SUPERMARKETS and MOZAMBIQUE: Small-scale farmers become entrepreneurs

In Mozambique if you shop at Shoprite, Africa's largest food retailer, with operations in 16 countries, you'll be buying vegetables produced locally by small-scale farmers.
The IFAD-funded Agricultural Markets Support Programme (PAMA) supports the implementation of major economic reforms launched by the government during the 1990s, including the commercialization of small-scale farming through better access to markets and improved linkages with private-sector operators.
The programme, funded by a US$23.6 million loan, enables small-scale farmers in Boane, 30 km south of Maputo, to grow cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes and other cash crops in the rehabilitated irrigation schemes that were severely damaged during 16 years of civil war. Today, in the Boane area, the irrigation schemes cover 405 ha of land and the programme works with approximately 400 farmers.
The PAMA team worked hard to get the farmers to where they are today. "Before we came into the picture, farmers produced low-quality products. They were unable to sell directly to the buyer and had no idea of how to link up with big buyers. At best they sold their goods through intermediaries or at farm gate, and had little or no negotiating power," said Rui N. Ribeiro, PAMA coordinator. "Now they are organized in associations and as a result have more bargaining power."
PAMA's vision was to enable farmers to produce high-quality products and to link them directly to the market. Thanks to the programme, farmers are using fertilizers and improved seedlings to produce high-value crops that they sell to supermarkets, hotels, restaurants and the main hospital in Maputo.
Strengthening capacity and institutions, and influencing policy To enter the market and trade with commercial entities, farmers needed to issue invoices and receipts. To do that they needed to become a legal entity, and consequently they had to organize themselves into associations. PAMA facilitated the creation of farmers’ associations, organized marketing committees and helped farmers conduct market research.
"Before the programme's intervention, registering as an association was a costly affair and immense challenge," said Alessandro Marini, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Mozambique. "The programme, together with other stakeholders, lobbied with the government and raised awareness about the importance of having an easy process for registering associations," said Marini.
As a result, the Government of Mozambique passed a new law on decentralizing registration formalities to the district level. The government is also developing and implementing marketing strategies and pro-poor programmes supporting market linkages.
Thanks to the efforts of Ribeiro and his team, the farmers’ associations are now well established in the market. Each association has a president, treasurer and secretary.
The programme is providing marketing and production specialists and two supervisors who provide continuous technical assistance. The associations now are supported by a marketing committee responsible for coordinating production and marketing activities. The marketing committee meets with buyers to determine their needs, negotiate prices and deliver products.
Building social capitalFarmers’ associations built their credibility and reputation by encouraging buyers to visit their plots to check the quality of products. To ensure that quality was up to par, the project arranged for a visit by a nutritionist who examined and approved the products.
Subsequently the farmers visited the supermarket, where they were able to examine the quality of the products on the shelves.
"We took this opportunity to discuss our needs with the farmers," explained Pine Oppesmon, fruit and vegetable manager at Shoprite. "For example, we told them we needed tomatoes that were half-green because they have a longer shelf life, and that we would buy potatoes from them only if they had been washed."
"Since we started buying from the associations, the supermarket’s revenue has increased by 4 per cent," said Oppesmon. "You know, labour is much cheaper here than in South Africa. Now I am buying 25 per cent of products locally. I hope one day I'll be able to buy 80 to 90 per cent of products locally." He added, "These guys have a great potential, they are producing at European standards. If they get a bit better in packaging, they will make a quantum leap."
Going one step further "My vision is to expand the association's activity and start working with agro-processing industries and become equipped to do better packaging," said Mula, the Massaca association’s president. "Today farmers sell excess or low-quality products as animal feed. Linking them to agro-processing industries would mean, for example, that they would be able to sell ripe tomatoes for tomato paste and increase income-generating activities.”
For further information, please contact: Alessandro Marini, Country Programme Manager, Eastern and Southern and Africa DivisionEmail: a.marini@ifad.org

CLIMATE CHANGE and MALAWI's Ambassador: William Kamkwamba

Forget Al Gore, Jonathan Porritt and the rest of the Eco armchair royal family. This guy puts the whole lot to shame in a country where global warming will impact harder than any European or North American community.

Take a look at this guys BLOG – I sent him $50 for Xmas as he is the only guy that managed to inspire me on climate change EVER !!

http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/

CLIMATE CHANGE and ECONOMIC EQUITY: can industry match the efforts of citizens?

Source: INSNET

Dutch Sustainability Research (DSR) and Respect published findings of a benchmarking study on climate change best practice. The research indicates that corporations are taking part in numerous interesting and innovative climate change related initiatives. However, overall climate change disclosure remains patchy and inconsistent and it therefore remains difficult to determine real leadership.The report urges corporations and policy makers to promote accountability and stimulate best practice in the field of climate change. To this end, corporations and policy makers should further stimulate meaningful, focussed and standardised reporting on climate change. As comment to the benchmarking study, Kaj Embrén, partner of Respect, says:
All the companies in this study show that they have a formal statement on Climate Change, but only 45 % have formulated corporate targets and clear deadlines in terms of GHG-gases. So, it is important to strengthen the work with target setting in the companies further
DSR reviewed the performance of 20 corporations on a selected number of climate change best-practice indicators drawn from international guidelines. The study shows that companies are keen to demonstrate leadership in this field. There is no indication that climate change action compromises financial performance. The study however also reveals that climate change related reporting remains fragmented. Data needs to be gathered from various documents including annual reports, sustainability reports, and websites. Overall, it remains difficult to assess actual corporate leadership on climate change.
Hans-Ulrich Beck, Research Director at DSR, explains: “The difficulty stems mainly from the fact that data disclosed is not easily comparable given the scope and methodologies applied. Furthermore, current disclosure often fully omits material emission sources in particular from the use of products.”
The study highlights that the lack of transparency will make it difficult for climate change leaders to reap the full benefits of climate change leadership such as strengthened reputation or brand awareness. Similarly, there is little pressure for laggards to take action. In order to promote corporate leadership, steps need to be taken to increase corporate accountability and access to meaningful climate change data.
In order to promote transparency and corporate best-practice in the field of climate change, the study urges corporations and policy makers to take necessary steps to:
· Promote more consistent, meaningful, and focussed corporate reporting on climate change; · Facilitate public access to corporate climate change data through a public climate change repository · Provide more visibility to climate change leaders through third party climate change accountability/transparency certification; and
· Reward specific performance standards or emissions reduction achievements through third party climate change leadership labels

CLIMATE CHANGE and TRADE EQUITY: Can trade rules be leveraged to reduce climate change?

Pascal Lamy, the Director of the WTO hints at how the WTO tool-box of rules can certainly be leveraged in the fight against climate change. Normally, the WTO has rules on product standards that encourage its members to use the international norms and this would be defined only by a consensual international accord on climate change that successfully embraces all major polluters. He uses the "food miles" debate to illustrate how far away both this global consensus is and our understanding of climate cause and effects.

