La comunidad de Olonana Ole Pulei es una tribu de la etnia maasai de Kenia. Crédito: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

Por Isaiah Esipisu*

DURBAN, Sudáfrica, 9 dic (IPS)  Para la comunidad laibon, una tribu de la etnia maasai de Kenia, el bosque Loita, de 33.000 hectáreas, es un santuario.

“Nuestros dioses viven aquí. Juntamos hierbas de este lugar. Lo usamos para criar abejas. Por lo tanto forma parte de nuestro medio de vida”, dijo Olonana Ole Pulei sobre ese bosque ubicado en la occidental provincia keniata del Valle del Rift.

Ole Pulei estuvo en Durban, Sudáfrica, para representar a su comunidad en la 17 Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (COP 17).

Según Nigel Crawhall, del Comité Coordinador de los Pueblos Indígenas de África (IPACC, por sus siglas en inglés), diferentes comunidades africanas poseen increíbles conocimientos indígenas que usan en la conservación de los bosques y la biodiversidad en general, y esto debería reconocerse en las negociaciones climáticas.

Crawhall puso como ejemplo a las comunidades de pigmeos bambuti y batwa, en el oriente de la República Democrática del Congo, que conservan los bosques utilizando métodos tradicionales. Ambos grupos dependen de la biodiversidad animal de los bosques ecuatoriales para sobrevivir.

“Por lo general saben identificar árboles que pueden talarse para crear una apertura única en la bóveda (forestal), lo que permite entrar la luz en los cerrados bosques del Congo. Luego la luz atrae a pájaros e insectos que ellos pueden cazar”, dijo Crawhall a IPS.

Esto ayuda a conservar la biodiversidad y, en particular, los bosques, porque este método solamente puede funcionar si la bóveda forestal está intacta.

En Kenia, la cultura maasai prohibe a los miembros de la comunidad talar árboles, ya sea para obtener leña o con cualquier otro fin. También está prohibido interferir con las raíces principales o eliminar toda la corteza de un árbol para extraer sustancias herbáceas.

Sus creencias indican que solo se pueden usar las ramas para hacer leña, y las raíces fibrosas como hierbas. Si la corteza del árbol tiene valor medicinal, solamente se puede aprovechar porciones pequeñas, tallando una “V” sobre ella. Luego ese corte se sella usando tierra húmeda.

Esta práctica se ha transmitido de generación en generación en la comunidad maasai. Entre los laibons, son los conocimientos indígenas los que han ayudado a conservar el bosque Loita.

Los miembros de la comunidad consideran que talar un árbol es atentar contra los dioses y contra su cultura.

Si bien todos los africanos son nativos de su continente, Crawhall señala que los grupos que conservan la definición de indígenas son aquellos que viven de la caza y la recolección, mientras otros practican la ganadería pastoril o la agricultura de secano.

Pese a que no hay una definición estándar sobre estas poblaciones, la Declaración de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (2007) reconoce que comunidades particulares, debido a circunstancias históricas y ambientales, se han encontrado fuera del sistema estatal y han quedado poco representadas en materia de gobernanza.

“Los bosquimanos de África austral, o la comunidad ogiek de Kenia, que viven en los bosques, son ejemplos típicos de grupos categorizados como indígenas”, dijo Crawhall.

África tiene más de 40 pueblos que sobreviven completamente gracias a la caza y la recolección, señaló.

IPACC trabaja estrechamente con 155 comunidades de 22 países africanos que se reconocen como originarias a causa de sus circunstancias históricas y ambientales.

En consecuencia, representantes de estas comunidades se han unido al resto del mundo en Durban para hacer oír sus voces, a fin de que sus aportes a la conservación forestal se reconozcan como parte de los esfuerzos de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático.

“Creemos que los conocimientos ecológicos tradicionales africanos son el cimiento de políticas nacionales de adaptación adecuadas y efectivas”, dijo Crawhall.

A través de la secretaría de IPACC, las 155 organizaciones comunitarias existentes en África redactaron un borrador con su posición para la plataforma de negociación. Reclamaron que los negociadores representen a todas las partes africanas: organizaciones indígenas, autoridades y sistemas de valores tradicionales.

Exigen la formación de una entidad regional legalmente vinculante en el marco de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para manejar asuntos de conservación que son difíciles de tratar en el ámbito nacional.

