Bamboo for a Greener Future; Ghanaian appointed as Ambassador

As the 2015 World Bamboo Day is commemorated, the World Bamboo Organization has appointed Bernice Dapaah, the Executive Director of Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative, as a World Bamboo Ambassador.

Where bamboo grows naturally, bamboo has been a daily element, but its utilization has not always been sustainable due to exploitation.

September 18 is celebrated to increase in bamboo awareness globally. 

The World Bamboo Organization aims to bring the potential of bamboo to a more elevated exposure – to protect natural resources and the environment, to ensure sustainable utilization, to promote new cultivation of bamboo for new industries in regions around the world. It also seeks to promote traditional uses locally for community economic development.

Executive Director of World Bamboo Organisation, Suzane Lucas, said Bamboo has enormous potential as an environmental remediator which could repair the destruction human beings have wrought on this planet.

Bamboo groves prevent erosion, clean the air, store carbon, provide habitat, provide food, provide biomass, provide resource, and provide opportunities for community development.

She has pledged the World Bamboo Organization’s support to help bamboo and rattan resource countries to be more productive.

The organization will provide them with new knowledge as well as technology and policy packages to help strengthen their bamboo and rattan sectors. 

The Director General of the International Bamboo and Rattan Network (INBAR), Hans Friederich said Bamboo and rattan are powerful strategic forest resources that can bring jobs and income to millions of people in rural areas, create new income streams for communities and reverse land degradation and deforestation.

But progress toward this widespread growth is slow as a result of lack of coordination between bamboo and rattan experts and agencies, technical knowledge that is difficult to access and the need for new evidence that countries can use to harness these resources to boost economic growth.

Addressing the 10^th World Bamboo Congress in Damyang, South Korea, Bernice Dapaah, paid tribute to the institutions who have helped transform the vision of Ghana Bamboo Bikes into reality.

According to her, the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative has created employment opportunities for 35 people “whose incomes have lifted them out of poverty and allowed them to invest in a wide range of social benefits such as better nutrition and education”.

She urged the organisers and the experts to conduct workshops about the usage of bamboo and its potential to boost the rural economy, adding that her organization is ready to give cooperation to bamboo enthusiasts in this regard.

Ms Dapaah however lamented that Bamboo is a largely underutilized resource in Ghana and Africa with existing initiatives tending to occur in isolation.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, Africa holds 12% of the global bamboo resources, but accounts for just 1% of the estimated $60+ billion world trade in bamboo.

Climate Knowledge Brokers Manifesto to spur communication and action

With the number of extreme weather ‐ and climate‐related events rising worldwide, it has never been more important for policy makers, urban planners, investors, and others facing climate‐related challenges to have the right information at the right time.

A group of leading players in the climate and development fields have issued a clear call for improved knowledge coordination to support action on climate change.

The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), together with UN’s Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and dozens more, are backing the launch of the ‘Climate Knowledge Brokers Manifesto’.

This sets out the key principles for exchanging and communicating information related to the climate effectively, enabling a step change in society’s response to a changing climate.

The Manifesto is the brainchild of the Climate Knowledge Brokers’ Group (CKB), founded in 2011 and now counting more than 100 international agencies and programmes among its community www.climateknowledgebrokers.net.   

CKB was created in recognition that climate change has growing impacts on people’s daily lives, and will transform local environments the world over for the foreseeable future.  

“Knowledge and research is critical to creating a new low carbon future, but for busy decision makers this is not enough to bring about real change,” said Jane Clark, Head of Learning on climate change issues at the UK Department for International Development. “Knowledge needs to be translated, brokered and tailored to ensure we can all make better‐informed choices as we plan for and manage the risks, trade‐offs and opportunities of climate change. Enabling active learning is critical to changing the way we do things.”  

“Only now are we really grasping the full extent to which our lives, our jobs and our environment are being affected by a changing climate”, added Florian Bauer, COO and Open Knowledge Director at the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership in Vienna, and one of the editors of the Manifesto. “But while our knowledge is technically growing, our ability to process and make use of it is not.”

