Past studies have revealed that agriculture is the dominant sector of the economy representing 40% of the GDP and sustaining two-thirds of the population. However, despite its abundant arable land, the country has yet to reach autonomy in rice which is the country’s main staple food.

Recent observations in Sierra Leone have reported noticeable rainfall variability, especially in the northern regions, which adversely impacts water resources and agricultural yields. So it is pertinent to state that the risks on food security of strictly rain-fed rice cultivation cannot be overlooked.

Fish accounts for about 75% of total animal protein intake for the supply of which Sierra Leone heavily relies on its marine resources. With climate change, ocean warming will modify ocean currents with possible impacts on coastal marine fisheries.

According to the published report of the Initial National Communication on climate change, Sierra Leone is vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events.

Presently, the Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment Report and the Climate Variability Report of the NAPA Project has clearly indicated that Sierra Leone is experiencing a variety of climatic hazards which include seasonal drought, strong winds, thunderstorms, landslides, heat waves, floods, intense seasonal rain fall, shifting rainfall patterns amongst others.

In some parts of the country, notably the north and south-eastern provinces of Gbondapi in Pujehun, as well as in the Freetown area, poor communities have suffered from floods and seasonal drought which have destroyed their crops and hampered their food production capabilities.

Shifting rainfall patterns recently caused water shortage in Freetown and its environs. The changes in rainfall and temperature patterns have been causing current cropping patterns to become unsuitable to emerging climate conditions.

Livestock is already experiencing greater stress due to the above climatic variability and pest and disease outbreaks are becoming more pronounced.

These changes have adversely affected the ability of the rural poor to maintain their existing livelihoods and have limited the ability of Sierra Leone to maintain export earnings and pay for the importation of food.

Inadequate staff and poor facilities for weather forecasting and related activities have undermined the ability of the meteorological department to provide adequate support information to other sectors of the economy so that they can better adapt to the impact of climate change.

In assessing the vulnerability and impact of climate change on the agriculture and food security sector in Sierra Leone, it has become clear that three key areas could be affected negatively
(i)                  Land Management,
(ii)                 Crops and Livestock Husbandry and
(iii) Socio-economic Aspects of Agricultural Production.

The vulnerability of the water resources sector to climate change has been assessed in the Vulnerability and Adaptation Report contained in Sierra Leone’s First National Communications on Climate Change.

An increase in rainfall could lead to an increase in surface runoff, resulting in flooding. On the other hand a decrease in the amount and intensity of rainfall may lead to drought.

However, the implementation of urgent and immediate activities for the achievement of set out targets is paramount to the reduction of deforestation, erosion and soil infertility that affects food production.

Shifting rainfall patterns have also been observed to have caused disruptions of planting seasons resulting in diminished agricultural production and poverty amongst farmers in particular.

However, as plans are in place to improve on the quality of fisheries-related data and research for better understanding of the different types of ecosystems and to develop irrigation and drainage systems for agricultural production in the Bombali District of Sierra Leone, for example, where frequent dry spells are experienced, we anticipate that these measures will have a cushioning effect on the worsening food production process in the country.

As the UN holds the summit on climate change in November, it is expedient to focus attention on those significant trifles on how the likely effect of climate change on food security would be reduced drastically for common people not to feel the brunt. The focus should extend to various clues – no matter how minute they might seem – that poor governments in under-developed countries could adopt to tackle the menace of the change in climatic condition.

The floods are also reported to have destroyed several properties including homes and washing away roads thereby, displacing thousands of people.

According to Mr. Portuphy, his outfit in a search and rescue operation in the Greater Accra region during the rains on Sunday retrieved eleven bodies with two of them found trapped in the Ashaiman tunnel underneath the expressway that links Accra and Tema.

Twelve of the dead are said to be recorded in the Central region with ten casualties recorded in Agona Kwanyako Township alone. The Volta Region was also said to have recorded one casualty.

