Two months have passed since COP21 and one could ask himself how much has the world listened? On January 2016 Norway is still offering new Artic oil leases and on February 2016 Total announced it will be conducting seismic activities in Block III, while one-third of Block III is located inside Virunga National Park. 

Today more than ever is not the time to think of the future of the extractive industries, but the future of people and the planet!

African civil society asks that delegates consider an alternative set of questions and discussion points which, rather than paying ‘mere lip service’ to sustainability and international protocols, addresses the climate, social and ecological crises that the extractives industries are implicated in and consider a genuine transition away from fossil fuels.

The letter was delivered by hand by Nnimmo Bassey, a lifelong activist challenging big oil in the Niger Delta, during the 2015  Chatham House’s conference entitled ‘Extractive Industries in Africa’,

We, members of African civil society and our non-African allies, write to you to express our deep concerns regarding the conference on Extractive Industries in Africa taking place today in London[1].

At this event, which claims to critically consider the current and future role of extractive industries in Africa, we note with concern that mining corporations, government agencies, academics and large NGOs from the Global North are well represented. But where are the voices of affected African communities and civil society in this discussion?

With the exception of one civil society person from Kenya, members of African civil society and/or communities are entirely absent from your speakers list. The participation of African community members is effectively prevented by locating this conference outside of Africa and charging prohibitively expensive fees for attendance (£580 being the cheapest fee for non-member NGOs). It can only be hoped that this is not another Berlin Conference aimed this time at carving up the continent’s resources.

Local communities are most affected by extractive industries in Africa, which routinely disrupt and destroy their livelihoods, health, ecosystems and cultural coherence. To exclude their voices strips this event of all legitimacy.

At this time of multiple social and ecological crises, your conference asks the wrong questions and will only provide answers that miss the mark and risk worsening the social and environmental injustices perpetrated by the extractive industries and their allies in Africa.

Mere lip service is paid to sustainability and inclusivity, and to international protocols to reduce continued global reliance on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions.

Referring to your materials for the conference, which pose ‘key questions for the future of the industry’ we firmly believe the focus should be on:

• The societal, environmental and economic threats extractive industries pose to the future of the people and ecosystems of Africa and our shared climate, rather than on the so-called societal, environmental and economic pressures facing Africa’s extractive industries.
• How to prevent the devastating impacts of the extractive industries rather than misleading discussions about what immediate action is required to manage and mitigate the long-term impacts of future extraction.
• Finding radical alternatives to the failed resource extraction=growth=development equation, rather than seeking ways to plaster over the cracks of this failed and fundamentally flawed logic.
• At this time of climate crisis, when we know 2/3 of all fossil fuels must remain untouched to prevent runaway climate change, we ought to ask how we can take every necessary step to transition away from carbon-hungry extractive activities and the extraction of fossil fuels, not how we can promote both extractive industries and low-carbon development strategies.
• ‘New approaches to overcoming enduring challenges’ should not be concerned with aiding the already vastly wealthy extractive industries, but rather with moving beyond them to protect existing and promote future alternatives to creating genuine equality and prosperity in Africa, such as renewables and small-scale agroecological farming.

We call on Chatham House to show genuine leadership of thought to move beyond these tired and wasteful discussions and stop providing a safe space for extractive industries to take the stage and network unchallenged. The world’s scientific community has given us all the statistics we need; business as usual is simply not an option.

Now is not the time to think of the future of the extractive industries, but the future of people and the planet. If we do not, we will all share in the consequences.

We choose to stand for life.

Yours Sincerely,

Nnimmo Bassey, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria

Sheila Berry, Wilderness Action Group & Save Our iMfolozi Wilderness campaign, South Africa

 

Supported by:

The African Biodiversity Network, Kenya

Friends of the Earth Togo

GroundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa

Noble Wadzah , Oilwatch, Ghana

Kentebe Ebiaridor, Oilwatch Africa, Nigeria

Kamese N. Geoffrey, Denis Tabaro, Shillar Osinde & Frank Muramuzi for the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), Uganda

Priscilla M Achakpa, Women environmental programme, Nigeria

Kwami D Kpondzo, Young Christian Action for Development, Togo

Benson ATTAH, Community Emergency Response Initiative Nigeria

Kelvin Uever, Charles and Doosurgh Abaagu Foundation, Nigeria

Hilma Mote, Executive Director of Africa Labour Research and Education Institute (ALREI) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), Togo

The Mupo Foundation, South Africa

Anabela Lemos, Director of JA!FOE, Mozambique

Kofi Mawuli Klu, Global Justice Forum (GJF)

Adwoa Oforiwaa Adu for All-Afrikan Students’ Union Link in Europe (AASULE) at Sussex University, Brighton

Sumana Nandi for Students’ Action for Global Justice Internationalist Society (SAGJIS) at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

Simeon Stanford for Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE);

Kwame Adofo Sampong for the Trade Unions and the Pan-Afrikan Community Link (TUPACOL)

Olajumoke Sankofa for the Pan-Afrikan Community Educational Services (PACES)

Esther Stanford-Xosei for the Global Afrikan People’s Parliament, UK

Kwame Dede Akuamoah for the ASASEYAAMMA Pan-Afrikan Green Campaign for Global Justice

Bishop Geoff Davies for the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute

Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT)

London Mining Network, UK

Mining Watch Canada, Canada

The Gaia Foundation, UK

Friends of the Earth Africa

ICCA Consortium

Save Rosia Montana campaign, Romania

Mining Watch Romania

Snowchange Cooperative, Scandinavia

Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida – Tolima, Colombia

Mariana Gomez, Yes to Life No to Mining, Latin America

Denver Justice & Peace Committee, USA

Marirosa Iannelli, Luca Raineri & Maurizio Belli for Co-operation for the Development of Emerging Countries (COSPE), Italy

Stop Water Grabbing Campaign

Bobby Andrew, Spokesman and Elder, Nunamta Aulukestai, USA

Guadalupe Rodríguez, Salva la Selva, Spain

Linda Sheehan, Earth Law Centre, California, USA

Rainforest Rescue, Germany

DECOIN, Defensa y Conservacion Ecologica de Intag, Ecuador

Center for Environment, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina

Kalikasan Peoples Network for the Environment, Philippines

Fossil Free SOAS, UK

 

[1] http://www.chathamhouse.org/conferences/African-Extractives

 Source: YesToLifeNoToMining