Jennifer A. Ng, Business mirror, April 11, 2012
THE United Nations has already begun the process of drafting a new set of international goals for eliminating poverty and other deprivations, three years and seven months before the deadline to achieving the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Hiroyuki Konuma, assistant director general and representative for Asia and the Pacific of the UN unit Food and Agriculture Organization, disclosed that the new set of MDGs may focus on the ill effects of climate change as well as the need to achieve food security.
“Consultations [for drafting the new set of MDGs] have already started. We realize that there is a need to look at emerging issues such as climate change and food security. There is a need to look at a new direction,” said Konuma at the sidelines of the Asian Irrigation Forum which kicked off in Pasig City on Wednesday.
“At this stage, discussions center on the general content of the global agenda [new set of MDGs],” he stressed.
The FAO official said he hopes that the new set of development goals may be introduced by 2015.
The UN-sponsored MDGs, which provide concrete and numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty, were adopted by governments all over the world including the Philippines in the year 2000.
The Millennium Declaration called for achieving the international goals by 2015.
The eight MDGs call for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and empowering women, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combatting HIV/AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a partnership for development.
Konuma also disclosed that the new set of MDGs will be included in the agenda of the the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (“Rio+20”) meet which will be held in Brazil this June.
The UN noted in an annual report released in July 2011 that the “time has come to look at the future of the international development agenda as the 2015 deadline [for the MDGs] is approaching.”
“Not all MDGs are expected to be achieved by 2015, but even if they were, much further progress would be needed to achieve higher levels of sustainable development beyond 2015 [to eradicate, rather than halve, poverty, for example, as called for in the Millennium Development Goals agenda],” the report read.
The UN noted that several core values and objectives of the Millennium Declaration did not receive “sufficient emphasis” in the MDGs agenda. These include environmental sustainability, food and nutrition security, addressing demographic pressures, human rights and good governance and ensuring peace, security and sustainable global development.
The UN said the consideration of a new development agenda beyond 2015 would need to start with a “thorough, broad-based and inclusive review of the present agenda and its underlying as well as assessment of what has worked and what has not. Such a review would need to be put in the context of the global development challenges ahead.”
Source
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
The Business of South Africa’s Garbage
By Kristin Palitza, IPS News, April 11, 2012
Nokwanda Sotyantya sits among heaps of garbage and patiently sorts through it, separating cardboard, plastic, glass, paper and metal, piece by piece. The recycled piles of trash are then weighed and sold to packaging manufacturers in South Africa that reuse the materials to create new products.
Sotyantya belongs to the country’s first group of small business entrepreneurs who have benefited from the government’s move towards a green economy. It is a strategy aimed at creating environmental sustainability, social equity, and economic growth; the government wants to create 300,000 jobs within a decade in this sector.
For 48-year-old Sotyantya, who is a member of a local recycling cooperative and lives in Imizamo Yethu, a slum outside of Cape Town, the move towards a green economy has turned her life around. Previously unemployed and struggling to survive, she says she now earns an average of 250 dollars a month from her work – enough to care for herself and her four children.
"The more people become aware of the benefits of recycling, the more rubbish gets dropped off at the Hout Bay waste centre. For me, that translates into more money," Sotyantya explains.
The Hout Bay Recycling Co-op to which she belongs is based at the municipal waste drop-off site in Hout Bay. Here Sotyantya and other members of the cooperative sort and sell the recycled material.
Her cooperative of six formerly jobless, poverty-stricken men and women currently recycles 25 tonnes of waste each month. And this number is slowly increasing.
The cooperative received a boost when Thrive, a social enterprise incubator that helps green start-ups to become viable, competitive businesses, decided to help the cooperative improve its business strategy and management expertise.
"We focus on creating jobs that help to minimise waste, increase renewable sources, protect and restore local biodiversity, reduce energy and water demands and create a local food network," explains Thrive managing director Iming Lin.
It is much more than developing traditional business models, she adds; it is about incorporating social, environmental and economic benefits.
Although it has only been operating since July 2011, Thrive’s work has not gone unnoticed. The SEED Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) acknowledged the organisation’s work by selecting it for one of its 2011 sustainable development awards that are annually presented to 35 African grassroots entrepreneurs in the green economy.
"On this continent, companies and countries, from small communities to heads of state, are suddenly realising the importance of the green economy," says UNEP spokesperson Nick Nuttall.
Economic development and environmental and social sustainability cannot operate in isolation, he says.
"Going green doesn’t mean it’s nice and fluffy. There are some hard economic figures behind it, too."
Creating a green economy is no longer an option, but a requirement, Nuttall says. "We are living in a world of seven billion people increasing to over nine billion by 2050. If we don’t change the way we consume goods and services and think about the environmental limits, then we’re in trouble."
"But it’s a world of opportunity too," Nuttal says, adding, "there are more and more examples of small businesses solving big problems and creating livelihoods."
It is an opportunity that the South African government wants to seize over the next few years. In November, it signed a Green Economic Accord that stipulates active national investment in the green economy.
"The green economy can create large numbers of jobs, provide a spur for industrialisation and help create a sustainable future for this and the next generations," said Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel after the accord was announced.
The agreement is part of a plan to shift towards a lower carbon-intensity economy, while creating jobs and promoting industrial development.
But government alone cannot manage and fund South Africa’s transition to a green economy, says Patel. The business sector, trade unions and civil society organisations must also play a role.
That is why organisations like Thrive have started talking to and collaborating with different government departments, such as environmental affairs, trade and industry, solid waste or public works, to jointly develop ways of giving the local green economy a jolt.
"Social enterprises are a growing model. We want to develop donor-independent, viable, scalable business models that link the economy and the environment and that can be rolled out in multiple communities or even nationally," says Lin. "Government has been very supportive of what we’re doing."
Apart from supporting the recycling cooperative, Thrive is trying to get a number of other innovative green economy businesses off the ground.
One of them is TrashBack, a bicycle recycling collection scheme that picks up re-usable material from restaurants, businesses and residential housing complexes, which are currently not serviced by the municipality. For every eight clients – or 4,800 kilogrammes of garbage – TrashBack can create one full-time job, says Lin.
"We want to show people how it all links into each other: waste, water, food, jobs and better livelihoods for all," says Lin. "We can’t afford not to have a green economy."
Source
Nokwanda Sotyantya sits among heaps of garbage and patiently sorts through it, separating cardboard, plastic, glass, paper and metal, piece by piece. The recycled piles of trash are then weighed and sold to packaging manufacturers in South Africa that reuse the materials to create new products.