Source: Business Daily (Nairobi) by Pascal Lamy
The issue of Climate Change intersects with international trade in a multitude of different ways. While the World Trade Organisation does not have rules that are specific to energy, to the environment or to climate change per se, there is no doubt that the rules of the multilateral trading system - as a whole (i.e. the WTO "rule book") - are indeed relevant to climate change.
Today, there are many different perceptions of what the trading system ought to do on climate change. While some would like to see the trading system curb its own "carbon footprint," through the greenhouse gas emissions it generates in the course of the production, international transportation, and consumption of traded goods and services; others would approach the issue differently.
Some would like to see the trading system offset any competitive disadvantage they suffer in the course of climate change mitigation. More specifically, they would like to impose an economic cost on imported products at their borders equivalent to the one they suffer in curbing their own emissions.
In other words, a "levelling of the playing field" of sorts, if you will, based on an importing country's perception of how that field may best be levelled.
And, of course, there are many different ideas floating on what these "offsetting" measures may be, with most of the discussion naturally focussing on countries' most trade-exposed, energy-intensive, economic sectors like iron and steel and aluminium.
For instance, while some are considering the imposition of domestic carbon taxes, with adjustment for those taxes at their border; others are contemplating emission cap-and-trade systems, with an obligation upon importers to participate in those systems.
Yet another group would prefer to focus on what is most immediately "deliverable" - if I may say so - by the trading system in terms of the fight against climate change. And by this, they mean the opening of markets to environmental goods and services; in particular to those that are relevant to climate change, through the ongoing Doha Round of trade negotiations.
These are but a few of the ideas I have heard so far on how some would like to position the multilateral trading system on climate change. But there are other ideas for sure, and much work is being conducted at the moment - in various quarters - on how the WTO tool box of rules may be leveraged in the fight against this environmental challenge. While some are looking at WTO rules on taxes, others are looking at the rules on subsidies and intellectual property for instance.
My starting point in this debate is to say that the relationship between international trade - and indeed the WTO - and climate change, would be best defined by a consensual international accord on climate change that successfully embraces all major polluters.
In other words, until a truly global consensus emerges on how best to tackle the issue of climate change, WTO Members will continue to hold different views on what the multilateral trading system can and must do on this subject.
There is no doubt that trade regulations are not, and cannot be, a substitute for environmental regulations. Trade, and the WTO toolbox of trade rules more specifically, can - at best - offer no more than part of the answer to climate change. It is not in the WTO that a deal on climate change can be struck, but rather in an environmental forum, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Such an agreement must then send the WTO an appropriate signal on how its rules may best be put to the service of sustainable development; in other words, a signal on how this particular toolbox of rules should be employed in the fight against climate change.Absent such a signal, confusion will persist on what would constitute an appropriate response by multilateral trading system.
Let us take the issue of the international trading system's carbon footprint for instance. Much is said in the press everyday about the carbon footprint of international transportation.
In fact, a new and emerging concept is that of "food miles." In other words, the desire of consumers in certain countries to calculate the carbon emitted in the course of international transportation, with many already drawing the conclusion that it may be better to "simply produce goods at home" to minimize emissions.
But that argument does not always stand up to empirical verification. In fact, 90% of internationally traded goods are carried by sea. And maritime transport is by far the most carbon-efficient mode of transport, with only 14 grams of CO2 emissions per ton kilometre.
Shipping is followed by train transport, then road transport. Air transport has by far the highest CO2 emissions per ton kilometre (a minimum of 600 grams), illustrating the high relative climate impact of such transport.
For instance, some studies show that a Kenyan flower that is air-freighted to Europe emits a third of the CO2 of flowers grown in Holland. Others show that New Zealand lamb that is transported to the United Kingdom can actually generate 70 per cent less CO2 than lamb produced in the UK.
Only a multilateral approach to climate change would allow us to properly address these issues. A multilateral agreement, that includes all major polluters, would be the best placed international instrument to guide other instruments, such as the WTO, as well as all economic actors on how negative environmental externalities must be internationalized. Only with such an instrument can we move towards the proper pricing of energy.
The WTO tool-box of rules can certainly be leveraged in the fight against climate change, and "adapted" if governments perceive this to be necessary to better achieve their goals. The WTO has rules on product standards for instance, that encourage its members to use the international norms set by more specialized international institutions.
The WTO has rules on subsidies, taxes, intellectual property, and so on. All of these tools can prove valuable in the fight against climate change, but in that fight, would need to be mobilised under clearer environmental parameters that only the environmental community can set.
Surely we should not miss an opportunity to open markets for clean technology and services in the Doha negotiations. But, in doing so, we should cognizant of the fact that, ultimately, it is the existence of environmental regulations that will drive demand for these goods and services.
Hence the importance, once again, of setting the right environmental framework within which market opening can take place.
The writer is the director-general of WTO.

EQUITY and CREDIT CRUNCH: Will this impact on Travel Trends to developing countries in 2008?

Worries are abounding that one indirect victim of the US-generated credit crunch will be foreign travel, particularly that to developing nations. On one hand this is inevitable, but in a growing market the answer is nuanced. It is clear that the direct victims who are losing homes in the mid-west US were a very small percentage of developing country visitors. Yet for the actual tourists, mostly ABC1s and dreadlocked neo-backpackers ... will they not invest in that new buy-to-let flat in Lewisham or Bucharest and rather have a holiday? Will they choose Nairobi and Phnom Penh over London and LA? Likely is that thrifty people will think they can get a bargain in the developing world and will go for that and save for the expensive European destinations. Tall Economist puts his money squarely on eco-tourism in developing countries sustaining its steady pace of growth.

Source: Business Daily (Nairobi) by Wangui Maina
The credit crisis that has hit the US market, in turn affecting the global markets, is expected to have an impact on travel in 2008 according to a new report by Deloitte.
According to the report, 2008 Travel Industry Trends Report, the tightening in US credit lending is expected to impact on individuals spending on leisure.
"A slumping housing market and softening in consumer confidence is likely to impact travel in the near future," the report stated. In the past consumers have relied on cash-outs from refinanced mortgagees to support THL spending.
The ongoing crisis may make it impossible for some travellers to access finances to travel especially as houses are foreclosed due to faulted mortgages.
The report which looks at the Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure (THL) industry in the American market noted in addition to the credit crisis four other trends are expected to inform travel from this market in 2008.
This include changing customer tastes, globalisation, safety and security, and technology. Customers are increasingly looking for niche products when making decisions on their travellers.
The report notes that travellers look for specific destinations to suit some of their interests especially if it is a repeat journey to a particular destination.
Already Kenya has turned its marketing towards attracting this travellers by promoting various niche products like eco-tourism, bird watching and cultural tourism as a bid to grow the tourism sector.
The growing economies of China and Russia are expected to impact on travel trends in 2008 as travellers from these countries are expected to have more disposable income. Kenya has already turned its focus to China where it hopes to attract more tourists.
Travellers are also expected to visit these countries "especially with Moscow being classifies as one of the most expensive cities in the world," the report noted.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics are expected to be a positive gain for the East Asian country whose hotel rooms is predicted to grow by 76 per cent ahead of this international fete.
According to Deloitte's October 2007 Travel Survey 17 per cent of respondents said the new security measures that have been put in place in the past year will actually deter them from travelling by plane for leisure and 10 per cent said the measures would deter them from travelling by plane for business.
Since the terror attack in 2001 security measures have been tightened in the aviation sector making travelling an excruciating process.
Today airports boast long security lines with new security requirements being unveiled regularly. Mid this year IATA introduced new rules on hand luggage on planes that were adopted in most airlines, the new rules banned the carry any form of liquid aboard the plane.
The debate on climate change is also expected to affect customers travelling patterns, in the recent years there has been an increased awareness of ethical travel. To curb this schemes like carbon offsetting have been introduced to help offset the guilt of carbon emission. In addition this has raised the awareness of sustainable tourism which mainly promotes eco-tourism.
Regardless of all these trends the travel market is still expected to grow in 2008.

VIETNAM and CAMBODIA: more trade ... but what about sustainable tourism?

Facilitating trade is always the excuse for new border crossings. Given the competing needs for the rural poor in Cambodia and the integrity of the eastern Plains forests, the opening of a new border gate in Rattanakiri is worrying. Has a feasibility study been conducted? And what is this trade going to be facilitated in -- timber, poached wildlife and chainsaws?

