MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Climate experts and development partners at the ongoing summit on climate change in Marrakech, Morocco have said that the world needs an integrated approach for climate resilience, and landscape management in order to feed the ever increasing global population.

Speaking at an event alongside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 22nd session of the Conference of Parties (COP 22) on climate change, Rawleston Moore of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) said there is need to sustain ecosystem service flows by ensuring healthy soils and vegetative cover,  need to diversify land use so that farmers have options in production systems, and also need to safeguard high value species to ensure availability of adaptive genetic resources for food, fuel and fiber.

“For the world to remain climate resilient, there is also need to preserve local traditional indigenous knowledge in an integrated approach,” said Moore, the Senior Climate Change Specialist for Adaptation at the GEF.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) the world population is expected to grow by over a third, or 2.3 billion people, between 2009 and 2050, with nearly all the growth taking place in the developing countries.

These trends, according to FAO, mean that market demand for food would continue to grow. Demand for cereals for example, for both food and animal feeds is projected to reach some 3 billion tonnes by 2050, up from today’s nearly 2.1 billion tonnes.

Amid the changing climatic conditions, experts have warned that without extra effort and innovative means of adaptation and food production, there will be a huge food deficit in the near future.

As a result, the GEF has released some $120 through Islamic Development Bank to support food security programmes in 12 African countries.

“Projects have been initiated in different African countries, and am very happy that people’s livelihoods have changed for the better,” said Dr Bashir Jama Adan, the Manager, Agriculture and Food Security Division at the Islamic Development Bank. “Those who depended on food aid can now feed themselves, and people are able to generate income from simple climate resilience projects,” he added.

According to Ketty Lamaro, the Under Secretary Department of Pacification and Development in the Office of Uganda’s Prime Minister, dryland food production projects in Northern Uganda have restored peace in areas such as Karamoja, where households who solely depended on pastoralism can now cultivate food as an alternative way of survival.

However, for communities to respond well to climate resilience programmes, Moore said that there must be political goodwill.

“We need policies to promote incentive mechanisms for good practices that deliver environment and development benefits at scale,” he said.

The Islamic Development Bank provides interest-free financing to vulnerable communities, where profits are shares equitably with the beneficiaries, and losses shared if at all they occur.

 

MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Experts at the ongoing climate talks in Marrakech have advocated the development and adoption of a policy and strategic framework that support expansion and mainstreaming of sustainable tourism certification in Africa.

Speaking at a side event in the Africa pavilion on the second day of the COP22 climate conference, water and tourism experts were unanimous in their view that African states should encourage and incentivise green certification of tourism, specifically in relation to monitoring and reducing water and waste.

This, according to them, will set the stage for existing African and International certification programs to have adequate criteria, and established processes and systems for working with the hotel sector to assess and monitor their waste and water management systems.

In addition to other environmental, social and socio-economic components of sustainable tourism, the framework will provide a mechanism to recognise that certification standards use a common and comprehensive approach to sustainability as well as summarise existing monitoring data being gathered by national tourism authorities and international/regional certification bodies specifically relating to the accommodation sector in Africa.

According to Dr. Anna Spenceley, a consultant with the African Development Bank (AfDB), African states can integrate sustainability criteria into their hotel quality-rating programs as a way of supporting Sustainable Development Goal 12 which places emphasis on responsible consumption and production, and also contribute to the objectives of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Tourism.

Jean Michel Ossete, the Coordinator of the African Water Facility, jointly sponsored by the AfDB and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) believes that the AfDB could support member states to raise awareness on the benefits of sustainable tourism certification in Africa particularly those with currently low levels of certification,improve linkages between established certification programs and member states, where there the program is aligned with the country’s objectives, and providing guidance on the design and implementation of incentives to promote improved waste and water management.

Recognising that sustainable tourism certification provides an independent mechanism for evaluating and measuring water and waste management in African hotels, Oseloka Zikora of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) advocated support for the development of national waste and water management capacity, to ensure that countries are able and willing to establish and enabling policy framework for good practices, and that hotels can implement them.  

“This should be done by providing technical advice and mentoring to governments on how they can promote better water and waste management and certification in the hotel sector through congruent policies, including through incentives, commissioning and sharing research findings on the financial and non-financial benefits of certification, and of good waste and water management practices, that provides clear quantification of the benefits that can be understood by decision makers,” Zikora added.

He further recommended the adoption of a train-the-trainers approach to making the outreach cost effective and locally relevant, as well as establish an online resource library containing tools on waste and water management, training guides and case study examples.

The experts also agreed on the need to develop external coordination and cooperation mechanisms to ensure good communication, linkages and compatible approaches.

Strategic partners identified for this include multi-laterals such as the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), bi-lateral organisations such as GiZ, and NGOs like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, the Travel Foundation and International Tourism Partnership, and also networks such as the Sustainable Tourism Certification Alliance Africa.

Collectively, the African and international certification programs have certified at least 715 accommodation facilities in 19 African countries, against their environmental, social and economic criteria.

Though the total actual number of hotels in Africa is not known, Booking.com lists 20,844 hotels in 51 of Africa’s 52 countries. It therefore implies that the number of hotels that are monitoring their waste and water consumption, and taking efforts to improve their practices, are a tiny proportion of the number of accommodation facilities on the continent.

MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - The African Working Group on Gender and Climate Change has identified gender integration as a key component to the continent’s implementation of the Paris Agreement (PA).

Chairperson of National Gender and Equality Commission of the African Working Group on Gender and Climate Change, Winfred Lichuma said integration is much more meaningful and could lead to positive results as opposed to mainstreaming, which has largely dominated the gender discourse, but with minimal impact.