Sotyantya belongs to the country’s first group of small business entrepreneurs who have benefited from the government’s move towards a green economy. It is a strategy aimed at creating environmental sustainability, social equity, and economic growth; the government wants to create 300,000 jobs within a decade in this sector.
For 48-year-old Sotyantya, who is a member of a local recycling cooperative and lives in Imizamo Yethu, a slum outside of Cape Town, the move towards a green economy has turned her life around. Previously unemployed and struggling to survive, she says she now earns an average of 250 dollars a month from her work – enough to care for herself and her four children.
"The more people become aware of the benefits of recycling, the more rubbish gets dropped off at the Hout Bay waste centre. For me, that translates into more money," Sotyantya explains.
The Hout Bay Recycling Co-op to which she belongs is based at the municipal waste drop-off site in Hout Bay. Here Sotyantya and other members of the cooperative sort and sell the recycled material.
Her cooperative of six formerly jobless, poverty-stricken men and women currently recycles 25 tonnes of waste each month. And this number is slowly increasing.
The cooperative received a boost when Thrive, a social enterprise incubator that helps green start-ups to become viable, competitive businesses, decided to help the cooperative improve its business strategy and management expertise.
"We focus on creating jobs that help to minimise waste, increase renewable sources, protect and restore local biodiversity, reduce energy and water demands and create a local food network," explains Thrive managing director Iming Lin.
It is much more than developing traditional business models, she adds; it is about incorporating social, environmental and economic benefits.
Although it has only been operating since July 2011, Thrive’s work has not gone unnoticed. The SEED Initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) acknowledged the organisation’s work by selecting it for one of its 2011 sustainable development awards that are annually presented to 35 African grassroots entrepreneurs in the green economy.
"On this continent, companies and countries, from small communities to heads of state, are suddenly realising the importance of the green economy," says UNEP spokesperson Nick Nuttall.
Economic development and environmental and social sustainability cannot operate in isolation, he says.
"Going green doesn’t mean it’s nice and fluffy. There are some hard economic figures behind it, too."
Creating a green economy is no longer an option, but a requirement, Nuttall says. "We are living in a world of seven billion people increasing to over nine billion by 2050. If we don’t change the way we consume goods and services and think about the environmental limits, then we’re in trouble."
"But it’s a world of opportunity too," Nuttal says, adding, "there are more and more examples of small businesses solving big problems and creating livelihoods."
It is an opportunity that the South African government wants to seize over the next few years. In November, it signed a Green Economic Accord that stipulates active national investment in the green economy.
"The green economy can create large numbers of jobs, provide a spur for industrialisation and help create a sustainable future for this and the next generations," said Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel after the accord was announced.
The agreement is part of a plan to shift towards a lower carbon-intensity economy, while creating jobs and promoting industrial development.
But government alone cannot manage and fund South Africa’s transition to a green economy, says Patel. The business sector, trade unions and civil society organisations must also play a role.
That is why organisations like Thrive have started talking to and collaborating with different government departments, such as environmental affairs, trade and industry, solid waste or public works, to jointly develop ways of giving the local green economy a jolt.
"Social enterprises are a growing model. We want to develop donor-independent, viable, scalable business models that link the economy and the environment and that can be rolled out in multiple communities or even nationally," says Lin. "Government has been very supportive of what we’re doing."
Apart from supporting the recycling cooperative, Thrive is trying to get a number of other innovative green economy businesses off the ground.
One of them is TrashBack, a bicycle recycling collection scheme that picks up re-usable material from restaurants, businesses and residential housing complexes, which are currently not serviced by the municipality. For every eight clients – or 4,800 kilogrammes of garbage – TrashBack can create one full-time job, says Lin.
"We want to show people how it all links into each other: waste, water, food, jobs and better livelihoods for all," says Lin. "We can’t afford not to have a green economy."
Source
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Road to Rio: Women 'out of sight, out of mind’
By Helen Clark, April 11, 2012
Today, there are only eight women heads of state – representing slightly more than five per cent of the total. This seems extraordinary in the second decade of the 21st century. The global average of women holding parliamentary seats remains under twenty per cent, which is well below the thirty per cent target set in the Millennium Development Goals. At the current rate of progress, that target will not be reached globally before 2025, and long beyond that in many countries. That is too long for women and the world to wait.
The proportions of women in national legislatures in the world’s regions range from roughly 22 per cent in the Americas and Europe (with the 42 per cent in Nordic countries pushing the average figures up) to 20.2 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, 17.9 per cent in Asia, 14.9 per cent in the Pacific, and 10.7 per cent in the Arab States. Five countries – all in the Gulf and the Pacific – have no women parliamentarians at all. Only sixteen per cent of ministers are women, and most often they are allocated portfolios like those for social welfare, women, and children.
When women are “out of sight, out of mind”, meeting their needs does not get prioritized. Conversely, when there is a critical mass of women decision-makers, the issues which previously went unaddressed can become priorities.
Rwanda provides a compelling example of a society where the empowerment of women as decision-makers has played a key role in its transformation. Quotas helped place Rwanda in the first place in the world for the proportion of its parliamentarians who are women. A thirty per cent quota for women MPs was established in the country’s 2003 constitution. Rwandan women now hold 56 per cent of seats in their parliament’s lower chamber. In addition, 32 per cent of ministerial positions are held by women.
Having women well presented in Rwanda's political landscape has put the country on the path to sustainable development. Other countries have to follow suit if we want to achieve a truly sustainable future. The time for talking about what to do next is over. It is time for action and it is time for change for women.
Source
Today, there are only eight women heads of state – representing slightly more than five per cent of the total. This seems extraordinary in the second decade of the 21st century. The global average of women holding parliamentary seats remains under twenty per cent, which is well below the thirty per cent target set in the Millennium Development Goals. At the current rate of progress, that target will not be reached globally before 2025, and long beyond that in many countries. That is too long for women and the world to wait.
The proportions of women in national legislatures in the world’s regions range from roughly 22 per cent in the Americas and Europe (with the 42 per cent in Nordic countries pushing the average figures up) to 20.2 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, 17.9 per cent in Asia, 14.9 per cent in the Pacific, and 10.7 per cent in the Arab States. Five countries – all in the Gulf and the Pacific – have no women parliamentarians at all. Only sixteen per cent of ministers are women, and most often they are allocated portfolios like those for social welfare, women, and children.