The arena of “climate information” was once a niche of modelling and projections used by those working specifically in climate and environmental science.

As understanding of the global climate and its influence has improved, the domain of climate‐related and climate‐relevant information and knowledge has grown tremendously.

For instance, the number of records on ‘climate change’ on google scholar increased from 76,000 in 1992 to 1.7 million articles in 2014.

CKB says it’s the job of its 100+ members and other organisations like them – many funded by taxpayer monies or donor subscriptions – to make sense of this ocean of information so that people are well informed to act on climate‐related risks.

The group defines the knowledge broker’s role as interpreting, sorting, translating, and integrating this wealth of information and tailoring it for the needs of different audiences – from government decision‐makers and business leaders, urban planners and farmers, to everyday consumers and voters.   

The Manifesto sets out seven key principles for how climate knowledge brokers can have greater impact through collaboration and the use of open data.

“Climate knowledge brokers need to work together to avoid overlap and make sure they are identifying and meeting people’s information needs effectively,” said Geoff Barnard, Senior Advisor on Knowledge Management at CDKN and a founder of the Group. “Only then will climate knowledge brokers meet their full potential for turning knowledge into action.”

New joint venture to revive Obuasi Gold Mine

Randgold Resources Limited and AngloGold Ashanti Limited have concluded an investment agreement aimed at the formation of a joint venture to redevelop and operate AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi gold mine in Ghana. 

Under the Agreement, Randgold will lead and fund a development plan designed to rebuild Obuasi as a viable long-life mining business with an attractive cost structure and returns.

Obuasi has a large, high-grade deposit with proven and probable ore reserves of 24.53Mt part of a substantial mineral resource base.  

At the end of 2014, AngloGold Ashanti converted Obuasi to limited operations, ceasing underground production, retrenching the workforce, but continuing to process tailings and starting a feasibility study on the redevelopment of the mine.  Development of the decline ramp has continued over this period.

“Obuasi is a world-class resource.  We now have to see if we can convert it into a world-class mine.  We have a long history of cooperation with AngloGold Ashanti and we look forward to working with them again on charting a new course towards a viable future for Obuasi,” said Randgold chief executive Mark Bristow in a statement.

Randgold is expected to deliver the new development plan to both parties’ boards by 31 January 2016.

“AngloGold Ashanti has since 2012 effected a range of improvements to modernise Obuasi and – in line with its strategy – has progressed a feasibility study as the critical next step toward breathing new life into this important mine,” AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan said.

“Our partnership with Randgold has proved successful for well over a decade in bringing value from sustainable gold mining to all stakeholders and we believe that pooling the extensive expertise and the capital of these two companies will improve our ability to bring Obuasi’s world-class high-grade gold deposit to account.”

Climate Change, a threat to Sustaining CAADP Momentum in Agric transformation

From Maputo to Malabo, the NEPAD Agency’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has shown the way to transform Africa’s agricultural sector.

For the past decade, CAADP has served as the continent’s policy framework for agricultural sector growth and economic development.

The Maputo Declaration of African Heads of States was “unprecedented”, says Dr. Augustin Wambo Yamdjeu, Coordinator of CAADP.

In Maputo, governments committed to increase their public expenditure to agriculture by allocating a minimum of ten percent of annual budgets to the sector.

There is now the quest to grow the agriculture sector by an annual six percent under the Malabo Declaration, which is crucial to consolidate the achievements and gains in the implementation of CAADP to ensure food and nutrition security.

“The Malabo Declaration is a game-changer,” said Dr. Yamdjeu during a media teleconference on “Walking the Talk – Malabo Declaration”. He has emphasized that the two declarations are mutually re-enforcing.

Vulnerabilities of Smallscale Farming

Smallscale farming is at the heart of CAADP implementation. 

A recent study by NEPAD has found that smallscale farmers are the prime financiers of the agricultural sector in Africa and also provide food for close to 70percent of the continent’s population.