Source: Nhan Dan ... "Vietnam opens another border gate with Cambodia"

Vietnam on December 15 put into service an international border gate in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, which borders Ratanakiri province in Cambodia.
The border gate, situated in Gia Lai province’s Duc Co district, is called Le Thanh in Vietnamese and Oyadao in Cambodian.
It is hoped to facilitate trade activities in the two countries’ border areas and also cement the ties between residents on both sides of the border.
The establishment of the border gate is also expected to help create a breakthrough for development in the triangle area which encompasses Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

EQUITY and HUNTING: rural poor benefit from elephant hunting

Source: The Namibian (Windhoek)
EVERY member of the 5 000-strong San community in the Bwabwata National Park in the Caprivi Region received N$136 from the Kyaramacan Association in October.
The Association, representing San people living in 10 villages in the newly proclaimed park, was given hunting rights in the park by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
It generates money from trophy hunting and meat sales.
The Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) project leader in West Caprivi, Friedrich Alpers, says a total amount of N$300 000 was distributed among the association's members.
Alpers said 16 elephants were hunted during the year and the meat was given to the community for domestic consumption.
"They had about 30 000 kg of elephant meat," he said.
Alpers said the association's members have indicated that they will use the money to pay their children's school fees and buy food.
For the past two years, the Kyaramacan Association has contributed N$1,2 million a year to the Ministry's Game Products Trust Fund, which finances conservation projects and compensates people for losses caused by wild animals.
According to the agreement signed between the Government and the association, 50 per cent of the income generated from trophy hunting must be handed to the Fund.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND EQUITY: Namibia: Poor 'Will Be Hit Hard' By Climate Change

Source: SciDev.Net (London) by Carol Campbell

Climate change is expected to dramatically alter the lifestyles of poor people in Namibia, say the authors of a study.
Their findings were published by the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) this month (December).
Namibia is economically dependent on natural resources. Up to 30 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to be reliant on the environment. Climate change could increase temperatures by 2-6 degrees Celsius by 2100, and rainfall is expected to be lower and more variable.
The researchers used data from Namibia's natural resource accounts to model the economic impact of climate change.
They found that under a best-case scenario over 20 years, the overall GDP would fall by about one per cent (about US$70 million). But under a worst-case scenario, livestock farming would be hit hard, fishing production would be greatly reduced and GDP would fall by almost six per cent (about US$200 million).
Even in the best-case scenario, subsistence farming would be greatly reduced and a quarter of the population would eventually have to find new livelihoods.
Extreme events like drought are expected to become more common, while changes in sea temperature will play havoc with the fishing industry. Economic diversification will be an important development strategy in future, especially in farming and coastal communities.
Phoebe Barnard, founder of Namibia's national climate change programme, now based at the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Cape Town (SANBI), told SciDev.Net that a detailed modelling study of climate change impacts on Namibian biodiversity and ecosystems was conducted by SANBI for Namibia in 2003.
The SANBI study projected significant additional bush encroachment of the savannah under climate change, and an expansion of Nama Karoo-type (dwarf shrubland) habitat.
"This will severely compromise the livestock production sector, one of Namibia's main livelihoods, and put pressure on the ecology of areas marginal for farming," said Barnard.
"It is up to industrialised nations -- the most responsible for climate change -- to help Namibia and other vulnerable countries cope with the impacts and plan for a climate-constrained future," says the study.

CAMBODIA: Silver bullets? How the sustainable tourism dream is being subverted by business and the government

According to Global Witness, Cambodia's government ranks as one of the most corrupt and its ruling cliques as the most incestuous. The government at all levels is grappling with how to deal with rising populations, pressures from its neighbours for its natural resources and the cries of conservationists. A policy of laissez-faire is supported. The latest silver bullet is proposed by a hunting safari company which wants to develop a hunting bag of 30 species in Rattanakiri province. As WWF point out (a) no assessment of populations has been conducted to discern suitability of these species for hunting (b) no supporting infrastructure exists for community benefits to be dispersed (c) poaching from Vietnamese hunters is a huge problem for species conservation and needs to be addressed. Experience from southern Africa shows that well-managed hunting operations integrated with communities, local and national official channels, and in harmony with nature, can be a positive addition to the conservation mosaic for an area. It is rarely the first tool one would use, and then only with good information.

Source: Reuters ..."Cambodia plans hunting safaris for VIP tourists" By Ek Madra; Illegal Logging ... "Global Witness Report Accuses Cambodia's International Donors of Inaction while a Corrupt Elite surrounding the Prime Minister loots the Country's Forests"
Cambodia is considering laying on hunting safaris for well-heeled foreign tourists in its remote jungle-clad northeast, to the consternation of green groups who say it could be a recipe for disaster.
Officials said on Tuesday a Spanish firm called Nsok Safaris had already drawn up plans for a five-star jungle camp to house hunters after trophies on a list of 30 mammals, birds and reptiles in a 100,000-hectare (250,000-acre) forest reserve.
The area, in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri provinces, is home to several indigenous hill-tribes whose first main contact with the outside world was during the Vietnam War when their territory was crossed by the myriad paths of the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Dany Chheang, deputy director of the Agriculture Ministry's Wildlife Protection Office, said allowing foreigners to pay to shoot game was far better for conservation than having poachers take it illegally.
"Illegal hunters are burning dollars every day," he told Reuters. "We have not explored all the potential of our natural resources. Now is the time to do so."
"The money we net will be invested in preserving the animals and forest. It is better for sustainable development than letting local hunters deal with cheap black markets."
He did not say what the 30 approved species were. The forest area is thought to be one of southeast Asia's last wildernesses and is home to wild elephants and tigers.
Environvmental group WWF, which has been promoting wildlife conservation in war-scarred Cambodia since 1998, said it was concerned about the plan, which has been in the pipeline for two years but which has remained shrouded in secrecy.
WWF's Cambodia programme manager, Bas van Helvoort, said little was known about animal population numbers in the two provinces, and so allowing them to be hunted could be disastrous.
"Putting species up to be hunted is not going to contribute to making them safe," van Helvoort said. "This has been done in Africa but it is very carefully selected and very controlled."
So far, Phnom Penh -- which is routinely accused of allowing rampant illegal logging -- appears oblivious to the concerns.
"These are our natural resources. We do not need permission from wildlife conservation experts to run our business," Dany Chheang said.
The Finance Ministry was still working with agriculture officials on the finer points of the plan, such as trophies and fees, he added.
Madrid-based Nsok Safari's Web site advertises hunting expeditions in Cameroon and Tanzania. (Editing by Ed Cropley and Roger Crabb)

CLIMATE CHANGE and EQUITY: Namibia's poorest lose out

Natural resource based economies in Africa to be hit hard economically by climate change with the poorest paying the highest relative price.

Source: The Namibian (Windhoek) ... "Climate Outlook Grim - Study" by Absalom Shigwedha

The impact of climate change on Namibia's natural resources alone could reduce the country's Gross Domestic Product by one to six per cent, says an opinion paper by four climate change experts.
The paper, 'Counting the cost of climate change in Namibia', was compiled by Hannah Reid of the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), James MacGregor (IIED), Linda Sahlen of Umea University and Jesper Stage of Goteborg University It was launched at the conference of parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) currently on in Bali, Indonesia.
"Its [Namibia's] natural legacy underpins much of the national bank balance - and also leaves it highly vulnerable to climate change," said the two-page paper. It is estimated that up to 30 per cent of Namibia's GDP is reliant on the environment. The paper said there was a need for Namibia to mainstream climate change into national policies and planning. Employment opportunities, it says, could shrink and wages fall, with wages for unskilled labour dropping by 24 per cent in worst-case scenario. "So, along with climate change policies and activities, Namibia needs a strategy to deal with displaced farmers and farmworkers," said the paper. Low rainfall is particularly expected in the central regions, while overall rainfall is projected to become even more variable that it is now.
"Even if rainfall changes little from today's levels, hotter temperatures will boost evaporation rates, leading to severe water shortages. Poor rural pastoralists and dryland populations will be affected most. Extreme events such as drought are likely to become more frequent and more intense," said the four experts.
They said it was up to industrialised nations - the most responsible for climate change - to help Namibia and other vulnerable countries to cope with the impact.

