ORGANISED CRIME: THREAT TO AFRICAN WILDLIFE

[NAIROBI, 26/SEPT/2008 © A POSITIVE OUTCOMES FEATURE]International criminal rings have fueled the decimation of much treasured wildlife species in the vast continent of Africa.
A plethora of matchless Faunal and Floral species has not been spared. Elephants, rhinos, apes, turtles, chameleons, tortoises, African Gray Parrots, eagles, cranes and the illegal harvesting and plunder of species like Aloes, cacti, orchids, East African Sandalwood (sandali) and Prunus Africana (Mweri) among others have been the bane of conservationists in the continent. Unscrupulous wildlife traders in western capitals are making obscene black market profits from the sale of the continent’s irreplaceable heritage.
Dee Cook, Martin Roberts and Jason Lowther of the University of Wolverhampton have authored a damning report “The International Wildlife Trade and Organised Crime” which shows how organised criminal networks - Russian Mafia, Asian Triad Gang and the Medellin cartel - are turning their tentacles into wildlife crime, thanks to the lucrative profits. Today wildlife crime is said to be third after narcotics and arms trafficking, and the unique African wildlife is playing a pivotal role in this. According to the dossier, wildlife smuggling is done through, concealment; customs misdeclaration; permit fraud; laundering through export; diplomatic baggage and postal routes.
“Wildlife crime is rampant in many countries. International trafficking in endangered species is thought to be the third largest contraband business in terms of the cash value after the trade in narcotics and arms. High rewards and low risks of detection and punishment have made the illegal wildlife trade attractive to the criminals. There is increasing evidence of the involvement of serious and organized criminal syndicates in illegal wildlife trade. The number and frequency in interceptions of ivory and other valuable specimens from Africa such as reptiles, birds, live animals and plants is an indication.” Says Emily Kisamo, director of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF).
LATF is a multinational law enforcement agency established under the ‘Lusaka Agreement on Co-operative Enforcement Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora’. The Task Force is the only one of its kind, as it is an Agency borne out of a Multilateral Environmental Agreement, which unlike others has enforcement powers to fight against illegal wildlife trade. It commenced its operations in June 1999. Its member countries consist of Congo (Brazzaville), Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Lesotho. Three other countries - South Africa, Ethiopia and Swaziland - are signatories to LATF. Several other African countries are showing keen interest in joining the Task Force.
In its eight years of existence LATF which is based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi has become a searing thorn in the flesh of international wildlife smugglers. Ever since it was established, LATF has had a continuous string of successes in tracking down wildlife criminals and bursting their illegal operations whilst obliterating long-established illegitimate floral and faunal trade networks in Africa’s porous borders and even across the globe.
“In Africa, evidence on the organised levels of the illegal trade shows at least four broad areas of serious activity. Illegal timber trade; Wild animal trophy trafficking mostly ivory, rhino horns, skins; illegal trade in live and dead specimens for specialist collectors of butterflies, birds, reptiles, amphibians, primates, plants, eggs, and wildlife derivatives.” Says Kisamo who hails from Tanzania.
The main objective of the Lusaka Agreement is pegged on assisting member states to trim down and ultimately eliminate illicit trade in wild fauna and flora. The Task Force is composed of national law enforcement officers seconded from member states, to coordinate cross-border law enforcement operations and facilitate the development of new techniques to fight prohibited wildlife trade. The Task Force is also well represented at Interpol’s Wildlife Crime Sub Group.
According to Kisamo, Ivory is frequently encountered in banned trade and is a major reason for poaching of the African elephant, whose numbers are dwindling.
“The ivory contraband transits through border entry and exit points where capacities of law enforcement agencies are inadequate. Absence of scanning and other detection equipment at some of these points has exacerbated the situation. Criminal trafficking of ivory continues unabated in many parts of Africa despite the international ban on ivory trade by the Convention of the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).” Says Kisamo.