“Una de las brechas dominantes en la mayoría de los países miembro de IPACC es que no hay (derechos reconocidos sobre la) tenencia de la tierra para las comunidades que viven en los bosques o dependen de ellos”, dijo Crawhall.

Sin embargo, varios países liderados por Kenia han empezado a responder a las necesidades de sus comunidades locales incluyéndolas en sus estrategias de adaptación al cambio climático.

Kenia está en proceso de redactar un proyecto de ley de adaptación al cambio climático. Y las comunidades indígenas aportarán su perspectiva en ese texto porque, según la Constitución, se las debe consultar al elaborar iniciativas legislativas.

“Atravesamos todo el país buscando opiniones sobre este proyecto. (…) Nuestra visión es participar y liderar en el desarrollo y la implementación de políticas sensibles al cambio climático, así como proyectos y actividades dentro y fuera de nuestras fronteras”, dijo John Kioli, presidente del Grupo de Trabajo de Kenia sobre Cambio Climático, presente en Durban.

* Este artículo es parte de una serie apoyada por la Alianza Clima y Desarrollo (CDKN).

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 9 (IPS) – For the Laibon community, a sub-tribe of Kenya’s Maasai ethnic group, the 33,000-hectare Loita Forest in the country’s Rift Valley Province is more than just a forest. It is a shrine.

Olonana Ole Pulei’s community is a sub-tribe of Kenya’s Maasai ethnic group. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

“It is our shrine. Our Gods live there. We gather herbs from the place. We use it for bee- keeping. It therefore forms part of our livelihood,” said Olonana Ole Pulei, who is in Durban, South Africa, to represent his community at the ongoing 17th Conference of Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

According to Nigel Crawhall, the Director of Secretariat for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), different African communities have incredible indigenous knowledge that they use in the conservation of forests and biodiversity in general, and this should be recognised during the negotiations in Durban.

“Different communities have different practices that they use in forestry conservation,” he said.

Crawhall gave an example of how the Bambuti and Batwa pygmy communities, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, conserved the forest using traditional methods. Both communities depend on the biodiversity of animal life in the equatorial forests in order to survive.

“Usually, they know how to identify particular trees that can be cut down in order to create a unique opening on the canopy, which attracts light in the closely-packed Congo forests. The light then attracts animals, birds and insects, thus giving them an opportunity to hunt,” Crawhall told IPS.

This helps conserve the biodiversity, as well as the forests because this method can only work if the forest canopy is intact.

In Kenya, the Maasai culture forbids any community member from cutting down a tree, either for firewood or any other purpose. People are also forbidden from interfering with the taproots or removing the entire bark of a tree for herbal extraction.

According to their cultural belief, one can only use tree branches for firewood, and fibrous roots for herbs. If the bark of a tree has medicinal value, then only small portions of it can be removed by creating a “V” in the bark. The wound is then sealed using wet soil.

“We believe that the soil helps in healing the wound on a tree. This is cultural, and we all believe that it is an abomination for one to injure a tree, and not help it heal,” said Ole Pulei.

It is a practice that has been passed down from generation to generation among Maasai community members. Among the Laibon community, it is this indigenous knowledge that has aided in the conservation of the Loita Forest.

“All logging activities observed on Maasai land, including the destruction of the Mau Forest, are done by foreigners because the Maasai culture does not allow such activities. This is the indigenous knowledge that helps in forest conservation,” Ole Pulei told IPS.

Such beliefs make the forests part of the community, where community members have feelings for the trees, and where cutting down a tree could amount to an offence against the Gods and their culture.

“We have several other communities all over the continent who co-exist with forests. They include the Tuareg community in Algeria, Yiaku community in Kenya’s Laikipia region, the Ogiek community also in Kenya, the Kung community in Botswana among others,” said Crawhall.

Though according to Crawhall, all Africans are indigenous although there are some groups who live by hunting and gathering, while other groups practice pastoralism, and others practice dry-land farming.

Despite the fact that there is no standard definition of indigenous people, the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognises that particular communities, due to historical and environmental circumstances, have found themselves outside the state system and underrepresented in governance.

“The Bushmen of the Southern African region, or the Ogiek community in Kenya who live in forests are a typical example of groupings categorised as indigenous,” said Crawhall.

He points out that Africa has more than 40 groupings in different countries that survive entirely on hunting and gathering. However, IPACC works closely with 155 communities from 22 African countries who are recognised as indigenous because of their historical and environmental circumstances.

