A view of an artificial installed at Mon Choisy Beach to combat soil erosion and create resilience. The installation will break up the waves before they reach the shore and will also act as a habitat for fish. Credit: Reuben Pillay/Climate Visuals Countdown

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Sep 4 2023 (IPS)

The Africa Climate Summit 2023 is expected to start with renewed hope. In its 60+ years of post-independence history, Africa has contributed around 3% of Green House Emissions, accounts for approximately 2.6% of global trade, and less than 3% of the world’s GDP in 2021.

Home to 1.4 billion people with a median age of 16, the continent continues to suffer from stalling multilateral trade negotiations, and the ‘death of the Doha round’ has given rise to unprecedented forms of protectionism, unilateralism, a lack of political leadership to embrace and nurture multilateralism. Unfair competition, unilateral partitioning of Africa into Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), and skewed intellectual property rights have resulted in an international trade system that disproportionately favours wealthy economies.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)

The emerging trade-climate change measures will only further restrict Africa’s participation in global trade markets. So, to tackle the looming climate crisis, the question is as follows: Should Africa still depend on the ‘generosity’ of the global north? Their inability to meet the $100 billion pledge reveals their moral reluctance to acknowledge developed countries’ contribution to climate change.

Yet to transition to a greener future, Africa must access affordable public and private funding, coupled with debt relief. These shifts are central to building capacity for sustained transformative growth and resilience in the face of climate challenges.

Developed countries have resisted fundamental reforms to support the developing world with the climate emergency. Innovative global development finance ecosystems are needed to unlock equitable international financing flows while preserving the fiscal sovereignty of developing countries to pursue development pathways unique to their circumstances and realities.

Africa’s position is constrained by a lack of affordable, reliable, and sufficient finance, juxtaposed with a debt crisis compounded by climate challenges. Rather than allocating increased funds to adaptation efforts, the majority of it gets directed towards mitigation which benefits financiers and lenders and thus depriving countries of a voice.

Africa’s economy is vulnerable, especially post-pandemic. The external debt has exceeded $1 trillion in 2021. It detracts from African governments’ ability to sustain meaningful socio-economic gains. Those with a pessimistic view of Africa tend to label the debt issue as an African problem disconnected from the exploitative policies of developed nations, but the true concern lies with the developed nations. They possess significant privileges to issue global reserve currencies leading to highly imbal­anced distribution of international liquidity, as well as exorbitant interest rates and capital outflows driven by the monetary policies of affluent economies.

So, whenever faced with liquidity constraints, Africa has no choice but to turn to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost foreign exchange reserves. In the international arena, climate financing is becoming more commercial than concessional.

The USA is hindering the recapitalisation of the World Bank for geopolitical considerations with the unfortunate outcome of deepening structural gaps and costly financing for Africa. Thus, Africa is compelled to seek loans from commercial entities with the high cost of borrowing impeding investments.

The issuance and recycling of SDRs issued by the IMF as a means for enhancing available climate finance is drawing global attention. IMF’s re-channelling of idle SDR should be used to help developing countries with much-needed finance.

The Bridgetown Initiative encapsulates many such proposals, including the restoration of debt sus­tainability; long-term debt restructuring with low interest rates; increase in official sector-development lending; mobilise more in green private sector investment; reform the trade system to support global green and just transformations.

African countries are paying an unnecessary premium on their cost of capital and not attracting sufficient foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in innovative areas and for global public goods. Africa’s fiscal and tax architecture suffers from vulnerabilities, while the global tax system is still built on historic power asymmetries.

Developed countries largely devised international rules that resonate with their own economic interests. Furthermore, the application of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) strategies, the digital economy, and climate-related measures, such as the European Union’s (EU) Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), undermine multilateral approaches and affect the fiscal sovereignty of African economies.

Voluntary carbon markets, including the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative, Sovereign wealth funds could unlock much-needed finance for undervalued assets and services. Africa’s own development banks, the partnership and investment proposed by the BRICS/New Development Bank, and the private sector are also essential sources of long-term financing, and tapping into them could enable Africa’s self-directed growth.

There is a globally recognised need to shift, unlock, scale, and mobilise new forms of ‘fit for purpose’ finance to deliver on climate agreements and sus­tainable development goals. The priority of priorities for African countries is affordable, predictable, accessible finance at scale.

Finally, in building a financial infrastructure that is relevant for all, African countries should not be passive receptors of international reforms and debates.

They must have the authority to lead in the direction they choose; they must have that voice and, more importantly, the collective interests at local, regional as well as at the international level.

It is only then that Africa will be compensated for the harm that it did not commit!

Note: Ameenah Gurib-Fakim is the former President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)

IPS UN Bureau Report

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Excerpt:

President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT-LOUIS, Mauritius, Apr 19 2017 (IPS)

An internationally renowned scientist, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim became Mauritius’s sixth president on June 5, 2015 – and one of the few Muslim women heads of state in the world.

Her nomination constituted a major event in the island’s quest for greater gender parity and women’s empowerment, giving a higher profile to women in the public and democratic sphere of Mauritius.

Gurib-Fakim started her career in 1987 as a lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius. She was one of the leading figures in local academia with a reputation far beyond the Indian Ocean before she accepted the post of president.

She has also served in different capacities in numerous local, regional and international organizations. Gurib-Fakim has lectured extensively and authored or co-edited 26 books and numerous academic articles on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

In this exclusive interview with IPS, President Gurib-Fakim urged world leaders to save our oceans, noting that this critical ecosystem impacts millions of livelihoods, particularly for small island-states and coastal communities.

This June, the United Nations will convene a high-level Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development at U.N. Headquarters in New York.

Human activity has already left a huge footprint on the world’s oceans, Gurib-Fakim notes. “We have always assumed that the ocean is a dumping ground – which it is not.”

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: How would you rate the oceans in terms of importance in the context of sustainable development?

A: The ocean space occupies 70 percent of the world’s surface and it still remains unknown. There is no doubt that ocean space impacts livelihood, especially for islands and coastal communities. Several countries in the South-West Indian Ocean, for example, rely heavily on fishing to sustain livelihoods. In 2013, fish accounted for 17 percent of the world population’s intake of animal protein and 6.7 percent of all protein consumed. Coral-reef fish species also represent an important source of protein.

With more than 60 percent of the world’s economic output taking place near coastlines and in some African countries, the ocean economy contributes 25 percent of the revenues and over 30 percent of export revenues. It is becoming increasingly clear the enormous potential of our oceans.

Q: Do you think that the objectives of the World Ocean Summit can still reverse the decline in the health of our ocean for people, planet and prosperity?

A:  This Summit brings on board all the stakeholders involved with ocean issues. This summit is also a pledging conference as funding always remains a thorny issue and yet there is urgency in data collection on several areas of the ocean ecosystems. It provides the policymaker and the researcher a holistic picture of what the ocean stands for and will hopefully change the narrative on the need to reverse the decline of the health of our ocean space.

Climate change remains a big component as acidification of the waters as well as rise in temperatures will affect both the flora and fauna.

We must always be mindful to the fact that humans have had a huge footprint in the health of our oceans as we have always assumed that the ocean is dumping ground. It is NOT. There are within the ocean space, very fragile ecosystems that can be destroyed by small increases in acidity or temperatures.

Q: As an Ocean State, Mauritius does not seem to have given due consideration to the importance of our oceans in terms of an environmental asset. How would this Ocean Summit help to change our mindset?

