“In response I felt convicted that Gods’ call is for us to be caring over all that he has given us according to his wisdom and that our failure (sin) has lead to destruction, poverty and death of many. We therefore, as God’s children, must arise to our God-given responsibilities.”

Further north, the Ugandan Muslim Youth Assembly has concentrated on forest and tree planting, with 50,000 trees planted in the past two years, and more than 700,000 trees planned for the next two.

Immam Ibban Iddih Kasozi explained that people are cutting down trees for construction, furniture, and fuel: “Wood is the biggest fuel source in Uganda,” he said. “The only way of ensuring there is wood for the next generations is to do this programme.”

“Our community believes in community work. All is jama, all is congregation: we believe that everything that we do is a prayer: this is why we have undertaken this plan.”

Elimringi Abraham Maringo from the Northern Diocese of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania said a whole generation had grown up never planting a tree and they were the ones cutting the trees down. That is why all faith groups should engage young people in nurturing the care of trees so that this generation loves trees and sees them as their responsibility. The church plans to plant 8.5 million trees.

In Kenya, SUPKEM, an umbrella body of all Muslim organsiations, societies, mosque committees and groups with around six and a half million members across Kenya in over 4 thousand groups committed itself to launch a long-term programme of training for sheikhs, imams and madrasa teachers on the importance of environmental conservation from an Islamic perspective. It commits to getting that message out through local religious FM stations and through Friday prayers and through schools.

It will promote widespread tree planting activities, as tree planting is one of the greatest virtues in Islam- and start work on an educational kit on environmental conservation for use in madrassas.

A similar body in Nigeria, Qadiriyyah Movement, with an estimated 15 million followers, 1500 full time imams and it runs 118 primary schools, 34 secondary schools, two theological colleges and has 8000 mosques committed to develop tree nurseries to supply the schools with seedlings.

At the schools to grow food organically for sale through kiosks in Kano city.

To organise weekly collections of the polythene water bags with up to 120,000 children every week collecting 100 each. These will be recycled or used as tree sapling bags.

To Green the Kano pilgrimage which brings up to 4 million pilgrims to the city and is a commitment as part of the Green Pilgrimage Network launched last year by ARC.

Not to be left behind is the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church with 43.5 million followers in 70,000 parish churches with 6.5 million children in Sunday Schools and 3000 monasteries.

45% of parish churches have forests and 75% of its monasteries are surrounded by faith protected forests. The church and monastery has traditionally been centres for protection of indigenous biodiversity as well as the centre for faith based respect for nature.

Their commitments include creating a full inventory of Church owned forests and developing a protection and management plan for them all.

Create within each monastery a centre for improved technology and skills for sustainable land management.

Install biogas digesters within all monasteries.

In Southern Africa, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa with 10 million believers and around 1000 clergy with 5000 parishes and mission centres in 53 countries committed to establish a new Environmental Centre in Johannesburg as the Church’s main training centre.

All churches will keep September 1 a day of prayer and action on the environment.

The Church will also advocate that no industrial products are brought to Africa and no waste discarded here if the country of origin would not itself accept such products or waste.

The Bhumi Africa, of the Hindu Council of Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya committed to conduct green audits on their buildings and land to be followed by environmental certification which will guide the Hindu community in creating environmentally buildings, manage the environment well and achieve sustainable development.

There are 1.7 million Hindus in Africa with 35,000 in Nairobi itself making up 1% of the city’s population. Between them they have set up 27 temples, 40 social, cultural and sports facilities, 22 schools, 9 medical facilities and 10 written and radio media outlets.

Hindu festivals add colour to our heritage and lives. However celebrating some of these festivals significantly contributes to pollution and waste. As part of their commitment Hindu communities will be encouraged and assisted to green these events by greatly reducing waste and pollution.

They will also phase out the use of plastic bags by introducing Bhumi bags, durable bags made from hemp to be promoted by Hindu temples, schools and shops.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

Addressing participants at the ongoing Alliance of Religions and Conservation conference in Nairobi, Mr Goumandakoye said “the responsibility taken by the faith groups and their long-term commitments for a living planet will help shape the beliefs, behavior and actions for a greener and better Africa and the world”.

He said this commitment by the faith groups in environment conservation for human well-being are among the driving forces for positive change as humanity is grappling with challenges of colossal consequences.

Mr Goumandakoye disclosed that many scientists now agree that the world has entered a new geologic time, the anthropocene era that is characterized by human deep alteration of earth, by massive impact on the planet.

“What science is telling us is that collectively, we have crossed several of the most prominent bio-physical tripping points at the planetary level,” he said.

He added that resources exploitation already exceeds the earth biological capacity by 25 per cent and that humanity increased its global ecological footprint from 0.5 earth planet in 1950 to 1.25 now. “If the trends continue, very soon we will need two planet earths to satisfy our needs,” he added.

For example, he said, the challenge of climate change alone continues to grow with an increase of carbon dioxide of about 40 per cent above pre-industrial levels.

