Here are the ABN's most recent publications. For the full archive, please click here.

Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) launches at COP17.

African farmer and civil society groups in Africa are celebrating the launch of a “network of African networks”, called the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). The African Biodiversity Network is a founding partner of AFSA which is working to promote agroecology as a solution to climate change, feeding people, biodiversity, livelihoods and healing the soils.

AFSA have released a report emphasising that Food Sovereignty can cool the planet, while feeding the world and regenerating ecosystems.

The CDM and Africa: Marketing a New Land Grab  Released 23rd February 2011

This new report from the ABN, The Gaia Foundation, Biofuelwatch, Carbon Trade Watch and the Timberwatch Coalition highlights the failings of the UN's Clean Development Machanism (CDM) as more pressure is placed on Africa's land.

The United Nation’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one of the processes by which developed countries attempt to mitigate the climate change impact of their greenhouse gas emissions and meet targets for reducing emissions under the Kyoto Protocol (KP). Through the CDM, developed countries claim to “offset” their emissions, by paying to support developing country projects that are supposed to either reduce GHG emissions, or absorb carbon dioxide (CO2).

The majority of projects aiming for CDM funding so far have been in Asia and Latin America, and have largely focused on supporting industries in those countries to reduce GHG emissions.  Africa, being less industrialised, should in theory be on the receiving end of CDM project funding from developed country investments, but in fact has relatively few CDM projects in place. The projects that do exist in Africa, or are currently planned, present serious challenges and negative impacts, and whether they have provided any climate or community benefits is questionable. 

Read the full report here.

2010 Reports

Biofuels: a failure for Africa | (2.6Mb) Released in December 2010, this report by the ABN & The Gaia Foundation, and the Ethiopian Society for Consumer Protection exposes the flaws and failures of biofuels production, using evidence from Ethiopian farmers' experience of three key biofuels crops. An essential 'reality check'.

ABN position paper on climate change - prepared for COP16 in Cancun, December 2010 | (228Kb) The ABN's official response to the false solutions of agrofuels, biochar, GMOs, REDD and industrial agriculture, delivered ahead of the climate negotiations in Cancun.