When women are “out of sight, out of mind”, meeting their needs does not get prioritized. Conversely, when there is a critical mass of women decision-makers, the issues which previously went unaddressed can become priorities.
Rwanda provides a compelling example of a society where the empowerment of women as decision-makers has played a key role in its transformation. Quotas helped place Rwanda in the first place in the world for the proportion of its parliamentarians who are women. A thirty per cent quota for women MPs was established in the country’s 2003 constitution. Rwandan women now hold 56 per cent of seats in their parliament’s lower chamber. In addition, 32 per cent of ministerial positions are held by women.
Having women well presented in Rwanda's political landscape has put the country on the path to sustainable development. Other countries have to follow suit if we want to achieve a truly sustainable future. The time for talking about what to do next is over. It is time for action and it is time for change for women.
Source
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Will Climate Refugees Get Promised Aid?
By Marwaan Macan-Markar, April 7, 2012
With extreme weather pounding countries across a wide arc in the Asia-Pacific region, questions hover over entitlements for millions of people displaced by climate change, pledged under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other sources.
Will the long wait by climate change migrants – including the 42 million people displaced by storms, floods and droughts in Asia and the Pacific during 2010 and 2011 – be finally over? Will they be able to tap international aid to help them adapt to extreme weather?
The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) hopes it is so as it sets its sights on the annual United Nations climate change summit to be held in Qatar later this year.
The Geneva-based body is looking to the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 18) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to deliver on a breakthrough that emerged at the end of acrimonious negotiations at the CoP 16, held in the Mexican resort of Cancun in December 2010.
At Cancun, government leaders from over 190 countries affirmed that climate change migrants qualify for assistance from the GCF. A paragraph of the Cancun Adaptation Framework said victims of "climate change induced displacement (and) migration" are eligible for the billions of dollars pledged by the GCF.
"The IOM is pushing to implement this para at the next CoP in Qatar," says Diana Ionesco, migration policy office at IOM, referring to paragraph 14f in the Cancun document. "Migration can now be part of the global adaptation strategy, which was not the case before Cancun."
"We want people who have been victims of climate change – including those who cannot move – to benefit from this new policy that has recognised migration as part of the climate change adaptation framework," she told IPS. "It opens the way to apply for adaptation-related funding to help migrants."
Following the negotiations at the CoP 15 in Copenhagen, the GCF produced a blueprint unveiled the following year in Cancun to start dispensing funds by 2020. It will finance projects using green-friendly technologies, help communities adapt to climate change and promote ways of mitigating the impact of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
A 2010 report by U.N. secretary-general Ban ki-Moon’s climate financing advisory group estimates that 100 billion dollars a year would be needed for a raft of climate change initiatives in the developing world.
This estimate dwarfs the amounts dispensed by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), a 1991 financial organisation backed by over 180 governments and international development institutions, that, till now, has been one of the leading financiers of green-friendly projects in the developing world.
GEF has pumped in 10 billion dollars in direct financing and 47 billion dollars in co-financing in over 2,800 projects in over 168 developing countries.
For its part, the IOM had even more limited resources to assist migrants who are victims of humanitarian emergencies - the 6.5 million dollar IOM development fund for 2012 and the newly established IOM migration emergency fund in 2011, which aimed to raise 30 million dollars.
The marginalisation of climate change migrants during adaptation negotiations at the CoPs stems from the political implications of who a climate change migrant is. Neither IOM nor the United Nations refugee agency use the term "climate refugees" to describe people displaced by natural disasters.
"Very often when we talk about adaptation we don’t talk about migration," says Francois Gemenne, climate and migration research fellow at the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations. "It is seen as too complicated and too sensitive."
"Migration will only become a fatality if we don’t address it today," he added during a recent panel discussion held in the Thai capital on ‘Climate Induced Migration and Livelihood Security’. "We need to guarantee people the right to stay for those who want to stay and also provide migration options for those who want to leave."
Their growing numbers in the Asia-Pacific region makes this vulnerable community hard to ignore, argues the Asian Development Bank (AsDB), the Manila-based regional financial institution in a recent report, ‘Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific’.
The estimated 42 million people who were displaced by environmental disasters in 2010 and 2011 confirms that "the environment is becoming a significant driver of migration in Asia and the Pacific as the population grows in vulnerable areas, such as low-lying coastal zones and eroding river banks," says Bindu Lohani, the Bank’s vice-president for knowledge management and sustainable development.
"Migration should be viewed as one component of a broader adaptation strategy, and a tool with which to strengthen the resilience of those who remain in communities threatened by environmental challenges," he adds.
Yet a financial challenge for adaptation looms in the Asia-Pacific region. While the annual climate adaptation costs for the region would reach 50 billion dollars in 2050, "less than 10 percent of that has been available to date," according to the AsDB.
"It is unclear what kind of policy interventions will be available for funding under the GCF," notes AsDB’s 81-page report. "A key challenge for future negotiations will be in making (paragraph 14f) operational, determining how adaptation funding can be attributed to policies related to climate-induced migration."
"The Qatar CoP should open the way to apply for funding for adaptation-related projects," asserts IOM’s Ionesco. "We need funds to prevent forced migrations and to provide assistance to prepare for migration."
Source
With extreme weather pounding countries across a wide arc in the Asia-Pacific region, questions hover over entitlements for millions of people displaced by climate change, pledged under the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other sources.
Will the long wait by climate change migrants – including the 42 million people displaced by storms, floods and droughts in Asia and the Pacific during 2010 and 2011 – be finally over? Will they be able to tap international aid to help them adapt to extreme weather?
The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) hopes it is so as it sets its sights on the annual United Nations climate change summit to be held in Qatar later this year.
The Geneva-based body is looking to the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 18) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to deliver on a breakthrough that emerged at the end of acrimonious negotiations at the CoP 16, held in the Mexican resort of Cancun in December 2010.
At Cancun, government leaders from over 190 countries affirmed that climate change migrants qualify for assistance from the GCF. A paragraph of the Cancun Adaptation Framework said victims of "climate change induced displacement (and) migration" are eligible for the billions of dollars pledged by the GCF.
"The IOM is pushing to implement this para at the next CoP in Qatar," says Diana Ionesco, migration policy office at IOM, referring to paragraph 14f in the Cancun document. "Migration can now be part of the global adaptation strategy, which was not the case before Cancun."
"We want people who have been victims of climate change – including those who cannot move – to benefit from this new policy that has recognised migration as part of the climate change adaptation framework," she told IPS. "It opens the way to apply for adaptation-related funding to help migrants."