Climate change, however, threatens the drive to protect the interest of smallholder farmers in the next decade – 2015-2025 – of Sustaining CAADP Momentum.

“Climate change is something that we are suffering from; there is no doubt about it. But our contribution to climate change is minimal compared to the extent of impact that we are facing today,” observed Dr. Yamdjeu.

According to the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), Sub-Saharan Africa faces a significant decline in soil fertility, a situation that could worsen food security in the region.

An earlier study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) had also indicated that climate change would hit developing countries the hardest, leading to massive decline in crop yields and production.

The study said 25 million more children would be malnourished by 2050 due to the effects of climate change.

In Ghana, for instance, the reality of the impacts of the changing climate is dawning on local farmers.

True to forecast by Ghana’s meteorological agency this year, low rains have been recorded in the northern and middle belts of the country, compared to previous years.

Farmers in the country’s food basket areas like Techiman, Nkoranza and Atebubu in the Brong Ahafo Region are counting huge losses in cassava, yam and maize production as a result of the poor rains.

There is fear of food scarcity if the rainfall pattern persists.

The NEPAD Agency has been implementing climate-related programmes, including the Agriculture Climate Change Programme, Gender Agriculture Climate Change, Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance, NEPAD Climate Fund and TerrAfrica Sustainable Land and Water Management.

However, the level of scientific knowledge and research findings in tackling climate change is still limited in local farming communities.

The concern therefore is that the needs of small-scale farmers must be prioritized on the road to Paris in December, when a legally binding climate agreement is expected to be reached at the UN Climate Change Conference.

The CAADP Coordinator believes “to adapt is most crucial to Africa”, stating that adoption of new technologies must be accessible and affordable.

Vulnerable African farmers need to merge indigenous knowledge with new technologies to be resilient to climate change.

“They need to do something for the smallscale farmer because it is only by making them stronger, by making their livelihoods system more resilient in the face of climate variability that we are going to attain sustainable development,” said Dr. Yamdjeu.

Walking the Talk of the Malabo Declaration would therefore require that African governments and the African Group of Negotiators highlight the interest of the African smallholder farmer in the climate talks, especially in presenting their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the UNFCCC.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

Global Nutrition Report Highlights Role of Climate

Climate change is complicating global efforts to end malnutrition, and even small seasonal fluctuations make a difference says a new report. 

According to the Global Nutrition Report, being released on September 22 in New York City, there are actions leaders of every country should be taking to end malnutrition in all its forms.

Among the report’s key findings: One in three members of the global population is malnourished, and the problem exists in every country on the planet—yet the strategies available to resolve it are not being implemented due to lack of money, skills, or political pressure.

Another finding is that climate change affects nutrition by influencing people’s food security, disease levels and patterns, water and sanitation environments, and choices about how to allocate time to their livelihoods and to caregiving.

Seasonal changes can have big impacts on food availability and disease patterns, and these in turn dramatically affect children’s survival and development.

This means, for example, that babies born in India in November and December are taller on average at 3 years of age than those born in April through September.

“We wanted to highlight that it isn’t just about how climate will have an impact on nutrition in 50 years time, but on the way climate impacts nutrition today,” said Madeleine Thomson, from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Thomson was the lead author of the report’s chapter on the role of climate in global nutrition. “For the poorest communities, seasonal fluctuations in food access and drivers of infectious disease remain a reality and have a profound effect on nutrition,” said Thomson. “This vulnerability to weather cycles and climate phenomena such as El Niño is a stark indicator of the vulnerability of certain populations to the weather extremes that climate change could unleash.”

“When one in three of us is held back, we as families, communities, and nations cannot move forward,” said Lawrence Haddad, lead author of the study and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. “This not only jeopardizes the lives of those who are malnourished, but also affects the larger framework for economic growth and sustainable development. Simply put: people cannot get anywhere near their full potential without first overcoming malnutrition.”

The International Research Institute for Climate and Society is a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre on Early Warning Systems for Malaria and other Climate-Sensitive Diseases. 

