Volume 5, Issue 2, April - June 2016
Most people associate nature conservation with the protection of biodiversity. Geoconservation, or the conservation of geodiversity, is an area of nature conservation which is not as well understood, but this appears to be changing. Across the world the emphasis in nature conservation has been on the conservation of fauna and flora whilst virtually overlooking the geological, and geomorphological...etc
Agro-ecology Issues in the films Ethiopia Rising and The Man Who Stopped the Desert: Why Indigenous African Agro-ecology is a preferred approach to African food sufficiency than dependence on GM seed technology
CONTENT
- Chair's Foreword
- Geoparks in Africa by Dr Enas Ahmed
- Agro-Ecology Issues in the films Ethiopia Rising and Man who Stopped the Desert
- Earth Science Book Review
- Earth Science Events
- References and Selected reading
Chair's
Forward
In
this edition we consider Geoparks in Africa introduced by Dr Enas Ahmed from Egypt and also the issue of agro-ecological land management as
highlighted by two recent topical films on how communities (one in West Africa
and another in East Africa) lifted themselves out of poverty and into self
sufficiency, through the application of low cost (but labour intensive) soil and water conservation techniques.
Geoparks in Africa by Dr Enas Ahmed
Africa: is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous
continent. At about 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles) including
adjacent islands, it covers six per cent of Earth's total surface area and 20.4
per cent of its total land area
The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the
north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the
northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the
west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains
54 fully recognized sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de
facto independent states with limited or no recognition.
The geological heritage of
Africa is an important part of the African natural heritage. But at the same time,
there are some areas that are fragments of these heritages which represent parts of a
unique continent-scale puzzle of the geological history and evolution of
Africa. These areas in other continents present in areas known as Geoparks.
What is a Geopark: A geopark is a unified area that advances the protection and use of
geological heritage in a sustainable way, and promotes the economic well-being
of the people who live there.
The geoparks initiative was
launched by UNESCO in response to the perceived need for an international
initiative that recognizes sites representing an earth science interest. Global
Geoparks Network aims at enhancing the value of such sites while at the same
time creating employment and promoting regional economic development. The
Global Geoparks Network works in synergy with UNESCO's World Heritage Centre
and Man and the Biosphere (MAB) World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
Most people associate nature conservation with the protection of biodiversity. Geoconservation, or the conservation of geodiversity, is an area of nature conservation which is not as well understood, but this appears to be changing. Across the world the emphasis in nature conservation has been on the conservation of fauna and flora whilst virtually overlooking the geological, and geomorphological...etc
Geoheritage and geoconservation
are concerned with the preservation of Earth Science features, and are
important endeavours globally, as reflected in various international and
intra-national bodies set up for conservation, with agreements, conventions,
and inter-governmental initiatives.
So the road for establishing geoparks in
Africa began with workshops and Training course of AGN conference in Morocco
2011 and Chinese Geopark Network and the Geological Surveys of China, Senegal,
and Egypt.
Agro-ecology Issues in the films Ethiopia Rising and The Man Who Stopped the Desert: Why Indigenous African Agro-ecology is a preferred approach to African food sufficiency than dependence on GM seed technology
In
no other topic do science and social justice issues become so inextricably entwined as on the issue of food sufficiency. Western GM technology and its
promotion under the guise of “green revolution” (through the new organisations
such as Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa [1] and the New Alliance for
Food security and Nutrition [2]) represent the greatest threat to African human
rights and actual existence in the 21st century. Because the remit of Society of African
Earth Scientists is in the interests of African self-sufficiency in many
resources, including our food; it is inevitable that the Society must make a
case for African people to rely on their own agricultural methods and that any
attempt to de-legalize traditional practices (such as seed storage and exchange ) is no less
than an attempt to control Africans through control of our food sources, and to
generally arrest our rights to self-determination [3]. Every African on the
African continent must be made aware that "slavery versus non-slavery" is the stark choice, being
presented to his/her local leaders, today in the form of GM bills presented to African governments on behalf multinational corporations. In some cases, these leaders of
African people are in danger of selling us into actual slavery,
through selling off of our rights to grow from and store our own food seeds. These leaders presenting these bills on behalf of foreign corporations are shackling Africans forever to having to buy seeds from foreign companies, or pay penalties to those
same companies for using seeds contaminated with their GM material [4].
