ pledges and discussions of the 100 billion dollars promise suggests that the adequacy and predictability of climate finance may remain very low if the future climate finance architecture reflects current practice.”

(END/2011)

Farming in Gabon, West Africa

By Kristin Palitza

DURBAN, South Africa, Nov 30 (IPS) – Global climate change can now be observed from space. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched a new technology that can survey the world’s forests via satellites and provide a more accurate, global picture of common threats to the environment, such as deforestation, degradation or illegal logging.

Using a remote sensing surveying technology, FAO has taken and analysed more than 13,500 high-resolution satellite images in 102 countries. These images will help nations to accurately assess the state of their forests. Monitoring change in forests has important implications for biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and human livelihoods.

The losses in forests all around the world can now be quantified for the first time, FAO announced at the U.N. 17th Conference of the Parties climate change summit, which is taking place from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 in Durban, South Africa.

“It’s a very comprehensive study of the world’s forests. For the first time we have consistent and comparable global and regional long-term data on forest loss land use. Up until now, most available data has come in numbers, not maps (based on satellite images),” explained FAO forest monitoring scientist Adam Gerrand.

As a result, very few countries have been able to monitor the impact of climate change and human intervention on their forests consistently over time.

“We have been lacking good data on deforestation and urgently needed more details about the dynamics of forest loss. We didn’t get the whole story until now,” Gerrand added.

The initial findings from the high-resolution satellite data show that the world’s total forest area shrank by an average of 14.5 million hectares per year between 1990 and 2005. It largely occurred in the tropics, likely attributable to the conversion of tropical forests to agricultural land.

“The rate of forest loss has increased from four million hectares in 1990s to six million hectares between 2000 and 2005,” said Gerrand. “We are losing vital carbon storage, biodiversity and other values forests provide.”

There is some good news, too, however. The survey shows that deforestation does not happen quite as fast as countries have been reporting. The new data showed a net loss of 73 million hectares between 1990 and 2005 compared to previous net loss estimate of 107 million hectares for the same time period.

During that time, the loss of forests was highest in the tropics, where just under half of the world’s forests are located, followed by Africa. Asia was the only region to show net gains in forest land-use area in both periods. Deforestation occurred here as well, but the extensive planting that has been reported by several countries in Asia, mainly China, exceeded the forest areas that were lost.

All satellite images are taken a hundred kilometres apart and comprise 10 square kilometres. They are classified, labelled and then passed on to the countries where they have been taken, so that governments can review and confirm the data.

“It’s a framework countries can use to improve forest resources,” explained Gerrand.

Some countries have already benefited from the new satellite technology. In Papua New Guinea, a small country in Oceania, for example, which is to 65 percent covered with forests, 41 satellite images were taken to establish the impact climate change had on its forest cover.

“Our country didn’t have the technology to assess forest degradation. The new satellite imagery improves the credibility of data,” said Dr. Joe Pokana, head of Papua New Guinea’s national climate change office. “We now plan to establish a robust national monitoring system that will help us to understand the level of degradation and inform policy.”

Similarly, Angola has started to survey the threat of deforestation via the photographic maps provided by the satellites. Forests currently make up 43.4 percent of the southern African country.

“We how have important information about how our forest resources are utilised, carbon stocks, environmental problems, causes of degradation and deforestation,” said Mateus Andre, the head of Angola’s forestry department. “For the first time, we have quality information on which we can base decisions.”

The new data are particularly important for developing regions like Africa, where existing information is often out-dated or of low quality due to lack of capacity. They differ from previous FAO findings in the Global Forest Resources Assessment of 2010, which were based on a compilation of country reports that used a wide variety of sources.

“Deforestation is depriving millions of people of forest goods and services that are crucial to rural livelihoods, economic well-being and environmental health,” said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO assistant director-general for forestry. “The new, satellite-based figures give us a more consistent global picture. Together with the broad range of information supplied by the country reports, they offer decision- makers at every level more accurate information.”

Further remote sensing studies are expected to reveal changes occurring since 2005. “Eventually we will be able to assign biomass to each site for the estimation of forest carbon emissions,” explained Frederic Achard, a scientist from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission who helped to develop the new imaging system.

Until then lies a long way ahead. Currently, the satellite technology can provide some important data, but not all. Admitted Gerrand: “We still have several decades worth of development ahead.”

