Invasive ' CRAZY ' ants hit Texas hard - now a killer fungus is coming for them


This handout picture shows Tawny crazy ants (N. fulva) feeding on a cricket (AFP/Handout) (Handout)

Issam AHMED
Mon, March 28, 2022


When crazy ants roll into new parts of Texas, the invasive species wipe out local insects and lizards, drive away birds, and even blind baby rabbits by spewing acid in their eyes.

Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin now have good news: a naturally occurring fungus-like pathogen can be used to reverse their rampant spread across the southeastern United States, where they have wrought havoc for the past 20 years.

The findings were described Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ecologist and lead author Edward LeBrun told AFP that the fungus had already driven pockets of the invaders to extinction, and would soon be tested at environmentally-sensitive sites to protect endangered species.

Like fire ants, whom they have displaced in parts of Texas, tawny crazy ants are native to Argentina and Brazil and came to the United States via ships.

They are called "crazy" because of their erratic, jarring movements -- unlike the orderly marches of their cousin species.

While they don't have the venomous bite of fire ants, they secrete formic acid that shields them against fire ant venom, and incapacitates native animals.

"It's kind of a horror show," said LeBrun, who described apocalyptic rivers of ants swarming trees at an infestation site he visited at the Estero Llano Grande State Park, which had lost native ants, insects, scorpions, snakes, lizards and birds to the invaders.

Not only are they destroying ecosystems, "they're miserable to live with" for humans, said LeBrun. The ants seek out electrical systems to nest in, causing shorts in breaker boxes, AC units and sewage pumps.

Pesticides are highly toxic and serve only to slow their progress, leading to snowdrift piles of dead ants that have to be cleared, and the ants eventually break through anyway.

- Trojan ants -

About eight years ago, LeBrun and one of his co-authors Rob Plowes were studying crazy ants they had collected in Florida when they noticed some had unusually large abdomens swollen with fat.

When they looked inside their bodies, the scientists found fungal spores from a microsporidian -- a type of fungal pathogen -- and the species they found was entirely new to science.

Microsporidians commonly hijack an insect's fat cells, turning them into spore factories.

The pathogen's origins aren't clear -- perhaps it came from South America or perhaps from another insect.

Whatever the case, the team found it cropping up across Texas. They observed 15 populations for eight years, finding that every population harboring the pathogen declined, and 60 percent of the populations went completely extinct.

As an experiment, the team decided to place infected ants with uninfected ants at a nesting site inside a state park, placing hot dogs around the exit chambers of a box to entice the two groups to mingle.

The crazy ants form "supercolonies," which means separate groups don't fight each other for territory. This is a great advantage when swarming new areas, but it also turned out to be their biggest weakness, since it allowed the pathogen to spread unchecked.

The test was a huge success, driving the crazy ant population at the state park down to zero within a few years. Larvae that were tended by infected worker ants appeared particularly susceptible.

LeBrun explained this was good news in two ways: first, a pathogen of natural origin was selectively targeting the invasive species, limiting their ability to steamroll local ecosystems.

Second, scientists can accelerate the spread of the pathogen to kill the crazy ants quicker.

He cautioned, however, that the process was labor intensive, not something that could eradicate the species overnight.

The team will continue testing their new biocontrol approach at sensitive Texas habitats this spring.

ia/st

Rio launches clean-up of gorgeous, filthy bay -- again

Biologist Mario Moscatelli, who runs a program to replant mangrove forests at a former dump site, shows rubbish that has entered a river that flows into Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

Carl DE SOUZA AFP


Issued on: 29/03/2022 

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Cold beer in hand, the sun shining, Edson Rocha seems to have everything for a beautiful day at the beach.

In front of him, emerald hills cascade into Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay; to the right is the Brazilian seaside city's majestic Sugarloaf Mountain; above, the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue outstretches his arms, as if to embrace the perfect beauty of it all.

Perfect except for one detail: the water in the bay is a foul-smelling stew of raw sewage, industrial pollution and trash.

Rocha, a 46-year-old oil worker, would love to take a swim.

"But then you have to go straight to the shower and scrub for 10 minutes to try to wash the pollution off," he says with a laugh, sitting meters (yards) from a river of sewage emptying into the bay.

The heart of Rio, Guanabara Bay is one of the most postcard-gorgeous spots on Earth.

But urban sprawl has blighted the landscape, and bathers prefer less-polluted beaches like Copacabana, on Rio's Atlantic coast.

Home to 12.5 million people, the bay's watershed system has long been a dumping ground for garbage, toxic chemicals and sewage, 54.3 percent of which goes untreated.

Now, after decades of failed fixes, Rio state authorities say they have a solution.

Last year, they privatized tottering water and sanitation service Cedae, selling the operating rights for Rio city and 26 other municipalities to company Aguas do Rio.

The new operator promises to invest billions to do what no one has managed yet: clean up Guanabara Bay.

'Graveyard of failed projects'

Aguas do Rio, which took over in November, plans to invest 2.7 billion reais ($570 million) over five years fixing broken waste-treatment systems and cleaning sewage from the bay.

The company, a subsidiary of sanitation group Aegea, has promised total investments of 24.4 billion reais across its 35-year contract to bring the sewage-treatment rate to 90 percent.

Former fisherman Gilciney Lopes Gomes, 62, shows recyclable waste that he collected in a river that flows into Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

Andre BORGES AFP

"I have no doubt people will start swimming again in the bay," says chief executive Alexandre Bianchini.

