- Africa: Oilwatch network strengthened in Lagos

Oil is a big problem at the global level, where its use is resulting in climate change through the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At the same time oil is an even bigger immediate problem in the areas where it is extracted, particularly in the tropics. In these regions, oil exploration and exploitation impact heavily on local peoples, whose lives and livelihoods are destroyed though deforestation, forest degradation and coastal ecosystem destruction, all accompanied by widespread human rights violations and impoverishment.

Within that scenario, a very important meeting was held from 1-3 March in Lagos, Nigeria, convened by Oilwatch–Africa: the “Conference on Oil, Resource Conflicts and Livelihoods in Africa”. The meeting was attended by representatives of NGOs, academia, media and legislators from Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan, as well as from Latin America, North America and Europe. The WRM was present at the conference.

Asume Osuoka, coordinator of Oilwatch-Africa, opened the meeting expressing the symbolic importance of holding the conference in Nigeria, because Nigeria, more than any other country, presents the best example of the paradox of oil and gas. “While transnational companies go away with mega profits and the national government gets huge revenues from the sale of crude oil to the world markets”, he said, “the people of Nigeria are among the poorest in the world. Power generation and supply is woeful, as most Nigerians don't have access to electricity. Social infrastructures are fast collapsing even as the government makes over $20billion annually from the sale of oil. The lack of accountability and transparency in the management of oil and the distortions of the more productive sectors of the economy have led to mass impoverishment and frustration among the population.”

In words of Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Oilwatch-Africa and executive director of the Nigerian NGO Environmental Rights Action (ERA), “the announcement of oil discovery in any territory is comparable to the declaration of war against the territory.” He added that “oil destroys the environment, contaminates water and air and it also contaminates the social structure, destroys forests, destroys life and livelihoods and holds nothing sacred.”

The Lagos conference participants shared their experiences in the different countries represented at the meeting, all of them adding to the broad picture painted above. They also shared their willingness to resist against oil expansion, creating alliances within and outside the continent.

Participants also identified the additional problem resulting from the growing militarization of the Gulf of Guinea by the United States and some European countries –particularly France- “fuelled by their desire to control African oil and gas resources, including their plans to establish military bases in Sao Tome and other African countries”, adding that “the expanded military cooperation with pseudo democratic regimes in Africa constitutes a grave and worrying threat and indeed a declaration of war on the region.”

To address the above, the conference called “on civil society groups on the continent and like minded groups abroad to strongly condemn this latent American and European aggression in Africa and use all means necessary to assure their complete withdrawal from the region.”

Additionally, participants demanded “a moratorium on exploration and development of new oil and gas fields on the continent as a short term measure, and that efforts should be made to develop alternative energy sources and the long term ban on fossil fuel exploitation.”

Most importantly, the meeting resulted in a strengthened Oilwatch-Africa, which will now have an even stronger voice against the reckless activities of transnational oil and gas companies. As Esperanza Martinez from the Oilwatch International Secretariat said: “Resisting, organizing and struggling is the only way for people and humanity to survive. Sharing experiences and coordinating actions is the best way for achieving that goal. This is what this meeting was about and the active participation of all have made this conference a big success.”

The final declaration of the conference is available at: http://www.wrm.org.uy/deforestation/oil/OilwatchAfrica.html

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- Burundi : Forest conservation against the people

With an area of 27,834 sq km, landlocked Burundi is a battleground between the Rwandan army and militia from the Congo, and is plagued by a protracted civil war, which has claimed the lives of thousands of Burundi civilians.

The over 5 million Burundi population is unevenly distributed geographically, with large populations displaced by economic crisis and war, forced to change their livelihoods.

In a country with a long term legacy of colonial rule by successive Dutch and Belgian colonization --added to pre-colonial divisions and problems between landlords and communal farmers-- lack of access to land has been a major cause of deforestation. The forests, once extensive, today account for some 9% of total land area.