(END/2011)

In pastoralist communities, mobile phones are crucial for alerting communities to droughts and reducing food insecurity. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu

DURBAN, South Africa, Nov 30 (IPS) – Francis Mburu used to keep indigenous cattle in Entasopia village in the semi- arid Kajiado region, 160 kilometres southwest of Nairobi. However, increasing temperatures and frequent droughts in Kenya have made this difficult in recent years.

But now, in an area that has never had electricity, where education is not a priority or sometimes not an option at all, residents of Entasopia are using a solar-powered internet facility to adapt to the changing climatic conditions.

The Nguruman community, largely composed of the Maasai ethnic group, now has access to an ICT facility locally known as Maarifa (“knowledge” in Swahili) Centre. Here they are able to access climate adaptation information via the internet, videos and books. The Arid Land Information Network (ALIN), in collaboration with the Kenyan government, founded the project.

According to Samuel Nzioka, the field officer for ALIN, most of the videos shown at the centre are practical lessons in local languages aimed at boosting the understanding of the concepts of climate change and adaptation, and basic dry-land farming knowledge.

“From reading agricultural books, listening to advice from field officers manning the centre, and watching video clips that show what other farmers are doing to adapt to the changing climatic conditions in other arid areas, I have learnt more resilient methods of animal husbandry,” said Mburu, a 56-year-old father of three.

Because of the project, Mburu now keeps a herd of 45 dairy goats, and has a poultry project. He sells the chickens to the ever-growing indigenous chicken markets in urban centres.

The goat’s milk he produces fetches a higher price compared to cow’s milk.

Climate change in East Africa has resulted in higher temperatures and prolonged droughts and has meant that farmers have had to adapt along with these changes.

“We have seen our pastoralists move to higher grounds in Ethiopia in search of greener pastures. We have seen animal species, that we thought could tolerate drought, die as a result of the prolonged drought. It means that it is not business as usual,” said Dr. Miano Mwangi, assistant director for Animal Production at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, and the national coordinator at the Kenya Arid and Semi-Arid Land programme.

It is successes like the one in Entasopia that has experts at the ongoing United Nations 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) urging the international community to consider technology transfer as one of the main methods of adapting to climate change.

“In Ghana, we call it climate education, where information communication technology is used to educate people of how to adapt to the new phenomenon,” Atsu Titiati, the Tree Programme director at the Ghana office of Rainforest Alliance, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of tropical forests, told IPS.

He said that in northern Ghana, communities rely on community-based radio to know what types of seed to plant during a particular season, and for the market value of their crops upon harvest.

“The government also uses community radio to warn people in advance whenever the weather forecast detects floods,” Titiati told IPS in Durban.

In Kenya, pastoralist communities use mobile phones to determine the market value of their animals.

“We have rolled out a project in Isiolo district with an aim of reducing food insecurity among the communities,” Rahab Mburunga, the data officer at ActionAid International – Kenya, told IPS.

Through the project, information about the market value of various crops and livestock is sent as short messages to subscribers’ mobile phones.

The project has also given mobile phones to community members so that they can distribute the information to other villagers who might not have phones.

“We have tried it and it is working,” Mburunga said.

In February, the Kenyan government developed a National Climate Change Technology Action Plan. One of the main objectives of this was to explore technology transfer opportunities and to establish national technology innovation centres.

In Mozambique, the government and non-governmental organisations use mobile phones to warn residents in flood-prone areas about the possibility of floods to ensure the timely evacuation of people.

“We usually send short messages to particular community representatives so that it is broadcasted to the rest of the community regarding floods, delayed rainfall or any other necessary agricultural information,” said Josh Ogada, the communication expert at Oneworld, a regional environmental organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa.

According to a statement released by the International Telecommunication Union at COP 17, these technologies hold the key to adaptation, but they remain underutilised in most African countries.

“Today’s advanced technologies can transform social, industrial and business processes to effect the changes needed to achieve sustainability. But while the potential of ICTs to make a real difference is widely recognised by the technology community and government ICT ministries, it is still far from being understood and embraced by environmental lobby groups and policymakers,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Africa is calling for more funding to implement climate change adaptation programmes.

“We have enough resources for adaptation in Africa, and all we need is the technology transfer backed with scientific evidence. However, our people cannot fully exploit them if we do not have access to proper channels of financing such technology transfers for adaptation,” Mithika Mwenda, the coordinator for the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance told IPS. (END)

Something like 50 steps are involved in making a bottle of tomato sauce. Credit: Nalisha Kalideen/IPS

Food production is one of the planet’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions producing global warming and will be the primary victim with yields falling as temperatures rise and rainfall patterns shift.