As a result, representatives from these communities have joined the rest of the world in Durban to have their voices heard, so that their contributions to forest conservation are recognised as part of the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

“We believe that African traditional ecological knowledge is the foundation for appropriate and effective national adaptation policies,” said Crawhall.

Through the IPACC secretariat, the 155 community-based organisations in Africa have drafted their position for the Durban negotiation platform. They want the negotiators to come up with a position that is representative to African parties, indigenous African people’s organisations, traditional institutions, traditional authorities and value systems.

They are calling for the formation of a regional body that is legally binding under the United Nations, to handle issues on conservation that are difficult to deal with at national level.

“One of the prevailing gaps in most of the IPACC-member countries is that there is no land tenure for communities who live in forests, or depend on forests,” said Crawhall.

However, different countries have started responding to the needs of their local communities by including them in their national climate change adaptation strategies, with Kenya taking the lead.

The country is in the process of drafting the Climate Change Adaptation Bill. And the indigenous communities will have their say on the bill because according to the constitution, they must be consulted on draft legislation so that they can make contributions.

“We have traversed the entire country seeking views on this bill, where local communities have been able to give their contributions. Our vision is to participate and lead in the development and implementation of climate change sensitive policies, projects and activities within and outside our Kenyan borders,” said John Kioli, the chairman for the Kenya Climate Change Working Group, who is attending the Durban climate change negotiations.

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

Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

Entire societies will be lost forever if we delay reaching a climate change agreement in Durban, warns Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of the Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust (COAST).

“Let us not be witness to that unfortunate happening. Extreme events beyond everybody’s expectation are now observed more and more frequently and we know the consequence of that,” Chowdhury said.

Governments of low-lying island states such as the Maldives, the Bahamas, or the Pacific nation of Kiribati say their very physical existence is threatened by sea level rise of one metre – anticipated to take place by 2100.

Chowdhury’s home country, Bangladesh, is also caught in the crosshairs of global warming – rising temperatures and sea levels, changing weather patterns increasing catastrophic flooding from both swollen rivers and storm surges from intensifying monsoons will hit this low-lying, agriculture-dependent country full in the face.

A map produced by the United Nations Environment Programme shows that an area of this South Asian state that is home to 15 million people will be entirely submerged by a one-metre rise in sea levels. Long before then, increasing numbers of floods will erode riverbanks, and destroy homes, farms, roads and other infrastructure while taking longer to recede, hampering agriculture. Lingering floodwater will test public health systems wrestling with waterborne diseases.

The fears of Bangladesh and other low-lying states are an urgent reminder as the 17th Conference of Parties remains unlikely to agree on even a minimal programme of emissions reductions by developed countries – historically the worst polluters – or financial assistance for vulnerable developing nations.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon poured cold water on the talks Tuesday Dec. 6 when he told delegates that a global, legally-binding deal on climate change could well be off the agenda for now. He blamed grave economic troubles in many countries for overshadowing the talks, which are now in their second week but little tangible progress before they conclude on Dec. 10.

South African Bishop Geoff Davies head of the Anglican Church compared rich countries’ behaviour in Durban to apartheid, saying wealthy nations were trying to keep power and wealth for themselves. “Decision makers need to put the needs of people and the planet before profits.”

The parties remain sharply divided. Coastal states, small island nations and the Africa group are pushing for a second commitment by developed countries to reduce emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The U.S. and Canada say any new commitment should be delayed until after 2020. These two governments are also rejecting a legally-binding global agreement. Japan at one point threatened to pull out altogether.

The European Union has taken up a position somewhere in the middle, proposing a second commitment period to start somewhere around 2015. The EU also says this is on condition that other polluters – such as fast-growing China – are brought on board.

“We have committed under Kyoto and we have actually over achieved in the first commitment period,” said Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Action. “But Europe only accounts for 11 percent of global emissions and that is why we are saying two things. We are ready to agree a second commitment period even though the family of countries who are ready to do so is shrinking; however we need reassurance that if we lay down a bridge to the future, then others will follow.”

The Congolese chair of the Africa Group, Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, says it’s hard to understand why the developed countries are behaving as they are.

“They says they want rules on climate change, but they don’t like the Kyoto Protocol. It’s hard to comprehend. If you want the mango, then you have to like the mango tree also,” he said. “If you want the carbon markets to continue, you must have robust transparent rules to continue – you have to keep the mango tree (binding emissions reduction agreements).”