Without addressing the real root causes, accepting the destruction as a fait accompli , the government of Burundi has recently banned a group of farmers of the province of Cibitoke from accessing the Kibira Forest natural reserve, a mountain forest covering 40,000 ha, on the grounds that farming had led to the forest's destruction so much that the area “could turn into a desert”. This is the typical approach pushed by global capital with interests in biotech prospection and tourism, which seeks to establish forest reserves and national parks devoid of people, like stranded isles in the middle of a context of devastation.

"In [the northern province of] Kirundo people are dying because of food shortage; we are worried that the government will not allow us to harvest our crops in the Masango Zone yet it has not been able to feed all people starving in Kirundo," Michel Niyonsaba, 44, the farmers' representative, said.

He added that recent heavy rains had destroyed their homes and some of the crops yet the government had not provided them help. The severe food shortage that haunts northern Burundi affects more than half a million people and has even caused people to die. Declining rainfall is one of the major reasons for it.

The ban affects all farming activities in the Mirundi Zone of Bukinanyana Commune. President Niyindereye said the local administration would also stop farming in the Ruhororo Zone of Mabayi Commune, especially on the border with Rwanda and the natural forest of Nyungwe.

Protesting the cultivation ban, the farmers said the lands they had been cultivating had been given to their forefathers in 1954. They said they were expelled from the reserve in 1980, when the country's national parks were delineated.

"I was thirteen when we were ousted," Niyonsaba said. Since then, he said, they had often attempted to return to the lands in the fertile forest but always faced official resistance.

An official of the Institut National de la Conservation de l' Environnement et de la Nature (INCEN) said most of the forest destruction in the area began in late 2004 after the governor, who has since been dismissed, distributed forestland to farmers living nearby. According to the official, the ban was imposed when many of the farmers had not yet planted their seeds.

Part of the forest had also been destroyed over the course of Burundi's decade-long civil war when security forces allowed people living around the road passing through the forests to clear the bushes where rebels were suspected to be hiding.

In a long line of responsible agents of unfair development, the ultimate victims are the weakest link in the chain and they are left to their fate.

Article based on information from: “Burundi: Farmers decry eviction from forest reserve”, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45447

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- Nigeria : “We thought it was oil but it was blood” (N.Bassey)

Nigeria holds the largest mangrove forest area in Africa, most of which is found in the Niger Delta, where 11,700 square kilometers of swamp forests host several unique plant and animal species.

However, that invaluable wealth is being jeopardized by oil business controlled by transnationals such as Shell, Agip, Mobil, Texaco and Chevron. Those companies have contributed not only to the destruction of the forests but to the exploitation and human rights violations of local communities, spreading conflicts and death (see WRM Bulletin Nº 56).

One recent tragedy affected the Odioma community in Brass local government area of Rivers State. As always in the Niger Delta, the problem began with oil exploration and can be traced to 1998, when Shell discovered oil at Owukubu , a swampland adjoining the community. Ownership of the area had been a motive of local dispute between Odioma and Obioku communities, and had not been resolved when Shell started drilling operations in the area in January 2005.

The Odioma community was shocked and angered when Shell started the drilling of oil wells and a flow station designated as Toru-9 flow station. They went in huge number to the area demanding Shell to stop work until they were properly consulted and accorded due recognition as the owners of Owukubu . The youths of Odioma occupied the work site, and were only made to leave after the intervention of military personnel from a nearby community.

In no time, the communal crisis snowballed into unspeakable fatalities. A delegation of rival claimants to the compensation, reportedly going to Brass on a peace mission, was allegedly ambushed and attacked in the water-ways by leaders from Odioma. Twelve persons were said to have been killed.

In response, a Joint Task Force [JTF] of Nigerian Army and Navy officers invaded Odioma on January 19. Reports say they are acting not only as an “army of occupation” but also as soldiers of “operation wipe out.” As with previous operations of this type, a substantial number of the houses were set ablaze by the invading soldiers and over 1500 persons were killed, in addition to hundreds of others who were injured and about 3000 others who are held hostage by soldiers, according to Philemon Dickson, Odioma community spokesperson. The rest have been displaced, having fled into the mangrove forest and other towns.

