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Weekly Reading
›The Population Reference Bureau recently published several new resources on global family planning, including a data sheet on worldwide family planning and an article by James Gribble examining trends and patterns in family planning in West Africa. Gribble also recently co-authored an article on the successes and failures of Peru’s family planning policy, particularly among the poor.
An article published in Human Dimensions of Wildlife (subscription required) found that crop destruction by wildlife in three villages in northeastern Tanzania significantly reduced both food security and household income. The article recommends implementing several incentives—including microcredit for non-agricultural activities—for conservation.
A report from the Center for International and Strategic Studies’ Global Strategy Institute examines the future of water and energy in an increasingly urbanized Asia, with a particular focus on China.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development released a summary of the proceedings at the first African Water Week, which took place March 26-28, 2008. -
Rising Food Prices Destabilizing Dozens of Countries
›March 12, 2008 // By Sonia SchmanskiRising prices for staple crops like rice, wheat, and corn—driven by growing demand, poor harvests in some regions, the high price of oil, and the conversion of many crops to biofuel—have spurred recent protests in Mexico, Morocco, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Senegal, where people are becoming unable to afford to feed themselves and their families. Last week, the European Union announced its largest food aid package ever, dedicating $243 million to Africa, Asia, and the
Last month, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that skyrocketing food prices have caused 36 countries to need external food assistance, and noted that many of these countries have seen their food shortage difficulties exacerbated by extreme weather or violent conflict. Earlier this month, the FAO released a report showing that climate change will likely diminish agricultural output in the Middle East and North Africa. (Visit the FAO’s World Food Situation Portal for more valuable data and reports on food scarcity.)
Some developing countries have found it more economical to import food than produce their own, which has simultaneously decreased global food supply and increased demand. In addition, when developing countries like China and India do achieve greater prosperity, this generally leads to higher consumption of meat and dairy products, which require more grain—and eight times more land—to produce than vegetables and staples.
Experts and leaders agree that boosting agricultural production should be a top international priority. “It is clear,” said John Beddington, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, “that science and research to increase the efficiency of agricultural production per unit of land is critical.” In addition, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently suggested that a “Green Revolution” in Africa could help increase efficiency and food security. (Read more on prospects for a Green Revolution in Africa here.)
Speaking last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, World Bank President Robert Zoellick called hunger and malnutrition “the forgotten Millennium Development Goal” and argued that “increased food prices and their threat—not only to people but also to political stability—have made it a matter of urgency to draw the attention it needs.”
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Niger Delta Violence Requires Comprehensive Solution, Says Nigerian Senator
›February 21, 2008 // By Rachel WeisshaarNigerian Senator David Dafinone argued yesterday that the Nigerian government should abandon plans to allocate 444.6 billion Nigerian nairas in the 2008 budget to security in the conflict-ravaged Niger Delta. “Dedicating such huge amount to policing the Niger Delta will be counter productive because resentment of the state and the oil companies by the people will continue to deepen,” said Dafinone, who hails from the Delta. “There is urgent need to reorder the political, social and economic development of the Niger Delta,” he continued. “The root cause of the crisis in the region remains the denial of the peoples’ right to land and its content.”
The University of Bradford’s Kenneth Omeje calls for international efforts to hold the oil industry to standards of social and environmental responsibility and disarm and demobilize all Niger Delta militias and anti-oil combatants. But he emphasizes that “it will require a great deal of international pressure not only to compel the state to participate in a consequential roundtable with oil-bearing communities, but also to secure its commitment to far-reaching, proactive concessions that help meet the aspirations of the Niger Delta’s people.” -
Sharing of Chad’s Oil Wealth Is One of Rebels’ Grievances
›February 13, 2008 // By Rachel WeisshaarThe recent fighting in Chad was partially fuelled by rebels’ resentment over President Idriss Déby’s handling of the country’s oil revenue, reported The New York Times. “They say that he has not managed the country’s growing oil wealth well and that he has given preferential treatment to members of his ethnic group, the Zaghawa.”
Although an agreement with the World Bank states that Chad’s government must devote 70 percent of oil revenue to development, few believe this is occurring, especially given Déby’s recent high levels of military spending. Philippe Hugon, a researcher specializing in African economic affairs, told Agence France-Presse, “The oil wealth has been partially siphoned off and wasted on arms spending and on building up the personal fortunes of people close to Idriss Déby….The rebels want their share.”
Chad’s oil production is tiny when compared with that of some of its neighbors, such as Nigeria; even so, it constitutes a considerable portion of the country’s economy. Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 170th out of 177 countries in the 2007-2008 Human Development Index. -
Reading Radar– A Weekly Roundup
›February 8, 2008 // By Wilson Center Staff“Cities themselves represent microcosms of the kinds of changes that are happening globally, making them informative test cases for understanding socioecological system dynamics and responses to change,” argue the authors of “Global Change and the Ecology of Cities,” published in today’s issue of Science magazine. The article focuses on changes in land use and cover, biogeochemical cycles, climate, hydrosystems, and biodiversity.
In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai argues that the country’s post-election violence is partially the result of “the inequitable distribution of natural resources in Kenya, especially land.” Maathai has written extensively on the links between peace and natural resource management.