Following the negotiations at the CoP 15 in Copenhagen, the GCF produced a blueprint unveiled the following year in Cancun to start dispensing funds by 2020. It will finance projects using green-friendly technologies, help communities adapt to climate change and promote ways of mitigating the impact of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
A 2010 report by U.N. secretary-general Ban ki-Moon’s climate financing advisory group estimates that 100 billion dollars a year would be needed for a raft of climate change initiatives in the developing world.
This estimate dwarfs the amounts dispensed by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), a 1991 financial organisation backed by over 180 governments and international development institutions, that, till now, has been one of the leading financiers of green-friendly projects in the developing world.
GEF has pumped in 10 billion dollars in direct financing and 47 billion dollars in co-financing in over 2,800 projects in over 168 developing countries.
For its part, the IOM had even more limited resources to assist migrants who are victims of humanitarian emergencies - the 6.5 million dollar IOM development fund for 2012 and the newly established IOM migration emergency fund in 2011, which aimed to raise 30 million dollars.
The marginalisation of climate change migrants during adaptation negotiations at the CoPs stems from the political implications of who a climate change migrant is. Neither IOM nor the United Nations refugee agency use the term "climate refugees" to describe people displaced by natural disasters.
"Very often when we talk about adaptation we don’t talk about migration," says Francois Gemenne, climate and migration research fellow at the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations. "It is seen as too complicated and too sensitive."
"Migration will only become a fatality if we don’t address it today," he added during a recent panel discussion held in the Thai capital on ‘Climate Induced Migration and Livelihood Security’. "We need to guarantee people the right to stay for those who want to stay and also provide migration options for those who want to leave."
Their growing numbers in the Asia-Pacific region makes this vulnerable community hard to ignore, argues the Asian Development Bank (AsDB), the Manila-based regional financial institution in a recent report, ‘Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific’.
The estimated 42 million people who were displaced by environmental disasters in 2010 and 2011 confirms that "the environment is becoming a significant driver of migration in Asia and the Pacific as the population grows in vulnerable areas, such as low-lying coastal zones and eroding river banks," says Bindu Lohani, the Bank’s vice-president for knowledge management and sustainable development.
"Migration should be viewed as one component of a broader adaptation strategy, and a tool with which to strengthen the resilience of those who remain in communities threatened by environmental challenges," he adds.
Yet a financial challenge for adaptation looms in the Asia-Pacific region. While the annual climate adaptation costs for the region would reach 50 billion dollars in 2050, "less than 10 percent of that has been available to date," according to the AsDB.
"It is unclear what kind of policy interventions will be available for funding under the GCF," notes AsDB’s 81-page report. "A key challenge for future negotiations will be in making (paragraph 14f) operational, determining how adaptation funding can be attributed to policies related to climate-induced migration."
"The Qatar CoP should open the way to apply for funding for adaptation-related projects," asserts IOM’s Ionesco. "We need funds to prevent forced migrations and to provide assistance to prepare for migration."
Source
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Where Bees Reform Gangsters
By Catherine Wilson, IPS News (April 17, 2012)
In the Kamanabe area of the rural Eastern Highlands in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a village gang has relinquished crime and is striving to contribute to the sustainable future of the local community with a honeybee income generating initiative.
With a population of just 4,000, Kamanabe village is situated at the end of an unsealed track leading from the main highway. Public services are limited with the nearest aid post six to seven hours away, and most people live by subsistence with few avenues to generating cash incomes.
Due to land in the village area being unsuited to growing crops, the cultivation of marijuana has flourished. This has brought in money to the community, which suffers from lack of development and economic opportunities, but its trade and consumption have also contributed to illegal activities.
Villagers afflicted with drug and alcohol abuse formed a local gang, commonly known as ‘raskols’ in PNG, and engaged in carjacking, violent mugging and extortion, targeting traffic on nearby roads.
An assessment of armed violence in PNG conducted by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2006, found rapid population growth, limited economic and employment opportunities and inequality to be contributing factors to criminality.
According to a National Research Institute report, life expectancy in the Eastern Highlands is about 55 years, compared to the national average of 62 years recorded by the UNDP, while male literacy is 51 percent and female literacy 36.5 percent, in contrast to the national average for both sexes of 60 percent.
Access to public services for many is restricted with less than half the provincial population living within five km of a national road.
But a spokesperson for the police constabulary in Goroka, the nearest major town, advised that the number of reported crimes along the highway in the vicinity of Kamanabe village, had significantly decreased, with no serious incidents recorded since January this year.
There is likely to be a link between this trend and the fact that Felix Masi, former gang leader in Kamanabe village, is now chairman of the Herave youth group, with membership comprising his former comrades who have decided to relinquish crime.
Recognising the destructive consequences of their outlaw existence, the group is now working to improve the future prospects of their community with an income-generating project involving honeybee cultivation.
"We decided to change our lives, to contribute to our community and do something meaningful with our lives," Masi explained. "The soil is not good, the land is not arable in our area, and it is not good for growing many crops. So we think honey production is a good income-generating activity."
Elizabeth Kelly, development co-ordinator with ‘Strongim Pipol Strongim Nesen’ (Strengthen the People, Strengthen the Nation), a community development partnership programme between the PNG and Australian governments, is assisting the youth group to develop the project idea and a proposal for funding.
"The group itself is made up of people who lived a life which was not wanted by the community," Kelly said. "The benefit of the project is that it will help them to earn a living, help them to look after themselves and sustain their lives.
"They feel that this project does not need a lot of land space or resources, and little labour is required," she continued, "They also see the market is there."
Although honey is not yet a major industry in PNG, the climate is very conducive to honey production in the Highlands.
During the past two years, the Eastern Highlands department of agriculture and livestock and the Livestock Development Corporation, have been actively promoting the potential of the fledgling industry, especially for a sizeable domestic market.
The Herave youth group has over 100 members, who have paid a joining fee which entitles them to participate in the project, make decisions and reap the benefits.
Approximately 35 families in the village will directly benefit from the honey project. One beehive has the potential to produce 30 kg of honey and youth group members could earn up to PNG kina13 (six dollars) per kg.
Kelly emphasised that the idea of the project originated with and was unanimously supported by the group.
"We are just facilitating the process," she clarified. "We are helping to put it together in a participatory manner, but they will own the project. They have to be able to manage the project themselves, to sustain it."
