The European Parliament has had a great week, writes Molly Scott Cato MEP - for those who oppose GMOs in food and farming. MEPs voted on five occasions to say no to GMOs, and gave their support to agroecology as the only sustainable way to feed the world.
… gave their support to agroecology as the only sustainable way to feed the world. This week's … report on 'technological solutions for sustainable agriculture', initiated by …
The pristine landscape of South Africa's Wild Coast is under threat from mining, writes Hal Rhoades, and the communities standing up to defend the land are facing deadly consequences: harassment, threats, physical assault and murder. Attacks on mine opponents have taken four lives so far and many others have been injured. But the opposition is growing and gaining international support.
… for the future of their community, based on sustainable eco-tourism and traditional …
Commuting between land rights negotiations in the city and herding goats on the plains, Edward Loure is at once a traditional Maasai and a modern urbanite, writes Sophie Morlin-Yron. That ability to straddle the two very different worlds he inhabits has been key to his success at having 200,000 acres of land registered into village and community ownership - and his own 2016 Goldman Prize.
… has championed community land rights and sustainable development in Northern Tanzania … When asked how they go about ensuring sustainable grazing in practice, he says mobility is the key strategy to sustainable livestock herding. "We make an …
The European Parliament today called on the Commission and member states like the UK to stop funding the 'New Alliance' plan to force export-oriented agribusiness onto Africa. Instead they want support for small-scale family farms and agroecology.
… invest in a model of agriculture which is sustainable, pro-smallholder farming, … producers and women, while supporting unsustainable farming ... "Family farmers and … often using techniques that are much more sustainable and climate-friendly than big …
The Gates Foundation - widely assumed to be 'doing good', is imposing a neoliberal model of development and corporate domination that's opening up Africa's agriculture to land and seed-grabbing global agribusiness, writes Colin Todhunter. In the process it is foreclosing on the real solutions - enhancing food security, food sovereignty and the move to agroecological farming.
… fertilisers, all of which undermine existing sustainable, small-scale farming that is … erosion and can trap small-scale farmers in unsustainable debt. The BMGF, through AGRA, is … farmers on chemical inputs and marginalising sustainable agriculture alternatives, thereby …
Roads, mines, dams, power lines, pipelines and other infrastructure projects are fast eating into the world's 'core forests', writes Bill Laurance. These rare and precious places where wildlife and ecological processes can flourish undisturbed must come before the evanescent gains of 'development'. To save what's left, governments and funders must learn the word 'No!'
… path we're currently following isn't just unsustainable. It's leading to an astonishingly …
The trade ban on rhino horn is not working, writes Keith Somerville. But non-lethally and sustainably harvested rhino horn can earn income to encourage breeders, pay rangers and anti-poaching teams, provide surveillance and supply wider benefits that will gain the support of people around parks, reserves and ranches.
To save our rhinos, we need a legal horn trade Keith Somerville University of Kent | 22nd September 2016 Comment Wildlife Trade Economics Africa Swaziland Conservation Hunting Farming …
The Vezo, Madagascar's indigenous 'sea nomads', are travelling hundreds of miles to the remote 'Barren Isles', the Indian Ocean's largest locally-managed marine protected area, writes Charlie Gardner. Drawn by valuable shark fins and sea cucumbers, sold into Chinese markets, the Vezo are now joining with local fishers to protect the ecosystem and expel illegal divers.
… all fishing is outlawed, and those where sustainable forms of fishing are allowed. … in Geoforum . Also on The Ecologist: ' Sustainable abundance - rebuilding fisheries …
With 27,000 African savannah elephants a year illegally killed for their ivory, the species is in peril, write Ross Harvey & Alexander Rhodes. Now international action at CITES and the closure of domestic ivory markets are attacking the ivory trade at both ends. But we must also give our full support to 'elephant neighbor' communities.
… in the second paper , which looked at 'sustainable use' policies, there are several … trade. Supply side interventions include 'sustainable use' policies - which incentivise …
The sudden shift from 'Least Concern' to 'Vulnerable' status for all four species of giraffe is a red flag for their survival, writes Bill Laurance. Hunted down by poachers with automatic weapons for their 'trophy' tails, their range fragmented by roads and mines, and their woodland habitat cleared for farms or burnt for charcoal, giraffes need our help, fast.
… and desperate needs for equitable social and sustainable development. Ignoring these basic … efforts, pushing for conservation and more sustainable societies all at once - plugging …
Agriculture is big business and with the EU pumping money at the sector, the corporate profiteers are holding all the aces, writes Chris Lang. The documentary ‘Land Grabbing’ investigates what happens when well-financed agro-investors take over rural communities' land and water.
… Bioenergy earned Africa's first Rountable on Sustainable Bioenergy certification. But …
WWF’s support for 'fortress conservation' has led to serious human rights abuses for indigenous peoples, writes Lewis Evans, and nowhere more so than in Cameroon, where the Baka are considered trespassers and poachers in their own ancestral forests. A formal complaint against WWF's behaviour is now in process.
Why Survival International has made a formal complaint to the OECD against WWF Lewis Evans | 6th March 2016 Comment Africa Cameroon Natural World Human Rights Indigenous Peoples …
The conflict between lions and Africa's cattle herders goes back centuries, write Grant Hopcraft and Sara Blackburn - and lions have been the big losers in recent years. But where local people benefit from ecotourism, that ancient enmity can quickly be set aside. 'Community conservancies' around formal protected areas are helping both lions and indigenous communities to survive and thrive.
Africa's lions and pastoralists share the benefits of community ecotourism Grant Hopcraft Sara Blackburn | 5th April 2016 Comment Natural World Hunting Biodiversity Africa Indigenous Peoples Kenya …
Malawi is a country on the front line of climate change. Unlike nations ravaged by a typhoon or rich western cities swamped with floodwater, the kind of impacts Malawians face barely raise a flicker of interest in the media. Compared to a hurricane, a few degrees of temperature rise and shifting rainfall patterns sound mild, but in reality they have the potential to be far more devastating writes JOE WARE
How Solar power is bringing food security to Africa Joe Ware | 25th November 2016 News Malawi Solar Energy Renewables Africa Food And Farming malawi farmers.jpg Malawi is a country on the front line …
Perhaps all the 'do gooders' busy forcing industrial models of agriculture onto poor but independent African farmers really do think they are helping them, writes Colin Todhunter. But if so they are deeply deluded. All they will achieve is the takeover of export-oriented agribusiness and GMOs, the destruction of agroecological farming systems, and a future of debt and landlessness.
Philanthropic colonialism: embedding agribusiness and GMOs into African agriculture Colin Todhunter | 8th April 2016 Comment Farming Africa GMOs Nutrition Health Finance rice-farmer-burundi-cut.jpg …