The dead according to Mr. Portuphy had been retrieved and deposited at the morgues, adding that his outfit (NADMO) would convey an emergency meeting after which relief items would be allocated to the displaced persons and victims of the floods.

AFP reports that among those killed were four children aged between three (3) and twelve (12) years.

Several others are also feared missing according to officials of the Ghana Police Service who have intensified their search and rescue operation with their counterparts from NADMO.

“We have heard several reports from the affected areas of people missing,” Reuters quoted Police Spokeswoman, Olivia Turkson saying.

According to eyewitnesses some residents in Ashaiman and Agona Kwanyako were trapped on their roof tops while others too climbed trees together with their animals as the rains flooded their rooms and kraals.

According to Adom fm report, a lactating mother who had seen her baby goes to bed later found the baby floating in water when she realized the level of the flood had reached her chest.

Many rivers have burst their banks and have taken over communities in some parts of the country. Eye witnesses say, Sunday’s rain was one of the worst in history to have hit the southern parts of the country.

City authorities have attributed much of the urban flooding to illegal structures built on waterways and failure to dessilt gutters and other drainage systems.

Prior to the start of the rains some two months ago, city authorities in Accra, Ashaiman and Tema have embarked on demolishing exercises of buildings in unauthorized areas believed to be situated along waterways but their actions were greeted with ill feelings among the affected people who claimed to have stayed in those areas for several years without being affected by floods.

The severity of Sunday’s rain has left many people off the hook as to whether the actions of the Tema, Ashaiman and the Accra Metropolitan Assemblies were justified or not.

Mr. Kempes Ofosuware however on Adomfm said the demolition exercise embarked upon by the TMA will continue unabated.

In September 2007, flooding from torrential rains devastated large areas of the Northern parts of the country leading to a humanitarian crisis. As a result of the rains, thousands of people were left vulnerable to waterborne diseases whilst food shortages became a topical issue. The Upper East Region was the worst affected by the rains killing at least 20 people and displacing over 90,000 people. Nearly, 20,000 homes were destroyed, according to UN reports.

The meteorological Services Agency is yet to give details of the volume of the Sunday’s rains.

Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Food Population Fund (UNFPA), said women in the Philippines are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country.

“Climate change could reduce income from farming and fishing, possibly driving some women into sex work and thereby increase HIV infection,” Mukherjee said during the Wednesday launch of the UNFPA annual State of World Population Report in Pasay City.

In the Philippines, small brothels usually pop up near the coastal areas where many women perform sexual services for transient seafarers. Often, these prostitutes are ferried to bigger ships by their pimps.

Based on the UNFPA report, there are 92 million Filipinos in the country as of 2009 and that number is expected to balloon to more than 146 million in the next 40 years.

Of the 92 million Filipinos, about 60 percent are living in coastal areas and depend on the seas for livelihood, said former Environment secretary Dr. Angel Alcala.

Alcala said that “we have already exceeded the carrying capacity of our marine environment.”

But as the sea’s resources are depleted due to overpopulation and overfishing, fishermen start losing their livelihood and women are forced to share the traditional role of the man in providing for the family.

Alacala, who also heads the Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management in Siliman University, said some women often pick out shellfish by the coastlines, which exposed to storm surges.

Women who can no longer endure this work often go out to find other jobs, while some are tempted to go into prostitution, Alcala added.

In an interview with the Inter Press News Agency, Marita Rodriguez of the Centre for Empowerment and Resource Development, Inc. said women are taking the brunt of climate change.

“Aside from their household chores and participation in fishing activity, they have to find additional sources of income like working as domestic helpers in affluent families,” she said.

The UNFPA noted that the temperature in the earth’s surface has risen 0.74 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years. The 10 warmest years globally since 1880 have also been recorded in the last 13 years.

“Slower population growth, for example, would help build social resilience to climate change’s impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas-emissions in the future,” the UNFPA report said.