A: Mauritius has a very small landmass, we have a very huge space of 2.2 million km and I think what the ocean summit helps us to do is to bring back to the fore these multiple challenges or opportunities that the ocean as an entity presents to the economy of Mauritius. As I said, one of the areas will be sustainable fishery, which can be flagged into the economy. Mauritius and in the South West Indian Ocean fisheries are threatened, with up to 30 percent of the fish stock over-exploited or depleted and 40 percent fully exploited. The poor management of this sector has amounted to an annual loss of about USD 225 million.

However, the ocean is not only fish, it is also sustainable tourism as well as renewable energy, including wave energy, amongst others.

Q:  The health of our oceans is critical for the survival of humanity. We have seen that despite all the international conferences and commitments, all the ecosystems of our planet are collapsing one after the other. How will this conference help to change things globally, but equally locally?

A:  For me, the ocean cannot and should not be taken as a dumping ground or a carbon sink. We should also take stock of effluents coming from the rivers as all the runoffs eventually end up in the sea.  Plastic pollution is also a very big issue because we know that a lot of damage is being done to wildlife because of un-recycled plastic. These conferences help us to see visually the impact of these polluting activities. They also bring live images, testimonies from people who have first-hand experiences. They help to change the mindset of people. They also try to bring people to think differently, sustainably.  We need to change the way people do business, the way people look at the ocean, we need to have a completely fresh look at these.

Q: Climate change is a major challenge for the survival of humanity, and we have seen that the United States of America has started to back-pedal on climate change agreements. How do you perceive this change of policy from a major carbon dioxide producer?

A:  To me, climate change is the biggest threat to humanity because it will impact not only on the ocean but also all the ecosystems on earth. It will impact the loss of many species; already 17,000 are threatened and when these species disappear, they reduce the resilience of our ecosystem. I always say biodiversity underpins life on earth and it also in the ocean as well. This balance in the oceans ecosystem is very very fragile.

So, any change, even half a degree increase in temperature of the water, is not sustained by the animals living out there and they will disappear and that is a thing that we do not want to envisage. Now, some countries want to backpedal on climate change agreements, it’s very unfortunate because many countries have fought very very hard to contain emissions. Large economies like India have started a global alliance on renewal energy, China has also made pledges, but it would be unfortunate that any country pulls out of this agreement because we are not talking about the short term but about the long term and for the larger good of humanity.

For those countries that feel that they still need fossil fuels to grow the economy, green technologies have shown that it is possible to sustain growth with same. It is proven and I don’t think people have to shy away from the fact that by disinvesting in fossil fuels their economy will still progress. Clean energy is the answer.

Q: What are your hopes and expectations for the ocean summit?

A: The hope is that those who made pledges deliver on them. We are not too far off the tipping point, but I think all is not lost. We need to act fast and deliver on results as well as on commitments. Our future depends on it.

Q: Nearly two years into your term as President of the Republic of Mauritius, how do you perceive the question of gender equality in Mauritius, and are things are improving?

A: Post-independence Mauritius had a very low per capita income of around 200 USD. Several decisions had been taken since then to ensure the well being of the people and one such decision was to make education free for all in 1976. Education is an enabler and ensures social mobility of people. At that moment in time, parents did not have to make choices of whether to educate their sons or daughters.

Over 40 years down the line we have seen the transformation that this decision has had. The percentage of women in many professional spheres has increased. The medical, judiciary, teaching professions have more than their fair share of women’s representation. We may be weak in terms of percentage at board levels or in politics but I think that it is work in progress. My message is very clear on this issue… any country that wants to make progress cannot afford to ignore 52 percent of its workforce and talents.

Excerpt:

Workers from Bangladesh in Mauritius. Many fall into debt to pay for their travel, yet find it almost impossible to save any money despite working long hours. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Aug 29 2016 (IPS)

They come from Bangladesh, China, India and Madagascar, mainly to run the machines in the textile industry here. But they do all kinds of other jobs too, from masons to bakers, house cleaners and gardeners.

For the eight consecutive year in 2016, the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report ranked Mauritius first among African economies, and its GDP per capita was over 16,820 dollars, one of the highest in Africa. But there is a darker side to the success of this upper middle income island nation in the Indian Ocean, situated about 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of the African continent.“The government argues that foreigners are hired because the locals refuse the jobs. The truth is the government itself discourages the locals by introducing a four-month short-term contract, for example, in the construction sector." -- Trade unionist Reeaz Chuttoo

“Living like animals”

Local enterprises rely on foreign workers because Mauritians are increasingly reluctant to work long hours under difficult conditions. But these foreigners live in very poor conditions and in many cases, in human indignity.

Thirty-six-year-old Bangladeshi Maqbool* left his wife and two children back home in Dhaka two years ago and came to work in the manufacturing sector in Mauritius, hoping to earn enough money to offer a decent life to his family.

“I paid 150,000 takkas (about 2,000 dollars) to an agent who got me this job. I was supposed to get 675 dollars a month, which represents a huge amount in my country, and I was ready for any sacrifice to earn it,” he said. To his bitter disappointment, he earns only about half of that.

Foreign workers all have such stories to tell. They take loans or sell the family’s lands or jewelry to pay for their travel to Mauritius. “The island is very beautiful but there is no money here. I run short of money every month after paying for my own expenses. I send some to the family every three months and I save nothing,” adds Massood*.

Both men are frustrated as they have to leave the island in a couple of months and they have yet to save any money to take back home.

Running away from poverty

Poverty, unemployment and the rising costs of living in their home countries force thousands of Bangladeshis, Chinese, Indians and also Malagasy people to look for jobs abroad. About 40,000 of them already work in the manufacturing sector, the construction industry, hotels, transport and also in the seafood hub. They start work very early in the morning and finish up very late at night. They are forced to do overtime and do not earn more than a 150 dollars a month.

A local welfare officer from a well-known textile enterprise confirms under condition of anonymity that the foreigners work night and day with little time for rest and live and sleep in unhygienic dormitories with just a cupboard and a thin mattress full of fleas and bugs.

“I feel sorry for them. They live like animals and are helpless. They accept things as they are,” he told IPS.

Those who resist or cause trouble on their worksites are sent back home. Hundreds of them faced this fate last year after they took to the streets demanding better wages and protesting against their working conditions. Even though, says trade unionist Feisal Ally Beegun, these migrants are exemplary workers.

Still, some of them claim they are happy. “Please sir, tell them to give me more work and more money, no fuss about it,” one Bangladeshi worker pleaded with IPS, while others working at the Compagnie Mauricienne du Textile (CMT), which employs a few thousand expatriates, ran away upon seeing journalists.

A security guard posted at the gate of this factory in Phoenix, in the centre of the island, revealed that the foreigners have had so many problems with their employer and the police last year that they now refuse to talk to the media.

Source of irritation

The antipathy of the locals for the textile and manufacturing sector and for low-paid jobs has resulted in the import of labour to keep the wheels of the island’s industry turning. They were first brought in 1992 as a temporary measure as the industry moved from labour-intensive to capital-intensive manufacture.

Twenty-five years later, they are still here and the government believes they add value to the island’s economy by helping the factories deliver on time and also help in keeping the locals’ jobs.

Trade unionist Reeaz Chuttoo begs to disagree. “The government argues that foreigners are hired because the locals refuse the jobs. The truth is the government itself discourages the locals by introducing a four-month short-term contract, for example, in the construction sector, which the Mauritians refuse. In the seafood hub, foreigners are hired only for the night shift because no local does it.

