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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Members of African Civil Society organisations (CSO) on Climate change are worried that President Donald Trump may derail his country’s progress towards implementation of the Paris Agreement that seeks to slow global warming, which was coined particularly to accommodate the United States of America.“The Paris agreement was weakened because we were looking for a treaty that the US President could sign by Executive Instrument, since it is usually very difficult for US to be party to a legally binding treaty that require ratification by the Congress,” said Dr Seth Osafo, the Legal Adviser to the African Group of Negotiators at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).However, with the president’s latest moves to dismantle the legacy of his predecessor Barrack Obama, CSO representatives are afraid that even after accepting to weaken the treaty, Trump is likely to withdraw from the process.Their worries are complicated by the fact that during his campaigns, Trump had indicated that "the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." “He is a climate denier and that is very unfortunate for the entire world,” said Mithika Mwenda, the Secretary General for the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance during a workshop to review the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP 22), which was held in Marrakech, Morocco.In one of the presidential debates, Trump further said that the issue of climate change is an issue that requires further probing, and that money used to fight the phenomenon should be channeled to other uses."There is still much that needs to be investigated in the field of climate change. Perhaps the best use of our limited financial resources should be in dealing with making sure that every person in the world has clean water. Perhaps we should focus on eliminating lingering diseases around the world like malaria,” said Trump. Perhaps, he continued, “We should focus on efforts to increase food production to keep pace with an ever-growing world population. Perhaps we should be focused on developing energy sources and power production that alleviates the need for dependence on fossil fuels. We must decide on how best to proceed so that we can make lives better, safer and more prosperous.” To cement his words, he has already selected a close ally of the fossil fuel industry to head up the environment department, which analysts say may do a big blow to president Obama’s progress on climate change.So far, in less than fortnight after his inauguration, the President has already changed the federal government’s approach to the environment by clearing the way for two major oil pipelines that had been blocked by his predecessor. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
OPINION By Dr. Robin Buruchara I, like millions of others in Africa, can’t imagine what it would be like to live without beans.Venture onto any small farm in Uganda at meal time, and I can guarantee you that you will find beans on your plate. Come to think of it, venture onto any smallholder farm, low income urban home or boarding school across Africa at meal time, and you are more likely than not to find beans or some kind of pulse on your plate. And that’s despite the most severe drought that parts of the continent have seen in decades. Rains have been late or not come at all; water scarcity has devastated harvests, and incomes have been crippled. Yet beans remain a staple in the African diet, for more reasons than one. They’re inexpensiveand easy to grow, with seeds sourced from neighbours or family members. They’re nutritious: high in protein, fibre, carbohydrates, folic acid, iron and zinc. Our studies in Rwanda, for instance, show eating iron-fortified beans can actually reverse anemia and iron deficiency. They come in many shapes, sizes, colors and tastes. In many countries they a good source of income as they are easy to sell. And farmers know beans are a good bet to plant, because if most of their harvest fails and they can’t sell anything - at least they have some food at home. That’s why the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), works with national bean programs to strengthen cropping systems across 30 countries in Africa. But growing more beans is not a panacea for tackling malnutrition, improving soil fertility and improving incomes. And, significant challenges block the road to improve production. Despite the prominence of beans in the local diet and their versatility, the production and improvement of beans is not as high a priority in agricultural and nutritional policies as it ought to be. Their nutritional benefits are not incorporated into nutrition programs; their ability to combat climate change and make farmers’ fields more resilient are not spelled out in climate policy.It’s unlikely that farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa – where nitrogen is a commonly lacking crop nutrient – know that beans and other pulses can be used as an alternative or complementary source of nitrogen.They convert atmospheric nitrogen into nutrients the plant can use, by-passing problems associated with excessive fertilizer use - including water and air pollution, not to mention cost. They might not know which beans can be sold for a good income twice a year at the local market – especially important for women, who traditionally control earnings from the crop. They might not know which varieties can tackle anemia, or improve soil health. They probably don’t know that beans use less water and energy compared to most other protein sources, and that they are also relatively drought resilient compared with other crops.This needs to change. These are vital factors for farmers in Africa, who must prepare for more drought, longer dry seasons and shorter spells of unpredictable rainfall.…