The UNFPA suggested five measures to mitigate climate change and overpopulation:

• Bring a better understanding of population dynamics, gender and reproductive health to climate change and environmental discussions at all levels;
• Fully fund family planning services and contraceptive supplies within the framework of reproductive health and rights, and assure that low income is no barrier to access;
• Prioritize research and date collection to improve the understanding of gender and population dynamics in climate change mitigation and adaptation;
• Improve sex-disaggregation of date related to migration flows that are influenced by environmental factors and prepare now for increases in population movements resulting from climate change; and
• Integrate gender considerations into global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Original story posted here.

A last-minute agreement brokered by US President Barack Obama during the closing hours of the climate summit here Friday does not provide enough financing for poor countries that stand to suffer the most from the negative impact of climate change, an expert Filipina negotiator said. “The Copenhagen Accord is damaging to poor countries,” Filipina expert negotiator says.

“It is damaging to the interests of developing nations,” said Bernarditas Castro-Muller, a retired Filipina diplomat who serves as the coordinator for G-77 and China, the largest negotiating bloc of developing nations in the talks.

She said the agreement did not put in place the proper financing and technology transfer arrangements that would allow poor countries to adapt to climate change.

The informal Copenhagen Accord, which did not go through the normal negotiating procedures of the United Nations-sponsored conference, states: “The collective commitment by developed countries is to provide new and additional resources amounting to 30 billion dollars for the period 2010 – 2012 with balance allocation between adaptation and mitigation, including forestry and new and additional investments through international institutions.”

Priority for the funds would be “the most vulnerable developing countries, such as the least developed countries, small island developing states and countries in Africa.”

Specific pledges to the fund so far are $10.6 billion from the European community, $11 billion from Japan, and $3.6 billion from the United States, according to the document.

The agreement also set a goal of $100 billion in funding “from a wide variety of sources” by 2020 to provide the needs of developing countries, but Muller said most of these would come from loans and does not address the need to “pay the climate debt” of rich nations that have polluted the atmosphere for many generations.

While recognizing the scientific view that increases in global temperature should not go beyond 2 degrees Celsius to avert dangerous climate change, the agreement did not specify any targets for emission reductions from any country. Instead, it simply states, “We should cooperate in achieving the peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible.”

Muller assailed the manner by which world leaders produced the agreement, saying “it’s the result of a non-transparent process.”

Negotiators from 192 countries have been working for two years to produce an agreement beyond 2012, when the first period of binding targets on emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol expires. However, there were still many sticking points by the time world leaders flew into Copenhagen for the high-level segment of the talks this week.

One of the few carbon-cutting measures in the agreement is the support for “positive incentives” on actions for a mechanism known as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in developing countries.

The agreement included a table of voluntary mitigation pledges from 11 countries that do not have binding targets under the Kyoto protocol including the Philippines, which committed to reduce emissions by 5 per cent but did not indicate any time frame.

(With a report from Pia Faustino, GMANews.TV)

The IIJ invited journalists from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia to the UN Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Copenhagen. Please find their features within this blog (UNCCC09, see Topics in the navigation bar on the top left). More information can be obtained at http://unfccc.int

World leaders may have given up on saving the planet from climate change here at the UN talks at Copenhagen. Instead, they are negotiating a declaration which could be aimed at saving face.

Leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have delayed their departure from Copenhagen on Friday evening when the conference was scheduled to end. There are reports that the UN secretary general may have asked them to stay overnight.

It’s been apparent that there will be no legally-binding treaty or extension of the Kyoto Protocol here, but leaders are not even able to agree on a political declaration which would define what progress – if any – the world can take away from Copenhagen. With over 100 heads of state and government gathered here, they cannot afford to go home completely empty-handed.

However, the latest version of the declaration available at the time of going to print is being called a weak text, with few specifics pinning down commitments. It has no deadline for the finalisation of the negotiations. It also has no figures for emission reduction targets by developed nations by 2020, still using “x” and “y” to fill gaps in the text.