Locals are skeptical, given the history of failed plans to save the bay.

In 1994, Rio state launched a clean-up program with international funds, spending $1.2 billion on sewage treatment plants -- but largely failed to finish the pipes connecting them to residents.

Then came Rio's rush to host the 2016 Olympics. As international media ran embarrassing images of the polluted bay, Rio earmarked nearly $1 billion to clean it.

But the state declared insolvency weeks from the Games. It never came close to fulfilling its promise to bring the sewage-treatment rate to 80 percent.

"Guanabara Bay has become a graveyard of failed projects," says ecologist Sergio Ricardo, a co-founder of environmental group Baia Viva.
Fishermen without fish

On a mucky, fetid bank off the bay's northwest corner, fisherman Gilciney Gomes brandishes two of the myriad plastic bottles he has pulled from the water.

"Am I supposed to feed this to my family?" says Gomes, head of the Caxias Fishing Colony, a fishermen's association.

Gomes lives near the Jardim Gramacho landfill at the bay's edge, once the biggest open-air dump in Latin America. Officially closed in 2012, it continues leaching a toxic slurry into the bay, environmentalists say. An illegal dump nearby still receives trash by the truckload.

Former fisherman Gilciney Lopes Gomes, 62, shows his dirty hands after collecting recyclable materials in a river that flows into Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 
Andre BORGES AFP

The bay's banks here are clogged with plastic, diapers, clothing, tires, furniture and appliances.

Major chemical and oil companies operate facilities nearby that have leaked toxic industrial pollution into the water, say fishermen and activists.

Gomes, a father of four, says there are no longer enough fish and crabs in this region of the bay for fishermen to survive.

"We've become garbage-diggers," says Gomes, who started working as a nine-year-old boy digging garbage at the dump and is now back to selling recyclable trash at age 61.

Biologist Mario Moscatelli, who runs a program to replant mangrove forests at the former dump site, calls Guanabara Bay "a microcosm of how environmental problems are managed in Brazil."

"This disaster has been created by disorganized urban growth, booming slums, lack of public-housing policy for the poor, lack of universal access to the sewage system. And the environment always pays for it," he says.

Still, he says, he is willing to give Aguas do Rio a shot.

"We gave the state 50 years to make this mess. We can give the company five."

© 2022 AFP

Emotional reunion for escapees from 'liberated' Irpin


Emotional reunion for escapees from 'liberated' Irpin86-year-old Olga Molchanova arrives in Kyiv after fleeing her home in Irpin, which has come under intense bombardment from Russian forces 

(AFP/RONALDO SCHEMIDT)


Danny KEMP
Mon, March 28, 2022

Deafened by shelling, the elderly woman steps down from an ambulance on the edge of Kyiv, to be smothered in tearful embraces from her son and daughter.

They had no idea whether 86-year-old Olga Molchanova would be among the final residents being evacuated from the devastated commuter town of Irpin.

But her husband Mykola, 81, is still in Irpin, declaring that "he'd rather die there, handicapped with crutches," her daughter Agnesa Brovkina said.

Olga left hours before Ukraine's interior minister said that Irpin had been "liberated" from Russian forces but that the town remained dangerous.

AFP journalists said heavy shelling continued late Monday on the road leading to Irpin, with some 20 loud explosions in the forest next to the highway.

"I just pray to God for salvation. I pray every day for the soldiers who defend us. Let them have courage," Molchanova cried, wringing her hands.

Molchanova raises her hand to her ear when anyone speaks to her, and her daughter explains that a month of fighting since Russia's invasion has ruined her hearing.

"My mother was deafened by a rocket. All the time, non-stop, shelling. All day and night, bombing, shelling, all of it," said Brovkina, a 62-year-old office worker.

"They want to destroy Irpin".

- 'Crushed by tanks' -

Most people have already fled the once quiet suburban town on the strategic northwestern entrance to Kyiv, leaving mainly the elderly and the sick to endure nearly a month of Russian bombardment.

After crossing a broken bridge across a river, the escapees are taken in ambulances to a dusty evacuation centre on the outskirts of Kyiv.

They have endured hellish conditions, but at least they survived.

"We saw those cars which tried to get out on their own, they were crushed by tanks, with people inside," said Olga's son Roman Molchanov, 55, his voice cracking with emotion.

His sister added that the "Russian orcs" had "shot dead people sitting in their cars."




The siblings fled Irpin when Russia opened a "humanitarian corridor" on March 8 but their parents refused to leave with them.

They've been trying to get them out ever since.

Most of those emerging from the ambulances that come from Irpin are elderly people, clutching their meagre belongings, but not all.

Ten-year-old Misha Romanenko holds his little dog for comfort after he escaped with his parents. An aid worker hands him a chocolate bar.

"It is important that I don’t cry in front of him, then he holds up" says his mother Yelena Moisak, 41.

They had been depending on a well in their yard for water for days, and decided on Monday to finally flee on foot, before the military picked them up.

- 'Incoming' -

The future for them remains uncertain, despite Ukraine's claims to be making gains in several areas as it pushes back Russia's stalled advance on the capital.

Ukraine's interior minister said late Monday that Irpin had been "liberated" -- echoing earlier comments by the town's mayor -- but it remained too dangerous to return to because "a sweep is going on completely through the streets" by security forces.

Fighting was still going on when the mayor made his announcement just before sunset.

"That’s incoming," one of a group of Ukrainian soldiers said as they leant against a Humvee after several nearby shell explosions.