Those realities are not uppermost in the minds of most governments attending the international climate treaty meetings in Durban, South Africa this week according to the authors of new book addressing the challenges of climate, food, water and poverty.

“I’m astonished by how unaware policy makers are about the size of the carbon and ecological footprint of industrial agriculture,” said Michel Pimbert, a leading food and agriculture researcher at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Pimbert co-authors a new book called “Virtuous Circles” published last week in London. (Available as a free e-book)

“We’re inviting disaster with the current food production system,” Pimbert told IPS.

Some 193 nations are in Durban for COP 17 – negotiations for a new climate change treaty under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Industrialised food production wastes huge amounts of energy, water and other resources said Pimbert. Something like 50 steps are involved in making something as simple as a bottle of tomato sauce.

“The various bits that go into (tomato sauce) move huge distances. It makes no sense at all but agribusiness still makes money because they’ve rigged the system to work for them.”

Growing concerns about high food prices and rising numbers of hungry – more than one billion currently – has resulted in a number of high-profile “talking shops” – conferences and symposiums in the last two years said Pimbert. However, the small landholders or women who feed their families with small gardens that account for 85 percent of the world’s farms are rarely invited and their voices go unheard.

“A farmer in Mali told me that the leaders and experts in his own country are disdainful of village life and traditional knowledge. He said they have contempt for local farmers,” Pimbert said.

At big international conferences it is almost always elites talking to each other far removed from reality. Since these experts and professionals represent the status quo, they resist fundamental changes, he said.

“We need to hear other voices, the voices of local people.”

Without a major overhaul of the global food production system the multiple challenges humanity faces – climate change, food security, water shortages, loss of ecosystems and poverty – can never be addressed. That overhaul means a shift to locally-based productions systems that mimic natural cycles to produce food, energy, materials and clean water, writes Pimbert.

Natural systems are based on cycles like the water cycle. There is no “waste” in nature – waste is simply food for another species or converted into something that supports the cycle.

“Circular economy models that reintegrate food and energy production with water and waste management can also generate jobs and income in rural and urban areas,” said Pimbert. “This ensures that wealth created stays within the local and regional economy.”

“Virtuous Circles” arose out of a collaborative research effort with small landholders in Africa, China, Latin America and the Caribbean. The intent the book is to offer a vivid picture of a future that “spirals out” of the current ongoing crisis though sustainable and fair systems that provide food, energy, fibre housing and water, he said.

One example is a system that recycles food waste and chicken manure to feed a worm farm. The worms in turn feed the chickens and farmed fish whose bones are used as fertiliser in a market garden. Human waste via a compost toilet also enriches the garden, whose crops – together with the farmed fish and meat and eggs from the chickens – feed the people.

Havana, Cuba has a wide range of urban, ecological-based forms of agriculture that provides the city of two million people with half of its vegetables. Close to 70,000 hectares in and around the city are cultivated greatly reducing energy use for transport, storage and packaging. It is also a significant source of employment, helps reduce air pollution and improves the quality of life for residents the authors write.

Most sustainable food, water, energy and waste systems have been implemented in isolation. However, greater synergy can be obtained when ecological agriculture, renewable energy systems and sustainable water and waste management systems are all integrated. “This can contribute to food, water and energy security and also to financial security and poverty reduction through localised supply chains and fair trade initiatives,” the authors write.

This is not about going back in time. It is in fact a new, sophisticated approach that integrates traditional knowledge with the latest science. The purpose is to design climate- and planet-friendly systems that provide a better life for people, Pimbert said.

During the two weeks of climate talks in Durban there will be lots of talk about energy, food and water but only in a fragmented way. About 40 to 50 percent of greenhouse gases come from the food and agriculture system especially from industrial he said. Most studies only look at emissions from growing food but fail to include land use changes and deforestation, as well as emissions from food transport and processing. Addressing the food and agriculture carbon footprint can only be done by seeing food production, carbon emissions, water use, and livelihoods as an integrated system.

Existing policies have created the multiple crisis humanity faces largely because they are grounded on false assumptions that there are limitless sources of cheap energy and resources and endless capacity to dump wastes.

Among the needed changes the book recommends is an end to current policies encouraging the “mining of soils” to maximise yields and switch to those favouring the management of nutrient cycles.

Seed patent and intellectual property laws need reform to allow farmers to save seeds and have access to genetic resources. Global uniform standards for food safety that have all but eliminated small and local food processing need to shift to local standards for health and safety. Policies and practices in financial investment that favour land grabs need to change to policies that support local control and use over land.