“To achieve the required responsiveness, we need to move from gender mainstreaming to integration as it is much more deeper and addresses the inadequacies noted especially at implementation of policies and strategies,”Lichuma told delegates at a side event at COP 22 where an analysis of the PA and gender in Africa was presented.

Lichuma explained that integration would ensure that the excluded gender is involved at all levels as opposed to their needs just being mainstreamed in policies and strategies.

Highlighting Agriculture which is believed to be the main source of Africa’s emissions and largely dominated by women, Lichuma bemoaned the failure by the Paris Agreement to include more explicit recognition of the gender dimension.

And representing the Nigerian Minister of Environment on the panel, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC country focal point, Peter Tarfa said ignoring the gender dimension especially women in the implementation of the Paris Agreement would be suicidal.

“Climate Change vulnerability is more pronounced among women who are in the majority in most countries, and should be involved especially on critical issues such as climate finance,” said Dr. Tarfa, adding that Nigeria is reviewing its National Climate Change Policy to make gender inclusivity more visible.

Meanwhile, representing the African Union Commissioner, Olushola Olayidehad some good news for theAfrican Working Group on Gender and Climate Change, announcing that the African Union’s Climate Change Strategy is almost ready to be tabled for adoption.

“The AU Climate Change Strategy is almost ready, and will soon be tabled to the high level organ for adoption. I therefore encourage you to keep pushing the gender agenda at the negotiating table and ensure that it is part of the strategies for the implementation of the Paris Agreement,” she said.

Africa’s Agenda 2063 has a clear aspiration on gender, which is linked to youth development as the two have been identified key components to unlock Africa’s development potential.

Representing youths, Zambia’s Abel Musumali of Green Enviro Watch said “the implementation of the Paris Agreement will not be possible without women and youths” saying the two have a symbiotic relationship of mother and child, and are usually the face of climate change vulnerability in Africa.

And Tabi Joda, another youth ambassador on climate change concluded that a well-developed Agricultural system which accommodates the young people’s innovations, is the solution to youth and women vulnerability to climate change.

“Women and youth carry the burden of Africa’s poverty, destitution but the solution lies in empowering these two groups with agricultural solutions that work; all it requires is commitment,” said Joda, explaining his involvement in the promotion of climate smart agricultural innovations to entice youths into agriculture.

SIAYA, Kenya (PAMACC News) – When an American investor arrived in Siaya County in 2003 with a promise of transforming thousands of hectares that form the Yala Swamp into an agricultural and fish production potential, Mary Abiero, a mother of five children from Yiro village knew that a new brighter day had come.

But today, the 63 years old widow is one of the 280 women camping at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Arusha, Tanzania, representing over one million women in Africa who have been oppressed, and denied the right to own property, in particular land. 38 of the women will climb the mountain to the top as a symbol of elevating women voices to the highest physical location in Africa.

When he started his investment, the American farmer who had already acquired the entire Yala Swamp from the government decided to increase the portion from the original 3,700 hectares to 6,900 hectares so as to have enough reservoir of water for irrigated rice farming.

And to do so, he offered to buy land from all the neighbouring households at a predetermined price, which some farmers accepted, but others including Abiero rejected. But despite the objections, he went ahead to release water, which covered all the demarcated area including Abiero’s 10 acre (4 ha) piece, submerging houses, thus driving everybody from their private properties regardless whether they sold it or not.

Today, despite a court ruling that was issued in favour of the residents, Abiero is among hundreds of residents who watch from afar as someone mint profits from what belongs to them.

“We have tried all we can, we have visited administration offices time and again, but nobody seems to be interested in our plight,” said Abiero. “It is in this regard, despite my age, I have volunteered to follow other women and shout from the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro for the world to listen,” she said.

In another scenario in Malindi, along Kenya’s coastal line in Kilifi County, the story is no different. In 2001 for example, Chadi Charo Mwaringa, also a widow from Kanagoni Gundasaga village arrived home one day to a devastating reality. Her house, where she had been living with her late husband and children for decades had been pulled down by a salt mining company, which had allegedly bought the place.

“I got married here 40 years ago, and you can be sure very few local resident own land title deeds,” said the 67 mother of three grown up children. Along the entire coastal strip covering hundreds of thousands hectares of land, people have always lived a communal lifestyle for ages. The land has always belonged to the community, and not to particular individuals.

As a result, private developers have taken advantage to process title deeds for chunks of land, and used the legal document to forcefully evict residents from their ancestral homes.

“Lack of legal documents for land ownership is now the biggest problem in this area,” said Katana Fondo Biria, former area councilor who has not been able to process the title deed for his land due to bureaucracies, despite having served as a politician for five years from 1992.

Part of his land, including an airstrip which used to serve guests coming to his former Giriama Village Hotel has been taken over by a salt mining company.

“There are several cases of this nature in this area,” said Sifa Edward, who works for Malindi Rights Forum, a community based organisation that engages humanitarian organisations in an effort to solve the land equation in Malindi.

According to Philip Kilonzo, of ActionAid International Kenya, millions of people particularly women in the country and the entire continent are suffering due to land based injustices.

“Some cases are cultural, some are due to corrupt and inefficient systems, and others are political,” said Kilonzo.

It was based on these reasons that ActionAid, in collaboration with several other civil society organisations all over Africa organised for the ‘Mt. Kilimanjaro initiative’ whose aims is to create space for rural women to be able to participate in decision making processes about issues dear to them.

With access to and control over land and natural resources as an entry point, four regional caravans have already departed simultaneously from the North, South, East and Western Africa regions. This will culminate into a mass African rural women’s assembly and a symbolic ascent by a delegation of women.

The women plan to proclaim a charter of principles and demands specifically on women’s access to and control over their land.

END