"We’re still waiting" for confirmation that the town is fully under Ukrainian control, he said, adding that anyone going further did so at their own risk.

dk/rl/lc

Cairo To Kyiv: Social Media's Rocky Ride Through Conflict Zones


By Joseph BOYLE with Bahira Amin in Cairo

03/28/22 

When Yarema Dukh set up Ukraine's official Twitter account in 2016, he knew that social media was the best way for his country to get its message out.

"We never had the means like the Russians to found multinational media like RT or Sputnik," the former government communications adviser told AFP over the phone from Kyiv.

Since Russia's full invasion last month, the Kyiv government has used social media to highlight atrocities, issue messages of defiance and even share a joke or two.

Young Ukrainians have used TikTok to chronicle life under Russian siege and tech enthusiasts have commandeered Telegram channels to organise donations of cryptocurrency.

On the other hand, Russia has launched an onslaught against Western tech firms and all but ended free speech online.

The Ukraine war marks the expansion of social media in conflicts from a tool of the outsider to a genuinely ubiquitous presence.

Facebook was hailed during the Arab Spring revolts, but its reputation was later tarnished 

Photo: AFP / KHALED DESOUKI

But the tortuous history of its relations with protest movements and governments -- from 2011's Arab Spring to Myanmar today -- suggests Ukraine will have to fight to hold on to its gains.

Back in 2011, Facebook was far from the behemoth it is today and Twitter barely registered in many countries.

"We were fighting to carve out a space in the margins," said Hossam El-Hamalawy, an Egyptian activist who became a prominent voice during the Arab Spring protests.

The revolts across the Middle East and North Africa became known as the "Facebook revolution" but the jury is still out on its overall role.

Hamalawy said social media's real power was not as an organising tool but as a way of amplifying the message.

Volodmyr Zelensky has harnessed the power of social media in Ukraine

 Photo: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE via AFP / Handout

"I knew that anything I wrote on Twitter would get picked up (by mainstream media)," he told AFP from his home in Berlin.

In the early 2010s in Ukraine, Dukh says the most popular social media was a blogging platform called LiveJournal.

But then a journalist posted a message on his Facebook in 2014 promising to launch an anti-government rally if he received 1,000 replies.

When he got enough replies, he went to Maidan square in the heart of Kyiv and launched a protest that brought down the pro-Russian government.

The exposure also helped Facebook become the number one social network by far in Ukraine.

During this period, the US tech giant was happy to embrace its association with outsiders and protesters.

Images of young people in Myanmar flashing a three-finger salute spread quickly on Facebook 

Photo: AFP / STR

Company boss Mark Zuckerberg wrote in 2012 that the firm was not interested in profits but rather in empowering people to carry out social change.

However, social media companies were already in a much more complex position.

Burmese journalist Thin Lei Win said 2012 was the moment when Facebook "became the internet" in Myanmar.

"Everything was on Facebook and everybody was sharing everything," she told AFP.

But some of the messages being shared were incendiary, spreading false information that stoked violence between Buddhist nationalists and the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Percentage of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter users between January 2011 and February 2022 in Ukraine, Myanmar and Egypt

 Photo: AFP / Eléonore HUGHES

By 2018, a UN rapporteur called the platform a "beast" and accused it of inciting racial hatred.

The wheels came off in Egypt too, where faction fighting among protesters on the street was mirrored by bitter feuds online.

Protest leader Wael Ghonim, whose Facebook messages had helped to galvanise the movement, told US broadcaster PBS in 2018 that he soon became a target of online disinformation.

"I was extremely naive," he said, "thinking that these are liberating tools."

Meanwhile in Ukraine, the Maidan revolution was also turning sour.

Moscow had used it as a pretext for annexing Crimea and sowing unrest in Ukraine's east.

Dukh, as a new recruit in the government's communications team, found himself battling Russian troll farms.

Activists in Arab Spring countries now lament how the platforms they once lauded have been retooled to serve the powerful.

A group of NGOs wrote an open letter to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube last year accusing them of supporting repression by systematically shutting accounts of dissidents across the region.

In Myanmar, a military junta seized power in a coup early last year, ending several years of liberalisation.

Dissent quickly spread across social media with the three-finger salute borrowed from the "Hunger Games" movies proving popular.

But Thin Lei Win said the authorities were aware that Burmese people were enthusiastic sharers and began stopping people in the streets and demanding to see their phones.

"If you had posted anything on your social media critical of the junta or supportive of the NUG (National Unity Government) you could be arrested," she said.

Facebook and other platforms closed accounts of the Burmese generals shortly after the coup and, according to Thin Lei Win, established platforms have hugely improved their record with disinformation.

Thin Lei Win and activist groups point out that the generals have since hopped on to other networks and their messages still get through.

"It's like whack-a-mole, you close something, something else pops up," said Thin Lei Win.

Younger companies like TikTok and Telegram have been criticised for continuing to host Burmese military propaganda.

In Ukraine too, TikTok and Telegram have both been accused of failing to tackle Russian disinformation.

But Dukh, who left the Ukrainian government in 2019, continues to see the positive side of social media.

He said Ukraine had learnt lessons from its years of dealing with Russian disinformation and could share them with the world.

"We are good learners and I hope after the victory we'll be good teachers as well," he said.