LATF reveals that readily available local and international markets have contributed largely to the high demand for elephant ivory. A significant number of seizures have been recorded recently thanks to LATF’s under-cover operations in wildlife crime detection and adoption of new methods to fight this vice.
So far it has been established that the wildlife trade racket operates due to international demand.
“International demand provides incentives to middlemen who in turn engage local communities to undertake poaching. There are different black markets pricing levels for the specimen at each stage. For instance a poacher’s selling price to a middleman for elephant ivory in September 2006 was between $5-10 per Kg in Kenya and the middleman would then sell at $19 –22 per Kg. In the past, the international market price has fetched up to more than US$ 100 per kg. Foreigners provide the incentive. Locals’ come in at the starting level of obtaining specimens and are as expected paid a nominal amount. These specimens are usually sold to another tycoon who will arrange to export them from the country to outside Africa.” Kisamo reveals.
According to Interpol records in the period 2002 to 2004 alone, more than 18,000 Kg of ivory were intercepted in various parts of the world. Most of the elephant ivory is collected from established wildlife protected Areas in remote areas and concealed in commodities like timber, charcoal, fish, and farm produce (banana, maize and rice) during transportation, to avoid detection, by law enforcement agencies.
“Being the only regional enforcement agency, we are not sitting on our laurels as we still face a number of challenges in our ultimate work of eliminating and dismantling wildlife crime syndicates and ensuring that the inimitable naturally endowed wildlife fortunes of the African continent are protected for posterity.” Says Kisamo. [ENDS]

WHO CARES ABOUT RENEWABLES?

[NAIROBI 25TH/SEPT/2008 © A POSITIVE OUTCOME FEATURE]For industrialization to take place, which is the main agenda of many African countries, energy is a key component. It is for this reason that Africa must rethink her energy priorities. And, Kenya is no exception.
Following the oil shock of 1970, the slow progress of both the Rural Electrification Plan of 1973 and the Rural Electrification Master Plan of 1994 a boom in solar power development and other energy alternatives took root in the country. A survey by the World Energy Council (WEC) notes on Kenya
“With a very large percentage of the urban population and almost all of the rural population having no access to a public supply of electricity, solar-based power could play a significant role in redressing the energy supply-demand picture, raising living standards and stimulating the economy. “
But in as much as it is a known fact that solar power is a critical component in meeting the country’s energy needs, there is little government effort to support such an undertaking. Instead much of the government resources are still channeled to hydro-electric power generation.
The seemingly ‘all-inclusive’ Grand Coalition administration seems ill-prepared to rethink the country’s energy strategy. Kenya’s three main sources of energy are electricity, wood fuel, petroleum and renewable energy. Of these renewables are least exploited and seriously under funded. In the recently launched Kenya Vision 2030, there is no mention of solar power. The country’s power generating company KENGEN also speaks little of solar power. Instead much of the country’s efforts are concentrated on hydro-electric power even though credible research findings illustrate and hype on the need to shift from the hydro/fossil-powered electricity paradigm in favour of geothermal, solar, wind and bagasse (sugar cane waste, which is capable of producing power. Kenya produces one million tonnes of these each year which goes to waste).
The benefits of exploiting solar and other renewables are legion. There are plenty of reasons for this.
“Renewables” not only hold the key for transforming the country’s back waters but they stand to give rural areas in Kenya a new lease of life and bring them at par with other areas. According to the World Energy Council (WEC) “renewable is the term used for forms of energy that can be regenerated, or renewed, in a relatively short amount of time. The regeneration process may be continuous and immediate, as in the case of direct solar radiation, or it may take some hours, months or years. This is the case of wind energy (generated by the uneven heating of air masses), hydro energy (related to the sun-powered cycle of water evaporation and rain), biomass energy (stored in plants through photosynthesis), and the energy contained in marine currents.”
Solar, wind and other renewables are the best sources of energy for Africa’s rural households, however the exploitation of these resources has been wanting not just in Kenya but in the continent as a whole.
That Kenya is a hotspot for wind and solar energy is not in doubt.