At a recent African Ministers of Environment meeting in Arusha, Tanzania noted with concern that developed countries continue to increase their emissions.

The ministers expressed concern that the current inadequate mitigation pledges by developed countries are likely to lead to an increase of the global average temperature of greater than 2 degrees celsius and possibly 5. This, said Mr Goumandakoye will have a global impact and more so Africa due to its high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and low adaptive capacity.

Kenya’s Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, Mr Ali Mohamed said in a speech read on his behalf by Richard Mwendandu that environmental conservation is usually about moral values.

He said understanding the inter-dependence of the planetary systems, inter-dependence between living organisms and between living and no-living organisms are essential in maintaining the natural balances.

Mr Mohamed however said that this balance has over the years been affected through human action with the resultant effects manifesting in diverse ways that are yet to be fully understood.

“While governments around the world continue to respond to these challenges through policy, law and regulatory measures, the size and the complexity of the challenges continue to grow,” he noted.

He cited the destabilizing climatic systems, the loss of biological diversity, depletion of oceanic stocks and pollution of water systems as challenges that continue to baffle the global community.

“The problem, says Martin Palmer, Secretary General, Alliance for Religion Conservation, the UN and global governments’ approach to these problems is way out of touch. He adds that despite the many Conferences of Parties by the UN and many resolutions by governments, “no agreement is on sight”.

“Yet the religious groups have the answer,” he said adding that the religious groups have practical steps that can be emulated across many villages, regions and countries with action-oriented grassroots projects and programmes whose impacts are seen. “They are also more trusted by their local communities in ways that governments are not,” he added.

“With 90 per cent of Africa’s population being either Christian or Muslim, the way to the heart of Africa is through faith. And faith is at the heart of these plans,” said Mr Palmer.

He said faith groups all around Africa are rediscovering how the mandate to protect the richness of God’s Creation is clearly set out in their holy texts and this is leading to profound practical action – everything from restoring habitats and planting trees to reducing energy use and training young people in environmental care and protection.

He said many COPs are attended by people who do not believe in the processes they are involved in. “many of those delegations are either attending these COPs to help save their governments from paying money or make sure that their governments do nothing about climate change and conservation.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

Prof Margret Kamar

The first forum of African Ministers in charge of science, technology and innovation in Nairobi ended with a call by the ministers to increase investment in the sector.

The ministers said, increased investment will strengthen scientific research in Africa at national and regional levels.

Read by Kenya’s Prof Margret Kamar who is in charge of her country’s science and technology docket, the African ministers said time was ripe for the continent to harness science, technology and innovation to solve societal problems such as water, health, energy and agriculture.

They promised to put in place adequate mechanisms that would facilitate knowledge and technology transfer between countries through strengthening regional networks, south to south and north cooperation.

But there were also hard hitting sessions on the failures of Africa in science, technology and innovation.

Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister for science and technology said it is a pity that so many years after most of Africa gained independence, many African states have no policy guiding the sector.

“There is experience that use of STI would help Africa gain global respect,” said.

STI, she said, could act as catalyst in creating opportunities for the African youth.

She said as ministers, they must insist and demand governments increased funding for this important sector.

Jean Ping, President of the African Union Commission said through his representative, Erastus Mwencha said science, technology and innovation has the capacity to help AU’s vision of having at least 20 of her 54 members states attain middle income status by 2030 besides boosting the continent’s presence in published journals.

He revealed that at the moment that Africa’s access to university education is just 7 per cent, thanks due insufficient resources and low use of ICT.

Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank urged Africa to make use of science, technology and innovation to explore natural resources to create wealth thereby lessen inequalities in the society.

He said Africa’s reliance on the inherited wealth in oil and natural gas among others has led to conflicts but said science and technology offers Africa the opportunity to create wealth devoid of chaos.

The challenge for Africa however, said Kaberuka, is how to bring her youthful population, estimated to be 200 million aged between 15-24 into economic playground.

According to Kaberuka, although there is massive inflow of the foreign domestic investment into Africa, there is however massive unskilled labour, poor infrastructure.

He said 200 million people in Africa are aged 15-24 years. By 2030, he said, Africa will have world’s leading labour force.

“Africa is in the unique position to reap the demographic dividend….similar to the South East Asia. In the 70s, ASEAN captured this…and demographic dividends contributed up to 45% to the GDPs of the countries in south East Asia.

But investors coming to Africa today are hampered by unskilled manpower and poor infrastructure.

The public sector will never have enough resources to meet the need for STI development.

Quality of education is compromised by the need to meet the need for space for higher education.

But there are continental initiatives to help bridge the gap like the Pan African University.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

At the heart of the wildlife dispute were divergent views on the 2007 deal that settled on a nine-year breather for the ivory trade, explains WANJOHI KABUKURU

The 15th Conference of Parties (CoP15) of the Conference on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) simply known as World Wildlife Trade Talks took place in Qatar’s humid capital of Doha in March. In these talks, unlike the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, where Africa adopted a common position, disharmony among African neighbours reigned supreme.

