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- Convenors:
-
Hauke-Peter Vehrs
(University of Cologne)
Lamine Doumbia (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Katrin Sowa (University of Cologne)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Climate change
- Location:
- Room 1224
- Sessions:
- Friday 10 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
Climate activism is a global phenomenon that motivates citizens in many African countries to campaign for a climate-friendly future. However, challenges for African activists can differ from the general trend, as climate concerns remain contested and compete with a myriad of other future visions.
Long Abstract:
The Fridays for Future Movement has become a global movement of climate activism with enormous outreach. Activities accumulate majorly in Europe and northern America (https://fridaysforfuture.org/action-map/map/). However, on the African continent, climate activism is also gaining momentum. The continent’s activism hotspot is East Africa, especially Uganda and Kenya, where more than half of the activities take place. But also Yacouba Sawadogo from Burkina Faso, winner of the UN Champions of the Earth Award 2020, is one of numerous people who apply indigenous knowledge in the fight against desertification. Furthermore, new pan-African alliances are formed: the research network ‘Future Climate for Africa’ brings together African scientists to address the major challenges of the continent in the context of climate change studies.
Yet, facing the climate crisis and reaching out to the public and to national decision makers remains a political, bureaucratic and practical challenge. African activists face situations that differ from contexts in the “Global North”, where school or hunger strikes are used as lever for climate goals by the privileged. Moreover, many African governments outline economic development and the expansion of large infrastructure projects in their future vision agendas. However, the question how this can be achieved with climate compatibility often remains intangible. Overall, sustainability and global climate change are contested discourses in the midst of national, regional and neo-colonial future prospects for the continent, in the nexus of scientific and public knowledges, local perspectives, and climate activism.
The panel invites both activists and researchers on activism to share their experiences and insights of the global and local organisation of climate activism in Africa, who address how actors deal with contestations of climate change knowledge and the implementation of mitigation strategies on the ground. What are challenges and repercussions, but also success stories of climate activism on the African continent?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 10 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
Climate change is sadly approached as a discourse rather than a reality that local communities must endure. This disconnect often contribute to less action with regard to support for adaptation and mitigation. The paper shows how real images of climate change in Kenya could be used to invoke action.
Paper long abstract:
The last few decades have witnessed numerous discussions and overwhelming literature on climate change. Despite this attention, climate change is still approached as a discourse rather than a reality that local communities are enduring. The disconnect between the discourse and the reality of climate change often contributes to less action with regard to adaptation and mitigation, particularly in the global south. This paper explores a new approach in activism, which is based on showcasing the real images of the impacts of climate change on local communities as a means to invoke global compassion and action. The paper utilizes visual methods, including videography and photovoice to present and discuss the experiences of the victims of climate change at the community level in Kenya. We argue that action on climate change can only come from "deep within" concerned actors.
Paper long abstract:
The quest for natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to attract foreign investments, with an unprecedented enthusiasm in agriculture, mining, and forestry sectors. With 60% (nearly 160 million hectares) of national territory covered by the forests and natural reserves, the DRC is part of the Congo Bassin (second largest tropical forest of the planet), with a very rich biodiversity. However, the DRC finds itself in a difficult situation in the wake of Chinese and Russians rush for investments with the country so far having no clear national strategy to absorb this pressure from multinational companies on the one hand and local communities in need for arable lands on the other. In addition, an ambiguous legal framework which pits mining and forestry land laws has led to a disastrous competition for forests and land by foreign investors. For example, the 2011 Agricultural Law requires that all agricultural enterprises must be majority-owned by the Congolese state or by Congolese entrepreneurs although the state through the 2012 mining law has mining prevailing over the Agricultural Law. This leads to more investments in forestry and mining when compared to agriculture.