“So the locals prefer to hawk cheap imported goods on the street rather than working long and late hours, even if they have to run from the police,” he says.

Chuttoo warns that a social explosion is in the making, with high unemployment, too many foreign workers and not enough jobs for the locals. “Mauritius is already invaded by a feeling of xenophobia and racism towards foreign workers,” he adds.

Jaynarain Mathurah, director at the Special Expatriate Unit of the Labour and Industrial Relations Ministry, brushes aside these allegations, arguing that foreign workers enjoy the same working conditions as the locals.

“We do not discriminate between them. The free zone manufacturing sector is governed by a remuneration order that is applied to all. Above this, there is a Special Migrant Workers Unit that take care of these migrants and it intervenes very fast with the employers when a problem arises,” he told IPS.

He believes the foreigners are well treated but agrees that “seeing their number, it happens that we are unable to visit them as often as we would have liked.”

“We believe they are well-off regarding their wages and their working and living conditions. Apart from their wages, they also get accommodation, food and transport,” he added.

According to him, low-paid jobs are common in developing countries where the free zone manufacturing sector has been introduced in a bid to create jobs. Investors are always looking for cheap and skilled labour and right now many enterprises in Mauritius plan to expand their activities and they need skilled labour.

“Where do I get them?” shouts a manager at Firemount Textiles in northern Mauritius.

Foreign workers will not stop coming to this island anytime soon, as they are needed to support its economic development in the absence of locals. They are now expected to increase in the agriculture and the ICT sectors.

*Names changed to protect their identities.

Sen Dabydoyal, a farmer and leader of the Médine Cooperative Society, shows a pack of special sugar produced by sugarcane farmers from Mauritius. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Jun 10 2014 (IPS)

While Mauritius has been forced to transform its sugar industry because of low prices for the commodity, the country’s small-scale sugarcane farmers who contribute to it say they are barely earning a living.

Previously, Mauritius produced only raw sugar from the cane plant. Now it produces value-added refined and special sugar, electricity from bagasse, ethanol and will soon produce bio-plastics.

“We are paid for the amount of sugar produced from our canes and some peanuts for the bagasse they use to produce electricity and nothing for the electricity which they sell to the national grid, or for our molasses or for the ethanol,” Jugessur Guirdharry, a farmer for the Union Park Cooperative Society, in the south of the island, told IPS. Farmer Salil Roy believes sugar cane is a victim of its own success “in the sense that it helped farmers support their children’s higher education, locally and abroad.”

With the end of the Sugar Protocol in 2009, an agreement between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific states since 1970 wherein the latter supplied sugar to the EU at a much higher price than was available on the world market, meant that this Indian island nation stopped receiving high prices for its sugar. Instead, Mauritius was producing sugar at 500 dollars a tonne but selling it at 433 dollars a tonne.

To keep the industry alive, the government implemented drastic reforms. It centralised private sugar production factories and from the original 17 there are now four flexi-factories that crush cane, produce special and refined sugars, molasses, ethanol and renewable energy from bagasse — the fibrous pulp left over after cane is squeezed for its juice. Soon they will also produce bio-plastic.

This island nation now produces 400,000 tonnes of special and refined sugars that are sold on markets in Europe from where they are sold directly to big EU firms.

About 75 percent of the sugar produced in Mauritius is value-added refined and special sugar that is sold mainly in Italy, Spain, Greece, United Kingdom and Belgium while the rest is sold to a hundred clients in niche-markets in the United States and China.

However, the 17,000 small-scale farmers contribute to about 28 percent of the national sugar production are not happy. They say it is very difficult to make a living out of cane cultivation only.

Farmers complain of high production costs and costs of inputs like fertilisers, herbicides and manpower and transport.

“If a farmer does not do part of the work in the fields himself, he’ll not be able to make his ends meet,” Guirdharry added.

Without the contribution of farmers like him, this industry would not have survived, Issah Korreembux, a small-scale sugarcane farmer, told IPS. Indeed, the Mauritius Cane Industry Authority (MCIA) says that many smallholder farmers have abandoned between 5,000 to 6,000 hectares of land that had previously been sugar plantations.

“If they are not given their due, more will do so because of lack of manpower, high costs of inputs and an ageing population among the farmers with the youth staying away from agriculture,” Sen Dabydoyal, a farmer and leader of the Médine Cooperative Society, in eastern Mauritius, told IPS.

Guirdharry pointed out that by producing bagasse, small farmers contribute to the production of clean energy.

“If we use coal only, the impact on the environment would be devastating. We are thus preventing the import of about 250,000 tonnes of coal annually,” he explained.

Small-scale farmers like Dabydoyal are looking for other means to increase their income. About 5,000 of them have joined the fair-trade movement. They produced 21,000 tonnes of sugar under this label in 2013, which brought them an additional income of 60 dollars per tonne above the normal price of 530 dollars.

Under this certification by an international firm FLO-CERT, the small-scale producers develop good agricultural practices, make good use of the soil, use less chemical products and follow an integrated management plan for pests and diseases to improve the crop.

“This is a very good thing for small-scale farmers and we are encouraging all of them to join the movement,” Sooradehoo Punchu, president of the Mauritius Fair-trade Federation Cooperative Ltd, told IPS.

Farmer Salil Roy believes sugar cane is a victim of its own success “in the sense that it helped farmers support their children’s higher education, locally and abroad.”

“Today, these children have grown up and become professionals but have turned their back to the plantations,” Roy told IPS. Small and medium farmers have launched an Alliance of Sugar Cane Planters Association (ASPA) to defend their rights.

Its leader Trilock Ujoodha says a revision of the distribution of cane revenue will solve many problems faced by small and medium producers, which includes among them the issue of abandoned land.

Other farmers recalled that their income from sugar that represented 95 percent of their total revenue in the past stands today at 94 percent, despite the slump in local sugar prices.

“It should have decreased more,” observed farmer Jugdish Rampertab. However, Roy believes small farmers are faring well but “they could do much better with a fair distribution of sugar revenue.”

Mauritius has transformed its main product that is sugar cane into several valued added products. It’s not the end of the road yet, as this industry prepares to face another big challenge in two years’ time with the end of the sugar quota system in the EU scheduled for 2017.

This will again lead to volatile prices of this commodity. “How far can we diversify our cane industry?” Dabydoyal asks.

The Chagossians pictured here when they visited the archipelago in 2006. Many are still fighting to return to the islands they were evicted from almost 40 years ago. Courtesy: Chagos Refugees Group (CRG).

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Feb 20 2014 (IPS)

“The Marine Protected Area (MPA) created around the Chagos archipelago is a new obstacle that the British government has placed in our path to prevent us from going back to our homeland,” claims Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos Refugees Group (CRG).

For the past 40 years, the Chagossians have been fighting to return to their home in Chagos archipelago, a set of 55 islets situated 1,200 km north of the Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius.

They lived there for five generations until the early 1970s when the archipelago was excised from Mauritius by the United Kingdom. The Chagossians were evicted and the archipelago now forms part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

“We’ll not give up,” Bancoult tells IPS as he prepares for a new legal battle against the British government, which will be heard by the High Court of Justice in London on Mar. 30.

Bancoult was four when he and his mother, Rita, came to Mauritius. In 1983 he created the CRG to defend the rights of his community and over the years the organisation has staged numerous public demonstrations and hunger strikes.

The MPA covers almost 545,000 square kilometres and aims to protect the natural resources of the Chagos archipelago by implementing strict controls over fishing, habitation, damage to the environment and the killing, harming and collecting of animals.