The language reflects the fundamental disagreements on the shape of a future global climate change regime. India has expressed disappointment, but pledged to work through the coming year for a better deal.

“The outcome may well fall short of expectations. Nevertheless, it can become a significant milestone,” said Dr. Singh. “I therefore support calls for subsequent negotiations towards building a truly global and genuinely collaborative response to climate change being concluded during 2010,” he added.

US-President Barack Obama warned against such a postponement of the talks. “These international discussions have essentially taken place now for almost two decades and we have very little to show for it other than an increase, an acceleration of the climate change phenomenon. The time for talk is over,” he said.

Despite the hype of over 100 heads of state at a single platform, their speeches on Friday morning failed to bring anything new to the table, merely reiterating the divide between rich and poor countries here.

The 192 nations represented here are trying to craft a global climate change regime that will reduce the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and help poor countries adapt to the impacts of climate change – droughts, floods and rising seas. They also need to aid the development and distribution of technology to reduce emissions and find the money to fund all this activity.

The talks have been hamstrung by rich nations insisting that large developing nations like India and China join a new legally binding treaty to cut emissions, while on the other side, developing countries are demanding that rich nations fulfil their legal obligations to reduce emissions and finance adaptation and tech transfer efforts in the first place.

Developing countries are not prepared to accept an “imperfect deal” that compromises the world’s only legal treaty to combat climate change – the Kyoto Protocol. “President Obama said it was time to act. And if we are to act, then I have to ask you – starting from now, please fulfil the Kyoto Protocol,” said Bolivia’s President Evo Morales.

“I would love to leave Copenhagen with the most perfect document in the world. I am not sure if some angel or wise man will come down to this plenary and put in our minds the intelligence that we lacked up until now. I don’t know if that’s going to be possible,” said Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

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World leaders are meeting on this morning to hammer out a declaration in the dying hours of the Copenhagen climate conference. On the table at the moment is a figure on the need for long-term funding for climate action in developing countries, but no clarity on who will provide the money and where it would come from. Leaders have also apparently agreed on short-term (fast-track) finance for the developing world. But heads of state and government have so far failed to agree on the crucial issues of emission reduction targets and how to verify these cuts.

Greenpeace International head of climate policy Martin Kaiser said: “Failure is staring us in the face in Copenhagen. Further empty promises from world leaders could make negotiations spiral towards a major fiasco. As world leaders get together this morning, it is obvious that the job is far from done, the climate is far from being saved. Negotiators have only repeated good intentions, but are not giving themselves the tools to keep their promises.”

With only low emission pledges and uncertainty over the legal form of a future agreement, Copenhagen would set the world on course for a 3 degrees Celsius or more increase in temperature which threatens the very existence of civilisation. “World leaders only have a few hours to turn this around and get the job done before it is too late.”

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Climate friendly agricultural systems are key to fighting global warming and ensuring adequate food humanity. James Harkness, President of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy said in a session on importance of agriculture in fighting climate change at the on going Copenhagen Climate change talks that agriculture as a sector can reduce its emissions and be a major sink to green house gases already in the atmosphere.

Experts attribute use of nitrogen fertilizer for production of crops like maize to increasing emissions. Livestock such as cows also emit tones of methane as well as manure derived from their dung during its decomposition. Carbon dioxide is equally emitted by farm machinery through use of fossil fuels.
“With carbon sequestration (low release of carbon into the atmosphere) and shift to low input (less use of fertilizers) agriculture systems we can improve the resiliency of our soils, water systems while reducing dependency on fossil fuels.” He called for enhancement of support for agriculture systems that are both adaptive and mitigative against climate change.

A bulk of farmers in poor nations of Asia and Africa are small scale farmers. Harkness faulted the approach of agriculture research institutions in these countries emphasizing that there is need to focus on indigenous technologies.

“Traditional and local knowledge should be supported in poor countries instead of inappropriate technologies developed and funded by the West being forced on farmers in the global south,” said Harkness.