Kenya leads the rest of the continent in terms of her exploitation of both geothermal and solar power, but much more still needs to be done.
Presently, the continent is gearing itself to harness the benefits accruing from Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and the issue of energy is crucial as most ICT gadgets rely heavily on power.
African governments must enable the citizenry access these solar panels by reducing the tax tariffs imposed on such materials; offer incentives; and provide subsidies alike to enable more people access power.
After all, energy from renewables provides clean, cheap, reliable, safe power to remote areas, and provides a healthy alternative to fossil fuels.
ENDS

OF FOOD SECURITY, HUNGER AND PASTORALISM

A POSITIVEOUTCOMES FEATURE© June 2007
"The State Parties to the present covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international cooperation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed: (a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources; (b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.”
1. Article II of the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNICESCR).
Food is a right to all. Apparently this is not the case.
Each and every time an issue pertaining to food scarcity springs up, pastoralists come to mind. There is sparse information on pastoral commons and even their food security mechanisms. In the last decade Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has endured numerous drought spells, which have in turn impacted negatively on the countries in the region. The worst hit areas have been those in the arid and semi arid lands (ASALs) of Sub Saharan Africa.
These regions, which are mostly inhabited, by pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are disaster zones at any given time. Owing to unpredictable weather patterns – less and sporadic rainfall – these areas experience much suffering as pastoralists with their cattle traverse vast regions and even cross borders in search of both pasture and water for themselves and their livestock. This migrant behaviour by pastoral communities has bred a unique geo-political co-existence mechanism in the region. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti are all encapsulated in this set-up. This migratory facet of pastoralists has least been recognised in the region. If anything all the governments in the region see migration as a pariah and archaic behaviour. But is it?
But while in most instances the weather and in some occasion locusts are the main culprits for food scarcity, there is another side of the coin. Poor political leadership, bureaucracy, and misgovernance are all major reasons affecting Africa’s pastoral people and their way of life. In the 1980s the Ethiopian drought debacle was a classic tale of bad political leadership. One is inclined to wonder why drought and hunger prevails in East and central Africa yet the region has a highly advanced weather and disaster prediction service? In other words, a proper, early warning system, which is capable of giving timely and adequate predictions for proper and well coordinated preparations to deal firmly with such disasters seems to be “absent”.
Development economist and Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen reckons: “No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.” This remark cannot be further from the truth when one considers the daily travails of pastoral communities, in this region. Owing to neglect, lack of representation in the central government and the perennial “policy formulation – policy implementation” disconnect, these communities are overlooked in terms of national resource mobilization, allocation and infrastructure rollout. In other words they are less of a national priority. The media and even politicians have portrayed them alike as ‘conflict-loving communities’ among other demeaning epithets. Derogatory remarks are what these unique people with a culture that has survived eons have been subjected to. In fact pastoralists despite their contribution to the national economy ascertained by their livestock are hardly factored in when it comes to reaping benefits accruing from the national government.
To fully grasp the strategic importance of arid lands, picture these: Arid lands cover 80% of the Kenya’s total land surface area and 25% of the human population: Over 50% of the country’s livestock is to be found in these areas: 80% of Kenya’s eco-tourism facilities are in these areas. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) dryland ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and inappropriate land uses. Few administrators and policy makers are yet to reckon with this fact (and the environmental hazards it portends), hence the total neglect of pastoralists. In fact government officers seconded to the region see their postings as less influential and ‘acts of demotion’. With such a warped, misguided and ignorant mindset it is no wonder then, they are amply abandoned. The Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), estimates that there are over 800 million people in the world today, faced with starvation in the third world. The bulk of these 800 million people are drawn from pastoral communities. These are alarming statistics, considering that a binding international covenant (UNICESCR) exists to ward off hunger by ensuring the availability of food and its distribution to everyone.
