A worker at Fondes Amandes demonstrates the building of fire traces. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Desmond Brown
FONDES AMANDES, Trinidad, Feb 18 2015 (IPS)

Not far above Trinidad’s capital, Port-of-Spain, in a corner of the St. Ann’s valley in the Northern Range, the community of Fondes Amandes has come together since 1982 to respond to climate change.

For several years, bush fires reduced their forested surroundings to burned grass and charred tree stumps.

Locals have also witnessed increased rainfall in the area, in which the rainy season has encroached on the dry.

Akilah Jaramogi, who started the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project (FACRP) 32 years ago with her now deceased husband, told IPS they have managed to reclaim and revive the forest and river.

“Coming to Fondes Amandes in the early 1980’s I was really happy to be part of this watershed, but that was only in the rainy season. In the rainy season the place would be really green and nice, but come dry season it was a different story,” Jaramogi told IPS.

“The place would turn brown, then from brown it would turn grey, and then bright fires in the night; the hillsides burn up and that was the whole issue. The trend at Fondes Amandes here, forest fires during the dry season and floods around the watershed during the rainy season. So for me, coming from a rural community in south Trinidad it was something strange to me…it was heartbreaking.”

The Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project has transformed the area from a bare, dusty hillside to one where tall trees flourish, fruit trees grow alongside flowering plants, and more wildlife returns each year.

And not since 1997 has a bush fire broached the system of fire traces and quick community action developed to protect the watershed.

Jaramogi said climate change is a reality for the community, and the change has affected the quality and yield of fruit trees. She noted the impact on citrus, mangoes and avocados. She said it makes sense for individuals and communities to be prepared.

“Over the years I’ve noticed drastic changes in the weather pattern. We no longer have a dry season or a rainy season, so for the past years we have had extremely dry weather conditions. This year we had a really long dry season that resulted in tremendous forest fires around Trinidad and Tobago,” Jaramogi explained.

She said one of the reasons for the longevity and success of FACRP is the involvement of the community.

“In spite of all the challenges, we are able to keep on going because we are community-based. Most of the members are from right here, and there is a sense of ownership – pride in our natural environment. That is what also attracts our supporters to continue to keep up their relationship with Fondes Amandes. With or without funding, they come out to deal with what has to be done.”

Akilah’s daughter, Kemba Jaramogi, also gives support to the Project. She is a trained firefighter and dedicated protector of the forests.

She explained that although fires sometimes burn outside of FACRP’s reforestation project area, this does not deter its volunteers from fighting them, even if it means trekking two hours to the fire site.

She outlined some of the challenges facing FACRP and mentioned a few simple things that could help contain fires before they get out of hand.

“First, there needs to be better coordination between the firefighting units of the Forestry Division, National Reforestation groups and forestry NGOs. Second, these groups need access to better equipment,” she said.

“FACRP, for instance, lacks basic bushfire fighting equipment like Back Pack Fire Pumps. These are water tanks with a pump that can be strapped to a firefighter’s back. Thirdly, the National Security helicopters have been fighting fires from the air with Bambi Buckets (specialised buckets which carry water suspended by cable from the helicopter), but this is often done when the fires are already out of control.”

“A more effective use of this air power would be to equip the choppers so that firefighting crews can be dropped near remote fires while they are still manageable, much like the equipment afforded to smokejumpers.”

A smokejumper is a firefighter that parachutes into a remote area to combat wildfires. Smokejumpers are most often deployed to fires that are extremely remote.

“A fourth solution could involve training and employing the T&T Regiment to fight fires during fire season,” she added.

In Trinidad and Tobago, it is illegal to light fires outdoor during the dry season.

Kemba Jaramogi said that despite Trinidad and Tobago’s oil wealth, the country does not have a working national action plan for fighting forest fires, i.e. trained personnel with equipment and protective gear and a proper pay package with health insurance – due to the risky nature of the job.

She wants the authorities to explore options for a forest and bush fires action plan, noting that “we cannot wait until the hills are all degraded in the dry season and eroded in the rainy season to realise the importance of our forests.”

The FACRP is currently funded by the Trinidad and Tobago government though its Green Fund. Other partners include several state agencies: the Water and Sewerage Authority, the Forestry Division of the Ministry of Housing and the Environment, and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management.

Support also comes from the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) and the Global Water Partnership–Caribbean (GWP-C).

Gabrielle Lee Look, Communications Officer for the GWP-C told IPS, “Since our partnership with them, not only have they been active, but we have been able to collaborate with them in different ways like the rainwater harvesting system that’s actually on the compound here that supports the project when they have very limited water is something that we take pride in and we’ll continue to support Fondes Amandes in terms of their activities.”

The Project has won several awards, including the Humming Bird Medal national award in 2007, recognising FACRP’s national service in the sphere of environmental conservation. FACRP has also won the Green Leaf Award, Trinidad and Tobago’s highest environmental honour, and was named by CANARI as a model for community forestry throughout the Caribbean.