The U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) designated the archipelago as an area that needs to be preserved “on the basis that the archipelago is one of the most precious, unpolluted, tropical ocean environments left on earth.”

A map of the Chagos archipelago which shows the proposed Marine Protected Area. Courtesy: Nasseem Ackbarally

Following a feasibility study in 2002, the FCO concluded that resettlement on the Chagos archipelago was unfeasible due to the islands’ low elevation and “the islands are already subject to regular overtopping events, flooding and erosion of the outer beaches.” It also said that “as global warming develops, these events are likely to increase in severity and regularity.”

However, scientists Richard Dunne and Barbara Brown, who have been working on coral reefs in the Indian Ocean for several decades, do not agree.

Dunne tells IPS that the British government has been presenting these findings to Parliament, court and the public for the last 10 years as an argument against the resettlement of the Chagossians back in their homeland.

“We now know that the feasibility study was scientifically flawed and that little reliance can be placed upon its conclusions,” he says, adding that this may be partly the reason why the FCO is undertaking a new feasibility study this year.

“The Chagos are low-lying coral islands with a mean elevation above sea-level of only about two metres. As a consequence, they are like the Maldives to the north — very susceptible to changes in mean sea-level, storms, erosion and flooding,” he says.

But Dunne sees no reason why the Chagossians cannot return to the archipelago.

“The Chagossians have lived on these islands for nearly two centuries, and on the scientific evidence that we have today, there is no reason that they should not continue there for at least the foreseeable future, by which I mean the next four or five decades.”

Bancoult believes his people can live in such an environment.

“How come Europeans, Americans and other wealthy people from elsewhere are staying for months on Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos and Solomon Islands which are part of archipelago, while Chagossians cannot live there?” he asks.

Simon Hughes, secretary of the Chagos Conservation Trust (CCT), an organisation that has been working to conserve the biodiversity and marine ecosystem of the Chagos archipelago for the last 20 years, denies the MPA was designed to keep Chagossians from returning.

“The MPA is only three years old. Neither would the MPA be a very effective tool for this purpose. Its framework can be revised to accommodate a local population if there is one in future,” he tells IPS.

“Since under the law of BIOT there is no right of abode in the territory and all visitors need a permit, the creation of a marine protected area has no direct immediate impact on the Chagossian community,” Hughes adds.

The CCT also argues that sea level rise and erosion continue to be a problem for the islands.

According to the CCT, the benefits of an MPA around the Chagos are manyfold. It says the absence of a settled human population, the strict environmental regime and the minimal footprint of the military base on Diego Garcia have enabled a high level of environmental preservation to have occurred.

“The islands, reef systems and waters around the Chagos in terms of preservation and biodiversity are among the richest on the planet and they contain about half of all the reefs of the Indian Ocean which remain in good condition,” Hughes explains.

British lawyer and lead counsel for the Chagossians, Richard Gifford, tells IPS that the Chagos is a magnificent place to live but “obviously, there are problems to address in restoring the infrastructure, the economy, the housing and the transport but the prospects are extremely positive.”

Most of the original 1,500 Chagossians have passed away. Currently, the remaining 682 are determined speak out about the MPA.

“We are working on our own resettlement plan that we will submit to the three governments involved — Mauritius, the U.K. and the U.S. — later this year,” Bancoult says.

Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos Refugees Group (CRG), feel that the 2010 creation of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) created around the Chagos archipelago, prevents the resettlement of the Chagossians. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

A quarter of a million students across the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius will be exposed to principles of sustainable development. Educating youth about sustainable development is part of this long-term vision to establish a new, ecologically sound economy. Credit: Nasseem Ackburally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Jul 29 2013 (IPS)

Tourism, agriculture, fishing, the water supply – climate change threatens the very foundations of society and the economy in Mauritius. As the Indian Ocean island nation develops its adaptation strategies, it is working to ground the next generation of citizens firmly in principles of sustainable development.

Launched on Jul. 5, the country’s National Climate Change Adaptation Policy Framework (NCCAPF) included familiar but worrying predictions for the future. Half of this tourist destination’s beaches could disappear by 2050, swallowed by rising seas and increasingly violent and frequent storms. Fresh water resources could shrink by as much as 13 percent while demand will rise steadily.

“We are shocked to learn that our beautiful island – or part of it – may disappear because of a rise in sea levels,” student Felicia Beniff told IPS as she emerged from a class on the environment and climate change with four friends. “We are afraid. We have many more years to live. Where will we go?”

The teenage students at MEDCO Cassis Secondary School in the Mauritian capital Port Louis are among a quarter of a million students across the island that will be exposed to principles of sustainable development.

Mauritius is working hard to correct unsustainable practices, notably through the Maurice Île Durable. Educating youth about sustainable development is part of this long-term vision to establish a new, ecologically sound economy.

At Rabindranath Tagore State Secondary School in Ilot, northern Mauritius, students put organic waste into a compost bin.

“We collect plastic bottles. We turn off the lights and the air-conditioners when we leave the classroom. We open the windows to aerate the classes. This reduces the school’s expenses. We also plant trees,” one of the students, Ashootosh Jogarah, told IPS.

His friend, Varounen Samy, told IPS that they have “now changed our attitude towards the environment.”

Mahen Gangapersad, the school’s rector, believes Mauritians have taken the environment for granted for too long without realising the harm they cause to natural resources. The new education programme aims to correct this.  “Better late than never,” he told IPS.

Tree planting, the installation of photovoltaic cells for renewable energy, endemic gardens, backyard gardening, waste segregation, compost-making, rain water harvesting and water control are now a reality at many schools. The plan is to expose the entire student population.

“So we are reaching out to 250,000 plus people,” Veenace Koonjal, special adviser to the Minister of Education told IPS. He believes this training will have a great impact on awareness among the country’s population of 1.2 million as students take what they learn home to their families and communities.

“Climate change is weakening the economic, social and environmental pillars of the island,” said the Mauritian Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development Deva Virahsawmy, at the launch of the NCCAPF.

The launch of the newly-completed policy framework was accompanied by the opening of a Climate Change Information Centre in Port Louis, an initiative that will gather local and regional information on climate change and make it available to everyone – scientists, engineers, architects, as well as farmers and students.

Strengthening and broadening knowledge, awareness and information about climate change is a key part of this island nation’s response to global warming. Mauritius, like other island states, can expect to bear the full brunt of climate change despite contributing very little to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause it.

Floods devastated the Mauritian capital, Port-Louis, on Mar. 30 but locals can expect the island to be affected by more floods, landslides and cyclones in the coming years because of climate change. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

Further, the policy framework acknowledges that the island’s geography and topography limit what can be done to counter harmful impacts of global warming on fishing and the coastline, tourism, or agriculture.

Khalil Elahee, chairperson of the government’s Energy Efficiency Management Office, believes the population has begun to realise the very serious impact that climate change is already having.

“People want sustainable development. So it is essential we start a new way of living and developing our island, climate change or not,” he told IPS.

“Whatever we do may not be enough but the measures taken by Mauritius in its climate change education programme help to mitigate the impact of climate change on the island,” Elahee said.

Virahsawmy said that climate change education would enable Mauritius to strengthen its resilience in key sectors of its economy and mitigate the risks and prevent losses of lives and property.

Mauritius has already received three million dollars from the Africa Adaptation Programme – funded by the Government of Japan’s Cool Earth Partnership for Africa – to integrate and mainstream climate change adaptation into its institutional frameworks and core development policies.