CLIMATE CHANGE, EQUITY and MARKETS: Stern warning

Nicolas Stern estimates the extra costs developing countries face as a result of climate change are likely to be upwards of $80bn per year and it is vital that extra resources are available for new initiatives.
Source: Royal Economics Society
Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure that the world has seen, Sir Nicholas Stern, whose review last year warned of the economic and social costs of climate change, said tonight.
Delivering the Royal Economic Society (RES) public lecture in Manchester, ahead of next week's world summit on climate change in Bali, Sir Nicholas said targets and trading must be at the heart of a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"The problem of climate change involves a fundamental failure of markets: those who damage others by emitting greenhouse gases generally do not pay," said Sir Nicholas.
"Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen. The evidence on the seriousness of the risks from inaction or delayed action is now overwhelming. We risk damages on a scale larger than the two world wars of the last century. The problem is global and the response must be a collaboration on a global scale."
He added that rich countries must lead the way in taking action. "That means adopting ambitious emissions reduction targets; encouraging effective market mechanisms; supporting programmes to combat deforestation; promoting rapid technological progress to mitigate the effects of climate change; and honouring their aid commitments to the developing world," he said.
Sir Nicholas used the RES lecture - entitled, Climate Change, Ethics and the Economics of the Global Deal - to set out a six-point global deal for tackling climate change.
The first involves rich countries reducing their greenhouse emissions by at least 80% - either directly or through trading schemes - in order that the overall 50% reduction in global emissions by 2050 is met.
Secondly he called for substantial trade between countries, including rich and poor countries, in greenhouse gas emissions.
The third point requires a major reform of the clean development mechanism, a Kyoto protocol mechanism that allows developing countries to sell emission reductions, but does not penalise them for emissions themselves, making it a "one-sided trade mechanism", said Sir Nicholas.
He also argued for an international programme to combat deforestation, which contributes 15-20% of greenhouse gas emissions.
"For $10-15bn (£4.8-7.2bn) per year, a programme could be constructed that could stop up to half the deforestation," he said.
There also needs to be urgent promotion of rapid technological advance for climate change mitigation, said Sir Nicholas.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) for coal is particularly urgent since coal-fired electric power is currently the dominant technology round the world and emerging nations will be investing heavily in these technologies, he said.
"For $5bn a year, in terms of feed-in tariffs (which could be reduced as carbon prices rise), it should be possible to create 30 commercial scale coal-fired CCS stations within seven or eight years. Unless the rich world demonstrates, and quickly, that CCS works, developing countries cannot be expected to commit to this technology."
The final plank in Sir Nicholas's action plan is for rich countries to honour their commitments to 0.7% of GDP in aid by 2015. This would yield increases in flows of $150-200bn per year. The extra costs developing countries face as a result of climate change are likely to be upwards of $80bn per year and it is vital that extra resources are available for new initiatives.
Sir Nicholas argued that this global deal invokes effectiveness, efficiency and equity.
"The problem is deeply inequitable with the rich countries having caused the bulk of current stocks of greenhouse gases and the poor countries being hit earliest and hardest - which means that the rich countries must take the lead," he said.
"Within different countries, there will be different choices of instruments - such as taxes, trading and standards - and different technological mixes.
"In all countries, there is scope for energy efficiency, which both reduces emissions and saves money. But trading must be a central part of the story because it can provide the international incentives for participation, and promote efficiency and equity, while controlling quantities of emissions."
Sir Nicholas Stern said that his programme could be developed if rich countries take a lead in Bali on their targets, the promotion of trading mechanisms and funding for deforestation and technology.
He said: "Bali is an opportunity to draw the outline of the common understanding or framework, which will both guide action now, and build towards the deal."

Meat and equity: Zambia questions EU policies over imports and trade

Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa questions EU policies over imports and trade complaining that Zambia is losing as much as $150 million annually on potential meat exports alone .... close to what the EU gives Zambia in grants every year.He called for delegates to find ways on how Africa and European nations can build a new relationship based on equality.

Source: The Times of Zambia (Lusaka)... Zambia: President Call for EU Countries to Open Up Their Markets to Africa

THE call by President Mwanawasa for European Union (EU) countries to open up their markets to African agricultural produce is a serious matter, which should be accorded the attention that it deserves. For a long time, African countries have been crying about the restricted access to the lucrative EU and other markets.
That Zambia is losing as much as $150 million annually on potential meat exports alone as a result of these trade restrictions is indicative of the magnitude of the opportunities that the EU has been denying African countries. This figure, according to Dr Mwanawasa is close to what the EU gives Zambia in grants every year.
This clearly demonstrates that Zambia and other African countries are capable of eventually standing on their own if only EU members and other developed countries could be supportive by offering them chance to trade equitably, instead of keeping them hooked on foreign aid.
In fact, Africa has always stated that it does not wish to live on hand-outs because it is capable of standing on its own with genuine support from the developed. Such support could entail the removal of some of the rigid packaging specifications and phyto-sanitary standards demanded by the EU.
The other way that the EU could help Zambia would be through the deliberate boosting of Africa's capacity to meet some of these measures demanded by the European nations, and allowing the country to trade itself out of aid dependency.
Europe can enable Africa to trade more equitably by removing agricultural subsidies, which make African produce uncompetitive on the EU market.
Of course, the EU cannot be expected to relax the trade restriction and open up its markets rapidly and at once, but there is room for the EU member states to remove some of the barriers and meet the African nations half way.
The EU-Africa Summit, which closed yesterday in Lisbon, was called to find ways on how Africa and European nations can build a new relationship based on equality. The suggestion made by Dr Mwanawasa is one way of achieving that.
The World has followed the deliberations of the summit in Portugal with keen interest and is waiting to see the results of the meeting.
Now is the time to implement the resolutions of the EU-Africa summit. Otherwise the meeting will be branded just another talking shop.

EQUITY and GAS: how loudly purrs the tiger in your tank?

Nice data and graphical representation in this article ... but no purchasing power parity vibe ... still a good read, even if unrelative equity is the watchword.

Source: Foreign Policy ... "Prime Numbers: Pain at the Pump" by Gerhard Metschies
Drivers grumble about high gasoline prices all over the world. But with oil prices at record highs, many countries are saying goodbye to gas subsidies, making a trip to the filling station more expensive than ever.

Gasoline prices are based largely on the price of crude oil, but refining costs, distribution, and taxes also add to the tab. Some governments, such as Venezuela and Iran, pick up much of the bill through subsidies. But as the price of crude has risen, many countries have abandoned subsidies in favor of higher gas taxes. Indonesian motorists have perhaps been hit hardest: Gas prices there have increased a whopping 238 percent since 2000.
Countries that keep prices artificially low do so at the peril of their budgets’ bottom line. Iran’s subsidies cut into its total state spending by nearly 40 percent. On the flip side, gasoline taxation can help curb state deficits. South Korea’s high fuel taxes bring in 15 percent of the country’s spending

KENYA and sustainable development: Bank Gets Long Term Credit for SMEs

Smaller businesses in Kenya will get a new leg-up from leveraged cheaper finance from Fina Bank [through EIB]. The credit market in rural areas is one missing market that needs filling and could radically alter the profile of rural poverty.

Source: The Nation (Nairobi) Kenya: Fina Bank Gets Long Term Credit for Smes

Fina Bank's small and medium clients can now access long-term financing of up to 10 years following an agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to provide funding.
Under the agreement signed on Friday, Fina Bank will receive Sh273 million (3 million euros) from the European bank's Sh1.8 billion (EUR 20 million) line of credit.
Mr Carmelo Cocuzza, the EIB head of regional representation for Central and East Africa, said the loans will be available in Kenya shillings, US dollars or Euros at either floating or fixed rates.
"Besides being long-term, the loans will be beneficial to the clients because they will be cushioned against the local interest rates fluctuations," said Mr Cocuzza.
Fina Bank group CEO, Mr Frank Griffiths, said the agreement will allow the banks to provide longer term loans to its growing number of SME customers.
"Expanding a business is not easy and being able to finance a project for up to 10 years will be greatly appreciated," said Mr Griffiths.
He added that the ability to offer up to a 10-year loan, in a variety of currencies, and with the option of a fixed rate of interest, is relatively unique in this market.
It targets the agro-industry, fishing, mining, food processing, manufacturing, tourism, education and health-care.