He added that research and farmer education should aim at optimizing sustainable agriculture production and reduction of green house gas emissions and decried the lesser role played by poor countries in the Global Research Alliance on Agriculture and Green House Gas Emissions.

Dr. Urs Niggli, Director Research Institute of Organic Agriculture said organic farming is effective in managing, conserving biodiversity and curbing pollution and can easily be practiced by small-scale farmers.
He said research done by his institute indicated that organic farming can reduce global green house gas emissions by almost five percent.
“Currently, there is an initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (Department for Environment and Natural Resources) supported by leading organic research institutes to establish a new alliance of organic research institutes. The initiative is called Organic Research Centre Alliance (ORCA) and focuses on cooperation between research institutes in Africa, Asia and Latin America to intensify on-farm research on developing organic agro-ecological systems,” Niggli told Islam Online.
He said the initiative involves working with farmers on their farms and addressing solving specific problems facing them.
“I see a huge potential in that kind of research and it can be organised in a kind of snow-ball system as all these on-farm activities attract a lot of farmers and motivate them to do experiments on their farms as well,” he said.

Sceptics of organic farming voice concern over its ability to produce enough food to feed hunger stricken populations in poor nations.

Niggli who is also a World Board Member of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) said yields from organic farming can be increased through research initiatives that put functions of ecosystems at their core.
He firmly believes that rural poor communities can be empowered to practice sustainable farming and at the same produce enough to food. “The big chance of climate change – if we can talk about chances – is that the world leaders, the governments and international organisations and the public finally become aware of the multifunctionality of agriculture. Agriculture must deliver food, but as co-benefits, it also improves soil fertility, increases biodiversity in agricultural and semi/natural systems and habitats.”

Farmers he said can learn sustainable farming methods and sell food and other improved ecosystem services to the public.
“I see here especially a new added-value strategy for farmers in developing countries, and the international protocols on climate change have to lay the ground that sustainable but nonetheless productive farmers like organic farmers can profit from these opportunities,” he told Islam Online.

According to the World Agroforesty Centre (WAC), growing of trees in a billion hectares of farmland by intercropping them with crops has a potential of preventing 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere.
Adesina noted that in the on going Copenhagen talks, Africa must insist on a global carbon market which fully accounts for the environmental benefits of sound agricultural practices of smallholder farmers.
According to Adesina African farmers need access to the technologies that will enable them to grow more food and do so sustainable. His views are in tandem with those of Harkness. “The future of agriculture needs to be resilient against climate change.”

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The endgame at the climate change battle has begun. The best option for India and developing countries, it became clear on Tuesday, is to ensure that the industrialized countries are not able to set grounds to kill Kyoto and rewrite the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in future negotiations.

All hopes for even a substantial political agreement faded on Tuesday as industrialized countries refused to offer any commitments on mitigation, finance and technology. On Monday night and through Tuesday, several important G-77 countries, including India, held closed-door meetings to block any attempt by the host Danish government to parachute in a fresh and biased draft for the political statement before the heads of states arrive.

The BASIC countries – India, China, Brazil and South Africa – had extracted a commitment on Monday from the presidency of the formal talks, host Denmark, that it would not spring any surprise at the last moment on the developing countries. However, anticipating just such a move on Wednesday, the G-77 prepared grounds to reject any attempt by the industrialized countries to hijack the agenda of the climate talks.

A source in one of the important African countries in the G-77 group told TIMES OF INDIA that the salient points of what the Danes want to push through a new draft had been shared by the host country with select G-77 countries.

The formal UN negotiations have got practically stalled with industrialized and developing countries not budging on any key issues. The industrialized countries, fronted more and more by Australia now, want to kill the Kyoto Protocol, bring the domestic actions of developing countries under international scrutiny and force a disproportional future carbon budget for the emerging economies by asking for a peaking year.

