Natural Justice attends Community Fracking Meeting in the Karoo

On 26 March 2014, Stephanie Booker of Natural Justice attended a meeting hosted by Southern Cape Land Committee in Jansenville, Eastern Cape. Attended by Southern Cape Land Committee, Groundwork and local community representatives from indigenous peoples and local farming communities across the Karoo, the meeting was an opportunity to discuss fracking developments nationally, the sharing of information on the ground and of various community strategies being pursued.

The meeting was a continuation of community mobilisation discussions with respect to fracking that originated in Steytlerville in May 2013, and continued in October with the launching of a declaration at the fracking dialogue in October 2013.

This Declaration can be found here.

Natural Justice thanks Southern Cape Land Committee for an engaging meeting.

Community Rights and REDD+

Recent publications have highlighted the importance of community rights in reducing deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) a mitigation policy under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

A Special Feature in Ecology and Society on Beyond Carbon: enabling justice and equity in REDD+ across levels of governance, examines the complex landscape of justice and equity in REDD+ and the multiple levels of governance in which they play out. The papers illustrate the need for a greater integration of the human rights discourse in REDD+ as a means to improve equity outcomes, and disturbingly none provide evidence of a significant re-distribution of material benefits as a result of REDD+ initiatives. Interestingly, an analysis of Indigenous Peoples engagement in the UNFCCC REDD+ processes demonstrates that some indigenous actors have managed to ‘import power’ from human rights discourse to strengthen their influence over REDD+ decision-making.

Another recent publication Status of forest carbon rightsand implications for communities, the carbon trade, and REDD+ investments(Rights and Resources Initiative), examines the status of existing legal frameworks regarding community rights to trade carbon. Preliminary research in 23 countries implementing REDD+ indicates that it is generally extremely difficult for communities to assert rights to trade carbon sequestered in their customarily held forests. Furthermore, safeguards and institutional capacity are required for communities to claim and utilise rights were they do exist.

The authors also warn that REDD+ countries could choose to allocate all authority and rights to transfer emissions reductions to the state, which would reduce the states incentives to tackle land tenure reform. Key elements required to include communities in REDD+ include recognition of tenure rights, ensuring strong participation, clearly identifying communities as legal owners of carbon credits generated from their areas, and laws enabling communities to trade carbon.

2014 SEED South Africa Symposium

Cath Traynor

Cath Traynor of Natural Justice attended the 2014 SEED South Africa Symposium “Advancing the Green Economy: creating jobs and opportunities for green enterprises” held on 19-20 March 2014 in Pretoria, South Africa. SEED stands for supporting entrepreneurs for sustainable development. Natural Justice’s Bio-cultural Community Protocols was a 2009 Gold winner in the SEED awards.

Over 150 participants including 40 entrepreneurs from private sector, civil society, academia, media, and government gathered to exchange experience, knowledge and perspectives that could advance the growth of socio-environmental entrepreneurship in South Africa. Sessions included creating green jobs and the impact of social and environmental start-ups, growing enterprises, and barriers, success factors and enablers to support enterprises. Key issues that arose included accessing financing during the initial phases of start-ups, encouraging investors to deal with risks and to understand the human value of initiatives, the limited voice and impact small enterprises have at policy level, the lack of understanding of the potential of SMMEs within the general public, and also insufficient support from government and within the regulatory environment. Discussions focussed upon finding solutions to common problems experienced by small enterprises in South Africa.

The symposium included a Marketplace with SEED winners including Natural Justice, where there were opportunities to engage with innovative start-up enterprises working at the local level. A new Social Enterprise Fund set up by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and supported by the Flemish Government was launched.

The SEED Awards for Entrepreneurs in Sustainable Development is currently open for submissions for 2014 and the deadline is 8th April 2014.