He said the Africa Group is looking to the rich countries which have enjoyed a certain level of development at the cost of everyone’s atmosphere to now show leadership on climate change.

“They have shown us economic leadership, they have shown us political leadership and sometimes even military leadership, so let’s see them show us climate leadership.”

The pessimsism expressed by Secretary General Ban and COAST’s Chowdhury hangs over the conference venue, but some – like Paul Mafabi, a negotiator from Uganda – say it was already foregone conclusion that a deal would not be struck because of the economic crisis gripping the biggest offenders.

It’s perhaps worth remembering that small island and developing states are threatened not just by economic crisis, but by devastating and permanent disaster. And the real baseline demand of small island and developing states – measures to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and avoid devastating changes in these vulnerable states – is not even on the table.

(Ends)

Jolene Beukes. Credit: Andre Marais/TerraViva

DURBAN, Dec 7 – (TerraViva) Cape Town couple Johannes and Jolene Beukes travelled across the country to Durban at their own expense to attend an assembly of the world’s indigenous peoples at the Peoples’ Space, the alternative conference taking place in conjunction with the U.N. Climate Conference.

Dec. 1 had added importance for the Beukes because it marks the day known as Emancipation Day in South Africa – a commemoration of the date in 1834 when slaves in the Western Cape were legally freed from their bondage.

Cape Town was for several centuries a slave port, where the buying and selling of human cargo endured for several centuries. Many people in the Cape can trace their ancestry to this period, when slaves were brought from places like Indonesia, Malaysia, Ceylon, Mauritius, India and Mozambique and mixed with the original nomadic Khoisan herders. These diverse origins can still be seen in the faces and features of most Black Capetonians who were classified as Coloured or “mixed race” under apartheid.

Commemoration of emancipation has recently been revived, mostly thanks to the efforts of people like the Beukes; there is a renewed determination not to let South Africans forget about this shameful chapter of their history. People linked to the District Six Museum (itself marking a major forced removal of some 60,000 Black people from near Cape Town’s city centre beginning in 1966) have organised an annual vigil and night march through the city, despite regulations prohibiting the event in recent years,

“We insist that this march be held at night, because during slavery, slaves were subject to curfews and forbidden to venture out at night,” Jolene Beukes says angrily.

Turning to the question of climate change, Beukes talks about indigenous people as aardmense – people of the soil – with a strong connection to the land and conservation which has often been broken by dispossession in many places around the world.

Many of the solutions to climate change that have been put forward ignore indigenous people or even worse, threaten them with further dispossession, for example by blocking people’s use and access to forests in the name of conservation.

Along with other indigenous people gathered in Durban, Beukes wants to see a restoration of the land and sustainable use of it: an emancipation of the original inhabitants goes hand in hand with an emancipation of ecosystems from destructive development.

But how will you mark Emancipation Day at COP17 – so far away from Cape Town? I ask her.

“By spiritually connecting with others, by talking about the threats to our planet and the remaining indigenous communities in other parts of our country, with people concerned about these issues,” she replies.

“We still live with different kinds of slavery – alienated from our environment, trapped in alcohol and drugs… COP 17 gives me the opportunity to reflect with others about my past and my remarkable ancestry, but also connect with other First Nation indigenous people from around the world who have experienced similar dispossession – the details may be different but the suffering is the same.”

* 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)

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, 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 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)

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.

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Tract of rainforest cleared by burning in the state of Acre, Brazil. Credit:Mario Osava/IPS

DURBAN, South Africa, Nov 29 – (IPS) Organisations working with indigenous peoples living in forests say the United Nations programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) is just another way for big corporates to reap huge profits.

REDD+ has been touted as a global scheme to conserve forests, enhance carbon stocks and support sustainable forest management.

“It is a system where you pour a lot of money into forests that will attract powerful international investors who will make big profits,” warned Simone Lovera, managing director of the Global Forest Coalition, a worldwide network of more than 50 non-governmental organisations and Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She spoke during the U.N. 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17), which is taking place in Durban, South Africa, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9.

Lovera does not contest that deforestation and forest degradation are key climate change culprits. Caused by agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development or destructive logging, they account for nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N., more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector.

REDD+ is supposed to turn this around. Since it was started in 2005, the programme enables industrialised countries in the North to reward reductions of carbon emissions to nations in the South. It is basically a system of performance-based payments that are financed through global carbon markets. The U.N. predicts that finance for greenhouse gas emission reductions from REDD+ could reach up to 30 billion dollars per year. The money is supposed to go towards pro-poor development, help conserve biodiversity and secure vital ecosystem services.