Yaoundé (PAMACC News): A new scientific Report published on 11 January, 2017 shows that the Congo Basin Forest is not only the biggest and diverse on the planet after Amazon, but possesses the world’s largest peat soils that contain huge amounts of fossil fuels estimated to have accumulated since more than 10,600 years ago. The report published by scientists from UK and Congo led by Prof Simon Lewis and Dr Greta Dargie, from the University of Leeds and University College London shows that peat deposit cover the biggest ever vegetation area in the world.“We find extensive peat deposits beneath the swamp forest vegetation. Radiocarbon dates indicate that peat began accumulating from about 10,600 years ago, coincident with the onset of more humid conditions in central Africa at the beginning of the Holocene. The peatlands occupy large inter-fluvial basins, and seem to be largely rain-fed and ombrotrophic-like (of low nutrient status) systems” the report said.The researchers said they mapped the Cuvette Centrale peatlands using a combination of on-the-ground field surveys and satellite data. Core samples helped researchers plot peatland depths.The field measurement by the scientists of the depression in the central Congo Basin where the peat soil is found shows that it is the world’s most extensive regions of swamp forest, covering over 145,500 sq km and could contain over 30 billion tones of carbon stock , making the region one of the most carbon-rich ecosystems in the world, a record or data that was previously not known.“We estimate that the peatlands store approximately 30.6 petagrams of carbon belowground, a quantity that is similar to the above-ground carbon stocks of the tropical forests of the entire Congo Basin,” the report stated.Scientists say peatlands act as carbon sinks, removing carbon from the atmosphere through plant growth. Thus the rich Congo Basin peat soils and its waterlogged environment provides a huge opportunity to lock up carbon and fight against climate change .However experts say this opportunity will only produce the desired results if the rich forest and its Peatsoil are left undisturbed. “If the Congo basin peatland complex was to be destroyed, this would release billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere,” the scientists said in their reportPartners of the Congo Basin Forest in Kigali, Rwanda, for the 16th meeting of the organization in November 2016 to discuss the problems facing Africa’s rich ecosystem and seed pathways to help solve them pointed on the need for collective efforts and reinforced research efforts to help better protect the resources.“Millions of people in the Congo Basin Forest and its immediate vicinity rely on the forest for subsistence and this is very important to reinforce measures to protect the resources contained therein” said African Wildlife Foundation President, Kaddu Sebunya, in an interview in the meeting.Over 340 million dollars is spent in conservation efforts in the Congo Basin Forest today because of its importance to not only the natural ecosystems and the fight against climate but also in its role in socio-cultural wellbeing of the…
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - The leopard population in Kenya’s Nairobi National Park is on the decline due to what scientists think is disturbance of their migratory corridors. A seven year study has found out that encroachment of the leopard’s migration corridor is restraining the female to venture out to look for a male. This disrupts their mating cycles.For instance, the study, conservation biology for the leopards in Kenya, says a male leopard needs to control a terrain of about 100 square kilometers.The Nairobi national park, which hosts about 17 leopards is 117 square kilometers big. This means only a single male can control this territory, explains Yumi Yamane, a guest researcher at Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).“It can lead to violent confrontation for females and territory among the males leaving them severely wounded,” explains Yamane. “This can affect their mating ability.”But the leopard also likes to live in secrecy and explore its territory under the cover of the bush, she says.“This means the female leopard cannot go out to look for a mating partner because the migratory corridor has been disturbed by infrastructure development,” argues Yamane.According to the researcher, Nairobi national park is a very important habitat for the leopard because it likes to perch on trees.But huge infrastructural projects in road, railway and housing have led to the felling of trees within the leopards’ migratory corridor to pave way for construction.“Leopards like to perch and move around where there is plenty of tree cover,” argues Yumi. “If the migratory corridor is disturbed then their numbers will decline very soon.” KWS officials say they are trying to solve the problem by relocating the Nairobi leopard into other habitats like Meru national park.However, this is proving difficult because the newcomers must fight for acceptance in the new habitat.Oftentimes, the bullied cats stray into communities leading to increased human-wildlife conflict, argues Geoffrey Bundotich, an official at the Meru national park.“The communities are against the re-introduction of leopards from other parks because the cats often move and resettle outside the parks,” explains Bundotich.It is a challenge that KWS is grappling with, and according to Yamane, there is no solution in sight since the leopard is very difficult to monitor.However, Edin Kara, KWS officer in charge of parks and reserves, says the important thing is continued monitoring to find out how the re-introduced animals can be able to adopt.