An official from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development told IPS that a Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) project is also being implemented this year. It will receive technical support from the United Nations Environment Programme’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, and its Risoe Centre in Denmark. It is funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) to the tune of 120,000 dollars.

The key aim of the TNA is to bridge the gap between identifying appropriate technologies and the design of action plans. The aim is to allow Mauritius to implement technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support adaptation to climate change that is consistent with national development priorities.

The government hopes to secure more funding for adaptation and mitigation efforts from the Green Climate Fund, the U.N. Adaptation Fund and the GEF.

Beyond the classroom, several other programmes run by NGOs complement what young people are learning at school. The Youth be Aware programme of the Mauritius Red Cross, for example, engages 600 young people on the risks posed by climate change to the island.

Since Mauritius eased the procedures for obtaining a business permit a year ago, small businesses are cropping up all over the island. People have started selling food, vegetables, fruits, small luxurious items and clothes. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Jul 11 2013 (IPS)

Raja Venkat, a food vendor on the sidewalk of Immigration Square in the centre of Port Louis, the Mauritian capital, sits on his tricycle with a bag full of dhal puris – small, round, flat Indian bread stuffed with pulses – which he sells together with tomato sauce and bean curry.

“Come and taste my dhal puris, you’ll want more. Come, come,” he shouts.

Thousands of small businesses like this have sprung up in every town and village on the island since the government eased the procedures for obtaining a business permit a year ago.

“At times, I helped in masonry, in vegetable transportation or washing vehicles. I was available for any job, but most of the time I was unemployed,” Venkat tells IPS. “Net employment creation in small and medium business between 2000 and 2011 is estimated to be 67,800, i.e., an increase of more than 36 percent, as compared to an increase of 14,400 in large establishments.” -- Mauritian Minister of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives Jim Seetaram

The unemployment rate stood at 8.6 percent at the end of 2012, according to figures obtained from Statistics Mauritius, the official organisation responsible for collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of statistical data. And the easing of procedures for obtaining a business permit has been aimed at reducing unemployment in this Indian Ocean island. Official figures from Statistics Mauritius indicate that the total number of business activities increased from 133,723 to 138,236 in 2012.

Since he started his small business six months ago, after paying the required fee (about 50 dollars a year to the Municipality of Port Louis) for his business licence, Venkat now has a steady income. His wife, Aashna Venkat, cooks the dhal puris in the small wooden kitchen of their home at Terre-Rouge, four km away.

“I now earn enough to feed the family and also to save some money for the future,” this father of two children, aged six and three years, says.

Many other people have started similar businesses on the island, selling food, vegetables, fruits, small luxurious items and clothes. Some have opened small mechanical workshops where they repair bicycles and motorcycles. Many women, particularly from Muslim families, have developed the art of applying henna to the hands.

Minister of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives Jim Seetaram tells IPS that there are more workers in these small and medium businesses than in the larger establishments.

“Net employment creation in small and medium business between 2000 and 2011 is estimated to be 67,800, i.e., an increase of more than 36 percent, as compared to an increase of 14,400 in large establishments,” he says.

“Small and medium businesses are the main drivers of job creation and contribute in a significant way to economic growth. They employ around 250,000 people, representing more than 44 percent of the total number of jobs.”

Mauritius Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s chairperson and business consultant Ganesh Ramalingum tells IPS that these microenterprises are very important to the economy because they create jobs.

“A person who has some mechanical skills opens a business of repairing bicycles and motorcycles. He’ll need one or two people to help him … So, many jobs are being created in this way and that’s good for the economy. People who earlier had difficulty earning a living are now creating their own businesses in fields that suit them,” he says.

Local authorities regulate these small businesses. They are not supposed to get involved in any unusual activity in a residential area, or disturb neighbours at unreasonable hours or pollute the environment with dust, fumes or odours. They are required to comply with the guidelines issued by the Fire Services, the Sanitary Authority and the Environment Ministry. But many feel that these small businesses are not complying with the guidelines.

Ganeshen Mooneesawmy, vice chairperson of the District Council of Rivière du Rempart that issues and monitors business permits in the northern part of the island, is happy that these people are working, but finds that many of them lack discipline in running their business.

“They won’t ask for jobs from the government as there (are) none available … (but) they sell food in an unhygienic manner and they disturb the living environment in their area. We have very few staff to keep a check on them,” he tells IPS.

In Goodlands, northern Mauritius, small businesses operate literally on the sidewalks in spite of a law that prevents this. Many of them put their goods in large baskets that they place on wooden or iron stands on the sidewalks.

Ashok (full name not given), a vendor, tells IPS he has to do this to attract clients because his business is very small.

“There is so much competition around from big stalls and also from smaller businesses around. If you don’t fight, you don’t eat tonight,” he says.

Municipal Councillor Kritanand Beeharry of Curepipe, a town in the southern part of Mauritius, chairs the Municipality’s Health and Sanitation Committee. He tells IPS that his staff has inspected some of these small businesses after receiving complaints from residents. “The police is also solicited when the need arises,” he adds.

However, he finds more positive points than negative ones in these modest endeavours, as “these small businesses are easy to manage”.

But councillor Prakash Bhunsee of the Flacq District Council in eastern Mauritius believes the situation has gotten out of control.

“I am afraid the police only check the licences of the small entrepreneurs and is not concerned with health, sanitation, environment or pollution matters,” he says.

The shortage of staff at the municipal inspectorate level makes it obvious that many of these businesses go unchecked for months.

Lallmamode Mohamedally, a Mauritian fisher at the port near Les Salines, a fishing town close to the country’s capital Port Louis. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Jun 25 2013 (IPS)

“No fighting, please. Everybody will get their fish. Give us time to empty the crates and weigh today’s catch,” Patrick Guiliano Marie, leader of the St. Pierre Fish Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, shouts at the crowd jostling impatiently at the fish landing station in Grand Gaube, a fishing village in northern Mauritius.

People bump into each other to buy the fish that this cooperative society has just harvested from cages out in the lagoon.

“We don’t get fresh fish all year round. We have to buy frozen ones. This is an opportunity for us to eat some fresh ones,” one customer Marie-Ange Beezadhur tells IPS as she tries to negotiate her way through the crowd.

In the lagoon, about 500 metres from the coast, two platforms have been set up, each with four underwater cages.

In one average-size cage of four square metres, there are about 5,000 fingerlings, or young fish, which are fed pellets and seaweed collected from the lagoon.

It takes eight months for the fish to grow to about 500 grammes, with a small cage producing about four tonnes of fish, and a large one producing about 25 tonnes.

To date, aquaculture has been introduced to three areas in the surrounding ocean here, while a further 19 sites have been identified.

The cages, nets, fingerlings, and feed have all been provided for free by the government and the European Union (EU) under the Decentralised Cooperation Programme.

Marie and the 14 members of this cooperative society catch fish on a line for seven months of the year and for the remaining five months they aquafarm – they were trained to do this by the Albion Fisheries Research Centre.

A decade ago, fishers could just throw their nets in the lagoon and catch as many fish as they wanted. But things have changed.“The idea is also to help protect the lagoon, to let our sea breathe.” -- chairman of the Syndicat Des Pêcheurs, Judex Rampaul

“Our catches have now diminished because of industrial pollution. There is also a lack of surveillance of the lagoon and the recklessness of some fishers, who have been catching small fish over a number of years, has put the sustainability of the fish resources at stake,” Marie tells IPS.