In illustrating the impact of Chinese investments on farmers' rights to access land, this paper will focus on Sombwe hydropower dam which has been under construction since 2019. The project is being undertaken by the Kipay company, funded by the Chinese, inside the Upemba National Park. With a capacity of 150MV the dam is located between two parks: Upemba, with an area of 11,739 km2 and Kundelungu (7600km2) and is a source of tensions involving local communities, the Kipay company, civil society organizations and the Congolese government. This paper interrogates the motivations behind the exploitation of forests and its impact on the rights of peasants who depend on agriculture, mostly around national parks. It contributes to growing debates on the role of investments (especially Chinese) in African economies and also broadens our understanding on struggles over land at a local level.
Paper short abstract:
Il s'agit dans cette communication de revenir sur les impacts négatifs des changements climatiques sur les conflits locaux et de saisir les initiatives des communautés dans la prévention et la gestion des conflits liés aux changements climatiques.
Paper long abstract:
La dégradation du tissu sécuritaire et social au Mali qui a commencé d’abord par les régions dites du Nord (Gao, Tombouctou et Kidal), puis progressivement celles du Centre (Mopti et Ségou) et une partie du Sud (Koulikoro et Sikasso) avec une présence combinée des acteurs de la violence qui sont, entre autres, des groupes terroristes, des groupes armés non étatiques signataires et non signataires de l’Accord pour la paix et la réconciliation, des trafiquants de stupéfiants, des passeurs ( migration clandestine) et des groupes d’autodéfense d’audience communautaire . Cette situation sécuritaire délétère a aggravé la vulnérabilité de certaines couches sociales au premier rang desquelles viennent les femmes et les enfants parfois abandonnés. Il convient de souligner que les localités en proie aux attaques terroristes subissent des problèmes sécuritaires à des degrés certes différents par moments et par endroits.
La lutte pour l’accès et la gestion des ressources naturelles, les effets négatifs des changements climatiques, la problématique de l’accès à une justice équitable, l’affaiblissement de la légitimité de certaines autorités institutionnelles et coutumières et la faible qualité de services sociaux de base délivrés, constituent autant des griefs observables dans ces localités conflictuelles.
D’ailleurs, les facteurs évoqués sous-tendent aussi la recrudescence des conflits et des tensions entre les communautés, notamment les agriculteurs, les agro-pasteurs, les pasteurs, les pêcheurs ainsi que tous les autres exploitants des ressources naturelles.
des initiatives sont proposées par les communautés mais lesquelles initiatives souffrent à certains égards, de légitimité, de crédibilité et d'efficacité. Il s'agit pour cette communication, d'interroger ces initiatives locales et de saisir les raisons de leur succès et échec dans la prévention et la gestion des conflits en lien aux changements climatiques.
Paper short abstract:
This paper showcases how public national governments concentrate on implementing large scale economic and infrastructural development and at the same time face the challenges of considering climate, environmental and housing compatibilities.
Paper long abstract:
This paper aims to illustrate empirically how climate and environment-related activism and land governance protests are entangled in similar social dynamics on the ground. In the industrial zone of Burkina Faso’s capital city Ouagadougou, the residents of the village of Polsogo are affected by the expansion of the CIMFASO and CIM Burkina cement factories and the CIM Metal steelworks. After local protests, the legal action started in 2007, and Mouvement de Solidarité Pour le Droit au Logement (MSP-DRO.L) took over the case of the residents, who were supposed to be relocated in 2014. With regard to the environmental injustices from the noise and dust produced by the three factories, these affect mostly agro-pastoralist Fulani people who settle in the area for many generations based on a tacit agreement with the Mossi people who constitute the population majority in this area. The case concerns the historical processes of settlement and social organization among pastoral and farming communities, the inbound investment of processing industries and hitherto emerging environmental injustices affecting certain residential groups.
At the bottom of the line, this study showcases how public national governments concentrate on implementing large scale economic and infrastructural development and at the same time face the challenges of considering climate and housing compatibilities. The dissatisfaction and selective discrimination inherent to the developments described furthermore give rise to protest movements. These are mainly anchored in the local context, but relate strongly to issues that equally feature in the struggle of the more globally-oriented fight of climate activists.