“When the soldiers arrived at the community yesterday with their gunboats, our people thought they came for peace, and so no one raised any dust. Our chiefs gathered immediately at the palace of the Amanyanabo to await the soldiers to explain their mission, but the next thing that happened was shooting, shooting, shooting…. firing and firing. The soldiers were shooting at everyone, and started burning houses at the waterside”, said Dickson.

Community members that escaped reported that the soldiers are presently combing the forest bordering Odioma in search of persons who are taking refuge there, being further driven into the swamps and creeks, which in most cases are infested with mosquitoes and are rather inhabitable. More deaths are likely to happen not only from the bullets of the guns of soldiers but from starvation and diseases.

Meanwhile, Shell, whose operation at Owukubu is the cause of the conflict in the area, has kept mute.

As Nnimmo Bassey's strong poem says: “Dried tear bags/ polluted streams/ things are real/ when found in dreams/ we see their Shells/ behind military shields/ evil, horrible, gallows called oilrigs/ drilling our souls./ We thought it was oil/ but it was blood.”

Article based on information from: “The Odioma Tragedy”, This Day, http://allafrica.com/stories/200503030172.html ; “Briefings on the Odioma genocide 2”, Ogele Club, http://www.unitedijawstates.com/ogele.htm ; “Again, genocide in the Niger Delta”, http://www.unitedijawstates.com/odioma.htm#odioma

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- South Africa: Civil society networking to channel environmental concerns and actions

A meeting of the Mpumalanga Civil Society was held on 5 March, 2005, in a barn at Tim Brewer's trout farm, Katrinasrus , near Machadodorp . This somewhat out-of-the-way venue provided most of the participants with an opportunity to explore roads less travelled . About 50 people attended, some from as far afield as Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal.

Convened by Philip Owen of Geasphere , the meeting “aimed to allow diverse organizations to share knowledge and gain insight into... common ground and explore ways of... networking more effectively”. Facilitated by Rob Clanahan , speakers covered wildly diverse subjects ranging from “saving the endangered vervet ” to the harrowing account of the plight of people living above the still burning abandoned coal fields near Witbank . This concern was raised from the floor by Doctor Maseko of the Buhle Bemvelo Environmental Group. More information or offers of assistance should be addressed to docmaseko@hotmail.com .

Tony Ferrar introduced the Mpumalanga Biodiversity Conservation Plan, and Philip Owen discussed the threat to our vanishing grasslands of ever expanding commercial tree plantations. He pointed out that less than 3% of our grasslands are protected; that grasslands on average are composed of some 4000 species of plants, of which only 11% are actual grasses, the remainder made up of forbs, bulbs and so on.

Wally Menne from Durban, chairman of TimberWatch , spoke on the dubiousness of carbon sequestration by means of commercial tree plantations. He pointed out that the plantations are only a carbon sink for roughly twelve years, and that environmental degradation associated with monoculture tree farming far outweighed any benefit from carbon absorption.

George Dor , General Secretary of Jubilee SA and member of the Environmental Justice Networking Forum, talked on Ecological Debt. The plight of a community of Ga-Pila , removed by Anglo Platinum and inadequately recompensed, was used as an example of an unpaid ecological debt. His group strives for recompense of similar injustices by major corporations.

The latter part of the meeting explored ways of linking up the organizations present to enable a sharing of knowledge and resources. Besides creating a database available to all that will include contact details and a short summary of the activities of each organization; an environmental action hotline was also created. This hotline will enable people to ask questions and raise issues and then be referred to individuals / organizations on the database that could best assist with an environmental problem.

The meeting represents an effort to start mobilizing the local environmentalists and organizations into a more effective and interlinked group in society able to support each others causes and share resources. It is hoped and expected that similar future events will continue to build on the momentum that was created to find more ways to achieve higher levels of communication and co-operation.

By Philip Owen, Geasphere, E-mail: owen@soft.co.za . For more information contact wac@geasphere.co.za