He says that fish farming “is more for the youth who can learn the trade and develop it in the future instead of taking a fishing line and some nets and going out to sea. This is a tough job.”

In February 2012, local fishers complained that an agreement between the EU and Mauritius, which allows European vessels to catch 5,500 tonnes of fish a year for three years, made it difficult for local fishers to earn a living.

That year, the production by local small fishers was only 5,100 tonnes and local fishers complained to IPS that because of the EU agreement, their catch had gone down by 50 to 60 percent.  The country produces a total of 29,000 tonnes of fish a year.

But Minister of Fisheries Nicolas Von Mally met with the fishers at Grand Gaube on Jun. 13 and told them that aquaculture was meant to raise the standard of living of some 2,200 traditional fishers who were finding it difficult to survive because of decreased fish stocks.

“We have no intention to fill the lagoon with these floating cages around the island, but only to install a few so that they can produce the maximum amount of fish without polluting or blocking the lagoon,” Von Mally tells IPS.

But not everyone is happy with the solution and some fishers and environmentalists say that fish farming will negatively impact the marine ecosystem.

The St. Pierre Fish Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, has begun fish farming in the lagoon just off Grand Gaube, a fishing village in northern Mauritius. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

“We have observed that many fish and predators, like sharks, roam around the floating cages. They are attracted by the great number of fish in the same place and by the food,” one fisher from Bambous Virieux, in southern Mauritius, tells IPS.

Environmental engineer Vassen Kauppaymuthoo agrees.“Too many fish in small spaces means a concentration of fish urine. The fish are fed with pellets that contain antimicrobials and antibiotics. This can harm the marine ecosystem,” he tells IPS.

Judex Rampaul, chairman of the Syndicat Des Pêcheurs, an association that defends the rights of fishers, believes that fish farming is similar to the industrial rearing of chickens.

“They are different from the fish that live in a natural state in the lagoon. I believe the government is putting too much emphasis on aquaculture. Our fishing space is also reduced in the lagoon,” he tells IPS.

Rampaul and other fishers say that they would prefer for the lagoon not to be used for fish farming.

“The idea is also to help protect the lagoon, to let our sea breathe,” Rampaul says.

But Von Mally says that aquafarms around the island will benefit fishers and their customers alike. Presently, about 50 percent of the fish that Mauritians consume is imported.

“Demand for seafood is increasing and thus pressure on marine resources is rising. In this regard, marine ranching can provide a worthwhile means to sustain marine resources in Mauritius,” he says.

“We don’t know if the lagoon will keep on producing enough fish in the future, but aquaculture can become a big business and should help eradicate poverty among the fishing community.”

Floods devastated the Mauritian capital, Port-Louis, on Mar. 30 but locals can expect the island to be affected by more floods, landslides and cyclones in the coming years because of climate change. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT-LOUIS , Apr 16 2013 (IPS)

Mauritius may be one of the best-prepared countries in the world when it comes to cyclones, but recent heavy rains and flooding due to climate change have brought the country’s readiness for coping with increased rainfall into question. 

Ecologist Keshwar Beeharry-Panray tells IPS that he expects the island to be affected by more floods, landslides and cyclones in the coming years because of climate change.

Beeharry-Panray, the director of a local NGO called Environment Protection and Conservation Organisation, says that the population has yet to understand the effects this will have on the country, and that even the government has not yet begun to prepare for increased rainfall on this Indian Ocean Island.

“We won’t get enough time to run for safety if we are not prepared,” he says.

Floods devastated the Mauritian capital, Port-Louis, on Mar. 30. Eleven people were killed, a hundred were wounded and thousands of dollars of damage was caused to buildings, roads, vehicles, shops and houses. Emergency services were overwhelmed and unable to provide effective response to the disaster.

Environmental engineer Vassen Kauppaymuthoo, a private consultant on environmental issues, concurs with Beeharry-Panray.

“People know what to do, what precautions to take when a cyclone approaches the island. The weather deteriorates and the meteorological warnings are issued. Yet, (Mauritius) lacks the same preparation with regard to floods and other natural calamities,” Kauppaymuthoo tells IPS.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, the island is vulnerable to “considerable economic loss, humanitarian stresses and environmental degradation as a result of climate change impacts. The direct climate change impacts likely to adversely affect Mauritius include an increase in the frequency of intense rainfall episodes, sea level rise of 18 – 59 centimetres by 2100 and an increase in intensity of tropical cyclones.”

During the Mar. 30 floods, in less than two hours 156 millimetres (mm) of rain fell in the capital, while it barely rained on other parts of the island. Torrents of water swept down from the mountains that surround Port-Louis and surged towards the city centre, sweeping up everything in their path.

Feroz Banjal, 61, was travelling back home in a bus when the vehicle got carried away in the flood.

From the bus, he saw a few people being swept away by the rains. He got out of the vehicle but was carried by the water for about 500 metres before a taxi driver standing on top of a footpath saved him.

“Thirty years or plus I travelled to the capital, I have never, ever seen so much water on the streets,” Banjal tells IPS.

Climate change is a reality for Mauritius. One official from the Mauritius Meteorological Services says that because of climate change, the rainfall pattern on the island has changed over the last few years.

“For the past two years, the island suffered from a severe drought, until early 2013 when it started raining a bit. In February and March, it rained a lot,” he tells IPS on the condition of anonymity.

For Nathalie Pompom, who lives near Canal Dayot, a river that carries the mountain rains to the sea, the heavy rainfall was a shock.

“Eighteen years I have lived here, I have never seen so much water entering my home. We lost everything. We fear for our future,” Pompom tells IPS.

Kauppaymuthoo says that on Feb. 13 floods also struck the island, and that it was unacceptable that less than two months later Mauritians had not been prepared for the Mar. 30 floods.

“We were warned that there was more to come, but this warning fell on deaf ears. Mauritius needs a management plan for natural calamities. A unit should be set up that is on the alert 24 hours a day, and that can take decisions fast to save lives and prevent material damage. As time passes, natural catastrophes will be on the increase because of climate change,” Kauppaymuthoo says.

As concrete and asphalt roads sprout everywhere to ease traffic congestion, and as building progresses, green spaces are being reduced at a fast pace. There are very few trees in the capital and less than two percent of forest cover on the island that could mitigate the effects of the torrential rain, Kauppaymuthoo says.

The country also does not have well-maintained drains to carry the rainwater to the sea; instead they are blocked by construction waste.

He adds that the construction of a ring road on the slopes of a mountain overlooking Port-Louis could also be part of the problem.

“Altering the natural course of water, modifying the structure of the natural drains that existed for millions of years to cut out roads in them poses a real threat to the environment,” Kauppaymuthoo says.

But Public Infrastructure Minister Anil Bachoo, grilled by local residents and the media, who accused him of irresponsibility because of the road development, says the floods were unforeseen.

“What happened in Port-Louis is entirely beyond human control. We are, of course, sad that this natural catastrophe has caused so much damage to our island. We had never dreamt that we could get 150 mm of rain at one go in a small region like Port-Louis,” he told the media on Apr. 4.

But Karim Jaufeerally, from the Institute of Environmental and Legal Studies, believes that the loss of life in the recent floods is due to sheer negligence by the government and local authorities.

“Even if Mauritius was prepared against natural calamities, there would have been the same problem in the capital because the drains did not function properly. The magnitude of the floods would have been less if the drains were clean,” he tells IPS.

Jaufeerally asks: “It’s easy to speak of preparedness for the next time, but what about the last time?”

