An End to Unjust Conservation? (commentary)

The San peoples of the Kalahari have suffered as a result
of exclusionary forms of conservation. CC Harry Jonas.  

In September 2014, events took place in three different parts of the world, which together highlight the multifaceted relationship between human rights and conservation, write Dilys Roe and Harry Jonas. First, in New York, the UN General Assembly adopted the Outcome Document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (World Conference). The document reaffirms and recognizes, among other things: a) support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; b) commitments to obtain free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting Indigenous peoples' lands or territories and other resources, c) commitments to acknowledge, advance and adjudicate the rights of Indigenous peoples pertaining to lands, territories and resources; and d) the significant contribution of Indigenous peoples to the promotion of sustainable development and ecosystem management, including their associated knowledge. Read the   full commentary here. 

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.

African Views on Green Development: A Multi-stakeholder Dialogue

From 4-5 December 2013, Natural Justice, together with the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, hosted the ‘African Views on Green Development: A Multi-stakeholder Dialogue’ in Cape Town. Over 25 participants from the region representing civil society organisations, multilateral organisations, research institutes and academia attended. 

The objectives of the dialogue were to consider practical experiences across Africa on diversifying rural economies, localising development and increasing sustainable production to aid in the formation of policy positions that inherently reflect African needs and interests as input for the global green development agenda. The dialogues opened with an introduction to green development and the concept of the green economy. Sessions included the macro-economic scale of green development which considered the need to move towards sustainability-orientated investments, the likelihood of reforms within the capitalist system, and the importance of values and principles to underpin green development. A separate session explored locally-driven green development opportunities, best-practices were presented, and enabling conditions required for a green transition to support community rights discussed. A green employment and trade session examined creating jobs and opening markets, the need for decent jobs, job creation tools such as government spending and taxation, and the positive and negative impacts of greening the economy on jobs and different interest groups. In the final session participants deliberated the post-2015 development agenda, and opportunities and strategies for diverse organisations to positively influence the process. The dialogues wrapped up by identifying priority areas for future engagement. 

A summary report of the dialogues will be produced, and in 2014 strategic think pieces will be commissioned which will contribute African perspectives to the global process shaping the post-2015 development agenda.

Is Oil the End of Poverty in Kenya? Or are we seeing the new Scramble for Africa?

Map of Oil Exploration blocks in Kenya

From November 26-27th Maya Sikand from Natural Justice attended a seminar on the extractives industry in Kenya entitled, ‘Kenya’s new natural resource discoveries: Blessing or Curse?’ The meeting was co-hosted by the Tax Justice Network Africa, Econews Africa, East Africa Tax and Governance Network, Kenya Human Rights Commission and Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group. Attendees ranged from Civil Society representatives from Kenya, Ghana, DRC and Zambia among others, as well as members of the Turkana and Endorois communities.

Some of the key issues raised in the various panels and plenary discussions included: 

• Should Kenya sign up to the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI)? 
• Kenya’s development model. Extraction is an important pillar of Vision 2030, the current national economic model. To ensure this, the country has to work extremely hard to court Foreign Direct Investment. Should we be questioning this development investors and governments 
• The importance of land for Africans, it is not really possible to compensate someone for the loss of something that makes up their very identity. For this reason, the idea of Shareholding Ownership Schemes was suggested as a progressive model to structure community benefits. This has successfully been implemented in some mining areas in Zimbabwe. 
• Kenya’s development model. Extraction is an important pillar of Vision 2030, the current national economic model. To ensure this, the country has to work extremely hard to court Foreign Direct Investment. Should we be questioning this development model?
• There are over thirty communities in Kenya right now that have taken various projects within Vision 2030 to Court for disregard of proper legal processes, however there is limited legal capacity within communities to take these cases very far. 
• At the CSO level the lack of capacity to deal with these new and specialized issues is aggravated by the poaching of skilled people by industry. 
• There is a lack of linkage between the many Bills currently being discussed, leading to a fractured legal landscape that makes implementation even more difficult. 
• How should we extract? Rather than becoming another Nigeria, can Kenya learn from the lessons of Norway or the US? Others disagreed on whether Norway and the US even qualify as successful models, as they have outsourced many of the negative impacts of extraction to less developed countries. 
• There was a lot of emphasis on the need for Kenyans to learn from previous mining and oil experiences in Kenya, Africa and abroad to ensure that the right safeguards and practices are in place.