TRADE and EQUITY: Namibian meat, economic dominoes

WINDHOEK: The Namibian government has made a bizarre decision which will cripple its lucrative export industry to the EU for fresh produce and meat -- seemingly for no gain, political or economic. New tariffs will AVERAGE 90% on all exports. Clever Namibians are buying shares in haulage companies, gas stations along the TransCaprivi and TransKalahari Highways. Meat-eating Namibians are wondering what this means for the local price of meat which has for a long time been subsidised by lucrative exports to the EU. Plus, the value of land is intimately linked to these high returns from exports - and cattle rangeland supports cattle and wildlife complementarily. The tourism industry, based around sustainable tourism [and community-based natural resource management, is equally watching these emerging events with a sense of loss and impending problems.

Source: The Namibian ... "Farmers Shocked About EU Trade Loss" by Brigitte Weidlich

SHOCKWAVES have rippled through the private sector since Government announced on Wednesday that it refused to sign a new trade deal to kick in on January 1 2008.
The signature would have safeguarded duty- and quotafree access of all Namibian agricultural produce, such as beef, grapes and fish, to the European Union (EU).
"Namibia is facing very stiff tariffs for beef imports to the EU, averaging 90 per cent, three weeks from now against the present eight per cent," said Juergen Hoffmann, Special Trade Advisor at the Agricultural Trade Forum (ATF).
"This is because the European Union does not grant GSP to any meat products," he said yesterday.
The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is a scheme whereby a wide range of industrial and agricultural products from some developing countries are given preferential access to EU markets.
An insider of the beef industry told The Namibian yesterday the steep increase in tariffs from next January would make it uneconomic to export beef to the EU.
Currently Namibia exports some 9 000 tonnes of beef a year to the EU.
"It is deboned meat and only the best pieces, being the prime cuts, are exported," said the person, who spoke on condition off anonymity.
"I would not be surprised at all if some abattoirs shut down in Namibia and jobs will be lost.
I also wonder if the Etunda feedlot, which is to be set up by Meatco near Ruacana with EU grant money, will actually come off."
Trade and Industry Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko told reporters on Wednesday that Government would set up a special task team to assess the losses the beef, fish and grape producers will suffer.
"We can meet them only halfway," the Minister stated. The grape industry is also affected by the Government decision. It employs about 1 500 people permanently and 6 000 seasonal workers in southern Namibia. Namibia exports about 22 500 tonnes of table grapes, most of them to the EU.
The higher import tariffs of EU countries will amount to over N$300 million, which producers have to cough up next year to sell their grapes in Europe

CLIMIATE CHANGE and EQUITY: CC will hit Namibia's poorest

Namibia: Climate Change to Hit Key Economic Sectors
Climate change will impact the poorest - more evidence from the University of Namibia

Source: The Namibian (Windhoek) by Absalom Shigwedha

Namibia's agricultural production could drop by 13 per cent because of climate change, says a recent study by the University of Namibia.
Livestock production will also decrease. The report, titled 'Millennium Development Goals 7 and Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities', was presented by Dr John Mfune, a lecturer at Unam, last Thursday.
Mfune, who was the co-ordinator of the study, said the country will also lose biodiversity and revenue from wildlife-based tourism because of climate change. However, Mfune said his team was happy to see that some rural people in the Oshana Region have already taken measures to adapt to climate change. Instead of sowing the traditional pearl millet (mahangu) that needs a lot rain, they have turned to drought-resistant Okashana mahangu, which matures fast even in drought conditions.
Mfune said climate change would mean more frequent and severe droughts for Namibia, which would lead to water shortages and less wood from natural forests for building homesteads. The research team visited the Erongo, Oshana, Caprivi, Karas and Hardap regions. The report was presented at the launch of the 2007/2008 Human Development Report last month.
The Human Development Report also focused on the effects of climate change. The 13th conference of parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) started in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday and will run until next week Friday.
Namibia acceded to the UNFCCC in 1995 and is represented at the Bali meeting.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND EQUITY: India - Class injustice

Sub-national divisions between rich and poor in India are identified as being divisive both economically and environmentally. This excellent article from Frontline illustrates why decisions taken at an international level need to be coupled with responsible national practices in order to genuinely ensure that climate change is purse-neutral and that we all bear its costs and reap its benefits.

Source: Frontline - India's national magazine ... "class injustice" by R. RAMACHANDRAN

Rich Indians are eating into the carbon space the poor need for economic growth, and recent national policies have helped such disparities grow.
PARTH SANYAL A THERMAL POWER station in West Bengal. India is ranked as the 14th worst carbon intense electricity-producing nation in the world.
IT is a truism and so does not require detailed surveys to drive home its point: in India the disparities in living standards and consumption patterns, in particular of energy, between the rich and the poor are so vast that in the context of climate change, by emitting disproportionately large amounts of carbon, the former class is eating into the carbon space that the latter genuinely needs for its economic growth and development. By focussing exclusively on economic growth in the gross without adequately addressing issues of equity, national policies of the recent past have increased these disparities, which will only render the already vulnerable sections of India even more incapable of adapting to the dangerous effects of climate change.Greenpeace report
“Hiding Behind the Poor”, a recent report by Greenpeace India, provides a quantitative perspective to this internal “climate injustice”. Even such a quantitative perspective is not new. In 1997, N.S. Murthy and associates from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, highlighted the high degree of distortion in energy consumption prevalent in the country. Using 1989-90 data, they showed that the richest top 10 per cent of urban people emitted 12 times as much carbon a person a year as the bottom poor. They showed that the extreme disparity ratio (EDR), defined as the ratio of the energy (direct and indirect) consumed by the urban top and the rural bottom, was 10.3 for coal, 14.8 for oil and 9.0 for electricity and 12 in terms of the total carbon equivalent. The Greenpeace report only serves as a reminder – if one was required – that it is high time the government put in place appropriate policy measures to reverse this trend, which has been allowed to continue unbridled.
International negotiations on climate change have been premised on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” to address the issue of the iniquitous development of nations and their highly disparate per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Since, historically, developed countries have been the biggest emitters of GHGs (in particular, of CO2 from burning fossil fuels) and hence are responsible for global warming and the consequent climate change, the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, framed under the convention, require that industrialised countries (called Annex-1 countries under the protocol) cut back on their GHG emissions (to 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012).
For the full article click here.

CLIMATE CHANGE and EQUITY SCHIZOPHRENIA

VS has swallowed a Financial Dictionary! Genuinely, it is hard to know what to make of her deployment of the terms hypercapitalism, pollution socialism and equity schizophrenia [!] but Shiva times her latest rant in advance of the Bali meetings.

Source: IPS by Vandana Shiva

GLOBALISATION, EQUITY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE - The pollution created by corporations must be recognised as their responsibility and liability, no matter where they create it. Transferring their pollution burden to the poor of the South is not equity, it is injustice, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment. In this analysis, Shiva writes that in times of globalisation, global corporations are the main economic players, not countries, and global corporations out-source their pollution to the developing world to save costs and maximise profits. The author coins the term ''equity schizophrenia'', by which corporate globalisers destroy equity to concentrate wealth and resources in the hands of a wealthy few, while they want the poor, whom they have dispossessed of their livelihoods and land, to share the responsibility for pollution, which the poor did not cause. This is hypercapitalism of wealth and resources and socialism of pollution. The poor lose their ''goods'' to the rich and inherit their liabilities.

CLIIMATE CHANGE EQUITY: Africans emit the least

In terms of totals, small african countries - Rwanda and Burundi - emit the least in the world and in terms of per capita, the whole continent is below the global average and according to IIED, below the natural sink capacity level. Time to echo the HDR findings "'The world's poorest people are on the frontline. They stand most directly in harm's way - and they have the least resources to cope. This first catastrophe is not a distant future scenario. It is unfolding today, slowing progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and deepening inequalities within and across countries."


