corporate control in african agriculture

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In July 2021 the African Union (AU) released a Green Recovery Action Plan for the continent, in the context of COVID-19 and climate change. The basis of the plan is that a “clean and resilient recovery in Africa will lead to employment in the industries of the future whilst ensuring that we address the linked challenges of public health, prosperity and climate change.” The plan is a sort of blueprint with which it encourages AU member states to align or develop national programmes and policies related to climate and biodiversity, along five priority areas.

The African Union (AU) has embarked on a mission towards harmonising seed regulatory frameworks across the continent, beginning with the establishment of a set of Guidelines on seed law harmonisation. 

The African Centre for Biodiversity, along with other civil society organisations and farmers’ associations from Africa, have actively engaged in the development of these Guidelines. In April 2021, we attended an online stakeholder consultation and then provided preliminary comments.

On 13 August 2021, the journal Science published an article titled, Integrate biodiversity targets from local to global levels, that included ACB executive director Mariam Mayet and research and advocacy officers Linzi Lewis and Andrew Bennie as co-authors. 

We are honoured to be part of this incredible team of African scientists, conservationists, and community leaders offering a paradigm that transcends the neo-colonial conservation model – being both nature-positive and people-centred – in the build-up to COP15, where the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) will be adopted by members of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).