A joint policy brief by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the World Resources Institute lays out the challenges associated with simultaneously increasing energy security and reducing carbon emissions, and proposes principles to guide these transitions.
Austria has not abided by its promise to crack down on a leather factory that Hungary contends is polluting the transboundary Raba River, said Hungary’s minister of environment, who proposed bilateral talks to resolve the issue.
This mid-term report evaluates progress made by the USAID-funded Okavango Integrated River Basin Management Project, which seeks to strengthen regional water management institutions and preserve the basin’s biodiversity.
“HIV and AIDS affect all people in a community by driving faster rates of resource extraction and use, increasing gender inequality, lowering the general health of the labor force, and impeding an individual’s ability to maintain a viable livelihood,” argue the authors of “Guidelines for Mitigating the Impacts of HIV/AIDS on Coastal Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management,” which suggests ways to combat these challenges. -
New Year Sees Heightened Violence in Niger
›January 18, 2008 // By Sonia SchmanskiHostility between the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) and the country’s government—brewing since government officials announced a sharp increase in mining project commitments in the northern region of Niger in early 2007—escalated this month. Violence reached Niger’s capital city of Niamey for the first time on January 8, 2008, when a landmine exploded under a car, killing a local radio director. The MNJ, which decries what it perceives as the unequal distribution of profits from uranium mining and oil drilling in Tuareg territory, has killed nearly 50 soldiers since early last year, earning the wrath of the Nigerien government. Although the group vehemently denies any involvement with the January 8 attack, many in Niger are skeptical of this claim.
Ethnic Tuaregs, who live mostly in northern Niger and account for eight percent of the country’s population, make up the majority of the MNJ. Politically marginalized following independence and devastated by the desertification of the Sahel and the droughts of 1968-74 and 1984-85, the Tuareg also suffered from the government’s refusal to assist the drought-stricken territories and government expropriation of international humanitarian aid. Following the droughts, many Tuaregs moved to urban areas, where they found themselves culturally isolated. Others were forced to move into refugee camps, while still others migrated to Algeria and Libya. In Niger, this social divide, coupled with economic hardship, manifested itself in violent rebellion between 1990 and 1995, when a peace deal was brokered in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The peace, however, was neither complete nor lasting.
Recently, lack of access to the economic benefits of oil drilling and uranium mining in Tuareg territory has led to increasingly volatile relations between the Tuareg and Niger’s government. Government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar’s announcement last May that Niger would seek to triple its uranium production in the near future only increased the tension. In addition, several instances of violence during 2007 have further strained relations between the MNJ and Niger’s government. On April 20, Tuareg rebels attacked uranium prospectors from the French-controlled Areva mining company in northern Niger, calling for increased benefits for the local Tuareg population and better implementation of the 1995 peace accord, which required companies to give preference to the Tuareg in their hiring processes. On July 6, rebels captured and held a Chinese mine employee for four days before releasing him.
The violence seems set to continue: On January 10, 2008, Nigerien Energy and Mines Minister Mamadou Abdulahi announced that Niger would award 100 new mining exploration permits over the next two years and seven new oil exploration licenses in 2008, and on January 13, Areva announced plans to undertake the largest industrial mining project ever in Niger. Areva will invest more than €1 billion in the project, which will produce nearly 5,000 tons of uranium a year.
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) has long explored the connections between natural resources and security. ECSP’s January 9, 2008, meeting, “Innovative Partnerships for Peace: The Role of Extractive Industries in Resource-Based Conflict Prevention and Mitigation,” was the first in a series that will explore the links between conflict, natural resources, and human health. -
Water Causing Tension in Central Asia
›December 7, 2007 // By Rachel Weisshaar“The water crisis in Central Asia is due to the way water has been allocated and managed; it is not a crisis of quantity but of distribution,” asserts Jeremy Allouche, a visiting fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies, in “The governance of Central Asian waters: national interests versus regional cooperation,” available in the latest issue of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research’s Disarmament Forum.
The shrinking of the Aral Sea, which began in the 1960s, first drew international attention to the region’s water issues. The Aral Sea has been an ecological disaster, but Central Asia now has another, equally serious hydrological problem: how to divide the region’s limited water among competing countries that need it for irrigation, hydropower, and other uses. Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Krygystan have had largely hostile relations over water distribution since they achieved independence in 1992, and these tensions could boil over into violent conflict unless the countries can implement a functional regional water agreement.
Allouche offers a concise, lucid overview of the challenges of the region’s post-independence water governance system, including analyses of how the water policies of Central Asia’s major players (which also include Afghanistan, China, and Russia) affect regional tensions over water. -
New Carbon Monitoring Website Launched
›November 16, 2007 // By Sean PeoplesThe Center for Global Development (CGD) recently launched a new interactive website highlighting the highest CO2-emitting power plants in the world. Carbon Monitoring for Action—CARMA for short—is a project of CGD’s Confronting Climate Change Initiative. The project also highlights clean power producers, reveals the largest power-producing plants, and hosts a blog. Some of the downloadable content is temporarily disabled, likely due to heavy web traffic. Nevertheless, a visit to CARMA is worth your time for the interactive map alone.
Showing posts from category energy.