AUSTRALIA

Budget papers show Morrison government plans to cut climate spending if it wins election


Reduction in spending across clean energy agencies represents a 35% annual cut over four years

The energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor. The 2022 budget papers show climate spending is expected to fall from $2bn next financial year to $1.9bn, $1.5bn and $1.3bn in the three years that follow. 

Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Adam Morton Climate and environment editor
THE GUARDIAN, AU

Tue 29 Mar 2022

On the climate crisis and the natural environment, the story of the 2022-23 budget is one of what isn’t there as much as what is.

Armed with scientific warnings about the need for all countries to rapidly scale up action to keep alive the chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the Morrison government plans to cut climate spending if returned to power at the election.

The 2022-23 budget papers show it is expected to fall from $2bn next financial year to $1.9bn, $1.5bn and $1.3bn in the three years that follow. The fall represents a 35% annual cut over four years.

The figures are spelt out in a section of the papers added under the former prime minister Tony Abbott, who wanted people to be able to see how much total climate spending – which he opposed – was contributing to government debt.


The diminishing sum is for spending across clean energy agencies expected to do the heavy lifting under the Coalition’s much-vaunted “technology, not taxes” approach to emissions reduction and other climate programs.

It includes funding to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena), the “direct action” emissions reduction fund, programs to develop a “clean” hydrogen industry and resilience programs to protect the Great Barrier Reef, which is currently suffering through its fourth mass bleaching event in six years.

The cut may in part be due to a recent decision by Angus Taylor, the energy and emissions reduction minister, to allow businesses to break contracts to sell carbon credits to the government under the emissions reduction fund so they can instead sell them on the more lucrative private, voluntary market. The budget papers say this will contribute to a $2bn improvement in the budget bottom line over the next four years. That additional cash has not been redirected into other climate programs.

The government says it is spending $22bn on low-emissions technology, but that commitment is over a period beyond the life of most governments – about a decade. Most, but not all, of that funding has been promised to top up funding for the CEFC and Arena, which were created a decade ago under a deal between Labor, the Greens and independents.

The Coalition initially tried to abolish them. More recently it has embraced them and tried to broaden their role to also fund gas power, “clean” hydrogen made with gas and carbon capture and storage, but been blocked in parliament.

Taylor says the budget includes $1.3bn of spending on energy and emissions reduction, not all of it to be spent over the next four years.

It focuses on hydrogen and includes projects that will add to the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. There is $300m to support new liquefied natural gas and “clean” hydrogen production in Darwin, another $247m to help companies investing in low-emissions technologies including hydrogen and $50.3m for gas infrastructure.

The latter was announced by Taylor earlier this month as part of the Coalition’s promised “gas-fired recovery”. Oddly, given the government’s zeal for gas as an energy source, it did not rate a mention in Josh Frydenberg’s budget speech. He did mention another commitment that was consistent with the budget’s focus on regional Australia: $148.6m for community solar and wind microgrids in areas too remote to have access to the power grid.

On the natural environment, there was little beyond what had already been flagged. It included $1bn for the reef spread over nine years, mostly to help clean up agricultural run-off affecting water quality, and $804m for Antarctic research and strategic capability over a decade. They read like big sums, and the Antarctic funding has been applauded, but the reef money in particular is diluted by the extended timeframe – it is really just a continuation of existing funding and, experts say, a fraction of what is required. As the government acknowledges, the climate crisis remains the biggest threat facing the 2,300km reef system.

The government also announced $636.4m over six years to boost the number of indigenous rangers working on land and sea management by up to 1,089, though most of the funding was not due until after 2025.

Sussan Ley, the environment minister, pledged $60m for plastic recycling, a $100m extension of an existing community-focused environment restoration fund and $128.5m as part of its promise to change how the environmental impact of development proposals are assessed.

The latter, also announced earlier this month, includes a commitment to set up “bioregional plans” so projects in nominated areas do not need individual federal assessments.

Little detail has been released. It is possible it could help address a major flaw with the current system – its failure to factor in the cumulative impact of different projects that destroy habitat and affect threatened species and ecosystems. But conservation groups are concerned it could further water down Australia’s environment protection laws, which everyone agrees are failing.

A once-a-decade government review by the former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel last year found Australia was on a “trajectory of environmental decline”. The bottom line is there is nothing in this budget on the scale needed to start to address that.

Australia budget 2022 LIVE updates: federal treasurer Josh Frydneberg’s announcement and speech – latest news

Full report: billions on offer for households

A budget designed for an election – Katharine Murphy

Explore all of our 2022 Australia federal budget coverage

BREXT UK CUTS DEVELOPMENT FUNDS

Aid Ukraine but don't forget other crises, NGO pleads


Jan Egeland says he has never known a crisis like this but stresses the West must not divert aid from poor countries also suffering from the fallout of the Ukraine war (AFP/Petter Berntsen) 


Pierre-Henry DESHAYES
Mon, March 28, 2022

As it rushes to help Ukrainian refugees, the West must not divert aid from poor countries also suffering from the fallout of the war, the head of a major refugee aid organisation warned.

"In my 40 years as a humanitarian worker, I have never, ever seen three million people displaced by war and conflict every week for a month", Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), told AFP in an interview.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, more than 10 million people, or more than a quarter of the population, have fled their homes.

Of those, more than 3.8 million have fled the country to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, though the outflow has slowed in recent days.


Poland alone has welcomed more than half of them, but Romania, Moldova -- one of the poorest countries in Europe -- Hungary and Slovakia have also taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees each.