Gender equality will also be a key feature of the initiative with husbands and wives working together.
"The group is made of men and women," Kelly elaborated. "Membership is strengthening the family unit, primarily the husband and wife. The project is owned by families and they want to see that women are equally involved in the project and respected."
"Women will learn the same skills as men," Masi confirmed. "They will work at the same tasks and also make decisions in the project."
This is an important factor in a nation where, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, women "lack equal access to education and lag behind men in terms of employment opportunities" while also facing significant challenges to achieving financial independence.
Ultimately, the chance of a productive livelihood has brought harmony to the Kamanabe community.
"It is making our people happy," Masi said. "There is no longer drug abuse, and law and order problems, and we can earn a decent income."
Source
In the Kamanabe area of the rural Eastern Highlands in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a village gang has relinquished crime and is striving to contribute to the sustainable future of the local community with a honeybee income generating initiative.
With a population of just 4,000, Kamanabe village is situated at the end of an unsealed track leading from the main highway. Public services are limited with the nearest aid post six to seven hours away, and most people live by subsistence with few avenues to generating cash incomes.
Due to land in the village area being unsuited to growing crops, the cultivation of marijuana has flourished. This has brought in money to the community, which suffers from lack of development and economic opportunities, but its trade and consumption have also contributed to illegal activities.
Villagers afflicted with drug and alcohol abuse formed a local gang, commonly known as ‘raskols’ in PNG, and engaged in carjacking, violent mugging and extortion, targeting traffic on nearby roads.
An assessment of armed violence in PNG conducted by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2006, found rapid population growth, limited economic and employment opportunities and inequality to be contributing factors to criminality.
According to a National Research Institute report, life expectancy in the Eastern Highlands is about 55 years, compared to the national average of 62 years recorded by the UNDP, while male literacy is 51 percent and female literacy 36.5 percent, in contrast to the national average for both sexes of 60 percent.
Access to public services for many is restricted with less than half the provincial population living within five km of a national road.
But a spokesperson for the police constabulary in Goroka, the nearest major town, advised that the number of reported crimes along the highway in the vicinity of Kamanabe village, had significantly decreased, with no serious incidents recorded since January this year.
There is likely to be a link between this trend and the fact that Felix Masi, former gang leader in Kamanabe village, is now chairman of the Herave youth group, with membership comprising his former comrades who have decided to relinquish crime.
Recognising the destructive consequences of their outlaw existence, the group is now working to improve the future prospects of their community with an income-generating project involving honeybee cultivation.
"We decided to change our lives, to contribute to our community and do something meaningful with our lives," Masi explained. "The soil is not good, the land is not arable in our area, and it is not good for growing many crops. So we think honey production is a good income-generating activity."
Elizabeth Kelly, development co-ordinator with ‘Strongim Pipol Strongim Nesen’ (Strengthen the People, Strengthen the Nation), a community development partnership programme between the PNG and Australian governments, is assisting the youth group to develop the project idea and a proposal for funding.
"The group itself is made up of people who lived a life which was not wanted by the community," Kelly said. "The benefit of the project is that it will help them to earn a living, help them to look after themselves and sustain their lives.
"They feel that this project does not need a lot of land space or resources, and little labour is required," she continued, "They also see the market is there."
Although honey is not yet a major industry in PNG, the climate is very conducive to honey production in the Highlands.
During the past two years, the Eastern Highlands department of agriculture and livestock and the Livestock Development Corporation, have been actively promoting the potential of the fledgling industry, especially for a sizeable domestic market.
The Herave youth group has over 100 members, who have paid a joining fee which entitles them to participate in the project, make decisions and reap the benefits.
Approximately 35 families in the village will directly benefit from the honey project. One beehive has the potential to produce 30 kg of honey and youth group members could earn up to PNG kina13 (six dollars) per kg.
Kelly emphasised that the idea of the project originated with and was unanimously supported by the group.
"We are just facilitating the process," she clarified. "We are helping to put it together in a participatory manner, but they will own the project. They have to be able to manage the project themselves, to sustain it."
Gender equality will also be a key feature of the initiative with husbands and wives working together.
"The group is made of men and women," Kelly elaborated. "Membership is strengthening the family unit, primarily the husband and wife. The project is owned by families and they want to see that women are equally involved in the project and respected."
"Women will learn the same skills as men," Masi confirmed. "They will work at the same tasks and also make decisions in the project."
This is an important factor in a nation where, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, women "lack equal access to education and lag behind men in terms of employment opportunities" while also facing significant challenges to achieving financial independence.
Ultimately, the chance of a productive livelihood has brought harmony to the Kamanabe community.
"It is making our people happy," Masi said. "There is no longer drug abuse, and law and order problems, and we can earn a decent income."
Source
Monday, April 9, 2012
The fish barrier
By Tiasa Adhya, Down to Earth, April 15, 2012
Threat to fish due to dams quantified in Mekong basin
THE Mekong River, which flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, is already heavily dammed owing to its steep topography. Plans are to construct 11 more on the river and 41 on its tributaries in the next four years. Another 10-37 dams are planned on the tributaries between 2015 and 2030.
But construction of dams on the tributaries could drastically alter fish ecology, habitat and block migration routes, a study published in the March 5 issue of PNAS states. “Avoiding dams on main the rivers is currently the main focus of international non-profits like the International Rivers and WWF. But no attention is given to dams on the tributaries,” says Guy Ziv, lead researcher from the Princeton University, New Jersey, US.
A treaty between Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand led to the formation of the Mekong River Commission in 1995 to manage development projects on the mainstream river. However, if countries want to dam tributaries, they can do so merely by notifying the other countries. The study points out how this loophole in the agreement can affect the fishing communities of Cambodia and Vietnam.
Ziv studied the impact of 27 of these dams. Using a simple fish migration model, the author evaluated the effect of each dam on fish productivity. They found a dam being built in the Lower Se San in Cambodia alone would cause a 9.3 per cent drop in fish biomass in the Mekong basin. According to the model, in 2015, 80 fish species will be considered “vulnerable” as a consequence of the 41 proposed dams. However, with 37 more dams by 2030, the corresponding loss of fish migration paths will result in 103 fish species becoming “critically endangered”.
Though individual dams might affect small percentages of fish, the impact will compound when dams all over the basin are taken into consideration, the author notes in the paper. He also found that losses in fish diversity will increase by 51 per cent if dams in the tributary were constructed. One per cent loss in fish biodiversity means a loss of 10,000 tonnes of fish. Instead construction of dams in the upper reaches would generate the same electricity with lower ecological consequences, Ziv adds.
