Women 'are the foot soldiers of climate change adaptation' - expert

Thu, 2 Aug 2012 13:18 GMT

Source: Alertnet // Amantha Perera

A woman carries firewood gathered in a forest in the village of Rukam in the Batticaloa District of Eastern Sri Lanka. ALERTNET/Amantha Perera

By Amantha Perera

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AlertNet) – In 2006, when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) decided to launch a multi-million dollar rural water project in eastern and north central regions of Sri Lanka, there was one overriding requirement – women would be placed in key positions.

As a result, experts say, the $263 million program, aimed at providing drinking water to over 900,000 people by 2011, has been a particular success.

In the village of Talpothta, in the rural north-central Polonnaruwa District, the village women’s association is now central to the proper functioning of the new water supply plant provided under the ADB programme. Its members visit the over 200 users, read meters and more importantly advise beneficiaries on water usage when drought sets in.

“We know how much is needed. Women do most of the household work like cooking (and) washing clothes. We ask our members to limit use when we have problems,” said Sheila Herath, an association member.

Kusum Athukorala, one of the country’s leading experts on water management, agrees that women are key to adapting effective measures to deal with water challenges and changing climate patterns.

“Women are the foot soldiers of climate change adaptation,” said Athukorala who heads the Network of Women Water Professionals, Sri Lanka (NetWwater) and the Women for Water Partnership.

NetWwater’s efforts to create awareness among rural women on climate change, adaptation and water management have won support from Brandix, one of the island’s largest garment. That allows Athukorala to now travel the country, educating women on water management.

“One sixth of our water supply is from rural programmes managed by community-based organizations. If we don’t recognize the impact of over half of the population, these programmes will never succeed,” she said.

INDONESIA, CHINA AND FORESTS

In other Asian countries women also are playing crucial roles at the grassroots level in preserving the environment and making sure human-inflicted damage remains controllable. Avi Mahaningtyas, an Indonesian expert on forest management and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) told AlertNet that it was rural women who knew intimately the forest’s value to their lives.

“They know it by heart and by birth,” said Mahaningtyas, who heads the Environmental and Economic Governance Cluster of the Kemitraan-Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, a national body that works on good governance.

The same sentiment is true in rural China, says Xiaobei Wang, a China gender specialist with Landesa Rural Development Institute, an international organisation that works on poverty and land rights. Wang told AlertNet that as men increasingly migrated to cities looking for jobs, it was women, left behind in the villages, who took care of the land and the forests.

"In China most of men from areas near forests have left as migrant workers, making women the major labour force. About 60 percent of those working in forests and farm land are women. If their rights are not protected and enforced, there will be lots of issues in reducing poverty in forest areas and ensuring the sustainable management of forests,” she said.

Indonesia’s Mahaningtyas said that if a forest is to be preserved, like any other natural resource, it needs to carry a value. “A forest with a value will not easily be cut down. And it is the people who work within it who will know intimately that value.”

However, despite their importance, women are still being largely left out of the decision making, according to a new report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). The report - The Challenges of Securing Women’s Tenure and Leadership for Forest Management: The Asian Experience - found that gender discrimination is still rampant.

Read in detail at :- http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=25243

CLIMATE CHANGE: Cassava key to food security, say scientists

Photo: Ikhlasul Amal/Flickr

Cassava tubers

KAMPALA, 20 June 2012 (IRIN) - An alliance of scientists has been formed to help promote cassava, which has emerged as a "survivor" crop able to thrive in the expected higher temperatures engendered by climate change, a scientific conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, heard.

Some 300 scientists attending the second International Scientific Conference of the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century (GCP-21-II) announced the alliance, named the Global Cassava Modelling Consortium, which will offer a platform to world cassava researchers to share research information, better understand the physiology of the plant, and explore avenues for protecting it from attacks now that it has even greater importance for the food security of many regions in the world.

The new consortium will initially establish a loose network of scientists sharing and analysing current cassava research and historical research data. As it grows, the network will include the sharing of experiences with cassava farmers across the Tropics, with farms being treated as experimental stations in their own right.

Andy Jarvis, a climate change scientist at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and CGIAR’s [ http://www.cgiar.org/who-we-are/ ] Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Research Programme, told the conference that a study [ http://www.springerlink.com/content/n36675226277455j ] published in February in the journal Tropical Plant Biology revealed that temperatures in East and West Africa - two major cassava growing regions - are expected to rise by around 1.8 degrees Celsius by 2030, but that the cassava plant will thrive.