BCPs and Fracking: Stakeholder consultations in the Karoo

On March 13, 2014, Stephanie Booker, Marie Wilke and Aino Cantell of Natural Justice participated in a meeting with Board members of Vuyani Development Trust, in the community of Nelspoort. The meeting was hosted by Southern Cape Land Committee and Vuyani Development Trust with the view to discussing Biocultural Community Protocols (BCPs) and shale gas exploration within the community. The town of Nelspoort lies within the local municipality of Beaufort West, from which the community leases their farmland.

The meeting began with a presentation by Stephanie Booker on the role of Natural Justice and BCPs in the context of extractive industries. This was followed by a presentation on the advantages and disadvantages of fracking activities taking place within the community. Community members shared their own experiences on the issues, and articulated some of the community’s needs in light of the proposed activities, such as better information, and education on their rights. With a high unemployment rate, fracking is seen by some in the community as an opportunity to end current levels of poverty. Local organizations such as Southern Cape Land Committee are currently developing their work to provide balanced information to communities across the Karoo.

Indian Women's Rights to Property: Implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005

In India, women’s access and rights of ownership over family property (both moveable and immoveable), in the absence of a will, is governed by succession laws based on religion. Under Hindu law prior to 1937, a woman did not have the right to own any property at all, except what she received from her parents at the time of her wedding. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 was a breakthrough in terms of giving Hindu women a full and equal share of their husbands’ property as the children; yet, the male bias persisted. An amendment to this Act in 2005 took the progressive step of making daughters coparceners at par with sons, such that they receive an equal birthright to a share in the natal family’s ancestral property, i.e., parents’ property.

In December 2013, International Land Coalition (ILC) member Landesa Rural Development Institute and UN Women, India, prepared a report on the formal and informal barriers in the implementation of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 in the context of women agricultural producers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The study is unique in a number of ways, especially given its focus on women as agricultural labourers, an explicit effort to ask women what they want, and an assessment of the overall awareness of all stakeholders on general awareness relating to this law.

Unfortunately, the studies conducted reveal several barriers to the implementation of the law. There are several formal barriers, such as continuing male bias in the law itself despite the amendments; for example, the devolution of a woman’s property still remains biased towards her husband’s heirs against her natal family. Further, Hindu women continue to be deprived of their inheritance through wills.

Additionally, there are informal barriers as well, in the form of social and cultural barriers. Women are generally forced to give up their share of their parents’ property in favor of their brothers for various reasons, such as the fear of breaking familial bonds. In traditional patriarchal societies, such as Haryana, local authorities brazenly deprive girls of their legal right to ancestral property.

The surveys conducted revealed number of key insights, suggesting that many women have yet to benefit from the legal changes introduced by the 2005 Amendment. The report notes that:

• Hindu social practice allows the parents to absolve themselves from honouring the daughter’s inheritance right at par with their sons with the alibi of paying dowry at the time of the daughter’s marriage. Dowry as a substitute of land and other properties in inheritance is one key way the patriarchal beliefs are deeply anchored in social practice, denying the women social and economic equality within the family. The practice of dowry is so entrenched that women themselves do not feel that it is their moral or legal right to claim inheritance rights in their parents’ property.
• Women’s understandings of the current inheritance law and of the claim processes are clearly rudimentary and fragmented. Land has historically been a male domain, and it continues to be so.
• Even when the women do receive land in inheritance, it is invariably much less than an equal share. Women are likely to get more land as widows than as daughters.
• The people and institutions that are mandated to enforce the law are prisoners of the same practice
• Even when women do get land in their own names by inheritance, through dowry, or through purchase by their marital family in their name (this is often done to take advantage of reduced stamp duty on property purchased in a woman’s name), the ownership by women is only notional. The women are seldom in possession of the land, title and the Record of Rights (ROR) that make it a secured tenure. The decision making power on use of the land remains firmly in the grip of men – father, brother, husband or father-in-law.
• There is a lack of political will on the part of the State governments to implement the law.

In contrast, a study done by FAO in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar identified certain trends in women’s land rights in tribal communities. Unlike the majority Hindus, tribal women do not have inheritance rights to land under customary law among most settled tribes. However, various social arrangements and practices have existed to provide adequate care to women in situations of widowhood, breakdown of marriage, single women and for families having only daughters.