Volunteers, organisations and NGOs are doing their best to help.

"I saw 2015 which started with 'Refugees, welcome to Europe' in the beginning of the year when people were coming across the Mediterranean".

"And I saw it end with the European championship in barbed wire erection, where each country was fighting to avoid protecting and shielding women and children fleeing from terror and violence in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere".

There "will not be the same amount of volunteerism in six or nine months from now, and that's why we need government services to take over", he said.

- 'Horrifically negative news' -

The European response to Ukraine's needs has been "very good so far", Egeland said.

"The Ukraine appeal was (for) $1.7 billion and it came immediately as a humanitarian appeal for funding. It was fully funded within days", he noted.

"I wish we had the same response to the Yemeni appeal, which was addressing even more people that were even poorer in Yemen."

"It asked for $4.2 billion and we got less there than we got for Ukraine", he lamented.

Launched on March 16, the Yemen appeal resulted in $1.3 billion in pledges to come to the aid of 17.2 million people in a war-torn country on the brink of famine.

"There's no doubt that a war in Europe is horrifically negative news for the poorest people of the Sahel", he said.

"Everything has become much more expensive", he noted.

"The wheat that they got from Russia and Ukraine may not now come. Prices are going through the roof. Fuel is much more expensive. Our operations are much more expensive".

"At the same time, some of the donors are diverting funding from the very poor countries to Europe."

Observers fear that a lack of grain could trigger food riots in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to the UN, grain prices have already exceeded the levels seen at the start of the Arab Spring and food riots of 2007-2008.

"And thirdly, we see the Cold War now between the powers that we need to cooperate on (UN) Security Council resolutions", Egeland said.

"How will we have resolutions on Syria in the future if Russia and the US cannot cooperate anymore?"

- Forgotten crises -

"We need now to defend the aid budgets", Egeland said.

In Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Somalia, aid workers recount "how overwhelmed they are, how overstretched they are in exploding emergencies and nobody seems to care".

"So that's our challenge: respond to great needs in Europe, and especially inside Ukraine, and then at the same time respond to needs equally elsewhere".

Each year, the NRC draws up a ranking of the world's most neglected crises.

The Democratic Republic of Congo topped the list in 2020, ahead of Cameroon, Burundi, Venezuela and Honduras.

"I hope that the outpouring of resources for Ukraine, the volunteerism for Ukraine, the willingness to receive and shield and help Ukrainians, will also be translated to the emergencies elsewhere from Syria to Ethiopia, from Afghanistan to Venezuela", Egeland said.

phy/po/cdw

NEO FASCIST STATE
Five fates that tell the story of Hungary under Orban


Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who hopes to win a fourth term in a row in elections on April 3 (AFP/Attila KISBENEDEK)

Blaise GAUQUELIN
Mon, March 28, 2022

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban calls his 12 years in power a "conservative revolution", transforming his country into an "illiberal democracy".

His critics -- including many in Brussels -- accuse the nationalist strongman of neutering all opposition.

Hungary is now the only European Union country considered merely "partly free" by the US think tank Freedom House.

To illustrate the changes Orban hopes to set in stone by winning a fourth consecutive term on April 3, AFP approached major figures in Hungary's judiciary as well as its business, media and religious worlds.

Four who have found themselves on the wrong side of Orban's revolution agreed to talk.

But of the winners, neither Orban himself nor several of his ministers responded to repeated interview requests.

Zsolt Andras Varga, who was appointed to head Hungary's Supreme Court despite criticism that he had no relevant experience, agreed to speak but only after the election.

Only one of the six figures we approached whose stars we have risen under Orban would be interviewed, an MEP for his Fidesz party.

He batted away Brussels' claims of an authoritarian slide, saying Hungary was just trying to take back "its sovereignty".

- The sacked judge -

Viktor Orban swept back to power in 2010 with a large majority after switching Fidesz's liberal stance in the early post-communist years into a conservative nationalist one.

Buoyed by the emphatic victory, Orban -- who was previously premier between 1998 and 2002 -- turned his attention to the judiciary.

"That's the first obstacle to absolute power," said Andras Baka, the former head of the Supreme Court, known in Hungary as "the judge who said no" to Orban.

"They made me leave because I criticised reforms which were incompatible with European law," said Baka, 69.

"It was a political decision clearly" he told AFP.

Baka was suddenly sacked in 2012 after he claimed that lowering the retirement age of judges from 70 to 62 was actually a purge in disguise.

The law European Court of Justice deemed his dismissal illegal, and Baka won another case against the government in the European Court of Human Rights, which said his removal was a violation of freedom of expression.

Nevertheless, Orban has not backed down.

- The cast out pastor -

Gabor Ivanyi, a widely respected 70-year-old Methodist pastor, was once part of Orban's inner circle. He officiated at Orban's wedding and baptised his first two children.

Known for his decades of activism against the former communist regime, he fell out of favour when he refused to back Orban politically.

His sharp condemnation of the government's "indifference to the poor... apparently wasn't appreciated," he said.

The Fidesz government has faced criticism for its treatment of the Roma minority and its crackdown on homeless people.

Then a 2011 law on religious institutions, cut the number of recognised communities from some 300 to just 14.

Ivanyi's was not one of the chosen few.

The law was "tailor-made" to strangle his church financially, he claimed, and ended up costing him his health.

Deprived of public funds, Ivanyi has been reduced to dodging bailiffs to keep his homeless shelter open.