"While this [rising temperature] poses problems for the suitability of food staples like bean, banana and sorghum, cassava suitability is likely to be the exception to the rule... Research shows that it will brush off the higher temperatures," he said. "Its potential is tremendously exciting. But now we have to act promptly on the research, as more pests and diseases are manifesting themselves because of climate change."

Cassava is the second most important source of carbohydrates in sub-Saharan African, after maize, and is eaten by around 500 million people every day, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Globally, 280 million tons are produced every year, with half the supply coming from Africa; Uganda produces 5.4 million tons of cassava every year. It is also grown by millions of smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Achilles heel

Despite its robust survival in the face of climate change, it has an Achilles heel; it is susceptible to diseases related to global warming like mealy bug, cassava brown-streak disease and cassava mosaic disease.

The cassava study described cassava as "the Rambo root" for its resilience, with authors reporting that the tuber becomes even more productive in hotter temperatures and outperformed potatoes, maize, beans, bananas, millet and sorghum - some of Africa's main food crops - in tests using a combination of 24 climate prediction and crop suitability models.

Read more

EAST AFRICA: Cassava comes in from the cold

KENYA: Maize farmers have rain but lack seeds

UGANDA: Cassava disease threatens food supplies

Cassava in Cote d’Ivoire (film)

The study found that in East Africa cassava could see a 10 percent increase in production if temperatures rise as predicted. In West Africa cassava will hold its own, doing better than potatoes, beans and bananas. Cassava, along with banana and maize, will see a 5 percent increase in suitability in Southern Africa, with only Central Africa registering a I percent decrease in cassava suitability - significantly better than the substantial declines expected in potato and bean, according to Jarvis.

Vitamin-rich varieties

Scientists at the Kampala meeting are also focusing on aspects of cassava breeding - conventional, genetic engineering, the biology of the cassava crop, pests and disease, and nutrition enhancement by moving away from the usual white cassava which is Vitamin A-deficient, a problem in many developing countries. In Uganda for example, Vitamin A and iron deficiencies are major health problems with 32 percent of children under 60 months, and 31 percent of child-bearing mothers, deficient in the vitamin.

"We are planning to introduce nutritious yellow cassava varieties that are rich in Vitamin A and protein," Robert Kawuki, a cassava breeder at a government agro-laboratory facility told IRIN.

Uganda's Minister of State for Agriculture Zerubabel Mijumbi Nyiira told IRIN at the conference venue that the findings would prove useful to farmers in sub-Sahara Africa. "The crop can work as social and economic transformer," he said.

"Cassava used to be a poor person's crop, but now it has the potential of becoming the main food of millions of people while its commercial potential is unimaginable. It is not only for food but it can also be used for industrial starch and used in more than 300 industrial products.

"The world is moving away from using fossil fuel, and therefore fermented cassava starch can produce ethanol used in bio-fuel. But more importantly, its survival in circumstances of this nature makes it one of the most important crops that can make Africa food secure."

vm/kr/cb

Theme (s): Early Warning, Environment, Food Security, Health & Nutrition,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Link to the source:- http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95694/CLIMATE-CHANGE-Cassava-key-to-food-security-say-scientists

San Francisco welcomed as role model and first major US city to join UN campaign

Photo credit

RIO DE JANEIRO, 20 June 2012 - The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed the US City of San Francisco as both a role model and the first major US city to join the Making Cities Resilient Campaign which seeks to saves lives and reduce economic losses in member cities.

Speaking today at the Rio+20 Resilient Cities event, Ms. Wahlström said: "We welcome Mayor Edwin Lee on behalf of the people of San Francisco as the 1,000th city to join the UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient campaign. San Francisco's participation further signifies that cities of all sizes and economic strength are prepared to take the lead on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

"We are also particularly pleased to designate San Francisco as a role model city for 'Advancing Resilience through the Whole Community Approach' given the City's efforts to engage its citizens at neighbourhood level in building resilience."



San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee said: "San Francisco has worked tirelessly to increase our overall resilience by investing in our physical infrastructure, such as our water system, and increasing the capacity of our residents and communities to respond to and rapidly recover from disasters."

San Francisco is well-known as the birth place of the UN and as an icon of resilience around the world. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire was one of the worst disasters in the history of the United States causing 2,000 deaths and destroying 28,000 buildings. Today the city has a profound understanding of the nature of risk which arises from its coastal location in an active seismic zone vulnerable to rises in sea-level, drought and heavy rainfall.

