From Volume 37, Issue 42 of EIR Online, Published Oct. 29, 2010
Africa News Digest

WWF Calls Lake Chad, Sudan Sudd Off-Limits for Human Development

PARIS, Oct. 19 (EIRNS)—Large parts of the Lake Chad basin, a world priority for upgrading through the proposed Transaqua Project of moving water from the Congo River to refill the disappearing Lake Chad, are listed as untouchable for development by Prince Philip's World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The specific designation is that there are wetland habitats for bird life in the Lake Chad basin that must remain off-limits to human projects, under the protocol that was devised at a meeting in 1971 of 18 nations at Ramsar, Iran, held by the environmentalist/genocide lobby.

The agreement is titled the "Convention on Wetlands of International Importance," specifying that each country must designate on its own territory, certain sites to be locked up in the "Ramsar List," now managed by a secretariat run out of the offices of the IUCN in Gland, Switzerland. In 1999, a "strategic framework" was designed "to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the ecological and hydrological functions they perform."

Chad itself has inscribed Lake Chad (1.7 ha) and the Logone floodplains (3.0 ha) on the list, and Niger did the same (340,423 ha). Cameroon has its part of the lake (12,500 ha) on the list, together with some 600,000 ha of the Waza Lagone Floodplain (one of the rivers feeding into Lake Chad).

In addition, critical parts of the Sudd in southern Sudan, are on the Ramsar list. This vast marshy area, created by the White Nile, could be "polderized"—transformed into useful farmland—by completing construction of the Jonglei Canal. But fully 5.7 million hectares of the swamp are listed as a "Ramsar Site" to be frozen for eternity.

As of September, 160 nations have signed the Ramsar List convention, and there are 1,898 sites on the list. This represents a total surface area of over 186 million hectares (more than five times the area of Germany!).

The WWF and its cohorts use environmental issues worldwide to prevent economic development, by asserting that human needs are not primary, and that 'saving the environment' is somehow contradictory to improving human development.

Chad Website Covers Transaqua Presentation to Schiller Institute Conference

PARIS, Oct. 22 (EIRNS)—The Chadian website Nouvel Essor yesterday posted an item from the LaRouche-affiliated Solidarity and Progress (Solidarité & Progrès) website, with most of Marcello Vichi's presentation to the Sept. 25 Schiller Institute conference, "Rebuilding the World Economy—NAWAPA, the Bering Strait, and the Eurasian Land-Bridge," in Berlin. In his written presentation, which was read on his behalf, Vichi, the author of the Transaqua study and former director of the company which developed it, advocated the enormous Transaqua infrastructure project, to transport surplus water from the world's second largest river, by volume, the Congo River, to replenish Lake Chad.

In the introduction, the website asks: "While France claims one more time to want to fight for food security in the world, and the ritual of summits and strategic conferences gobbles up almost as much money as the food aid ... nothing is said about the great projects that could radically resolve the problem. What will France do at the World Forum To Save Lake Chad, being held in N'Djamena on Oct. 29-31? Will it preach anti-progress environmentalism or will it defend the Transaqua project to refill it with water?" The posting can be seen at http://nouvelessor.over-blog.com/ article-lac-tchad-mort-douce-ou-grands-projets-59383523.html

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