In late February his offices were raided by the tax authorities over alleged fraud.

While churches across Hungary are being renovated as part of Orban's drive to "re-Christianise" the country, Ivanyi says "every month I don't know if I can pay my 10 staff."

- The journalist forced off air -

In 2013, Orban made headlines by attacking Western media for vilifying his dream of a new conservative Hungary as "Orbanistan".

"In the media, everyone is liberal," he said.

"If you don't want to be dependent on how they depict you, then build your own structures," he said.

"Find businessmen with more traditional opinions to create media outlets," he said.

Ever since, more and more independent Hungarian media outlets have shut down or been taken over by those close to Orban, according to press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

"Can we even talk about media (in the plural) when 500 of them say the same thing, word for word?" said Andras Arato, head of Klubradio, whose radio frequency was taken away last year by Hungary's media regulator NMHH.

They said the station had broken administrative rules, but Arato believes it was revenge for Klubradio's often critical tone.

Forced to become an online-only operation, it has lost 90 percent of its advertising.

"We can count our advertisers on the fingers of one hand," said Arato, 68.

"If you take out ads with us, you can expect a nice tax inspection and you won't get any more public contracts," he claimed.

The station is still on air thanks to twice yearly fundraising drives and the generosity of its listeners, but Arato worries for its future.

Hungary was 25th in RSF's world press freedom rankings in 2009. It has since slid to 92nd behind Kyrgyzstan and Haiti.

- The targeted businessman -

Billionaire Laszlo Bige -- Hungary's "Fertiliser King" -- believes he is being targeted by prosecutors "under orders" from Orban's government.

"Police occupied one of our factories" three years ago saying it was causing pollution. Deliveries across the world were disrupted, he said.

"There still haven't been any charges."

Last year his company Nitrogenmuvek was fined, along with seven others, for allegedly running a cartel.

Bige denies wrongdoing. He claimed the moves are part of a campaign to try to get him to sell up to an oligarch linked to the government.

In its last report on the rule of law in Hungary, the European Commission denounced rampant "clientelism", "favouritism" and "nepotism" in "the links between the private sector and political circles" in Hungary.

"Everyone has fallen into line, I don't know anyone who would dare say two honest sentences now," Bige said.

"Afterwards they would have to face consequences for that," he added.

He refuses to give in, saying he wants nothing to do with "the mafia that runs Hungary".

As for the vitriolic articles that regularly appear about him in the Hungarian press, he claimed "they're written in advance and sent to the newsrooms.

"They've given the green light to target me, they destroy people's lives," he sighed.

- The grateful MEP -

Fidesz MEP and longtime Orban supporter Balazs Hidveghi said noses were always going to be put out of joint.

"After 12 years of government with a solid majority and an unshakeable desire to reform, the fact that there has been a renewal of the elites is totally logical," he said.

A member of the party since he was 18, Hidveghi rose rapidly through the ranks after 2010, becoming an assistant secretary of state and party communications director before being elected to the European Parliament.

A 52-year-old father of four, Hidveghi comes from a long line of politicians and is grateful to Orban for turning the page on Hungary's communist past.

After the 1956 uprising was crushed by the Soviet Union, Hidveghi's father was imprisoned for a year.

"Everything had to be rebuilt, especially conservative thought" after the fall of communism. The Catholic bourgeois intelligentsia had been dispossessed or pushed into exile and were again marginalised by liberals in the post-1989 transition from communism, he argued.

Hungary was forced "to run behind whatever the West was doing," Hidveghi said.

But Orban has given he country back its independence, he insisted, freeing it from European tutelage and "speaking directly" to Russia and China.

"The quest for sovereignty is a keystone of our politics and that explains why we are so misunderstood" abroad, the MEP argued.

As for the complaints of Orban's critics, they are no more than "the frustrations of the opposition, who are sore losers."

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Caring about conservation is not enough. We need to make it pay

BY JOHN KAHKEWA

MARCH 29, 2022

Local groups know how to protect nature and support local communities, but they need help with realistic funding and commercial expertise.

Local women watching gorillas in natural habitat in Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Credit: Pole Pole Foundation.

With climate change high on the agenda, the world is increasingly realising the importance of protecting biodiversity. This is much needed. However, there is a risk that well-intended interventions will spend a lot of money with minimal impact if they are poorly designed.

To avoid that fate, it is vital that community-led organisations are involved in the planning and delivery of conservation projects, that they are provided with secure long-term funding, and that they are supported by external expertise to scale up and commercialise projects. Local organisations usually have the best understanding of the local situation – and that understanding is crucial to designing effective interventions that ensure conservation supports both the protection of biodiversity and development.

I first learnt this 30 years ago while working as a Ranger in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I kept finding that the people we arrested for poaching were the same ones that I had grown up with. When I asked them why they poached, they replied “empty stomachs have no ears”. While I benefited from the park through my job as a ranger and tourist guide, they received nothing.

Most poachers are not malicious. They are just trying to earn an income to support their families. In areas of high unemployment and malnutrition, and where people are dependent on timber for building materials and charcoal for cooking, poaching and deforestation are inevitable unless people are given an alternative. They need support, not anger. With support, people can go from being poachers to protectors of nature. To protect biodiversity, we need to make conservation work for communities by creating jobs and incomes for local people. This model has been shown to work, such as in Namibia, where community conservation areas cover 20% of the country.