Mauritians protest against the construction of a 100-megawatt (MW) coal power plant in Pointe-aux-Caves. They say the project will cause irreparable damage to them and the environment of this Indian Ocean island nation. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT-LOUIS , Apr 4 2013 (IPS)

Residents of Albion, a small village in Pointe-aux-Caves, western Mauritius, say that by opposing the construction of a new coal power plant near their homes, they are defending their constitutional right to live.

“What a catastrophe is coming to our region,” says Ed Laverdure, as he sits under the veranda of a shop in Albion less than two kilometres away from the site where CT Power (Mauritius) Ltd., the company commissioned to construct and operate the plant, is clearing the land for construction.

For the last six months, the residents of Albion and environmental activists have protested the construction of a 100-megawatt (MW) coal power plant, commissioned by the country’s Central Electricity Board (CEB). They have also petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the project that they say will cause irreparable damage to them and the environment of this Indian Ocean island nation. The court will hear their case on May. 6.

On Thursday, Apr. 4, residents took what they hoped was a significant step in halting the construction of the plant. They presented, during a hearing closed to the public, their objections about the plant to the National Energy Commission, which was set up by the government following the recent public outcry over the issue.

The commission, which comprises high-level government officials, scientists from the Mauritius Research Council and the University of Mauritius, environmentalists and trade unionists, was asked by residents of Albion to halt the project and to ensure the government moves away from using the existing four power coal power plants in the country, which were installed in the early 2000s.

“They should not be allowed to be refurbished and have their usefulness extended with new coal units. Any new power plant must be (built using) renewable energy sources,” residents said in their request.

Presently, Mauritius produces about 438 MW of power, which supplies some 420,000 consumer households and industries.

Some 22 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources such as hydro, wind and bagasse. But fossil fuel plants generate about 50 percent of all electricity produced locally, with coal plants accounting for 30 percent. According to the CEB, Mauritius needs an additional 100 MW of electricity by 2015 to prevent a power shortage in this country of 1.3 million people.

Environmental engineer Vassen Kauppaymuthoo tells IPS that the impact the plant will have on the population will be significant.

“The environment, the economy and even the social life on the island will be affected,” he says. “About 1,600 tonnes of coal will be transported daily by road from the port to the plant causing: traffic jams and pollution on the road, ash emissions, the release of heavy metals in the air, and contamination of the underground water if the ash is not buried with great care in the soil.

“The sea nearby (will be polluted) and 900 grammes of carbon dioxide for every kilowatt of electricity produced will be released. These are just a few of the consequences,” Kauppaymuthoo adds.

Keshwar Beeharry-Panray, an ecologist and chief executive officer of Environment Protection and Conservation Organisation, an environmental and conservation NGO, says that residents could face serious health risks, including developing respiratory problems such as asthma, and skin rashes.

Beeharry-Panray questions what type of technology will be used at the new coal plant.

“Everybody knows that modern technology to reduce pollution to the maximum is very costly. Will (CT Power) invest in it? Not sure. They (power companies) always say that they’ll take care of the pollution, but when it comes to real implementation, nothing happens and even the authorities forget about it,” he says, questioning whether the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development is equipped to monitor the activities of the operating power companies.

The CEB states on its website that due to restructuring and privatisation, it produces 40 percent of the country’s power, with the remainder being produced by independent companies.

But according to the CEB, Mauritius has limited known exploitable energy sources.

“If this new project is not realised, we will have to use more oil to produce electricity. We need 100 MW of additional electricity very fast because what is most important of all is that the population should get their electricity,” Shiam Thannoo, general manager of the CEB, tells IPS.

He observes that there is a limit to using renewable energy, as the high investment costs are the main obstacle. However, the CEB is planning to construct one 20-MW wind power plant every three years starting from 2017, and one 10-MW solar plant every three years from 2013.

But Suttyhudeo Tengur, director of the NGO Association for the Promotion of the Environment and Consumers, believes a small island like Mauritius has no choice but to use thermal power as only oil and coal are readily available here, which “unfortunately pollute the environment and affect our health…”

Though Khalil Elahee, director of the government’s Energy Efficiency Management Office, points out that the current growth in energy demand is low. He says demand grew by two percent in 2012 compared to a growth of 10 percent in 1980.

“This is due to the evolution of the economy and the fact that the main old pillars like the textile and sugar industries were huge consumers of electricity. Today, the services sector, which is expanding, uses less energy,” he tells IPS.

Meanwhile, Laverdure tells IPS that he and his family want to leave Albion, but cannot. “Who’ll buy my house in which I have invested my savings and am still paying for the bank loan?”

He says that if all the demonstrations, petitions and protests against the construction of the plant do not succeed, he will have to live next to it forever.

“Our kids also,” adds his friend, who only wants to be referred to as Georges.

“We’ll also have to forget about our blue lagoon nearby because of the pollution,” claims Laverdure.

Mauritian smallholder farmer Kritanand Beeharry with some his produce. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Feb 26 2013 (IPS)

By Kritanand Beeharry’s side are thousands of watermelon seedlings that he has grown in small pots without the use of chemical fertilisers.

As the farmer prepares his half-hectare piece of land in Soreze, near Mauritius’ capital Port-Louis, to plant the two-week-old seedlings, he takes a minute to admire his achievement. “Look at these, they look solid and better grown — it’s the compost,” he says.

It has been about a month now since the government teamed up with a private compost-manufacturer to offer farmers here a 30-percent subsidy for compost made from domestic waste and an increasing number are realising the benefits of going green.

“It’s the same as the manure that we used a long time back,” Beeharry tells IPS.

“This has not been available for decades, because animal husbandry has declined here — we had no choice but to use chemicals, and this has damaged our soil.”

The Compost Subsidy Scheme offered by the government since Feb. 1 means that farmers now pay 50 dollars less per tonne for the compost they buy from Solid Waste Recycling Ltd, a private enterprise that produces compost from domestic waste.

Roopesh Beekharry, manager at the Small Farmers Welfare Fund, which administers the subsidy, says 525 of the country’s 12,000 farmers have utilised the discount since the scheme’s official launch earlier this month.

“And the number is growing everyday,” the fund manager told IPS.

While things started off a bit slowly because of recent rains, he expects interest to pick up again after March, he says.  In total, about 2,000 farmers have bought compost from the plant since it opened in June 2012, according to Solid Waste Recycling.

Tomato farmer Kripalou Sunghoon from Triolet, northern Mauritius, believes that the compost subsidy has come at the right time to challenge the rising costs of chemical fertilisers. While the latter go for 750 to 800 dollars a tonne, compost presents a cheap alternative at only 175 to 200 dollars a tonne.

“We no longer can afford to buy chemical fertilisers,” Sunghoon told IPS. “The subsidised compost will bring down the cost of our inputs, besides giving a new life to our dying soil.”

The benefits of going organic are nothing new to Manoj Vaghjee, president of Resources and Nature Foundation, a non-governmental organisation promoting sustainable agriculture on the island. For the last five years he has been training farmers in biological agriculture and the use of organic compost.

He says that plants grow stronger, resist insects and pests, and farmers obtain a better yield when they use organic compost.

“Our trainees have cultivated 30 to 40 percent more ladyfingers, maize, tapioca, calabash and brinjals with compost than with chemicals per harvest,” Vaghjee told IPS.

What’s more, compost helps develop better roots and prevents soil erosion, according to agricultural engineer Eric Mangar from the Movement for Self-Sufficiency, an NGO for agricultural development.