“We can’t significantly reduce carbon emissions without addressing our food production systems in an integrated way,” Pimbert concluded. (END)

Credit: Claudius/IPS

DURBAN, Nov 28, 2011 (IPS)  Science tells us that we are heading for a climate crisis, yet it is within our means to change course.

However, some very worrying false solutions are on the table in the United Nations Climate talks (UNFCCC), for instance promoting the biofuels currently on the market, such as ethanol.

The term ‘biofuels’ is misleading. These plant-based fuels are better described as agrofuels for they are far from green.

Those who still argue that agrofuels emit much less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels mostly ignore the fact that emissions are released during production, as a result of land-use change, fertiliser application and processing.

Still, many governments, international financial institutions such as the World Bank and multinational agribusiness, oil and transport companies are promoting agrofuels as a solution to world energy needs.

Shifting from fossil fuels to agrofuels is not increasing the poor’s access to energy but aggravating existing problems such as land grabs, and creating particular challenges to food supplies due to a shift from food cropping to fuel cropping. Crucially, agrofuels can divert resources from clean, renewable energies like wind and solar.

Large-scale cultivation of agrofuels, unlike small-scale, locally produced and owned agrofuels activities, is usually accompanied by problematic activities such as intensive use of water, chemicals, fertilisers, and pesticides.

These often result in polluting, depleting and degrading available water resources, which can trigger famines.

Analysts have shown that there is not enough agricultural land on earth to grow agrofuels crops to meet the huge energy needs driven by our current and unsustainable ways of living.

It is worthy to note that a recent 2011 report on the ‘Global Hunger Index’ points to climate change, growing demand for biofuels, and increasing commodities futures trading in global food markets as the causes of price increases in food, which it says were also exacerbating the unfolding food crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Agrofuels are simply not a solution to the climate and energy crisis, although there is evidence that small-scale, locally produced and owned biofuels can be part of the solution when they help meet local needs.

In my country, Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its foreign partners acquired large chunks of land, in almost all the 36 states of the country, for the production of ethanol, from staples like cassava, sorghum and sugarcane.

Some of the agrofuels plantations and production plants are located in communities with pre-existing water shortages, which leave the communities with almost nothing to live on. Researchers from Friends of the Earth Nigeria found during one field visit that local people had not even been consulted by the state government before community lands were appropriated.

Africa looms large on the radar of agrofuels promoters and African governments see in them potentially huge financial benefits for the political and financial elites of the country.

But a substantial and increasing amount of scientific research shows that agrofuels are fuelling deforestation, biodiversity loss and soil degradation, water pollution and depletion and even climate change.

Decision makers must acknowledge that, and the fact that agrofuels have also been proven to fuel food price increases, hunger, land rights violations, conflicts, displacement and human rights abuses.

The fact that agrofuels have triggered a new scramble for Africa is no longer news. Millions of hectares are being grabbed with little concern for the poor who are bound to face displacement and for the impact that this will have on family farms and other small-scale farms and food production on the continent.

Agriculture contributes to more than a fourth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the UNFCCC texts do not make it clear that the main culprit is industrial agriculture with its dependence on chemical fertilisers and damaging monocultures, including agrofuel crops.

Small-scale farmers, on the other hand, mostly use agro-ecological practices which cool the planet instead of warming it.

Many governments, lobbied by companies, are pushing the UN climate negotiations to support false solutions to the climate crisis, for instance shifting to agrofuels and trading carbon emissions instead of cutting them.

As a consequence, our planet is heading for an average global temperature increase higher than 2 degrees, and the catastrophic consequences that science tells us will come with it.

Addressing the climate crisis requires binding targets for emissions reductions, targets enforced without so-called carbon offsetting, which is just a smokescreen to hide pollution-as-usual.

Voluntary emissions reduction targets such as those included in the Copenhagen Accord and the Cancun agreement are simply ineffective.

We have to stop all false solutions, including large-scale agrofuels. We should instead urgently invest in the real solutions, such as reducing consumption, improving energy efficiency, switching to clean renewable energy and to sustainable local food production.

While the official UN negotiations on climate change continue to progress at a snail’s pace, the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia in April 2010 made some headway and issued a ‘Peoples Agreement’ describing and demanding real solutions to the climate crisis.

* Nnimmo Bassey is the current Chair of Friends of the Earth International and the executive director and founding member of Environmental Rights Action.