“This tool can tell you what dams to build for a required energy production without affecting fish ecology,” says Ziv. The effect on fish diversity can be minimised if only a few dams that together produce not more than 14 terawatt-hours of power per year are built, he adds.
India too at risk
The scenario is almost the same in India. “Around 550 schemes have been planned with a total capacity of 120,000 MW,” informs Mahendra Lodhi, scientist with G B Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development in Uttarakhand. “Diverting river water through tunnels is insufficient to support aquatic flora and fauna, especially in non-monsoon seasons, he adds. “Moreover, some of the fish species in Himalayan rivers migrate upstream for egg-laying but these hydropower dams become a hurdle,” Lodhi notes.
Reviewing the study, Vidyadhar Atkore, a researcher at ATREE, a non-profit based in Bengaluru, says, “Many studies from the developed world have assessed impacts of dams on aquatic biodiversity but few studies have analysed the direct impact of hydropower projects on riverine diversity in developing countries.” The paper fills the gap, Atkore who is studying the effect of hydrological modification on native fish species, adds. Similar attempts are required in India, since a number of hydropower projects are being built in the Western Ghats and northeast Himalayan region. Construction of dams has already affected the migratory routes of the Himalayan Mahseer as well as resulted in loss of its wintering grounds in the Yamuna, the Ganga and the Sharda.
Source
Threat to fish due to dams quantified in Mekong basin
THE Mekong River, which flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, is already heavily dammed owing to its steep topography. Plans are to construct 11 more on the river and 41 on its tributaries in the next four years. Another 10-37 dams are planned on the tributaries between 2015 and 2030.
But construction of dams on the tributaries could drastically alter fish ecology, habitat and block migration routes, a study published in the March 5 issue of PNAS states. “Avoiding dams on main the rivers is currently the main focus of international non-profits like the International Rivers and WWF. But no attention is given to dams on the tributaries,” says Guy Ziv, lead researcher from the Princeton University, New Jersey, US.
A treaty between Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand led to the formation of the Mekong River Commission in 1995 to manage development projects on the mainstream river. However, if countries want to dam tributaries, they can do so merely by notifying the other countries. The study points out how this loophole in the agreement can affect the fishing communities of Cambodia and Vietnam.
Ziv studied the impact of 27 of these dams. Using a simple fish migration model, the author evaluated the effect of each dam on fish productivity. They found a dam being built in the Lower Se San in Cambodia alone would cause a 9.3 per cent drop in fish biomass in the Mekong basin. According to the model, in 2015, 80 fish species will be considered “vulnerable” as a consequence of the 41 proposed dams. However, with 37 more dams by 2030, the corresponding loss of fish migration paths will result in 103 fish species becoming “critically endangered”.
Though individual dams might affect small percentages of fish, the impact will compound when dams all over the basin are taken into consideration, the author notes in the paper. He also found that losses in fish diversity will increase by 51 per cent if dams in the tributary were constructed. One per cent loss in fish biodiversity means a loss of 10,000 tonnes of fish. Instead construction of dams in the upper reaches would generate the same electricity with lower ecological consequences, Ziv adds.
“This tool can tell you what dams to build for a required energy production without affecting fish ecology,” says Ziv. The effect on fish diversity can be minimised if only a few dams that together produce not more than 14 terawatt-hours of power per year are built, he adds.
India too at risk
The scenario is almost the same in India. “Around 550 schemes have been planned with a total capacity of 120,000 MW,” informs Mahendra Lodhi, scientist with G B Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development in Uttarakhand. “Diverting river water through tunnels is insufficient to support aquatic flora and fauna, especially in non-monsoon seasons, he adds. “Moreover, some of the fish species in Himalayan rivers migrate upstream for egg-laying but these hydropower dams become a hurdle,” Lodhi notes.
Reviewing the study, Vidyadhar Atkore, a researcher at ATREE, a non-profit based in Bengaluru, says, “Many studies from the developed world have assessed impacts of dams on aquatic biodiversity but few studies have analysed the direct impact of hydropower projects on riverine diversity in developing countries.” The paper fills the gap, Atkore who is studying the effect of hydrological modification on native fish species, adds. Similar attempts are required in India, since a number of hydropower projects are being built in the Western Ghats and northeast Himalayan region. Construction of dams has already affected the migratory routes of the Himalayan Mahseer as well as resulted in loss of its wintering grounds in the Yamuna, the Ganga and the Sharda.
Source
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Our future grub
By John Vidal, April 4, 2012, China Dialogue
By 2050 there will be 2.5 billion more people on earth. How can they be fed? Science’s answer, writes John Vidal, is a diet of algae, insects and meat grown in laboratories.
How can we feed the 2.5 billion more people – an extra China and India – likely to be alive in 2050? The United Nations says we will have to nearly double our food production and governments say we should adopt new technologies and avoid waste. But however you cut it: there are already one billion chronically hungry people; there’s little more virgin land to open up; climate change will only make farming harder to grow food in most places; the oceans are overfished; and much of the world faces growing water shortages.
Fifty years ago, when the world’s population was around half what it is now, the answer to looming famines was “the green revolution” – a massive increase in the use of hybrid seeds and chemical fertilisers. It worked, but at a great ecological price. We grow nearly twice as much food as we did just a generation ago, but we use three times as much water from rivers and underground supplies.
Food, farm and water technologists will have to find new ways to grow more crops in places that until now were hard or impossible to farm. It may need a total rethink over how we use land and water. So enter a new generation of radical farmers, novel foods and bright ideas.
Algae
How do you free up huge amounts of farmland to grow more food for humans? Easy – switch to commercial algae farms. Algae are simple, single-cell organisms that can grow very rapidly at sea, in polluted water and in places that would normally kill food crops. Major airlines and shipping companies are now investigating a switch to algae oil, and smart clean-tech money is pouring in to the nascent technology.
The prize is huge: scientists say that under optimum conditions, commercial algae farms can produce 5,000 to 10,000 gallons [roughly 22,730 to 45,460 litres] of oil per acre [nearly 4,050 square metres], compared to just 350 gallons [about 1,590 litres] of ethanol biofuel per acre grown with crops such as maize. In addition, algae could feed millions of animals and act as a fertiliser. Replacing all US ethanol (biofuel) production with algae oil would need around two million acres [just over 8,000 square kilometres] of desert, but, says Arizona State university professor Mark Edwards, it would potentially allow 40 million acres [about 162,000 square kilometres] of cropland to be planted with human food, and save billions of gallons of irrigation water a year.