Africa’s recent history with famine – Niger, Kenya and the Horn of Africa - indicate rather clearly the facet that food insecurity, which can lead to political instability, is an ever-present threat to the third world. As research has shown famine is not confined to climatic conditions per se, it is also linked to political decisions. While there exists comprehensive policies, addressing food security, the implementation of these policies and other laid down interventions mechanisms are more often bogged down by unwise political decisions and the tomfoolery of government bureaucrats. Kenya is an excellent case study for this:
“The central objective of national food security policy is to ensure that an adequate supply of nutritionally balanced foods is available in all parts of the country at all times. Given current resource constraints, the immediate aims of food security policy will be to obtain a calculated degree of security at the lowest cost. This will be achieved through: increasing food production in all areas of the country; emphasizing drought resistant crops such as sorghum and millet in dry land areas; the establishment of a food commodity monitoring and forecasting of weather conditions in the main agricultural zones and wider dissemination of information on expected weather trends; regulation of food exports to maintain domestic supplies and importation of food as necessary to meet nutritional requirements; and accumulation of a multi-commodity strategic food reserve from domestic surpluses and grain supplied on concessional terms to be used during periods of crop failure or other emergency situations.”
This is what Sessional Paper No 4 of 1981 on Kenya’s National Food Policy says. While on paper the policy seeks to ameliorate food scarcity, ward off hunger and check famine, the reality is that bureaucracy has prevented the full implementation of the policy which was passed a quarter of a century ago! This is pure chicanery. The worst affected are of course pastoral communities whose livelihoods are hampered due to inadequate food supply and severed food chain links owing to poor and sometimes non-existent infrastructure. In a speech he read at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Dr. Jacques Diouf FAO Director General revealed the underlying paradigms that are caused by political immaturity. He said:
“Food is absolutely fundamental to human existence. One of the great successes of the 20th century was a rate of growth in food output that considerably surpassed the unprecedented rate of population growth. Today we can pride ourselves on the fact that we have the capacity to produce enough food for everyone on the planet to be adequately fed. If all food produced in the world were to be divided equally among its inhabitants, every woman, man and child would consume almost 2800 calories per day, which is 17% more calories than 30 years ago, despite the fact that the population has grown by 70% over the last 30 years. In the midst of all this abundance, however, there are still 800 million people in the developing world who do not have enough to eat. Undernourishment takes a heavy toll on health and productivity of individuals, communities and nations. About six million children under five years of age die every year as a result of hunger and undernutrition. Many of them die from disease such as diarrhoea, malaria and measles but could survive if they were better nourished. Vitamin A deficiency is responsible for blindness in 250,000 to 500,000 children each year. Twenty million people worldwide are mentally handicapped as a result of iodine deficiency, and each year 100,000 babies are born with irreversible brain damage as a result of maternal iodine inefficiency. FAO has estimated that developing countries have lost on average one percentage point from their economic growth each year as a result of insufficient energy intake.
“In an overall context of affluence, the fact that so many of our fellow beings are not adequately fed – and therefore not able to lead a full life – suggests that that there is something fundamentally flawed about the way in which our world is being managed. The world hunger problem is clearly political, not technical.”
With such candid words coming from the head of FAO, one begins to appreciate the insurmountable difficulties faced by pastoralists. Being vulnerable and belonging to minority communities is another disadvantage to pastoralists. Sadly this has been a historical problem. Right from the biblical times pastoralists have been inured with conflict. 66% of Africa is drylands. This fact alone emphasizes the width and breadth covered by these herding communities.
Conservation, agriculture and tough immigration laws are emerging factors hampering the enhancement of lives of these inimitable people. The influx of small weapons and other light artillery to herding communities by conflict merchants has led to the rise in flare-ups. The scarcity of pasture and watering points has been the most cited reason fuelling these conflicts. The only way to alter the situation for the better is to implement in full what is on paper and legally binds the government. In their classic song, Peter, Paul and Mary uttered the all time reminder, “…the answer my friend is blowing in the wind.” [END]
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Your views and comments on this issue are welcome. Is the region secure in terms of food supply? How robust are the food security policies of the region? Have your say.”