Contact Desmond Brown on Twitter @BrownBerry2013

Edited by Roger Hamilton-Martin

Sixteen-year-old Parul, hailing from Dhaka's Batara slum, is paid about 15 dollars a month for her work in a garment factory. Also in the picture are her younger brothers and a cousin. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
GENEVA, Jul 13 2013 (IPS)

The decisions of the United States and the European Union to demand implementation of controversial labour standards in Bangladesh following the Sawa industrial tragedy pose a serious threat to the rule-based global trading system, says Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General for United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

“Labour rights and standards are something very sensitive to all developing and least developed countries at the World Trade Organization and when countries try to impose labour standards they are just distracting from the WTO’s authority,” Panitchpakdi told IPS.

A fortnight ago, the new United States trade representative Ambassador Michael Froman announced in Washington that the U.S. administration is discontinuing benefits offered to Bangladesh under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme because of Dhaka’s poor labour rights."When countries try to impose labour standards they are just distracting from the WTO’s authority."

The GSP provides a soft window for exports from Bangladesh to enter the American market with low customs duties. Except textiles and garments on which Bangladesh pays high import duties in the U.S. market, other products from Bangladesh attract the GSP benefits.

Close on the heels of the U.S. decision, the EU resorted to trade-linked conditionality to impose labour rights in Bangladesh. The EU has forced Bangladesh to sign a “compact” that lays out the labor reforms that Bangladesh will have to carry out in a time-bound framework to avail duty-free and quota-free market access in the EU market.

Since the violent Seattle ministerial conference in 1999 which broke down due to irreconcilable differences between the rich and the poor nations over attempts to bring labour standards into the WTO rule book, the industrialised countries have stayed away from linking labour rights with trade at any multilateral forum.

The latest actions by the U.S. and the EU signal a change. If anything, they seem to stoke the fires of the Seattle meeting all over again. “If countries get away with doing all this, then, it results in a shift away from WTO in rule-making which is quite threatening,” Panitchpakdi said.

Brussels not only threatened Bangladesh but warned other least developed countries that it will deny market access under the “Everything but Arms (EBA)” scheme if they fail to implement labour standards in their textiles and garments industry on a war footing.

“I want to make it clear that Bangladesh – or for that matter any other least developed country – cannot take for granted the trade preferences it currently enjoys (in the EU market),” said Karel De Gucht, the EU trade commissioner.

While signing the multi-stake holder compact to improve labour rights, working conditions, and factory safety in Bangladesh, Gucht warned that “under the ‘Everything but Arms’ scheme, the EU may consider appropriate action should there be no, or insufficient progress for Bangladeshi workers.”

The compact signed in Geneva early this week, says the EU trade policy chief “commits us – the Government of Bangladesh, the EU, and the ILO (International Labour Organization), to a number of time-bound actions.”

As part of the commitments set out in the compact, Dhaka will have to reform its labour law by the end of this month to provide “freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining,” and to improve “occupational health and safety rules” and “building and fire safety.”

Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni has suggested that the compact is only a “political” initiative and not a “legal document,” but the EU trade commissioner has refused to accept Moni’s assessment.

“The compact is a rulebook for Brussels to judge whether Bangladesh has implemented its commitments,” Gucht said bluntly.

Bangladesh, which exports textiles and garments estimated at around nine billion dollars to the EU market every year, came under intense criticism for the recent accidents in Seva which killed hundreds of workers. The government in Dhaka has since embarked on a series of measures to improve health and safety conditions in its textile industry.

“If trade majors want to impose labour rights,” said Panitchpakdi, “they should bring the issue to the WTO.” It is unfair to punish countries outside of WTO by threatening denial of market access, he said.

“They have been doing this with Cambodia and now Bangladesh,” Panitchpakdi said. Instead of labour rights, the industrialised countries “must look at the business practices of their retail and wholesale industry because the problem with global value chains is the way they are exploiting the sweat shops in poor countries which are providing cheap labour.”

Over 250 workers died in the Sept. 11, 2012 fire in Ali Enterprises, a garment factory in Karachi's Baldia Town. Credit: Fahim Siddiqi/IPS

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Sep 14 2012 (IPS)

The inferno that killed over 250 people at a garments factory in Karachi’s Baldia Town on Sept. 11 has raised questions over not just poor workplace safety standards in industry but massive corruption in government which leads to the flouting of building laws.

More than 500 people, including 50 women, working the evening shift were trapped inside the factory when the fire broke out at around 6:30 pm. While the cause of the blaze is not clear, rescue workers pointed out that there were no emergency escapes in the two-storey building, which had only one exit.

The fire was the worst industrial accident in the history of Pakistan. With grills on the windows and no fire exits, the factory was at particular risk due to a lethal combination of chemical dyes and cotton. It was nothing short of a death trap, with those inside having no chance to escape the toxic fumes that engulfed them.

Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city with a population of 18 million, is the country’s economic hub. The megalopolis accounts for 95 percent of Pakistan’s foreign trade and for 30 percent of national industrial output.