Algae are at the bottom of the food chain but they are already eaten widely in Japan and China in the form of seaweeds, and are used as fertilisers, soil conditioners and animal feed. “They range from giant seaweeds and kelps to microscopic slimes; they are capable of fixing CO2 in the atmosphere and providing fats, oils and sugars,” says Edwards. “They are eaten by everything from the tiniest shrimp to the great blue whales. They are the base of all life and must be the future.”
Artificial meat
It looks like meat, feels like meat and it is meat, although it’s never been near a living, breathing animal. Instead, artificial or “cultured” meat is grown from stem cells in giant vats.
Scientists say the hunt for meat substitutes is critical because western eating habits are now spreading to China and other rapidly emerging economies, putting intense pressure on governments and farmers to fell more forests and open up new farmland. Cattle now occupy nearly one quarter of all cultivable land, and growing crops for animal feed takes up another 25%. In the United States, nearly 70% of the grain and cereals grown are now fed to farmed animals.
Much of the research into artificial meat is being done in Europe, with scientists in Holland and Britain developing edible tissue grown from stem cells in laboratories. But while the first artificial hamburger could be developed next year, it might taste of nothing at all. Meat needs blood and fat to give it colour and taste, and while stem cells for blood and fat have been identified, this is slow, complex and expensive work.
Nevertheless, studies show that artificial meat wins hands down in the environmental stakes, using far less water, energy and land. In addition, few ethical objections have been raised, largely because mass production of animals in factory farms and use of growth hormones and antibiotics is already considered questionable.
New crops
Few people have heard of Zhikang Li, but history may judge the Chinese plant breeder to be one of the most important people of the century. Last year, after 12 years’ work with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, he and his team developed “green super rice”, a series of rice varieties which produce more grain but which have proved more resistant to droughts, floods, salty water, insects and disease.
Zhikang Li achieved this without genetic modification (GM) technology, working instead with hundreds of researchers and farmers in 16 countries and using only conventional plant breeding techniques to cross-breed more than 250 rice varieties.
Green super rice, which could increase yields in Asia enough to feed an extra 100 million people, will be rolled out in the coming years. But better plant breeding – with or without GM – will be key to increasing the yields of all other crops.
However, most research money has gone into GM in the past 20 years. Here, the global agrichemical industry has promised new crops enriched with extra vitamins, enzymes or healthy fatty acids, as well as drought-tolerant corn and crops that can save carbon emissions. But while it looks ahead to bananas that produce human vaccines, fish that mature more quickly and cows that are resistant to disease, its promise to feed the world has been patchy in terms of results.
Last year more than 350 million acres (over 1.4 million square kilometres) – about 10% of global cultivated area, or the size of Germany, France and the United Kingdom together – were planted with GM crops; but this mainly covered only three big foods – maize, oilseed rape and soya – most of which went to animal feed.
Desert greening
Much of the world is arid, with its only nearby water being the sea. So could a technology be found to green coastal deserts in places such as Chile, California, Peru and the Middle East using salt water?
Charlie Paton, a British inventor, has a vision of vast “seawater greenhouses” to grow food and generate power. The idea is simple: in the natural water cycle, seawater is heated by the sun, evaporates, cools to form clouds, and returns to earth as refreshing rain. It is more or less the same in Paton’s structures. Here, hot desert air going into a greenhouse is first cooled and then humidified by seawater. This humid air nourishes crops growing inside and then passes through an evaporator. When it meets a series of tubes containing cool seawater, freshwater condenses and is then collected. And because the greenhouses produce more than five times the freshwater needed to water the plants, some of it can be released into the local environment to grow other plants.
Seawater greenhouses have been shown to work and this year a large-scale pilot project backed by the Norwegian government will be built near Aqaba in Jordan. The Sahara Forest Project will combine different technologies to grow food and biofuel crops and be up and running by 2015.
But this is just one of many technologies being developed to enable food to be grown in unlikely places. One of the simplest, but most ambitious, plans may be the long-mooted Great Green Wall of Africa. This linear forest would be 15 kilometres wide and 7,775 kilometres long, and stretch from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in east Africa. It would, say the 11 countries through which it would pass, help to stop the southward spread of the Sahara, slow soil erosion and wind speeds, help rain water filter into the ground and create micro-climates to allow fruit, vegetables and other crops to be grown.
Insects
Locusts, grasshoppers, spiders, wasps, worms, ants and beetles are not on most European or US menus but at least 1,400 species are eaten across Africa, Latin America and Asia. Now, with rising food prices and worldwide land shortages, it could be just a matter of time before insect farms set up in places such as Britain.
Not only are many bugs rich in protein, low in fat and cholesterol and high in calcium and iron, but insect farms need little space. Environmentally, they beat conventional farms, too. The creatures are far better at converting plant biomass into edible meat than even our fastest growing livestock; they emit fewer greenhouse gases; and they can thrive on paper, algae and the industrial wastes that would normally be thrown away.
The advantages of “micro-livestock” farming are great, say the United Nations and European Union, both of which are keen to see if insect rearing could be greatly expanded. The Dutch government is studying how to set up insect farms. But aware of western squeamishness, they have asked researchers to see if they can just extract the protein that many bugs contain.
Meanwhile, the EU is offering its member-states three million euros [more than US$3.9 million] to promote the use of insects in cooking, and has asked food-standards watchdogs to investigate their potential to supplement diets.
Source
By 2050 there will be 2.5 billion more people on earth. How can they be fed? Science’s answer, writes John Vidal, is a diet of algae, insects and meat grown in laboratories.
How can we feed the 2.5 billion more people – an extra China and India – likely to be alive in 2050? The United Nations says we will have to nearly double our food production and governments say we should adopt new technologies and avoid waste. But however you cut it: there are already one billion chronically hungry people; there’s little more virgin land to open up; climate change will only make farming harder to grow food in most places; the oceans are overfished; and much of the world faces growing water shortages.
Fifty years ago, when the world’s population was around half what it is now, the answer to looming famines was “the green revolution” – a massive increase in the use of hybrid seeds and chemical fertilisers. It worked, but at a great ecological price. We grow nearly twice as much food as we did just a generation ago, but we use three times as much water from rivers and underground supplies.
Food, farm and water technologists will have to find new ways to grow more crops in places that until now were hard or impossible to farm. It may need a total rethink over how we use land and water. So enter a new generation of radical farmers, novel foods and bright ideas.