But indigenous communities say this is not so. It was big, international forestry businesses that ultimately benefited from the carbon deals, not the locals who have lived in and off the forests for many generations. Instead, locals are kicked off their land to make space for large monoculture plantations aimed at offsetting carbon emissions in the north.

Lovera said there are many risks inherent to REDD+ that indigenous communities are unable to address because they lack access to information and education, such as forced, non-transparent contracts and land grabbing. What forest-dependent communities need instead, she argued, are national public policies that support sustainable forest management.

Lovera said the U.N. promise of the scheme generating billions of dollars annually was “a big fairytale”, a way of green washing. “There won’t be big carbon financing for REDD+. Carbon markets are collapsing. It’s a very risky scheme that is creating havoc all over the world,” she cautioned.

Her prediction is likely to be correct. A World Bank draft report, written for a G20 meeting in November and leaked to the Britsh Guardian newspaper in September, confirmed the trouble global carbon markets are in. “The value of transactions in the primary CDM market declined sharply in 2009 and further in 2010 … amid chronic uncertainties about future mitigation targets and market mechanisms after 2012,” the World Bank stated.

In the meantime, the U.N. continues to pump large amounts of finance into REDD+. Last month, for example, Nigeria’s national REDD+ programme received four million dollars in funding, which the U.N. says brought total funding in 14 countries worldwide to nearly 60 million dollars. The funds are aimed at increasing the capacity of national governments to implement carbon-saving strategies together with local groups, such as indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities.

“The U.N.-REDD programme’s support is invaluable because climate change is a global problem and the issues of REDD+, sustainable forest management and sustainable livelihoods cannot be handled by the country alone,” said Salisu Dahiru, national coordinator for REDD+ in Nigeria.

But organisations working with forest-dependent communities say the benefits for local people are minimal.

“We say very clearly ‘no’ to REDD+. Under it, people are being expelled from nature so that big industries can profit from carbon storage,” argued Winnie Overbeek, the international coordinator of the World Rainforest Movement, a non-governmental organisation based in Montevideo, Uruguay.

In Uganda, for example, a case was documented where 22,000 people were violently evicted from the Mubende and Kiboga districts earlier this year to make way for the United Kingdom-based New Forests Company to plant trees, to earn carbon credits and ultimately to sell timber. Similar incidents happened to indigenous peoples all over the world, said Overbeek.

“REDD+ is about making more profit, continuing pollution and disrespecting the rights of forest people all over the world. It’s about land grabbing,” he warned. “It’s time to stop thinking about REDD+ and start protecting local populations and their land rights.”

Marlon Santi, a member of the Quichua indigenous community that lives in the Amazon Region of Ecuador, said he has experienced first-hand how REDD+ took away people’s livelihoods. The scheme has led to mega forestry projects that exist to the detriment of local people.

“Forests have become a negotiating space to make money. They are used as business opportunities. That’s unacceptable to us,” said Santi. “REDD+ projects are hypocritical. We need real political solutions that benefit everyone.”

He hoped the negotiators at this year’s COP 17 will grant an open ear to his people’s needs.

Port of the Amazon indigenous community of San Miguel on the Pirá Paraná River, in the department of Vaupés, Colombia. Credit: María Cristina Vargas/IPS Buy this picture

In the Amazon region of Colombia, national parks comprise around seven million hectares of land. The national security areas designated by the Ministry of Defense on the country’s borders encompass another 4.8 million hectares, although they could be redemarcated.

In the Amazon region as a whole there are currently valid mining titles for 138,571 hectares of land. Requests are being processed for titles that would cover a further 5.4 million hectares, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

“Unfortunately,” warned Von Hildebrand, “we also have to keep in mind that while certain areas are being defended, such as national parks and national security areas, the people who are there now looking for minerals will move to other areas without this kind of protection.”

This is why there is a need for strict policies for monitoring and control of other parts of the rainforest, he added.

Sixty percent of the Colombian Amazon is forested area with a certain degree of protection. Mining titles can be granted in these areas, but require an environmental license.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy’s announcement that it is studying the cancellation of mining concessions was made on Oct. 26 at the presentation of the Amazonas 2030 Index, developed by an alliance of the same name which collects social, environmental and economic data on the Colombian portion of this rainforest that constitutes the heart of South America.