Agro-ecology
is seen here as the application of ecology
to the design of sustainable agricultural systems. From Kwasi Densu we
learn that : Susan Hecht, in her discussion The Evolution of Agroecological
Thought, suggests that the contemporary use of the term agroecology “dates from
the 1970’s, but the science and the practice of agroecology are as old as the
origins of agriculture.”[5]
The
positive case for choosing an agro-ecology approach as against the aggressive
mainstream style of agriculture practiced by large corporations lies in the
demonstrated successes of communities that have literally been lifted out of
poverty by the assiduous application, on a mass community level, of
agro-ecological methods. Most of the methods used are traditional African in
origin, as well as being traditional methods that have been adapted to improve
chances of success. Some methods are new, and have proved successful in other
situations [6].
Two
films recently released by 1080 films, highlight these successes in West Africa
(Burkina Faso[7]) and East Africa ( Ethiopian Tigray region [8]), and represent an
important document of the mass application of indigenous soil and water
conservation techniques, and the resulting change/improvement in the local
- Soil fertility
- Water table
- Vegetation cover
- Tree cover
- Etc
The
efforts in our two case studies are led by two exceptional conservationists (Sawadogo in Burkina Faso, and Aba Hawe in Ethiopia) in that
their knowledge of soil and water conservation methods and ability to mobilise community
work forces proved very effective in making regional transformations in forestation, water availability and even micro-climate, due to the increased plant cover and hence evaporation of water into the atmosphere from newly emerging vegetation.
In
each film, we see the final results of the application of traditional
soil and water conservation techniques (such as terracing, stone lines,
planting pits, etc) on a community level and also the introduction of novel new
approaches to help prevent land degradation.
The
methods used in both examples were numerous and varied, each making their
contribution. When all the various methods were applied together, the overall
effect included increase in the water table, improvement in soil fertility and
so on.
One
of the failings of agro businesses in claiming that GM will increase food yield
is that the question of crop yield is dealt with in a compartmentalised
way. We know that to create a good crop yield we must have all of the
appropriate natural conditions (we need sunlight, water, we also need good
quality soil, including the microbes living in that soil). But the agro- business model focuses on the supposed superiority of their GM seed alone to
the exclusion of these other conditions. The application of GM technology is often accompanied by the heavy use of fertilizers which poison and destroy the soil [9]. These methods in truth lead to the
destruction of the soil, and hence the impoverishment of African communities.
The
numerous techniques applied by these local communities make an interesting
collection of soil and water conservation measures, that have been proven,
before the entire world (thanks to the films) to be most effective in
lifting African communities from poverty into self sufficiency. These methods
are there to be shared throughout the Continent’s farming communities, and
deserve to be noted.
Terracing
•
Terracing
slows down the velocity of the water by removing the land steepness at
step intervals; thereby making overland flow less erosive
•
Terracing
increases the infiltration of water into the soil
•
Terracing
therefore conserves soil as well as water
Terracing
enables the cultivation of land on steep slopes and even escarpments (e.g., the
Dogon of Mali)
•
Indigenous
terraced systems are major economic assets as they protect land down
stream from degradation as well as preserving cultivated land on the
slopes. Their maintenance is the most cost effective strategy for
land conservation, as these structures exist and only need to be maintained.
Planting
pits
•
Pitting
systems slow down the velocity of the flow and collect both water and nutrients, enhanced by placing manure mixed with mulch at the base of each pit. In
Burkina Faso, Yakuba Sawadogo increased the size and depths of traditional
planting pits to make them more effective.
Check
dams
Used
very successfully in Ethiopia to combat drought, land and soil degradation,
check dams are a series of dams placed along a river or waterway to reduce the
energy of the water flow at the dam, therefore making the flow more manageable
down stream. They can serve to slow the flow along the river and increase the
retention of water. in the dry season, more water may be retained along the
river due to the construction of a series of check dams. This also serves to
maintain local water table levels at higher levels than when check dams are
absent.
Stonelines
or stonebunds
•
Once
again these have the effect of slowing down the water flow. They also serve to
collect soil, trapping the soil between the closely packed stones. The drawing below illustrates the spacing between bunds (20 - 50m)
Farmer
managed natural regeneration (FMNR)
One
of the techniques used by Tigray communities in Ethiopia to regenerate their
forests had already been used successfully to reverse desertification in Niger.
This method, called FMNR (farmer managed natural regeneration), was one in
which apparent singular shrubs and bushes are recognised as potential trees or
"underground forests", which are able to grow rapidly when they are
pruned such as to reduce the number of branches along the individual plant
stem, leaving only the branches at the top of the plant. This has the effect of
reducing the amount of plant energy that goes into growing this surplus of
branches along the plant stem. Plant energy is then instead directed towards
thickening the stem and maintaining the upper branches of the plant, growing
the plant rapidly into a tree within a few seasons.
