Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 June 2005 — Page 44

Page 44 • The Muncie Times • June 2, 2005

AFKICAN BRIEFS

Courageous African botanist wins Goldman Environmental

The prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to preserve and enhance the natural environment, often at great per-

sonal

risk. Each winner who retired in 2002.

■jecerves. an award of

thej $125,000, the largest of its %A communists ponder

of kind.

(CiIN)-A passionate advocate for the preservation of

Africa's tropical forests, Corneille Ewango of Democratic Republic

Congo (DRC), is one of this year's winners of the prestigious Goldman

Environmental Prize.

Ewango,'a staff member of

the Congolese Institute for the firestorm of protests from priConservation of Nature, was vate land holders, the Kenyan responsible for the Okapi government has rejected a Faunal Reserve's botany pro- Parliamentary proposal to gram from 1996 seize all idle land and redis-

lions of hectares of land acquired illegally since independence in 1963, including tracts belonging to former President Daniel arap Moi,

Kenya nixes land give away plan

^..separation from A£TCj (GINJ-South African communists, who played a major role in the anti-apartheid

older SACP comrades in Parliament said that the only way to advance the party's historical mission is to go it

alone."

However, a proposal by the youth that the ANC give the SACP 50-50 representation in all spheres of government was rejected by the old guard, who argued that the party should engage with the ANC to alter its deploy-

struggle and in the years fol- ment policy,

lowing within the ruling Currently SACP members

tribute it to the poor and land-

less.

Lands Minister Amos Kimunya said the government would always uphold the rule of law and not violate proper-

ty rights.

The controversial legislation passed on Wednesday also called for a tax to be

imposed on idle fertile land Communist Party (SACP)

.... for a certain period of time as argued in two position papers |as fighting in the reserve well as limit the amount of ..that it would be unwise to continued, poaching of pn- acreage to be owned by an mount a campaign in opposi-

Jindividual, a parliamentar/ tion to the ANC. Secretary

General Blade Nzimande

to 2003. He helped lead the effort to protect and preserve the Okapi Reserve through nearly a decade of civil war in the Central African country. At great risk to his life, Ewango hid the reserve's herbariurafl|ollection, computers, research and data on 380,000 trees^To save his own life, he also hid himself in the forest for 3 months.

African National Congress, are at a crossroads over their

political future.

The increasingly pro-busi-

ness policies of President Thabo Mbeki have pushed party loyalists to consider a

future outside the ANC. In the build-up to their con-

ference earlier this month, the Young Communist League called for a separate commu-

nist election campaign.

However, the South African

are drafted on to ANC lists and expected to perform according to the ANC elec-

toral mandate.

Manamela is clearly frustrated by this. "The one thing about state power is that you either transform it or it trans

In effect, governments would be borrowing from their future lending or grants in development aid. The money raised would be used for Africa and the governments would use their annual aid budgets in later years to repay the capital value of the bonds. The interest payable on the bonds is envisaged at around 5 percent a year over 30 years. The Treasury in London says investment in aid can more than recover this

money.

"Significant front-loaded resources will enable comprehensive investments to be made which will be complementary and self- enforcing, and increase overall

forms you, there is no middle returns," the U. K. treasury

ground."

The SACP's central executive committee will meet within a month to establish the terms of reference for the commission, which will table

mates and elephants became rampant. Ewango directly confronted military commanders and the practice was

curbed.

The DRC’s rainforest makes up about 50 percent of Africa's tropical moist forests and one-eighth of all tropical rainforests in the world. Unparalleled natural assets lie in the Ituri Forest, where the Okapi Reserve was created in

1992.

The reserve covers more than 3 million acres and houses 13 primate species, elephants, and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Ewango received a scholarship to begin a master's degree program in tropical botany at the University of Missouri. When he graduates, in late 2005, Ewango will return to the DRC equipped with newfound knowledge to further protect the nation's botanical resources The Goldman Environmental Prize annually honors grassroots environmental heroes from six geographic areas: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America and South and Central America.

catchphrase "not now -

but not never" captured the conference mood, he said. "The congress was united about the need for an independent SACP voice in Parliament. As to when and how that happens, those are

official told reporters.

The government also claimed that only "a signifirejected the mandate to put a cant minority" was agitating ceiling on the size of land an for a separate election cam-

individual should be paigh'.T'~’ allowed to own, the minister The a

said.

"This is not a socialist state but rather an open market and we have to encourage people to acquire more property," Kimunya said. Kimunya explained that bill was aimed at encouraging the use of "idle land", most of which is owned by politicians and top government officials. A promise to address the issue of tens of thousands of squatters, most of whom have invaded forests and private land, was one of the key campaign pillars that brought President Mwai Kibaki to power in December 2002

polls.

Thousand of squatters have

been protesting, some violently, in recent months, logo - on the ballot paper,

demanding to be allocated much of the idle land across the country, but the government has held back from vio-

lating property rights.

Last December, the government started to repossess mil-

however, contest the looming local government elections

under an ANC banner. G8 countries divided

Hid in a statement on the IFF. ?>The treasury says the IFF could increase devgloDment aid from the maximum of 16 billion dollars a year committed by donor nations at the U. N. conference on financing for development in Monterrey in Mexico in 2002. Not least,

it says the

IFF ira way to "lock" donors into promises made at ■Pconference.

'' A Imrxct

over African aid "Almost 70 countries have

expressed their support,

LONDON, (IPS/GIN)- including Britain, France, Britain has declared that the Germany, Italy and Sweden," development of Africa will be Rob Ward from the treasury

told IPS. But he said "there are also others that consider i the IFF difficult to implement, although we are work-

a priority at the G8 summit, but little agreement is in sight over the preferred aid regi-

men.

modalities the commission support for the International will have to deal with.” Finance Facility (IFF) proBut Communist League posed by Chancellor of the Secretary General Buti Exchequer (finance minister) Manamela said there was Gordon Brown is rising. But consensus that the party there is no sign that the would go it alone in elections. United States will abandon or in opposition to its African amend the aid program under

British officials say that |ing with these countries on

ithis point."

The relatively low budget

National Congress ally. Manamela said delegates at

the congress agreed that the only reason they voted for the ANC in the last election was that there was no "hammer, sickle and star" - the SACP

its Millennium Challenge Account to adopt the IFF. The IFF seeks to frontload long-term donor commitments into 'providing the money in time for the Millennium Development Goal, father than later. Under

The overarching debate s&JiP'TFF, money would be the congress was howto bol- raised for the development of

ster socialism to build the

working class.

Manamela said the go-it-

alone drive had not come only

from the youth. "Some

Africa from private investors through the sale of bonds on the capital markets. Binding aid commitments would provide security for the bonds.

for official development aid (ODA) by Italy and Germany among the G8 members could, however, limit the effectiveness of the IFF. The countries not on board the IFF initiative include the United States, Canada and Japan among the G7 (the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Japan). Nobody expects Russia, whose relatively recent inclusion turns G7 into G8 to be a significant donor for development in

Africa.

The United States has taken a politically different continue on page 45