Source:The New Times (Rwanda), agrifoodstandards.net and IIED .... by C. Kazooba, S. Mutesi and IIED [Muyeye Chambwera et al]

Rwanda and Burundi are among countries with least carbon emissions in the world.
Rwanda is ranked at 161 emitting about 600,000 tonnes of carbon gasses that cause climate change whereas Burundi is positioned at 167 emitting about 200,000 tonnes in 2004 out of the 177 countries surveyed, according to the 2007/2008 UNDP's Human Development Report released in Kampala yesterday.
Rwanda, which comes after Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, in 2004, signed the Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, both of which limit a country's emission of Carbondioxide.
The United Nations Development Programme report titled: 'Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World', warns that the recent devastating climate change would severely affect the world's poorest.
'The world's poorest people are on the frontline. They stand most directly in harm's way - and they have the least resources to cope. This first catastrophe is not a distant future scenario. It is unfolding today, slowing progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and deepening inequalities within and across countries.
Left unattended, it will lead to human development reversals throughout the 21st century,' the report reveals.
It adds that climate change through its impact on ecology, rainfall, temperature and weather systems, global warming will directly affect all countries.
'However, some countries and people are more vulnerable than others. In the long-term, the whole of humanity faces risks but more immediately, the risks and vulnerabilities are skewed towards the world's poorest people,' it said.
The world's temperature is reported to have grown by around 0.7 degrees centigrade since the advent of the industrial era, according to the research.
'The trend is accelerating at average global mean temperature is rising at 0.2 degrees centigrade every decade.'

AFRICA and the USA: Remarkable Change and Progress in Africa's Economic Development

Source: AllAfrica

On the second leg of a trip to three African countries, the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., delivered this address to the Corporate Council on Africa's U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Cape Town.
Africa is a unique continent: diverse in people and heritage, with some of the most spectacular geography and biodiversity on the planet. All too often, however, those who do not know Africa well associate the continent with issues like famine, conflict and disease. Tonight, I will talk about a much different Africa, one with which I suspect most of you are more familiar – a continent of diverse nations increasingly defined by economic opportunity and promise.
Most importantly, I will talk about an Africa where leaders are taking control of their own economic futures and continuing to move beyond reliance on donors.

For the rest of the speech AllAfrica.

UK "soft" exports grow at same rate as China's "hard" exports

Source: Financial Times (UK).

Britain has got the knowledge and should flaunt it by Will Hutton.

China's export miracle over the past 10 years is now a commonplace. Less well-known is a parallel British miracle. Exports of knowledge-based service - everything from investment banking to publishing - have grown over the same period at near-Chinese proportions as part of Britain's emergence as a world leader in the knowledge economy.
It is a fragile position, not widely understood, with far-reaching implications. On data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Britain employed more than 48 per cent of its workforce in knowledge economy sectors in 2005 (including information and communications technology, health, education, financial and business services, creative industries and high-tech manufacturing) compared with a European Union average of 41 per cent. Britain's trade surplus in the knowledge industries constitutes 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product - the highest in the world.
Why is Britain doing so well? The Work Foundation's answer (we are engaging in Europe's largest-ever knowledge economy inquiry) is that the knowledge economy is a sophisticated supply response to high and growing levels of educated, discerning demand - and that Britain has enjoyed 15 years' growth of just such demand.
Abraham Maslow, the US psychologist, depicted human beings as having a hierarchy of needs ranging from the most basic to an apex of self-fulfilment. Enough consumers are now rich enough to have created a tipping point: the emergence of "apex consumption". Buyers, whether individuals or businesses, are insistent that what they buy is not just a transaction; they want value, a relationship, a quality experience and even psychological satisfaction from what they spend. Business success now requires investment not just in physical assets, but in design, so-called soft skills, brands, company-specific software, leadership, research and development and in-house training. In 1970, investment in these so-called intangibles was a mere 40 per cent of investment in tangible assets: now it is 125 per cent.
More at ft.com.

CLIMATE CHANGE, equity and MARKETS: “Climate may change in public opinion”

Source: Financial Times (UK)

“Climate may change in public opinion” by Pablo Triana

In the past few months, there has been a flurry of activity in the “green investments” arena. In August, Credit Suisse unveiled its Global Warming Index, with HSBC throwing its hat into the ring just weeks later with its Climate Change Index. Both innovative devices allow investors direct plays on the stocks of companies that should, in principle, benefit from the altered climatic conditions that seem to surround us these days. While Credit Suisse has chosen to select a basket of 40 firms, HSBC has opted for a larger selection of 300 names, with both indices focusing on renewable and alternative energies.
Should investors pay heed and punt on those companies bent on making millions out of the new weather realities? The easy answer would seem to be yes, definitely. Few would nowadays doubt that climate change is not only a reality, but a severe problem that needs to be tackled with the utmost urgency, thus significantly enhancing future demand for things like ethanol or wind turbines. And there is the ethical kicker to boot. By betting on the health of green companies, you would not only be destined to reap millions but also contribute to the clean-up of the planet. Who could resist that?
More at ft.com.

CLIMATE CHANGE and EQUITY: China, coal and iPods

A good article from WSJ. Fails to point its finger at how fashion in gadgets requires these mobiles and other small electronic equipment to be flown from East Asia to Europe and the USA. Forget food miles, think gadget miles!

From Wall Street Journal: Why China Could Blame Its CO2 on West
By JANE SPENCER
To understand the deadlock in the debate on global climate change, take a look at your iPod.
The vast majority of the world's MP3 players are made in China, where the main power source is coal. Manufacturing a single MP3 player releases about 17 pounds of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
IPods, along with thousands of other goods churned out by Chinese factories, from toys to rolled steel, pose a question that is becoming an issue in the climate-change debate. If a gadget is made in China by an American company and exported and used by consumers from Stockholm to São Paulo, Brazil, should the Chinese government be held responsible for the carbon released in manufacturing it?
Next month, world leaders will gather in Bali to begin hammering out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to combat global warming that expires in 2012. China and the U.S., the world's two largest carbon emitters, are facing mounting international pressure to participate in the new deal. But as the bill for unchecked emissions comes due, a battle is brewing over who should pay for it.
Past accords like Kyoto have looked at emissions on a country-by-country basis, requiring participating nations to reduce greenhouse gases released within their borders. In other words, the manufacturing nation pays for the pollution. But in a twist that could put more pressure on industrialized nations like the U.S., academics, environmentalists and some policy makers argue the next global climate treaty should take into account a nation's emissions "consumption." They argue the emissions are embedded in goods that move around the world through trade -- so if the U.S. imports iPods from China, Americans should share some responsibility for the pollution produced in making them.
"As China's emissions rise, everyone is pointing the finger of blame at China," says Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation, a think tank and environmental-advocacy organization based in London. "The real responsibility for rising emissions should lie with the final consumers in Europe, North America and the rest of the world."
The argument appeals to leaders in China, which by some tallies has already passed the U.S. as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Earlier this year, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang reminded reporters from the Western media that "a lot of the things you wear, you use, you eat are produced in China." On the one hand, Western companies are manufacturing more in China, but "on the other hand, you criticize China on the emission-reduction issue," he added. Roughly 23% of China's emissions come from the production of goods that are shipped elsewhere, according to a recent report by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Britain.
Some economists dismiss the argument and note that China happily benefits from the arrangement. "China loves being an exporter, so it's ironic they would blame the U.S. for their exports," says Robert Stavins, a professor of business and government at Harvard University. "It's called having your cake and eating it too."
At this point, the blame-the-buyer approach is more a negotiating tactic than a serious proposal for redrafting the global-emissions map. But as new studies and reams of data become available tallying embedded emissions, the research could influence the debate over what kind of emissions cuts various nations should be called on to make.
Advocates of the consumption-based approach argue it solves one of the key problems associated with the Kyoto Protocol, known as carbon leakage. This is the idea that countries can reduce their own emissions by sending dirty industries abroad. The same countries may still import the finished goods from the developing world, creating a situation in which global carbon emissions rise, even as individual nations meet their targets.
"If you have emissions constraints, it's become very attractive to relocate dirty production to developing countries, or import products from developing countries," says Glen Peters, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. "You import the finished goods, and leave the pollution in China."
Technically, carbon emissions in the U.S. have declined in recent years, a fact noted by President Bush. U.S. carbon emissions fell 1.3% in 2006. But a recent study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University suggests the U.S. may be cutting its emissions by outsourcing more manufacturing.
"If the Chinese government was held responsible for its emissions, it would raise the cost of producing goods there," says Joseph Aldy, an economist at Resources for the Future, an environmental think tank based in Washington. "Typically, when one imposes a tax, the cost gets passed back to the consumer."