Nowhere was this divergence of opinion felt as strongly as within the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (COMESA) blocs. Kenya took an opposing position on elephants vis a vis her regional bloc members Tanzania and Zambia.

Both Tanzania and Zambia had put in proposals seeking to down-list their elephant populations from Appendix I to Appendix II, paving the way for Dar es Salaam and Lusaka to offload their 90 and 21 tonnes of ivory stockpiles respectively.

As expected Kenya stuck to her 20-year-old protectionist position, which rubbed her erstwhile neighbours up the wrong way.

Why did the EAC and COMESA members risk friendly relations at CITES?

Kenyan President MwaiKibaki waived his own Executive Order banning his entire Cabinet from travelling abroad until a new Constitution is well on its way in place to allow an exception to the rule which saw Noah Wekesa, the Wildlife and Forestry minister, travelling to Doha.

This was testimony of how important CITES is to Nairobi. In other words, the range countries of East, Central and southern Africa are major players in the multi-billion-shilling global wildlife trade (both legal and illegal).

While many people would want to think that the wildlife trade is all about elephant tusks, the reality is that it is much more than this and has surpassed human trafficking, and almost caught up with gun-running and drug trafficking. The International Police Organisation (Interpol) defines wildlife crime as the “taking, trading, exploiting or possessing of the world’s wild flora and fauna in contravention of national and international laws”.

ILLEGAL
Conservative estimates put the global trade in animals, plants and their by-products at a mind-boggling US$159 billion annually!

A dossier released in 2006 by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) — a wildlife trade monitoring network — and entitled “The International Wildlife Trade and Organised Crime” revealed: “It is estimated that the global trade in animals, plants and their by-products is worth a total of around US$159 billion a year.

Although the scale of the illegal trade is difficult to estimate, it is clear that the rewards it offers to unscrupulous, illegitimate traders, businesses, organised criminals and major organised crime groups are very high indeed and probably second only to the drugs trade in terms of the potential levels of profit on offer.

These rewards are made possible by a market for wildlife species and derivatives which is fuelled by a range of factors, including fashion, the desire for luxury goods (including caviar and furs), traditional medicines, low-cost or rare timber and the personal obsessions of specimen collectors.”

The trade in flora and fauna is obscenely lucrative, so much so that the dreaded Mafia (both Russian and Italian), the Chinese Triads, the Japanese Yakuza and the Central American drug lords are deeply enmeshed in it.

The dossier also notes that these hardcore criminal organisations are using the highly profitable wildlife by-products by converting existing routes for illegal businesses in arms, drugs and human trafficking for those seeking a better life in the West.

The report asserts: “The smuggling of rare and exotic specimens is fuelled by market demand from collectors, endangered species especially of tropical birds, reptiles, amphibians and orchids are sought by collectors for their aesthetic appeal, breeding potential and rarity.

CITES-listed and other species protected by law command higher prices than those not protected, so illegal specimens will find a market among collectors prepared to overlook the means by which the specimens are obtained, and the environmental consequences of their actions. Specialist collectors exist for all wildlife parts, dead specimens, insects, skulls, birds and eggs.”

REPORT
This dossier has now been followed up by a comprehensive online investigative study undertaken by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) since 2004 which culminated in a highly illuminating report dubbed “Killing with Keystrokes: An Investigation of the Illegal Wildlife Trade on the World Wide Web” published in 2008. In this report IFAW found out that the Internet has become a fast growing marketplace for wildlife species.

Following up on IFAW’s report, with its official newsletter CITES Issue 19 under the banner headline “Investigating the Internet Wildlife Trade” the Conference reckons: “The Internet has revolutionised the way we exchange ideas, information and merchandise. Understandably, this pervasive and powerful technology has become the world’s largest marketplace, one that is always open for business.

Unregulated, anonymous and unlimited, the Internet provides endless opportunities for criminal activity and transactions. Increasingly, it is the means by which the illicit trade in wildlife is conducted.

The illegal wildlife trade is having a devastating effect on animals, ecosystems, and the communities that rely on them worldwide, making it one of the major wildlife conservation challenges of our generation.” A look at the US Fish and Wildlife Service (equivalent of the Kenya Wildlife Service) records reveals that Kenya is the largest exporter of baboons to the United States.

CROSS-BORDER
The East African Community countries are a major player in the wildlife trade, both as a major source and as a conduit of species.

This explains the bad blood. While officials in Nairobi have continuously downplayed the icy relations with Dar and Lusaka, with KWS Director Julius Kipng’etich asserting, “Our relationship with Tanzania is good and we deal with several cross- border issues”, the real deal is that Dar and Lusaka are angry.

However hard Nairobi may try to downplay the Doha talks effects on EAC/COMESA relations, the fact is they are strained and the sooner they embark on healing the better it will be for the regional economic bloc’s smooth operations devoid of sibling rivalries

AUTHOR: Wanjohi Kabukuru
URL: http://www.africasia.com/
E-MAIL: wanjohi [at] positiveoutcomes.org