They also strongly denounced land grabbing in the region and demanded equity and justice principles at the United Nations Conference (UN) on Sustainable Development (also called Rio+20), which will take place in June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

These are some of the main issues addressed in a declaration signed by Friends of the Earth (present in almost 80 countries) Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda, who met in May 9-12 in Accra, capital city of Ghana.

The environmentalist groups called the African population in general to support their struggle in defense of the popular demands “for true and participatory democracy on the continent with full respect of human rights and social equity”. “We condemn in the strongest terms the military and foreign intervention and destruction of democratic structures in Africa”, reads the declaration.

The members of Friends of the Earth demand the respect to the right to land in the continent and highlighted their claim for food and energy sovereignty. Along these lines, they demanded the region to abandon the use of fossil fuels as energy sources, and a shift towards renewable sources such as solar and wind power.

The African environmental activists, worried about the green economy agenda that several corporations and governments are promoting towards Rio+20, demanded equity and justice principles at that UN Summit. This conference should ensure a “sustainable development framework that delivers social and economic justice as well as environmental protection”, reads the declaration. “The Rio +20 Summit must look at fundamental problems but not the greening of the existing economic system which is not sustainable”, it adds. Green economy causes an increase of poverty through the promotion of “resource grabbing, (…) false solutions to environmental crisis, blocking genuine solutions” and promoting “market environmentalism or commodification of nature”, they state.

The declaration also states that green economy is a “cover” to “introduce harmful technology” and does not provide an agenda to “move away from fossil fuels” and reduce emissions.

The environmentalist groups took advantage of the opportunity to criticize the results of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Convention that took place in Durban, South Africa, in December. They particularly questioned the promotion of "false solutions" in this multilateral framework and the fact that developed countries are not committing to reduce their emissions, which is serious for Africa, the continent most threatened by the climate crisis.

The organizations of Friends of the Earth Africa state that climate change, the push for natural resources of the region, the gas and oil extraction, land grabbing, forest and biodiversity degradation and the imposition of genetically modified food are some of the main challenges faced by the continent.

“We call on African governments and institutions to reject and take steps to halt the cancer of land grabbing and corporate control of Africa’s natural resources”, reads the declaration, while also rejecting the use of arable lands and food crops for agrofuels and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation mechanism (REDD). The environmentalists closed the declaration calling all African people to “join hands to mobilize, resist and work for the transformation of our societies and the world”.

Photo: http://www.foei.org/