CAMBODIA and Helmets: responsible business fund safety

Frrom: WWF Cambodia's Newsletter.

On your bike! But not without your helmet WWF Cambodia employees have been provided
with motor cycle helmets which they are required to wear when riding to and from work and
whenever carrying out WWF work related activities.
According to a recent article in the Asia Life magazine, wearing a helmet reduces your chance of
death in an accident by 40%. When it comes to serious injury a non-helmeted motorbike rider is three times more likely to suffer than one wearing a helmet. These statistics apply to low speed accidents, between 30-40kph – or about the speed of the average motorcycle around Phnom Penh.
Not negotiable: WWF Cambodia is taking the issue of rider safety seriously. Project managers have already warned that any WWF staff seen riding a motorbike without a helmet may be stood down. Finance and administration manager Soeun Seng said the issue is really
non-negotiable with staff. “We have bought helmets for staff who ride motorbikes because we want to try and avoid serious injury. However we have also been advised that staff may not be adequately covered by our insurance policy if they are not wearing helmets,” he said.
“We can’t let that happen. The result would be financially crippling for the victims and their family, not to mention the pain and suffering.”
So the answer is simple – get on your bike, but not without your helmet.

SOUTH AFRICA's environmental economists fail to convince the policy-makers

South Africa's short-sighted politicans have been swayed by the opinions and no doubt financial clout of preservationist consrvation charities. Here, Marine Protected Areas are to be rid of fishermen. While this might make sense in the short-term, it is rarely a long-term solution. No mention is made of compensation for these poor fishers, nor of the plans for future fishing rights. It reminds me of 1960s-style conservation - put up a fence and keep the people [who are surely the problem, right?] OUT. Conservation in southern Africa leads the world in finding simple economics and incentive-based solutions to complex people-environment problems. This is an inequitable step in the wrong direction.

Source: BuaNews by Edwin Tshivhidzo "South Africa: Marine Protected Areas Will Not be Opened to Public"

Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are critical in resuscitating ailing oceans and collapsing fish stocks, and would remain closed for recreational activities, according to Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk. Responding to proposals that government should open parts of the Tsitsikamma MPA for recreational fishing, the minister was clear that fishing would not be allowed there.

"The reasons for originally closing the MPA in 2000 and the prevailing underlying circumstances have not changed," he said. ,Opening this MPA to recreational fishing will set a dangerous precedent in a conservation area that is closed to all and for the benefit of all South Africans.

"Allowing a few people access for recreational purposes would negate the benefits that accrue to all. MPAs are a key part of our strategy to manage vulnerable eco-systems in a sustainable way," he said. ,The minister said protected areas also increased populations outside reserves as young species migrated.

"Because of our determined and forward-looking approach, South Africa today is among the world leaders in implementing the goals set at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. "At least 18 percent of South Africa's coastline falls within formal protected areas." In order to protect and grow marine resources, local communities have been progressively excluded from fishing in the Tsitsikamma MPA since 1975.

Minister van Schalkwyk said a decision to open this MPA would effectively have signaled a broader shift in policy on the part of government and the beginning of a new approach that is neither sustainable nor in line with our stated objectives.

He added that opening the MPA would undermine its biological sustainability."The impact of catches in the MPA will lead to a decline in abundance because many of the resident fish species are slow growing," the minister said. In 2004, government proclaimed four new MPAs, bringing roughly 15 percent of South Africa's 3 000km coastline under protection, in the process creating a framework for managing the country's fisheries and consolidating some of the world's top research, eco-tourism, sport diving and fishing sites.

Previously, South Africa had 19 marine protected areas covering approximately 11 percent of the coastline, which stretches from the country's border with Namibia in the west to Mozambique in the east. The Tsitsikamma National Park was the first to be proclaimed in 1964. Marine protected areas allow for the conservation of natural environments, while assisting in the management of fisheries by protecting and rebuilding economically important stocks.

CLIMATE CHANGE and EQUITY: should we stop expecting postal haste or embrace new efficiencies in Africa?

DAR ES SALAAM: This DHL advert is from an ex-pat guide to Dar in my hotel room. Recent research shows that over 20% of all air freight is post or documents - a lot of this is time sensitive documents such as contracts and legal documentation. Now, developing countries are being serviced with regular flights, it is hoped that information efficiencies will stimulate growth in the knowledge economies and reduce risks of doing business in Africa further still. The text here from DHL reads "whether you are sending a single document or a pallet-load of machine parts, there's one sure way to get it there on time. All day, every day, DHL delivers to all 56 countries in Africa. With our own fleet of aircraft you can be sure of a fast reliable service. And happy customers throughout Africa." http://www.dhl.com/

Climate change and aviation equity: Cambodia's tourism provides economic incentives for aviation investment

PHNOM PENH: A joint venture between regional investors and the Cambodian government in a new airline shows the power of tourism in generating interest, incentives and investment in aviation in developing countries. Jobs, indirect benefits, land price changes and increased economic opportunities for Cambodia's citizenry and its business community are all expected. This raises the importance of getting the land rights issues sorted in the country. See this article on the economic benefits of air freight for developing countries.

Cambodia develops new national airline from Travpress

The Cambodian government has signed an agreement with Indonesian companies last Friday which will see the development of a Cambodian national airline called the National Flag Carrier. Petter Sondakh, the CEO for Rajawali Group, has stated that the company invested in Cambodia because of the tourism boom the country is currently experiencing.
"Today we signed the MOU to establish the National Flag Carrier with PT Rajawali Group and PT Ancora International company, which are joint ventures from Indonesia," Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told reporters after signing the memorandum of understanding in Phnom Penh. "This is our pride and victory that we have had our own national airline."
The new carrier is expected to commence operations in six months, with Sok An revealing that the Cambodian government will hold a 51 percent stake in the airline and will receive 30 per cent of the profits.
The airline’s board chairman will be appointed by the Cambodian government and the General Manager and CEO will be selected by the investing companies, added Sok An. Its operations have been outlined by Petter Sondakh who has stated that the airline will fly both domestically and internationally, with its first international flights focusing on the country’s current strongest markets; China, Japan and South Korea.