--

San Francisco media contact:
Francis Tsang
Chief Deputy Communications Director
Office of Mayor Edwin M. Lee
Phone: +415 554 6467
francis.tsang@sfgov.org

• Press Release [PDF 41.16 kB]
• Website: ResilientSF
• Making cities resilient: 'My city is getting ready' world disaster reduction campaign
• 1 million safe schools & hospitals initiative: make a pledge - save a life

Date:

20 Jun 2012

Sources:

• United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat (UNISDR)

Source :- http://www.unisdr.org/archive/27286

Parliamentarians focus on risk reduction at Rio

Photo credit

Palácio Tiradentes, the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

By Dizery Salim

RIO DE JANEIRO, 18 June 2012 - Around 200 legislators from 74 countries and the European Union met yesterday on the sidelines of the UN Rio+20 sustainable development conference this afternoon to approve a "Legislators' Protocol," containing a set of "Rio Scrutiny Principles" to strengthen legislators' capacity to hold governments to account on promises made at development conferences including Rio+20.

Addressing the gathering of parliamentarians at Tiradentes Palace, the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, the UN Special Representative on Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, praised delegates for seeking more accountability from nations on sustainable development commitments.

"Parliamentarians can help governments connect the dots by passing legislation that links aspects such as natural capital accounting, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation," she said.

The function of coordinating and overseeing disaster risk reduction is often placed with the wrong national entity -- usually the national disaster management body -- with little capacity for policy coherence, she told the parliamentarians at the end of their two-day World Summit of Legislators, which began on 15 June.

"One thing that would give immediate support for decision-making is understanding the scope and nature of losses from disasters. Very few countries today systematically invest in disaster loss accounting. For effective decision-making, you need to know what is the measure of the impact of a particular disaster on my country.

"Decision making and budgeting needs clear information. Lawmakers can help establish systematic disaster loss accounting. Knowing what is lost, when and where, will help identify priorities to protect development investments and the achievement of development goals," she said, urging them to pass laws mandating the establishment of disaster loss accounting.

With support from legislators who are also members of UNISDR's Parliamentarian Advisory Group for Disaster Risk Reduction, the newly agreed Protocol includes a commitment to mainstream disaster risk reduction into policy making.

In 2010, UNISDR worked with a group of parliamentarians on key messages to assist lawmakers to understand the links between disasters, disaster risk reduction and development, producing an advocacy kit for legislators to use when promoting the integration of disaster risk reduction in national development planning. This was framed to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Saber Chowdhury, a founder member of UNISDR's Parliamentarian Advisory Group for Disaster Risk Reduction, articulated those messages with his peers at the World Summit of Legislators yesterday, at a session on climate change and disaster risk reduction where several delegates shared experiences on existing legislation and what were perceived as shortcomings in this field.

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=24577

Australia, Germany, UK raise bar for donors, says report

By David Singh

GENEVA, 16 April 2012 - A new report on humanitarian responses states that "If other donors were to follow the lead being set by Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, it could mean a turning point in transforming the humanitarian system from a reactive, response-driven model, to a proactive, preventive and anticipatory model."

The 2011 Humanitarian Response Index (HRI) by Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA) which is based on research carried out on 23 of the world's main donor governments and nine major crises, highlights that Australia and Germany are becoming increasingly engaged in supporting disaster risk reduction (DRR) and preparedness efforts, with a focus on capacity-building at the local level as an integrated part of their humanitarian assistance.

The HRI further highlights that the United Kingdom also has a revised humanitarian strategy which is now centred on how aid efforts, including development aid, can contribute to building resilience and anticipating future needs.

The report underscores however, that "DRR and prevention have been relegated to a grey area where no one takes ownership and leadership."

According to the HRI, its findings confirm what previous reports have consistently revealed, "A persistent lack of political commitment and investment in capacity-building, conflict and disaster prevention, preparedness and risk reduction."

"Part of the problem", state the HRI, "is a narrow vision among donor governments of humanitarian assistance as emergency relief in the strictest sense, with everything else falling in the development assistance remit." The flip side is that "most development assistance programmes fail to see risk reduction and prevention as part of their mandate".

The HRI finds corroboration in another recent study - Disaster Risk Reduction: Spending where it should count by Jan Kellet and Dan Sparks - which estimates that less than one percent of all official government aid (ODA) - development or humanitarian assistance -- is allocated towards preparedness activities.

Read in detail about the document at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23615

MUST SEE ! 2011 earthquakes WORLDWIDE plotted and animated (with sound intensity) !

2/10/2012 -- MUST SEE ! 2011 earthquakes WORLDWIDE plotted and animated (with sound intensity) !

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