UN backs open border policy to tackle African drought
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E-mail Xinhua, March 1, 2012
The United Nations Environmental Program(UNEP) has said the Horn of Africa requires an "open borders" policy to decisively deal with the forced movement of pastoralists escaping the effects of climate change.
Peter Gilruth, director of the Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DESA), said enhancing the cross-border movement of pastoralists and their livestock was a better way of dealing with "climate refugees" than restricting movement.
"The governments of the region have to find solutions," Gilruth told Xinhua in a recent interview. "Life is quite hard but it would be harder if you reduce population mobility."
Gilruth, part of a team of 22 scientists who have rated the food crisis in the Horn of Africa region as the world's third biggest environmental challenge, said effectively managing food supplies and livestock was also of key importance.
"You are likely to create more problems trying to prevent the populations from accessing the resources and especially from populations that are resource-scarce," Gilruth said.
UNEP executives believe the drought in northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti, which ignites mass cross-border movements, is a natural disaster, but that the hunger and starvation that comes with it is a man-made crisis.
"The pastoralists have to change their patterns of livelihood and learn to sell their livestock. They should also learn to sell off harvests during excess crop production. This is not culturally their practice, but it can provide a solution," Gilruth said.
He said the Masaai livestock farmers and their Rendille counterparts in northeastern Kenya should be assisted to make regular livestock sales to avoid massive herd losses.
Studies by the Nairobi-based institution showed pressure on land has been increasing in recent years. In recent reports examining the state of the world's environment, UNEP warns that land degradation and deforestation inflict a bigger economic burden on the world than the effects of the 2008 financial crisis.
Gilruth said as representatives from around the world prepare to meet in June (at the Rio+20 conference) to discuss the subject of sustainable development, striking a balance between social, economic and environmental issues was all the more necessary to reduce risks to forests.
Earlier, Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, said it was still too early to declare the end of an era among the region's pastoralist communities.
The United Nations declared an official end to the famine in Somalia in early February, but called for sustained aid to consolidate humanitarian gains since millions still remain in crisis.
"There is no doubt there are differing views on the effects of climate change. I can see the impact it is having on the land and livelihoods," Amos, a former British minister, told Xinhua, after a recent tour of the African humanitarian hotspots.
Amos said her consultations with the elders of pastoralist communities in Ethiopia, showed a new demand for more sustainable livelihoods.
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