Money problems

Community-led conservation programmes understand this and know what needs to be done, but they often have trouble accessing funding. Grant applications and the paperwork associated with them are getting longer every year. That paperwork must all be filled in, often in a second or third language, without any certainty over whether an organisation will receive a grant. If grant-funding is received, it is short term and still carries a heavy burden of paperwork. For small organisations with few resources, all of which are focused on saving wildlife and supporting communities, this burden makes it very challenging to plan for the long-term and leads to people spending more time in the office than out in the field doing their job.

Having an audit trail for funding is of course important – all organisations need to be held to account for their spending – but the paperwork burden means that, increasingly, only those able to hire professional grant application writers can receive funding. Such a situation creates a divide within the sector and means more money is going to consultants and less to the field. By way of example, the UK government’s IWT Challenge Fund application runs to over 20 pages for just the initial “stage 1” proposed project summary.

Short-term funding also makes long-term planning difficult. Many of our colleagues have been involved in projects that worked well at first, but then failed due to a lack of continued funding. We all work in difficult environments, but uncertainty over funding is like operating with one hand tied behind our back. It also leads to ineffective use of grant money as projects are not seen through to the end.

A better process would be to identify promising organisations and provide them with funding and support for a minimum of five years. Organised crime groups and illegal loggers involved in poaching and deforestation offer a reliable source of funds for those they recruit. If we cannot do the same, our efforts to save nature and support communities are doomed to fail.

Making conservation pay

Challenges over grant funding point us towards another piece of the puzzle that does not get nearly enough attention: accessing commercial finance to scale our approaches to truly make conservation pay.

Eco-tourism is often held up as the commercial solution to conservation, and many successes have been achieved combining eco-tourism with community engagement such as Mountain Gorilla conservation in Rwanda. However, as the recent pandemic has shown (and as we knew before, having seen the effects of conflict on eco-tourism in the DRC) being dependent on tourism exposes projects to permanent weaknesses.

We need to diversify our revenue sources and find more ways to create jobs. Because if conservation can provide income, revenue, food and resources to communities, nature will be protected. In simple terms, if it pays it stays.

We have launched several successful projects in this space, such as our Spirulina nutrition centre and Vegan Club. Both projects were developed using outside expertise combined with our understanding of what needed to be delivered on the ground, namely a solution to malnutrition. But these projects are still small scale. We need bigger “buffer zones” around national parks where commercial activity can take place, providing jobs and revenue, and keeping people and wildlife separate to avoid conflict. Initiatives like COMACO in Zambia have shown one way with their “It’s Wild” brand supporting farmers who otherwise might have become poachers to earn a living, but we need more programmes like it.

Crucially, community projects cannot deliver large-scale commercial solutions by themselves. They need outside expertise. Not simply people who mean well and care about wildlife, but those with commercial experience who know what makes a good business and how to launch and scale commercial enterprises. With their support to develop successful “bioeconomy” businesses, we can create the jobs and revenue to make sure conservation pays and communities benefit.

Me and my team at the Pole Pole Foundation know what needs to be done, as do many other community-led organisations like us, but we don’t always know how to do it. We need support from outside experts to help build our skills, knowledge, and experience to develop the commercial solutions required to protect nature and provide development to surrounding communities and the country at large. This is eminently achievable, but it needs to be done right, utilising knowledge from community organisations, providing long-term finance to ensure continuity, and partnering with experts to scale and expand our impact.

Then, slowly but surely, we will protect nature and help the people and countries that protect nature prosper. We can, we shall, and we must.

---

The Pole Pole Foundation was honoured to be nominated by RAS and recognised as one of fifteen finalists in the inaugural Earthshot Prize 2021. As finalists, they are sharing their blueprint for national park conservation, working to influence donors, governments, conservationists and commercial organisations to deliver best practice around the world.

'Trash has value': Kenyan inventor turns plastic into bricks





Kenyan engineer and inventor Nzambi Matee moulds a sludge made from shredded plastic and sand into eco-friendly bricks that are tougher, lighter and cheaper than concrete.

 (AFP/Simon MAINA)

Nick Perry
Mon, March 28, 2022

"Plastic still has value," said Nzambi Matee of the mountains of discarded oil drums, laundry buckets, yoghurt tubs and other trash being shredded into colourful flakes at her Nairobi factory.

"I believe that plastic is one of the misunderstood materials."

The 30-year-old Kenyan engineer and inventor would know: her start-up recycles tonnes of plastic destined for landfill into eco-friendly bricks that are stronger, cheaper and lighter than concrete.

A creation of her own design, these sustainable paving blocks already line roads, driveways and sidewalks in Nairobi, but could soon also serve as an alternative building material for low-cost housing.

Every day her enterprise, Gjenge Makers, churns out 1,500 bricks made from industrial and household plastic that otherwise would be dumped in the city's overflowing garbage heaps.

The young entrepreneur quit a job in oil and gas -- the very industry that makes plastic from fossil fuels -- to explore recycling after being shocked at how little trash was being reused.

"In Nairobi we generate about 500 metric tonnes of plastic waste every single day, and only a fraction of that is recycled," said Matee, who bounds with energy around the factory floor in denim overalls and trainers.

"And that made me think -- what happens to this plastic?"

Their pavers already line roads, driveways and sidewalks in Nairobi, but could soon also serve as an alternative building material for low-cost housing. (AFP/Simon MAINA)

- Stronger, lighter, cheaper -

Most winds up in landfill, rivers and oceans, and less than 10 percent is recycled.