EARTH SCIENCE BOOK REVIEW
Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering, Wiley &Sons,
2011
By Antonio Luque and Steven Hegedus
This is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of photovoltaics,
including even a section on the latest technology of organic solar cells, an assessment
of the impact of policy on the development of solar and also the role of solar in
tackling global underdevelopment.
EARTH SCIENCE EVENTS
15-17
August 2016
International
Conference on Alternative and Renewable Energy Quest
Venue: Cairo,
Egypt
VISION: International
conference organised by IEREK. Promotional material includes the following:-
"The
world has a critical necessity to search for alternative and renewable
energy and the importance of its technologies have been growing
significantly.
For several important reasons, this is extremely important for the future of our society:
- Renewable energy still has a long way to go in order to replace fossil fuels and become a primary source of energy consumption but things have been lately definitely moving in the right direction.
- It would significantly decrease the current levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and this would have positive environmental impact for our entire planet.
IEREK
seeks to promote and disseminate knowledge of the various topics and
technologies of renewable and alternative energy resources through
organizing the international conference."
27 August
– 4 September 2016
International
Geological Congress
Venue: Cape
Town, South Africa
VISION: The
Council for Geosciences together with the Geological Society of South Africa
and other collaborators from academia and industry, currently lead the
preparations for the 35th IGC in South Africa.
1-7
October 2016
8th
Conference of the African Association of Women in the Geosciences
Venue:
Sibiu, Romania
VISION: The African Association
of Women in Geosciences (AAWG) is supporting the development of Earth
Scientists in Africa by providing opportunities for networking and promoting
the application of geosciences for sustainable development. To meet these
challenges, AAWG is organizing numerous activities in and out of the African
continent. Biannual International Conferences are being organized to address
various challenges that the African continent is facing and to which Earth
Sciences could make a contribution. In order to strengthen the collaboration
between our African and non-African members and also to increase the visibility
of the Association, the 8th AAWG Conference is being organized for the first
time out of the African continent. To meet these objectives, we choose as a
title for the 8th conference "Building bridges between Earth Scientists
Worldwide: A Way for Promoting Peace and Strengthening Integration". This
conference is organized locally by the Geological Society of Romania and is
hosted by Astra National Museum Complex, Sibiu.
31
October – 6 November 2016
African
Rift Geothermal Conference (ARGeo)
Venue: Asmara,
Eritrea
VISION: Sixth
Africa Rift Geothermal Conference in collaboration with United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and other support partners…
2-4
December 2016
International
Conference on Improving Sustainability Concept in Developing Countries
Venue: Conrad
Cairo Hotel, Cairo, Egypt
VISION: International
conference…
References
and Selected Reading
- http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Resources/Grantee-Profiles/Grantee-Profile-Alliance-for-a-Green-Revolution-in-Africa-AGRA
- https://new-alliance.org/
- http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/new-alliance-food-security-and-nutrition
- https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/12/14/gmo-patent-controversy-terminator-genes-seed-piracy-forcing-farmers-buy-seeds/ and see also, http://www.theecologist.org/campaigning/2874165/ghanas_women_farmers_resist_the_g7_plan_to_grab_africas_seeds.html
- Jordan, et al (eds), Land & Power: Sustainable agriculture and African Americans - A collection of essays from the 2007 Black environmental thought conference. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), 2007. p. 95
- Methods such as FMNR (farmer managed natural regeneration) and "tether and carry".
- http://allafrica.com/stories/201110200026.html
- http://www.wri.org/events/2015/09/film-screening-ethiopia-rising-red-terror-green
- http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/pdfs/migrated/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/1232.PDF
- Gupta, S.K., Modern Hydrology and Sustainable Water Development, Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, 2011.
- A link on “Groundwater and Rural Water Supply in Africa”: http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/people/academic-staff/richard-taylor/research/files/macdonald_etal_2012.pdf
- Link to Journal of African Earth Sciences: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-african-earth-sciences/
*Board
of the Society of African Earth Scientists: Dr Chukwunyere Kamalu (Chair -
Nigeria), Osmin Callis (Secretary - Guyana/Nigeria), Ndivhuwo Cecilia Mukosi
(South Africa), Mathada Humphrey (South Africa), Dr Enas Ahmed (Egypt).
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