At the Extractives and the Environment group Natural Justice attended, some particular challenges concerning the environment discussed included: 

• Much of the planned extraction thus far will occur in extremely water-constrained environments. 
• Should the definition of ‘extractive industries’ expand to include practices like industrial agriculture or large-scale fishing? 
• Inter-generational equity – why must we exploit these natural resources immediately? Does it make more sense to build more capacity and infrastructure to manage the resources well first? This will ensure that negative effects are mitigated and allow Kenya to benefit more through value-addition. 
• The particular impact of the extractives on pastoralists is unique, and many international companies will not have come across this situation before. CSOs need to watch out for this and help them understand the relationship pastoralists have to the land. 
• The need for environmental education – many people at both the CSO and community level do not fully understand the environmental and health impacts of the extractives. 

The meeting concluded with strong words regarding the role and goals of CSOs and NGOs in Kenya. Several people asked, why aren’t people more angry? Others felt that to ensure institutions are accountable to citizens a fundamental change in power relations will be necessary. The meeting closed with a powerful reminder that this is the new scramble for Africa: over 2000 businessmen accompanied Obama on his last visit to Africa. Sarkozy recently remarked on how long the West has been ignoring Africa, but now it has finally entered history.

South-South Exchange Mechanism

On Thursday October 31st Maya Sikand of Natural Justice attended a meeting of the South-South Exchange Mechanism at the Global South-South Development (GSSD) Expo at the United Nations Office Nairobi. The UNEP South-South Exchange Mechanism is an online portal of case studies and solutions aimed at facilitating exchange and knowledge sharing on issues of sustainable development. Natural Justice have submitted a case study on Biocultural Community Protocols to the mechanism. Currently the case study is under expert review and should hopefully be included in the portal shortly. 

The main purpose of this meeting was to incorporate feedback from participating organizations into Phase II of the mechanism. Currently there are about 50 organizations globally working on case studies in diverse subject areas related to sustainable development, Academics review the cases, and it is suggested that Training Modules could be a potential next step. From the other organizations present it was suggested that a database to help connect organizations to relevant funders would also be a useful step for Phase II.

SDI and Namati Release New Guide to Assist Liberian Communities Obtain Title to Their Lands

The government of Liberia is currently drafting new land laws that give communities ownership rights over their lands. To help communities take advantage of these new laws, the Sustainable Development Institute and Namati released a guide for Liberian communities entitled Community Guide: Protecting Community Lands and Resources. 

The Community Guide teaches communities how to go through the process of obtaining deeds for their land. It sets forth an overview of the process and informs communities of their rights to land and natural resources. It also includes a sample Memorandum of Understanding that communities can use to establish boundaries with their neighbors. More information on the guide is available here.

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First Ever Global Soil Week

Let's Talk About Soil - English from IASS Vimeo Channel on Vimeo.

While soils are the fundamental pillars of sustainable development, they are facing increasing threats. To draw attention to this challenge and to upscale actions towards sustainable soil management, the first ever Global Soil Week was hosted by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Berlin from 18-22 November, 2012. The week sought to provide a platform to initiate follow-up actions on land and soil-related decisions made at the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference to offer a forum of interactive exchange and dialogue. At the week, stakeholders from science, government, business and civil society came together to share their land and soil-related experience and expertise, and to develop future plans of action for sustainable land/soil management and governance.

Several panels, platform sessions, and dialogue sessions were held on various relevant themes. One of particular interest was a dialogue session on securing the commons co-hosted by Maliasili Initiatives, the Rights and Resources Initiative, and the International Land Coalition. The session “reviewed the state of current knowledge around sustainable use and governance of communal natural resources, and examine threats to communal tenure of lands and resources in a range of different geographic contexts, and from points of reference as varied as gender dimensions, indigenous rights, biodiversity conservation, pastoralist land use, and forest governance.”

Find out more about Global Soil Week here. The International Institute for Sustainable Development's coverage from the week can be accessed here. Find out more about the week’s sessions here.