In Nairobi, one of Africa's fastest-growing capitals, Matee found an endless supply of raw material to work with, scouring the city's tips and industrial zones for unwanted plastic.

It took several years to perfect a prototype -- the machinery required was custom built and sourced from spare industrial parts -- but by 2019 production was steadily underway.

The shredded plastic is mixed with sand and subjected to extreme heat, producing a sludge that is moulded into different sized blocks.

The end result is a paver that is anywhere between two and seven times stronger than concrete, half the weight, and as much as 15 percent cheaper, says Matee.

It is also more durable.

Plastic is fibrous in nature, and the unique production process prevents air pockets from forming within the bricks. This results in greater compression strength than conventional paving stones that crack under heavy force or prolonged weather exposure.

"Because of that, it doesn't break," said Matee, clapping two of the plastic bricks together sharply.

In 2021, they recycled 50 tonnes of plastic but Matee hopes to double that amount this year as production expands.

- Big plans -

There are limitations.

Of the seven major types of plastic, only four can be recycled into bricks.

PET plastic -- the kind used in plastic bottles and a major scourge on the environment -- is not yet compatible, but they hope to change that.

"There is more that can be done, there is more that needs to be done. We are just a single drop in the ocean... small, small drops will make a big effect," Matee said.

They are trying to break into the affordable housing market by designing a block that can replace or complement bricks, mortar and other standard building materials.

A prototype is in the works, with plans to build a model home by the end of the year.

"We want to be the leaders in alternative building products. Our first area of attack is plastic," Matee said.

Her trailblazing work has attracted accolades, and earned another boost earlier this year after she designed a custom gavel for a major UN environment summit where the plastic trash crisis topped the agenda.

Gjenge Makers has also created over 100 direct and indirect jobs through recycling plastic –- helping both livelihoods and the environment in a way Matee says wasn't possible working with fossil fuels.

"Let's just say I sleep better," she said with a grin.

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Senegal's water-stressed capital faces difficult future

by Laurent Lozano

A population boom in Senegal is intensifying pressure on scarce water resources.

Many residents of the Senegalese metropolis Dakar get up in the middle of the night hoping to collect water from their taps, which mostly run dry.

"We wake up at 4 or 5 am to get water, says Sidy Fall, 44, in her kitchen in a working-class neighbourhood, filled with large bottles of stored water.

If she doesn't get up in time, the water often runs out by 5:30 am. Fall's taps are sometimes dry for two or three days at a time.

A population boom in Senegal is intensifying pressure on scarce water resources in its semi-arid capital of five million people, with problems set to increase over the coming decades.

This is common to many African cities, where infrastructure investments have lagged behind strong demographics and demand for water from industry and agriculture.

In Dakar, a recent World Bank report pointed to poor water management as part of the reason for shortages, along with overexploitation and groundwater pollution.

But demand for water has kept increasing too, sending municipal officials racing to improve infrastructure to secure supply.

"Water is a source of life, but here water is a source of problems," said Khadija Mahecor Diouf, the mayor of the Dakar suburb Golf Sud, at a public meeting last week.

Population explosion

Golf Sud's population has risen from 70,000 to 125,000 people in 10 years, Diouf told AFP, and is predicted to double in the next decade.

Half of all households in the suburb have problems with water, she said.

A recent World Bank report pointed to poor water management as part of the reason for 

shortages.

"We have a population that has exploded, urban planning schemes that have not been respected," Diouf added, predicting that the problem would get worse.

About a third of Senegal's population of 17 million people lives in the Dakar region, which is also the country's economic nerve centre.

But there are myriad complications tied to the runaway expansion. The sewage system is often lacking, and parts of Dakar routinely flood during the rainy season.

Diouf said water cuts are a problem "all year round".

Senegal's government, for its part, said 99 percent of urbanites and 91 percent of rural dwellers had access to water.

Supply remedies

The authorities are pushing to remedy supply issues in the capital and the government says it has made considerable infrastructure investments.

Babou Ngom, from the state water company Sones, said new investments meant that supply would soon match demand.

Dakar is supplied by four plants that pump water from a lake some 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of the city—as well as from over-exploited aquifers.

The fourth plant came online last year: Ngom said it would produce 200,000 cubic metres per day by the end of 2022—which would guarantee Dakar's water supply until 2026.

Sones is also building a desalination plant on the Dakar coastline, due to open in 2024.

The government argues it has made considerable infrastructure investments.

While Dakar residents are quick to blame the government, national consumer association president Momar Ndao concedes there have been improvements.

Often water is only available on ground floors, however, and consumers are increasingly complaining about exorbitant prices, he added.

More water

Sen'eau, a private firm that has managed Dakar's water on behalf of the state since 2020, argues it is not to blame for recurrent shortages.

The firm—in which French utility company Suez has a 45-percent stake— is the target of broad popular frustration.

But Diery Ba, a Sen'eau director, said the company had inherited crumbling water infrastructure, which it has set about improving.

"Almost no neighbourhood had water 24 hours a day," he said.

While upgrades to the network had led to water cuts, this "adjustment period" was coming to an end, he added.

Higher bills were also a result of consumers simply consuming more water than they once did, he said.

Despite improvements, a question mark still hangs over Dakar's future water supply.

According to the World Bank, Senegalese water consumption is due to increase between 30 and 60 percent by 2035.

The country "urgently needs to prioritise water security," the bank said.

Senegal's capital floods again as experts blame poor planning

© 2022 AFP