The developing countries have refused to accept the key demands of the rich nations while asking for targets from them under Kyoto Protocol and hard figures for the amount of financial and technology support they will provide the poorer countries.

“The next 24 hours will decide,” as Yvo de Boer put it. Probably the only statement that everyone would agree on right now.

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South Africa has said that developed countries must commit to ambitious and legally binding carbon emission reduction targets of at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
In a statement issued by the Department of Environmental Affairs at the ongoing UN Climate change conference, South Africa said this was in accordance with the science and their historical responsibility for emissions.

“South Africa recognises that as a responsible global citizen, we want to take more action, not only because we have a responsibility for future generations, but also because the science tells us that we are very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. While we insist on the right to development, we will do everything within our capability to achieve our development and poverty eradication objectives in the most sustainable manner possible,” the statement read in part.

“Given our unique circumstances, we consider that sustainable development policies and measures, which are development-oriented actions that have the co-benefit of avoiding emissions, are particularly appropriate nationally appropriate mitigation actions. The eradication of poverty and dealing with the legacy of apartheid are fundamental national priorities which require that we have the space, time and resources to develop.”

South Africa noted that a positive outcome in Copenhagen was central to its ability to enhance action on climate change.

“The extent of the actions to be taken by South Africa, and other developing counties, will depend on the provision of support, from the international community for mitigation and adaptation actions, and in particular through finance, technology and support for capacity building from developed countries, in line with their commitments under both the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Bali Action Plan,” the statement read.

“It depends on us agreeing fair, ambitious and effective agreements in Copenhagen.”

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The Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mr. Meles Zenawi announced today that Africa was ready to accept a mitigation and adaptation fund portfolio between 50 and 100 billion USD. The fund would start 2013 to reach up to 50 billion dollars per annum by 2015 and 100billion USD per annum by 2020.

This new climate finance package represents 75 per cent cut from the continent’s original demand of 400 billion USD per annum from rich countries to help cope with climate change impacts.
Zenawi, who made this proposal on long term finance on behalf of the African delegation at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference, also asked for start-up fund of 10 billion USD per annum for the three years of 2010-2012 to be used to address urgent adaptation and mitigation tasks including forestry and to prepare plans for more ambitious programmes in the future.

This means that Africa hopes to receive 30 billion USD the next three years in adaptation and mitigation funds. While asking that 40 per cent of the start-up fund should be earmarked for Africa, he also requested that the fund allocated to Africa be administered by the African Development Bank under trustees composed of equal number of donor and recipient countries.

Making his presentation to a high-level segment of the conference that, Zenawi also proposed that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change should mandate a commission of political leaders and experts to review all such funding mechanisms and come up with a reliable system of funding and submit its report within six months.

Explaining the rationale behind the new proposal, Zelaya said, “I know my proposal today will disappoint those Africans who from the point of justice have asked for full compensation for the damage done to our development prospects. My proposal dramatically scales back our expectation with regards to the level of funding in return for more reliable funding and a seat at the table.”

His proposal, expectedly have drawn criticisms from climate change stakeholders who viewed African’s new demand as weak.
The Climate Finance Specialist Liz Gallagher describes this latest figure as disappointing. She added, “Such turn-around on the level of finance being asked for by Africa points to the influence of some of the big powers behind the scenes. To slash the figure from 400 billion USD to 100 billion USD is a high-risk strategy. On the one hand Africa could be showing its willingness to compromise; but on the other it is placing its trust in the Unites States and other developed countries to deliver on finance here in Copenhagen. These countries have failed to stump up vital cash up to this point, so whether this strategy is wise or naïve remains to be seen.

The European Union, however, has reiterated its commitment towards assisting the developing countries by announcing a 7.2 billion Euros contribution to the proposed fast start funding for three years, from 2010 to 2012.

The IIJ invited journalists from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia to the UN Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Copenhagen. Please find their features within this blog (UNCCC09, see Topics in the navigation bar on the top left). More information can be obtained at http://unfccc.int