Video: Seizing Africa’s energy and climate opportunities

Can Africa stave off catastrophic climate change while building the energy systems needed to power growth, create jobs, and lift millions of people out of poverty? That’s a crucial question for the continent. 

Boosting the use of Africa’s vast renewable energy resources must be at the heart of its energy transformation. 

But at the same time African nations do not have to lock into developing high-carbon old technologies; countries can expand our power generation and achieve universal access to energy by leapfrogging into new technologies.

Africa is already showing great potential to lead the global renewables revolution. Some countries in the region like Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa are world’s pioneers in climate-resilient, low-carbon development. Ethiopia, for example, has set an ambition to achieve zero-net emission status by 2027.

This animation explains the key messages in Africa Progress Report 2015, "Power, People, Planet: Seizing Africa’s energy and climate opportunities”.

Have watch: http://bit.ly/1JZLmx6

Africa must unite to push for fair and equitable climate deal – PACJA

The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), a continental coalition of Civil Society Organizations, is intensifying advocacy to ensure that pro-poor and people-centered response measures are given attention.

This is in the lead up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015, where a legally binding climate agreement is expected to be reached.

PACJA is committed to working with governments in Africa and the African Group of Negotiators in seeking to mainstream climate change into national poverty reduction and sustainable development strategies and actions.

“We must unite and push loss and damage into a fair and equitable climate deal for Africa’s most vulnerable people,” says Mithika Mwenda, Secretary General of PACJA.

Below is a statement from Mithika on the Road to Paris:

“During this latest session at Bonn: Africa, small island states and the least developed countries have unequivocally demanded that ‘loss and damage’ should be a stand-alone pillar of the Paris deal.

There is the urgent need to scale up adaptation finance to a level that will help the poor people build resilience. Because we have not mitigated enough and we have not also created an effective adaptation mechanism, we will be forced to deal with inevitable loss and damage. The Paris deal has to tackle the increasing climate damages, and not just the causes.

Some actors from the developed countries argue that this proposed loss and damage pillar is not only costly, but that it also brings a lack of clarity into the climate agreement. We believe that, the fact that it is costly only goes to reflect the real cost of what others are paying for climate change on a daily basis. 

People in Africa are losing everything they have worked for during their lives to floods, drought and other catastrophic climate change impacts. The issue of cost should be a catalyst for action to be taken rather than being an obstacle for loss and damage to addressed.

So far, 58 countries have submitted their INDCs and already it shows that these are inadequate to put the world on a safe path. The negotiations in Bonn have been painfully slow. Time will tell whether the trust built up between facilitators and governments will hold up when the political discussions start. Negotiators must make up for the lost time and narrow down the options as we head towards Paris. 

We welcome the support from the G77 Bloc on loss and damage as a step in the right direction; however we need all parties to commit to see it through as a stand-alone pillar in a fair and equitable global agreement in Paris. We are therefore calling on developed member states to join our movement to push loss and damage into the agreement.”

Africa addressing Climate Change through sustainable forest management

The 2015 World Forestry Congress, holding in Durban, South Africa, is putting a spotlight on forests and sustainable forestry management as an integral part of sustainable natural resource use and management.

With the congress theme: “Forests and People: Investing in a Sustainable Future”, the over 3,500 participants are discussing ways to unleash the full potential of forests to lift rural populations out of poverty.

This should be achieved by expanding economic opportunities, accessible to rural populations as well as acting as buffers against climate change and inspire new technologies and renewable products.

The XIV World Forestry Congress event is considered as the most important and inclusive gathering of the global forest community, and marks the first time the Congress is held in Africa since its inception in 1926.

The African Union Commission and partners including the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency have organised an “Africa Day” for Tuesday 8th September.

The Africa Day is specially designed to stimulate and facilitate sharing and learning around Africa’s experiences and lessons in the light of its aspirations, development goals and targets.

The programme, specifically, provides an exclusive platform for governments, policy-makers, experts, private sector and practitioners to come together to share and debate ideas and exchange information in a bid to strengthen the common resolve.

