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Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Indonesia’s first certified timber enters Europe

Indonesia and the European Union (EU) have signed a agreement to issue the world's first Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) timber licence as a major achievement in the fight against illegal logging, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has given its support to the initiative to combat illegal logging and boosts sustainable livelihoods.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that as of 15 November, the FLEGT licence could accompany shipments of timber exported from Indonesia to EU member states to certify that the timber has been harvested, transported, processed and traded according to Indonesian law.

"Indonesia has taken important steps to strengthen forest governance, combat illegal logging, modernize its forest sector, and improve business practices," said Robert Simpson of FAO's FLEGT Programme, which supports tropical timber-producing countries engaged in FLEGT initiatives.

"In addition to helping to limit the environmental damage caused by illegal logging, demonstrating timber legality opens the door to promoting the sustainable livelihoods of forest communities and increasing access to international wood markets," he said.


NaijaAgroNet recalls that Indonesia supplies one third of tropical timber imports by value to the EU, one of the world's largest consumers of timber products. Since 2013, the EU Timber Regulation has prohibited European companies from placing illegal timber and timber products on the EU market.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Anambra still savouring $5m export of vegetables

The Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano has said that his four pillars of economic blueprint including Agriculture, Industrialization, Trade and Commerce and Oil and Gas, has started yielding dividends, even as the state still savouring the exportation of vegetables (Ugu) punkin leaves and (Onugbu) bitter leaf,  valued at $5 million to Europe, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Experts also defined Ugu as Telfairia occidentalis, a tropical vine grown in West Africa as a leaf vegetable and for its edible seeds. Common names for the plant include fluted gourd, fluted pumpkin, and ugu.

While Onugbu - Bitter leaf also known as Vernonia amygdalina, is a vegetable used for preparing the popular Bitter leaf soup. Also known as Onugbu, Shiwaka and Ewuro by the Igbos,

Speaking in Abuja in an interactive session which attracted Ndi Anambra residing in the North central part of the country at Transcorp Hilton recently, Gov. Obiano said that the state is now a socially stable, business-friendly environment attracting both indigenes and foreigners to seek wealth-creating opportunities.

He also told the profile audience which comprised the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, Dr.  Oby Ezekwesili both PDP and APC members of the National Assembly, former Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju and leadership of the Anambra State Investment Agency (ANSIPPA), charged with the mandate of attracting and fast-tracking investments in the state has so far attracted over $4.2 billion deals to the state.

The latest investment he confirmed was sealed on Tuesday last week with Zolt Energy Limited to build a 40 megawatts Embedded Power Generating Plant in Ogbaru. When completed in the next 18 months as scheduled, all the power generated from it will be distributed mainly in Anambra State.

On the state of agriculture, Obiano who was giving a score card of his two and half years stay in office disclosed that “in January this year, Anambra made headlines when it became the first state in Nigeria to export vegetables (Ugu and Onugbu) valued at $5million to Europe. 

Further, Obiano said "Our locally produced brand of rice known as Anambra Rice recently emerged the Best Rice in Africa at an African Products Forum in Lagos. Anambra Rice was adjudged better and more wholesome than other competing brands from South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Namibia and Cameroon.”

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Thursday, May 26, 2016

FAO names Carlo PetriniSpecial Ambassador Zero Hunger for Europe



President of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini has been named FAO Special Ambassador Zero Hunger for Europe, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva praised Petrini's contribution to increasing public awareness on the need to improve agriculture in Europe and ensure a sustainable food supply chain.

He also said that Petrini's nomination and his involvement in FAO's advocacy activities will "send a strong signal to the international community that we can create a world where no one is hungry”, adding that it would contribute towards building the Zero Hunger Generation and ending hunger by 2030.

As a Special Ambassador Zero Hunger, Petrini will help ensure a better understanding of FAO's vision of a world free of hunger and malnutrition in which food and agriculture contribute towards improving livelihoods, particularly those of poor people.

Slow Food is an international, non-profit grassroots organization that aims to promote quality food produced and distributed in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, having over 100,000 members worldwide and is active in 160 countries.

Okoli Vincent/GEE

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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Digitally reconstructed skull provides insight into dinosaur brain



NaijaAgroNet:
Some experts have described one of the most complete sauropod dinosaur braincases ever found in Europe, with a digitally reconstructed skull providing insight into dinosaur brain, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This finding, scientists said could help uncover some of the mysteries of how dinosaur brains operated, including their intellectual and sensory abilities.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the team had digitally reconstructed the cavity where the brain lay, the passages of the cranial nerves and certain blood vessels as well as the labyrinth of the inner ear.

An extract from a journal PLOS ONE published Wednesday, the team led by a senior research fellow from The University of Manchester, Dr Fabien Knoll, described the rare find. 

“Skulls, and particularly the braincases, are very fragile so not many have survived. That is not the case with this find, which is remarkably complete,” Dr. Knoll said, stressing that the skull, from a titanosaur, a type of sauropod, was found at a dig site in eastern Spain in 2007 and experts have spent the last few years studying it to see what secrets it may reveal.

“This is such a rare finding that is why it is so exciting. Usually we find vertebrae or other bones, very rarely the braincase and this one is complete. I was present on the dig site when it was uncovered and it was a very special moment,” he said.

Pointing out that nowadays, man knew very little about the brain of dinosaurs. Research such as this is fundamental if we want to get an idea about the cognitive skills of these animals or if they had keen hearing or good eyesight and plenty of other information.”

The titanosaur  lived about 72 million years ago. Like all sauropods it was four-legged with a long neck and a long tail and herbivorous. It was a distant relative of Diplodocus but, with about 14 m in length, was only half its size. The study shows that its brain fitted in a diminutive cavity of only 6.3 cm in length.

Dr Knoll, who made the first digital reconstruction of a dinosaur endocranial cavity in the late 1990s, said: “In a few years’ time if more finds like this come to light and, above all, if they are studied with the modern imaging technologies then we could really start to understand more about dinosaur brains.” 

Isaac Onyima +ITRealms DSA

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