8th Pan-African ABS Workshop, 10-14 March 2014, Cotonou, Benin

Natural Justice’s Gino Cocchiaro and Josh Ogada are attending the Pan-African ABS Workshop, being held from the 10-14 March 2014, in Cotonou, Benin. Organized by the ABS Capacity Development Initiative and now in its 8th iteration, the workshop is being hosted by the Ministère de l'Environnement Chargé de la gestion des changements climatiques, du reboisement et de la protection des ressources naturelles et forestière.

The meeting brings together a range of stakeholders and interested parties including ABS National Focal Points, representatives of competent national authorities for ABS, representatives of relevant regional and international (research) institutions, NGOs, indigenous and local communities, as well as representatives of the private sector involved in bio-trade and bio-prospecting. Natural Justice is a key partner to the Initiative, and this workshop provides a unique opportunity to review and strengthen the partnership, as well as forge stronger linkages with other stakeholders in the area of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS).

The first day of the workshop was dedicated to updating the participants on the different ongoing processes taking place at a regional and International level. There was a comprehensive report on the 7th Workshopheld in Phalaborwa, South Africa, in February of 2013. This included the results of the evaluation of the ABS Initiative that was carried out on the recommendations of the steering committee, with the purpose of determining if the processes are on track. It was particularly important to carry out this evaluation given that the current funding cycle is coming to an end and decisions need to be taken whether or not commitments are renewed. The evaluation found that the ABS mechanism remains highly relevant and valued by the various stakeholder groups, without overlooking the need for improvements in certain areas, such as the level of attention given to national processes.

The plenary also heard a report-back and reflections from the African Union Commission on Third Meeting of the Open-ended Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Committee for the Nagoya Protocol (ICNP3), and the subsequent preparatory meeting of the African Group held in preparation for COP12. Mahlet Teshome of the AU briefed participants on the agenda items of the ICNP3 and the process undertaken to provide a clear position on each, as well as the designation of spokespersons from within the African Group.  This process of preparation is due to continue through the workshop week.

The remainder of the week will focus on more substantive discussions around further development of ABS strategies and inputs, as well as receiving updates from different country initiatives. There will be particular attention paid to the strategic valorization of genetic resources (GR) and associated traditional knowledge (aTK).

The workshop hopes to conclude with a clearer way forward, especially in terms of innovation for ABS implementation, as well as setting priorities for capacity development at a national level.

Fracking in South Africa: A Deeper Look at Hydraulic Fracturing in South Africa

On March 10, Stephanie Booker and Aino Cantell of Natural Justice attended a roundtable discussion in Cape Town hosted by the South African Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, themed The First Frack is the Deepest: A Deeper Look at Hydraulic Fracturing in South Africa.

The roundtable brought together over 30 participants, including members of civil society, journalists, and Members of Parliament. Speakers included Mr Jonathan Deal, CEO of Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG), Dr Julia Schünemann, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), and Mr Niall Kramer from Shell South Africa.

The key objective of the roundtable was to discuss the potential dangers and benefits that fracking may bring to South Africa, given national discussions about exploring what is believed to be the eighth largest reserve of shale gas in the world. Speakers highlighted the country’s current dependency on local coal production for energy (South Africa are one of the largest producers in the world) – with the potential for fracking or renewable energies providing an alternative for excessive coal reliance.

Speakers for TKAG and ISS pointed out the many risks of fracking and insisted on the inherent uncertainties  regarding the environmental, social and economic impacts of such activities. In spite of the potential economic benefits of fracking, the potential health costs, social and cultural impacts and environmental contamination could undoubtedly cast a shadow over any optimistic prognoses. The job prospects offered by shale gas extraction were also much debated, as well as impacts on local water supplies. The speaker for Shell discussed the potential benefits that such activities may create.

It was a vibrant and engaging discussion between civil society, researchers and company.