CLIMATE CHANGE and EQUITY: America looks to learn from development-friendly UK

USA: Farmers in developing world hurt by 'eat local' philosophy in USA

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Increasing awareness of climate change has transformed the way Americans think about organic food. While organic consumers used to focus on how food was produced, such as whether pesticides were used, they now are also concerned about how far food has traveled to arrive at their plate. The issue is that greater distances often equate to more energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
The preference for eating local has been popularized, among others, by UC Berkeley journalism professor Michael Pollan in the "Omnivore's Dilemma" and by Barbara Kingsolver in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." This "eating local" philosophy has a huge following among those consumers who buy organic food. But what about the consequences of the local food craze for farmers in the developing world who have joined the organic and fair trade movements?
We're getting a glimpse of the future of this debate in the United Kingdom, where the tension between the local food and fair trade movements is acute. Just recently, the U.K. Soil Association, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable and organic farming, called on the British government to restrict imports of organic produce brought in by air. In a concession to the fair trade movement, this group would allow for imports from countries actively seeking to promote organic and fair trade markets within their own borders. Despite this concession, British fair trade activists are worried.
Whether the British government would ever adopt such a ban is questionable, but labeling schemes and use of concepts such as "food miles" (the distance a product has traveled to reach the store) are likely to increase consumer awareness and influence purchasing habits.
The suggestion that developing countries should promote local markets for organic produce in order to wean themselves off of export markets is a false alternative. These markets often already exist in everything but name.
Many farmers in the poorest of African nations - where I do my research - already supply local markets with their grains and produce. While not formally recognized as such, these markets are virtually organic because most poor African farmers restrict pesticide use to traditional export crops such as cotton, cacao and coffee, while local foodstuffs are grown with few or no chemical inputs.
Traditional export-oriented agriculture is problematic in many ways, but the organic and fair trade movements are beginning to diversify opportunities for African farmers in this sector. Just as Mexico and South America supply large amounts of organic produce to California, European demand for organic and fair trade products from Africa is surging. These are not just niche markets where developing world farmers can potentially gain a higher return, but these channels also promote better working conditions and the reduced use of chemicals. If the local food movements in Europe and North America reduce their demand for organic and fair trade products from afar, the most likely consequence is that African farmers who have entered these niche markets will return to producing their export crops in the conventional, pesticide-intensive manner. While local food markets can provide some income for these farmers, they still are reliant on export opportunities for the bulk of their cash income.
Although our decisions as consumers have the power to influence how our food is produced, this approach is limited. What we really need are changes in the basic rules that govern the global marketplace.
If international bodies, such as the World Trade Organization, set and enforced rules about basic working conditions and environmental standards, then we would not be relegated to trying to promote organic farming and fair labor practices via labeling schemes and informed consumption. If African countries were allowed to protect nascent industries, then they might not be so reliant on agricultural exports.
But until these changes are made, it is a cruel joke to condemn developing-world farmers to commodity crop production and then remove the only hope they have for higher returns - organic and fair trade crops and products. While the local food craze is all well and good, we should not be so quick to denounce organic and fair trade foods that are imported from the developing world. By shunning these products, we do not encourage local markets to flourish in these countries, but we condemn these farmers to the ills of conventional production for the global market (the only other real alternative at this time). We should remain open to such products in the short term, but also work for broad scale changes in the rules of the global market place to ensure that even conventional agricultural production is safe and fairly compensated.

CLIMATE CHANGE and rubber: measurement and generation

PHNOM PENH: Rubber is at the heart of both climate change measurement and its generation. Weather forecasting remains most accurate when using a latex weather balloon. Tyres and deforestation to produce these tyres are at the heart of the problem.

Weather balloon story "Upper air measurement" from Engineering News (South Africa).


It may seem odd, and a little old-fashioned, that the world’s most sophisticated and accurate in situ upper-air weather-measurement device is borne aloft by, of all things, a latex rubber balloon. But there is nothing old-fashioned about the performance that Vaisala Radiosonde RS92 delivers to Finnish national weather services and other meteorological organisations worldwide.

The most valuable data for meteorologists and meteorological researchers is that generated in situ, at the very heart of weather phenomena.

And the most practical and cost- effective way to lift a radiosonde into the atmosphere, where it can measure these phenomena, is a good old latex rubber balloon.

This is as true today – when Vaisala radiosonde technology has become one of the high-tech cornerstones of modern meteorological measurement – as it was when Professor Vitho Vaisala, a mathematician and meteorologist and the inventor of a number of meteorological instruments, intro- duced his first commercial radiosonde back in 1936.

The atmospheric data gathered by Vaisala radiosondes is a key input for the forecasting and climate change monitoring carried out by many of the world’s national weather services.

It is also used to calibrate some of the most technologically sophisticated equipment on earth – and beyond. Radiosonde data is used, for example, to calibrate equipment aboard satellites, measuring such things as the radiation emanating from the earth’s surface.

Scientists conducting meteorological research, as well as meteoro- logists working for national weather services, require very different things of their measuring equipment, but one thing they all want, and expect, is accuracy. And that is what the Vaisala Radiosonde RS92 provides.

Its unrivalled measurement accuracy has propelled its rise to become the world’s acknowledged gold standard in upper-air weather observation.

The data that it generates during its ascent into the upper atmosphere covers pressure, temperature (as low as –90 degrees Celsius at high altitudes), and relative humidity measurments, all of which are transmitted to receiving equipment on the ground, in the form of the Vaisala Digi-CORA Sounding System MW31.

Thorough testing of the RS92 radiosonde, in combination with the Digi-CORA Sounding System MW31, by the World Meteoro-logical Organisa- tion (WMO) on the island of Mauritius, in February 2005, together with acceptance tests carried out by Vaisala customers worldwide, has shown that the RS92 offers the world’s highest level of PTU measurement performance and continuous wind data availability.

CLIMATE CHANGE and ALUMINIUM: growth stock fuelled by CC concerns in China fuels incentives for expanding concessions, reduced indigenous rights

SEN MONOROM: BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company [and sixth largest producer of primary aluminium] is prospecting in Mondulkiri - a remote province in Cambodia, eight hours drive along poor roads. Yet, it is home to the Buong people, WWF's flagship conservation project Mondulkiri Protected Forest as well as some of the poorest people in Cambodia. Plus, little of the province's 1.2 million hectares outside of protected areas are titled, remaining the ownership of the state. With aluminium prices set to quadruple during the next four years - see excellent Herald Tribune article - what does this mean for conservationists. WWF have already lost 75,000 hectares of their conservation forest concession to BHP - a company with a reasonably transparent CSR wing - see their Corporate Sustainability Report here.

Throughout the developing world, will higher prices mean deeper digging, more widespread speculative prospecting, greater scullduggery in the industry or more competition, more openness to joint ventures with indigenous peoples and a new greener coat of paint for the aluminium extraction industry?

Climate change is an indirect driver here too ... China's drive to cut power consumption [of which aluminium smelting is a huge contributor] and reduce aluminum overcapacity [China produces over 60% of the world's aluminium] may slow growth enough that the nation becomes a net importer of the metal in the fourth quarter of 2008, said Chris Ding, a Beijing-based analyst at China International Capital, the nation's biggest investment bank [from HT article]

From the Phnom Penh Post:

Bauxite under the ground in Mondulkiri where exploratory drilling began a few months ago could result in an investment worth "billions of U.S. dollars," Deputy Prime Minister Sok An announced to 600 business people attending a two-day investment conference November 9.

Prime Minister Hun Sen told the investment conference that he also had high hopes for BHP Billiton efforts. "Cambodia has significant potential in iron, bauxite, precious stones, gold," he said. But regarding oil, he said, "much of the speculation is premature."

Australian mining giant BHP Billiton over the summer began what it expects to be five years of exploratory drilling for bauxite in Mondulkiri. The company has a concession signed a year ago by Sok An to explore 1,000 square kilometers, some still dotted with unexploded ordinance and land mines from 40 years ago. Billiton said it is using land mine clearance teams in the risky areas.

From Oxfam:

"The rapid pace of the development means that we might not have a say about if it happens, but more how it happens,” said Warwick Browne, a program officer in Oxfam America’s East Asia office.

From NGO Forum:

"Now they’re just exploring, but it’s important to get people involved early on. By participating, we want to avoid environmental, social, and cultural impacts,” said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of The NGO Forum on Cambodia, an Oxfam partner. “We also want to empower communities to have some decision-making power.”

From the United Nations office in PP:

In late 2006, a licence was granted to BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi Corporation to explore for bauxite over 100,000 hectares of land in Mondulkiri province, overlapping with the Wuzhishan concession and encompassing indigenous traditional lands. Other mining concessions affect indigenous land in Veal Veng district, Pursat and Roveang district, Preah Vihear. The growing number of mining concessions gives rise to concerns about the potential impacts on indigenous
communities, their rights and their livelihoods.