Algae
How do you free up huge amounts of farmland to grow more food for humans? Easy – switch to commercial algae farms. Algae are simple, single-cell organisms that can grow very rapidly at sea, in polluted water and in places that would normally kill food crops. Major airlines and shipping companies are now investigating a switch to algae oil, and smart clean-tech money is pouring in to the nascent technology.
The prize is huge: scientists say that under optimum conditions, commercial algae farms can produce 5,000 to 10,000 gallons [roughly 22,730 to 45,460 litres] of oil per acre [nearly 4,050 square metres], compared to just 350 gallons [about 1,590 litres] of ethanol biofuel per acre grown with crops such as maize. In addition, algae could feed millions of animals and act as a fertiliser. Replacing all US ethanol (biofuel) production with algae oil would need around two million acres [just over 8,000 square kilometres] of desert, but, says Arizona State university professor Mark Edwards, it would potentially allow 40 million acres [about 162,000 square kilometres] of cropland to be planted with human food, and save billions of gallons of irrigation water a year.
Algae are at the bottom of the food chain but they are already eaten widely in Japan and China in the form of seaweeds, and are used as fertilisers, soil conditioners and animal feed. “They range from giant seaweeds and kelps to microscopic slimes; they are capable of fixing CO2 in the atmosphere and providing fats, oils and sugars,” says Edwards. “They are eaten by everything from the tiniest shrimp to the great blue whales. They are the base of all life and must be the future.”
Artificial meat
It looks like meat, feels like meat and it is meat, although it’s never been near a living, breathing animal. Instead, artificial or “cultured” meat is grown from stem cells in giant vats.
Scientists say the hunt for meat substitutes is critical because western eating habits are now spreading to China and other rapidly emerging economies, putting intense pressure on governments and farmers to fell more forests and open up new farmland. Cattle now occupy nearly one quarter of all cultivable land, and growing crops for animal feed takes up another 25%. In the United States, nearly 70% of the grain and cereals grown are now fed to farmed animals.
Much of the research into artificial meat is being done in Europe, with scientists in Holland and Britain developing edible tissue grown from stem cells in laboratories. But while the first artificial hamburger could be developed next year, it might taste of nothing at all. Meat needs blood and fat to give it colour and taste, and while stem cells for blood and fat have been identified, this is slow, complex and expensive work.
Nevertheless, studies show that artificial meat wins hands down in the environmental stakes, using far less water, energy and land. In addition, few ethical objections have been raised, largely because mass production of animals in factory farms and use of growth hormones and antibiotics is already considered questionable.
New crops
Few people have heard of Zhikang Li, but history may judge the Chinese plant breeder to be one of the most important people of the century. Last year, after 12 years’ work with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, he and his team developed “green super rice”, a series of rice varieties which produce more grain but which have proved more resistant to droughts, floods, salty water, insects and disease.
Zhikang Li achieved this without genetic modification (GM) technology, working instead with hundreds of researchers and farmers in 16 countries and using only conventional plant breeding techniques to cross-breed more than 250 rice varieties.
Green super rice, which could increase yields in Asia enough to feed an extra 100 million people, will be rolled out in the coming years. But better plant breeding – with or without GM – will be key to increasing the yields of all other crops.
However, most research money has gone into GM in the past 20 years. Here, the global agrichemical industry has promised new crops enriched with extra vitamins, enzymes or healthy fatty acids, as well as drought-tolerant corn and crops that can save carbon emissions. But while it looks ahead to bananas that produce human vaccines, fish that mature more quickly and cows that are resistant to disease, its promise to feed the world has been patchy in terms of results.
Last year more than 350 million acres (over 1.4 million square kilometres) – about 10% of global cultivated area, or the size of Germany, France and the United Kingdom together – were planted with GM crops; but this mainly covered only three big foods – maize, oilseed rape and soya – most of which went to animal feed.
Desert greening
Much of the world is arid, with its only nearby water being the sea. So could a technology be found to green coastal deserts in places such as Chile, California, Peru and the Middle East using salt water?
Charlie Paton, a British inventor, has a vision of vast “seawater greenhouses” to grow food and generate power. The idea is simple: in the natural water cycle, seawater is heated by the sun, evaporates, cools to form clouds, and returns to earth as refreshing rain. It is more or less the same in Paton’s structures. Here, hot desert air going into a greenhouse is first cooled and then humidified by seawater. This humid air nourishes crops growing inside and then passes through an evaporator. When it meets a series of tubes containing cool seawater, freshwater condenses and is then collected. And because the greenhouses produce more than five times the freshwater needed to water the plants, some of it can be released into the local environment to grow other plants.
Seawater greenhouses have been shown to work and this year a large-scale pilot project backed by the Norwegian government will be built near Aqaba in Jordan. The Sahara Forest Project will combine different technologies to grow food and biofuel crops and be up and running by 2015.
But this is just one of many technologies being developed to enable food to be grown in unlikely places. One of the simplest, but most ambitious, plans may be the long-mooted Great Green Wall of Africa. This linear forest would be 15 kilometres wide and 7,775 kilometres long, and stretch from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in east Africa. It would, say the 11 countries through which it would pass, help to stop the southward spread of the Sahara, slow soil erosion and wind speeds, help rain water filter into the ground and create micro-climates to allow fruit, vegetables and other crops to be grown.
Insects
Locusts, grasshoppers, spiders, wasps, worms, ants and beetles are not on most European or US menus but at least 1,400 species are eaten across Africa, Latin America and Asia. Now, with rising food prices and worldwide land shortages, it could be just a matter of time before insect farms set up in places such as Britain.
Not only are many bugs rich in protein, low in fat and cholesterol and high in calcium and iron, but insect farms need little space. Environmentally, they beat conventional farms, too. The creatures are far better at converting plant biomass into edible meat than even our fastest growing livestock; they emit fewer greenhouse gases; and they can thrive on paper, algae and the industrial wastes that would normally be thrown away.
The advantages of “micro-livestock” farming are great, say the United Nations and European Union, both of which are keen to see if insect rearing could be greatly expanded. The Dutch government is studying how to set up insect farms. But aware of western squeamishness, they have asked researchers to see if they can just extract the protein that many bugs contain.
Meanwhile, the EU is offering its member-states three million euros [more than US$3.9 million] to promote the use of insects in cooking, and has asked food-standards watchdogs to investigate their potential to supplement diets.
Source
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