The study is innovative in that it grants the same importance to the dimensions of the environment and indigenous communities as it does to economic, social and institutional dimensions. Each has a weight of 20 percent. The lowest possible value for the index is zero (the worst scenario) and the highest is 100 (the best).

The result is a balanced strategic analysis: just the vision required in the face of the environmental crisis and climate change, in contrast to typical studies that emphasise economic considerations.

The key lies in measuring the quality of life of ecosystems. If this were measured in the Amazon according to the index of unsatisfied basic needs, the result would be that Amazon indigenous communities live in extreme poverty, and this is not the case.

By taking into account the environmental component and indigenous communities’ ancestral knowledge of and ties with their territories, it can be objectively verified that the rainforest and culture provide quality of life.

Meanwhile, through dozens of variables that could be classified as “conventional” – such as educational level and public services – the index measures the effects of public policies, in the first place, and private management, secondly.

“The idea is that, for better or worse, this is what the state is dealing with in the Amazon. And then, it is a matter of making it understood that these indicators for the Amazon are developed on other bases,” biologist Natalia Hernández, who coordinated the initial design of the Amazonas 2030 study, told Tierramérica.

“Simply taking into account the cultural, social and environmental dimensions to the same degree as economic and institutional dimensions paves the way for a vision of development from the perspective of the Amazon,” she added.

Amazonas 2030 is an alliance of non-governmental organisations, the private sector and the media aimed at promoting sustainability and quality of life in the Colombian Amazon and positioning the region on national and global agendas.

Its name refers to the fact that, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change, if the current rate of deforestation continues, by 2030 more than half of the Amazon rainforest will be severely damaged.

Official figures on the Colombian Amazon region are so lacking that the researchers specified that “it was difficult to obtain a large part of the data, especially figures on timber transport permits, ethnic education and the legalisation of extractive activities in forest reserves, among others.”

Moreover, the statistics gathered and included in the index correspond only to urban settlements. “The index does not reflect the cosmovision of indigenous peoples, due to the lack of data that could capture it,” the methodological notes indicate.

Perhaps the variables for which the lack of data is most significant are those related to health, which do not take into account the work of shamans, whose impact has never been measured.

The departments assessed are Amazonas, Putumayo, Caquetá, Guaviare, Vaupés and Guainía, which together cover 403,348 square km in south and southeast Colombia.

The Sinchi Amazonic Institute of Scientific Research includes nine municipalities in the department of Meta, one in Vichada, three in Cauca and four in Nariño in its definition of the Colombian Amazon region, leading to a total of 483,164 square km, or 42 percent of Colombia’s entire continental area of 1.1 million square km.

Colombia is home to 17 percent of the rivers in the entire Amazon region, which in turn is the source of 20 percent of the planet’s fresh water. Because of its huge size, the Amazon also contributes significantly to regulating the global climate.

But the geographic size of the Amazon varies, depending on three different ways of defining this area of extraordinary biological and cultural diversity.

One views the Amazon as a region or biome, and includes the Amazon River basin and parts of the basins of the Orinoco and Paraná Rivers. Another encompasses the basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries. And finally there is the political-administrative Amazon region in each individual country, used in terms of planning and development.

Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, like Colombia, are referred to as “Andean” countries. In reality, however, almost half of their territories falls within the Amazon rainforest region.

Venezuela defines its Amazon region as including only the Amazon River basin, on the southern edge of the southern state of Amazonas. The rainforests in the rest of the state of Amazonas and much of the state of Bolívar, south of the Orinoco River, are officially defined as the Venezuelan Guayana.

The overall result of the Amazonas 2030 Index is 51.4, although it is an average formed out of marked contrasts.

In the department of Caquetá, close to one half of the rainforest has been destroyed, in Putumayo, one quarter, and in Guaviare, one third. These three departments of the northwest Amazon region are characterised by a high proportion of European settlers, very few indigenous communities and reserves (territories under indigenous administration), numerous large cities and highly developed road infrastructure.

On the other hand, the departments of Amazonas, Vaupés and Guainía have very little deforestation, greater ethnic diversity, smaller urban centres, large reserves and national parks, and no road infrastructure.

The differences between these two sub-regions of the Colombian Amazon are clearly reflected in a perception survey conducted among the region’s inhabitants, also released by Amazonas 2030 but only covering urban centres so far.

*The writer is an IPS correspondent. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank. (END)