Pakistan relies heavily on its low-cost garment and textile industries for export earnings. According to official statistics, in 2011 the textile industry contributed 7.4 percent of Pakistan’s GDP, employed 38 percent of the manufacturing sector workforce, and accounted for 55.6 percent of total exports.

But it’s not just Karachi, and it’s not just factories. The common denominator that prevails, whether it is a flyover, bridge, road, residential or commercial venture or industrial unit, is a complete lack of adequate safety checks.

This disaster was in the offing and was not a result of an accident but of criminal negligence, if you ask Aqeel Bilgrami, one of Pakistan’s best-known architects and a former president of the Institute of Architects Pakistan (IAP). It came just hours after a similar fire in an illegally constructed shoe factory in Lahore in which 23 people died, including the owner and his son.

“Karachi is strewn with such buildings with no consideration whatsoever paid to even the minimum basic safety standards,” conceded Yasmeen Lari, an architect who has designed quite a number of multi-storey multinational buildings in Karachi.

“Many (buildings) don’t have fire escapes, their stability is questionable, and a vast majority have no provision for handicap accessibility,” Bilgrami told IPS.

But the Sept. 11 tragedy could serve as a wakeup call for the authorities and builders. According to Bilgrami, most factories can still add fire exits. And those which are structurally unstable can be strengthened by retro-fitting, although it is an expensive process. “The columns and structure can be checked for adequacy of steel and concrete quality, and can be strengthened.”

He said after the 2005 earthquake, there was much debate, and a survey was carried out to identify buildings that were in precarious condition and begin retro-fitting. But the enthusiasm soon died out, he added.

Another problem was that fire-fighters and ambulances lost precious time as they made their way through huge crowds of onlookers. The fire chief also admitted that the fire-fighters were constrained by a lack of resources, and that at one point their engines ran out of water.

Moreover, factory workers are rarely trained through fire drills. Even private schools never or rarely hold fire drills.

“Karachi lies on an active earthquake fault-line, and I shudder to even contemplate the magnitude of destruction in this city if a catastrophe like the 2005 Kashmir earthquake happened here,” Lari said.

She said that with most of the multiple-storey buildings huddled so close together, and with little adherence to the building codes, they would collapse like a giant row of dominoes within seconds.

“In addition, there are old buildings in the city centre that were originally built for one family, but are now multiple occupancy units. These sub-divided properties, owned sometimes by as many as eight families in some cases, have often blocked the escape routes and fire exits that were always built,” she said.

Today there are a number of newly-rising multi-storey housing blocks which do not have fire escapes or sprinkler systems.

“It’s not that we are not aware of the safety standards and building bylaws; they are all there in the statute books, they are just not enforced,” said Fahim Zaman, a former chief executive of the Karachi Building and Construction Authority (KBCA).

Lari said that initial drawings are approved by the KBCA if building bylaws are followed. But, she added, “There is extreme corruption in the government and they often work in connivance with builders.”

She said that over the years she has seen quality of construction deteriorating rapidly. “It’s all about making money, with little thought given to human lives.”

Bilgrami said there was a coterie of black sheep among the architect fraternity, “briefcase architects,” who are used by unscrupulous builders to get their projects approved by the various landowning and building authorities.

“The builders make their own drawings and use these architects, who though licensed are not doing well in their field, to sign them. In a month, these people get anywhere between 20 to 30 big and small drawings approved.” By contrast, said Bilgrami, he and his staff of 40 can manage a maximum of just three a month.

“We have asked the KBCA repeatedly to give us a list of projects approved monthly so we can see who the architects are, and if we find any misdemeanour, have them expelled from the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners and have their licenses revoked,” said Bilgrami. But, he added: “Because they are all working in collusion, they will not even do that.”

“The engineering company behind the faulty construction of Shershah Bridge, a portion of which collapsed in 2007, was not only exonerated, but is getting handsome contracts from the government to carry out more construction work,” said Zaman.

Five people were killed and 14 others injured when the bridge collapsed.

Zaman told IPS that by law, all factories have to undergo regular inspections. But instead, the civil and defence authority inspectors are paid off well by factory owners to give their buildings a clean chit.

“I blame each and every one in the ministries of labour, industry and commerce and the building industries. As for the owners, they will all try to maximise their profits and minimise their costs,” said a fuming Zaman.

Holding the government responsible for allowing the laws and regulations to be violated, Ameer Nawab, who resigned as labour minister in Sindh just a few days before the incident, said the chief minister had stopped him from taking action against several factories for flouting safety regulations.

“We tried to explain to the chief minister that the cases were already in the court, and could not be withdrawn,” Nawab told IPS.

But he had to give in to the minister’s displeasure over the raids his ministry had carried out. “We stopped the inspections because the chief executive of the province asked us to.”

In a news report by the English daily Express Tribune, Sharafat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, an organisation that works for labour rights, was quoted as saying: “The chief minister issued a verbal order directing officials to suspend the inspection of factories in the province.”