“Chemical fertilisers affect the soil, reduce the plant’s resistance to diseases and pests,” he told IPS. “They pollute the rivers and lakes and underground reservoirs and also affect the quality of the vegetables.”

The quality of the compost, however, has not gone undisputed.

Raffick Dowlut, senior extension officer at Agricultural Research and Extension Unit, says he has compared compost made from domestic waste to chemical fertilisers and finds that compost has a relatively low concentration of nutritive elements as opposed to the chemicals.

But he admits that “compost improves the physical, chemical and biological nature of soil and its fertility – chemicals do not.”

Agricultural scientist Ramesh Rajkumar advises farmers not to change their production method immediately. Instead, they should use a mix of 50 percent of compost and 50 percent of chemicals, he said, as the latter supply minerals to the plants.

“The soil fertility is damaged by the use of too much chemicals over such a long time,” he explained, “It should be built slowly.”

Meanwhile, the recycling plant prevents about 100,000 tonnes of domestic waste a year from being dumped in the only landfill on the island, according to Patrick Maurel, chief executive officer at Solid Waste Recycling. Dumped at Mare Chicose, in the south “it would contaminate the underground water reservoirs and release methane that pollutes the air,” Maurel told IPS.

The country’s 1.3 million people produce about 1,200 tonnes of waste daily, or 400,000 tonnes a year, and the government spends around 16 million dollars collecting it and transporting it to the dumping ground, according to the Local Government Ministry.

Citing a 2002 study by the University of Mauritius, Maurel says almost 90 percent of the waste is recyclable and 55 percent can be transformed into compost and used in agriculture.

Back at Beeharry’s melon farm, the green grower looks at his latest transition holistically.

“When we care for the environment, we care for natural resources that are made up of land, water and air. This not only helps us to get a better production, but it also gives us our daily food, now and in the future.”

By Nasseem Ackbarally
Nov 13 2012 (IPS)

Mauritius, held up as an economic success story, is undergoing a lot of social change. However it seems the education system is not keeping pace with the rapid change as the number of teenage pregnancies is on the rise.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/Early_sex_debut_leads_to_increased_teenage_pregnancies_in_Mauritius.mp3[/podcast]

Lallmamode Mohamedally, a Mauritian fisher, points to a European vessel offloading its catch at the port near Les Salines, a fishing town close to the country’s capital Port Louis. Credit: Nasseem Ackbarally/IPS

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS, Aug 9 2012 (IPS)

“Look out there, the blue one…. that is a European Union fishing vessel that is threatening our livelihood,” says Lallmamode Mohamedally, a Mauritian fisherman, as he points to a boat offloading its catch at the Les Salines port, close to the country’s capital Port Louis.

He is one of the fishers who have returned after a hard day at sea with their boats almost empty. Pollution and tourist activity have reduced the fish catch on the island’s lagoons over the past few years.

But local fishers say a February agreement between the EU and this Indian Ocean island nation, which allows European vessels to catch 5,500 tonnes of fish a year for three years at a cost of 660,000 euros annually, has made the situation worse.

While there are no official figures to confirm this, the 3,500 local fishers, who now have to compete with modern industrialised fishing boats, say that their catch has gone down by 50 to 60 percent.

And the Les Salines fishers believe that the 86 vessels from companies based in the EU, which are fishing in the area, are stealing their livelihoods.

“These big vessels are scratching the sea around Mauritius and taking away all the fish,” says Mohamedally.

While most fishers want the EU vessels to leave, Mohamedally says he would not mind them operating in Mauritian waters “only if they fish like everybody else, like the Taiwanese and the Japanese.”

“Only longliners please. No seines. Those vessels catch all types of fish, small and big alike,” he says.

Long line fishing is a commercial technique that uses hundreds or sometimes thousands of baited hooks, which hang from a single line. This type of fishing commonly targets swordfish, tuna, halibut, and sablefish. Seines use surrounding nets.

However, Mauritian authorities believe that this is the only way to exploit its vast exclusive economic zone or EEZ of 2.3 million square kilometres.

Local fishing companies here are small and do not have the ability to fish on such a large scale. The 5,500 tonnes of fish that Mauritius has allowed the EU to catch each year is in stark contrast to the few tonnes the 34 fishermen of Les Salines catch in a year.

Currently the fisheries sector in Mauritius represents only one percent of the country’s GDP, and the local fish production is only 5,100 tonnes.

Mohamedally says that in the past fish were abundant three to four nautical miles from the coast. Today, the fishers travel almost 15 nautical miles out to sea, but many still come back without a catch.

“What will happen in five years time to our jobs? They are giving us an egg and taking an ox out of our sea,” adds Mohamedally, referring to the 660,000 euros annually that Mauritius has agreed in payment by the EU in exchange for fishing rights in its EEZ.

Judex Rampol, chairman of the Syndicat des Pêcheurs, a fishers’ association, is furious about this. “This is peanuts,” he tells IPS. If local fisherfolk had the capacity to fish so far out at sea, they would earn about 15 million euros for the 5,500 tonnes of fish the EU is now allowed to catch.

However, Minister of Fisheries Nicolas Von-Mally believes Mauritius needs help to exploit its vast EEZ.

“We have no fishing vessels. Should we depend on locals, many fishes would have long died of old age,” he says.

Von-Mally adds that canning factories on the island process the tuna caught by the EU vessels. However, it is sold mainly on the European market.

He adds that tuna is migratory, and if it is not caught in the Mauritian EEZ, it will swim to the zones of the neighbouring Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles and Maldives. “We’ll thus lose revenue,” he says.

Bahim Khan Taher, manager of Taher Seafoods, a small local fishing company, tells IPS that he would like to exploit Mauritius’ fish stock, but he needs modern vessels, equipment and financial incentives to fish in the EEZ.

“If we get some help from the government in terms of fiscal incentives, we could also go out fishing there. This would boost our seafood hub exports,” Taher says.

Meanwhile, environmentalists are concerned that overfishing may deplete tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean. Mauritian oceanographer and environmental engineer Vassen Kauppaymoothoo is one of them.

“The EU vessels are here because the stocks in the other oceans have collapsed. They have been overfished by vessels from Portugal, France and Spain. The only ocean where there is still some fish is the Indian Ocean,” he tells IPS, adding that 5,500 tonnes a year was overfishing and would deplete resources.

He adds that while Mauritius does not have the capacity to fish its EEZ, this does not mean that they should allow foreigners to do so. He says Morocco decided to close its EEZ to foreigners in a decision to solely keep its fish stock for its local population.

“There is no reason to loot my house because I do not have the means to exploit its wealth,” Kauppaymoothoo argues.

But the head of the EU Delegation in Port Louis, Alessandro Mariani, tells IPS that they are helping to create jobs, not take them away.

“In Mauritius alone, 5,500 jobs benefit from the tuna that is disembarked by the EU vessels,” he says.

Mariani claims that there is no competition between the EU fleet and the local fishers because they operates very far away from each other. The EU vessels fish 15 nautical miles from the coast, and the locals at three nautical miles.

“We are also targeting different fish species,” he says.

Mariani says the EU is very sensitive about the tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean.

“Our fishing efforts are guided by scientific research. The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Scientific Committee said in October 2011 that there is no overfishing in this region,” he says.

Von Mally adds: “We are not shooting at our own feet. We want fish to be always available in our seas for future generations.”

They both deny that the EU placed pressure on the Mauritian government to sign the agreement. “This is simply not true. Mauritius and the EU are partners and we always discuss things about the interest of both the EU and Mauritius,” says Mariani.