It also seeks to create partnerships for smart investments in African forests – 624 million hectares – which is more than 20 percent of the continent’s land area.

Rich in biodiversity, the continent’s tropical forests are estimated to harbour 12,000 plant species, including 7500 or more that are endemic.

Additional to the day-long “Africa Day session”, African governments and partners have organised a series of side events and poster exhibitions under the theme: “Addressing Climate Change through Sustainable Forest Management”.

Although climate change projections for Africa are highly variable, the increase in temperature on the continent is likely to be higher than the average increase globally. There is a significant risk that the adaptive capacity of many African forest ecosystems will be compromised.

“For this event, a purpose-built African Pavilion has been mounted which will provide space for participants to showcase projects and developments in African forestry, especially in the context of fostering people-centred development priorities and objectives as articulated in Africa’s Agenda 2063,” stated Martin Bwalya, Head, Program Development, Program Implementation and Coordination Directorate at NEPAD Agency. “The Congress and Congress theme is opportune in enabling Africa to take stock of its experiences, knowledge base and initiatives fostering sustainable forestry management as an integral sustainable development imperative. Delegates can look forward to learning about African experiences, successes and challenges alike, regarding the forestry ecosystem in the continent”.

Hosting the congress on the continent is quite significant as Africa mirrors many of the most important global challenges and opportunities for forest. It also presents an opportunity to reflect deeply on the future of Africa’s forest and help to galvanize Governments’ response to the call in the Malabo Declaration for a sustainable forest management program framework.

Additionally, this is an occasion to consolidate responses and to improve coherence between forest uses and sustainability and this comes as a forerunner to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals summit in New York this September, COP 21 of in Paris in December when world leaders meet to agree on a comprehensive climate change agreement.

According to FAO, “the African region needs to move forward on a path of sustainable growth that ensures agriculture, food security and nutrition, poverty eradication, provision of energy (wood) and livelihoods, as well as build resilience to climate change. Sustainable management of forest has an important contributory role here. Forests help to decrease vulnerability to climate change, which could have serious negative implications on communities and economies. To enhance forestry’s role in this regard, more effective incentives, decent employment for youth and woman, good governance and positive returns on investment are needed.”

Continental leaders, senior government officials and international development agencies as well as private sector, farmer organizations and civil society have gathered in Durban for the XIV World Forestry Congress, holding from September 7–11 2015.

Cocoa Eco Project targets carbon sequestration from farms in Ghana

Ghana’s Cocoa Eco-Project has a major outcome of increasing carbon sequestration by minimizing the emission of harmful gases on cocoa farms into the atmosphere.

Carbon sequestration involves the long term storage of carbon dioxide to mitigate climate change – it has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases, which are released by burning fossil fuels.

Under the Cocoa Eco-Project, SNV Ghana is partnering the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union (KKFU) to create environmental awareness among cocoa farmers, especially on issues of land degradation and deforestation.

Farmers in selected production districts are accessing support to plant trees and engage natural resource management for efficient and sustainable cocoa production.

Helping the farmers to adapt to climate change is a major concern, says Frank Okyere, Project Manager at KKFU.

“Even this year the rainfall pattern is changing,” he observed. “Now for productivity to increase, we need rainfall and the cocoa plant needs a micro-climate, including trees, to minimize the pest infestation and everything”.

According to the World Bank, cocoa farming is one of the dominant land use activities in Ghana with an estimated cultivation area of over 1.6 million hectares. 

Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world, but productivity is low, compared with Ivory Coast. Challenges in production are expected to be exacerbated by climate change.

Climate scientists at the Colombia-based International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) have predicted the rising temperatures will lead to massive declines in cocoa production cocoa-growing areas in West Africa by 2030. 

This puts at risk an estimated 800,000 farm households in Ghana that depend on the cocoa sector for their primary livelihood. 

Increasing production demands expansion of areas under cultivation, with the resultant effect of converting forests to farming systems which leads to decline in carbon stocks.

The intervention of the Cocoa Eco Project is to limit the encroachment of cocoa plantations onto forest lands and conservation of biodiversity.

In the past two years, farmers have been supplied with 34,000 shade tree seedlings in addition to 120,000 cocoa seedlings.

Frank Okyere says the project is beneficial to the environment and the economic livelihood of farmers.

“It will help them increase their productivity, sell the trees because they are economic trees and in the wider sense, protect our environment by absorbing the carbon dioxide so that everybody will benefit,” he said.

A technical team at SNV Ghana is working with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on climate mitigation activities in the country.

Charles Brefo-Nimo, Project Manager of the Cocoa Eco-Project, says there are arrangements to identify climate hot-spots in the country “so that they can use that to advise farmers as to areas that they need to take note of”.

There are also programmes to limit the level of degradation of forests in local communities, by using tools that “help us to identify cocoa and forest, such that if people are encroaching into a forest zone, that system will enable us to see and respond”.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

Kumasi Poly orients workforce for technical university status

The first batch of polytechnics in Ghana to be converted into technical universities is expected to be announced in 2016 as discussions on the criteria are concluded.

Enquiries by Luv News suggest five of the ten polytechnics in the country are ready for the conversion; foremost amongst them is the Kumasi Polytechnic.

K-Poly has already set the process in motion with series of capacity building workshops to prepare its academic and non-academic staff for enhanced performance after the conversion.

Rector, Prof. Nicholas Nsowah Nuamah, says in order not to gamble with the future of the technical university, the human resource base of the polytechnic must be oriented to take up the new challenge.

“We need to conform to best practices of Universities,” he said. “The blend of management is what we envisage would provide leadership to take the Kumasi Polytechnic to the promised land of Kuntenase with milk and honey produced by the Technical University of Kumasi (TUK)”.

The Polytechnic has acquired a 301-acre land at Kuntenase for the establishment of the main campus of the TUK, in addition to another 200-acre land at Piase to serve as the Entrepreneurship Village of the institution.

Former Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, Dr. Paul Effah, is leading the training for heads of departments of the Kumasi Polytechnic.

He told Luv News skills development is crucial for the polytechnics to produce strong management for the successful running of the technical universities.

According to him, there is the need for a balance between theory and practice to train students to fit into the world of work.

“They would also have to enhance the quality of the teachers who are here and even send more to upgrade their skill and knowledge base,” said Dr. Effah.

He added that intense collaboration with industry will be the way to go for the technical universities.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh 

Artisans in wood processing industry to enroll in certification program

The Forestry Commission Training Centre (FCTC) at Akyawkrom-Ejisu, near Kumasi, is pursuing a certification program for artisans in Ghana’s wood processing industry to promote professionalism in the sector.

The dwindling forest resource demands prudent use of lumber in furniture making, among others.

Centre Director, Joseph Boakye, says the impartation of appropriate skills and knowledge will position artisans to maximize utilization of raw materials.

The FCTC is currently engaged in the upgrade of the skills of master craftsmen in carpentry, joinery and other woodworks to standardize their operations.

“We want to organize proper training and certification of apprentices,” he said. “We’ll examine them but the examination will be practical oriented because we want them to have the skills to be able to do hands-on training”.

Mr. Boakye believes the certification scheme will enhance competition and afford artisans the opportunity to bid for contracts.

“Once they have certificates to show that they’ve gone through proper training and they are well skilled, it will even make it easier for them to get contracts,” he noted.

Mr. Boakye also says there is an opportunity for youth, especially JHS and SHS levers, to be gainfully employment in the wood sector.

He observed that “most of the people in the carpentry are growing old; we have ageing workforce [because] it is not something that is attractive to the youth but it is a very good work”.

In addition to the training, the FCTC (formerly the Wood Industries Training Centre) is also committing to support the apprentices in accessing wood for their start-ups.

Meanwhile, the Woodworkers Association of Ghana is hoping the Forestry Commission will grant the group a land concession to venture into tree plantation.

President of the Association, Reynolds Debrah, is hopeful afforestation project will keep woodworkers in business.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh