Environment

In South Sudan, access to energy is crucial for survival, recovery and resilience in what is an extremely challenging economic and security environment. Fueling Poverty—a product of the Energy on the Move project—examines the challenges of meeting everyday energy needs for the urban population of Juba. Recent urbanisation, conflict and economic crisis have fundamentally reshaped the amount and forms of energy that people can access. Primarily this has involved a major expansion of the charcoal trade and reliance on urban markets for purchasing household fuel, with implications for environmental degradation and conflict potential in the surrounding rural areas. In particular, the report focuses on the lives of Juba’s women, who are at the forefront of the daily effort to find fuel. It concludes that more efforts—both national and international—should be made to improve access to clean and affordable energy sources, which are fundamental to the health and wellbeing of both people and environment.

This report examines policy and institutional response to climate change and environmental disaster risks, with the view to providing recommendations to the government and its partners in South Sudan on where to focus their environmental policy interventions. To get a sense of the policy and institutional measures, we interviewed key government officials and examined legal and policy documents on environment, disaster management, food security, seeds, agriculture and livestock, fisheries, forestry, wildlife, land, electricity and petroleum and related institutional frameworks in target areas.

Climate change has increased the frequency of severe droughts, floods, storms and cyclones in various parts of the world (IPCC 2007, IPCC 2012, IPCC 2013, Meadowcroft, 2009). In South Sudan, seasonal patterns have become erratic and rain-fed agricultural areas have decreased significantly in the northern and eastern parts of the country (Funk et al., 2011). Rainfalls have decreased in South Sudan by 10-20 % and temperatures have increased by more than 1 ºC since the middle of the 1970s. These rainfall and temperature changes are linked to increase in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) since the industrial revolution (IPCC, 2013, IPCC, 2012, the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences, 2014). The atmospheric CO2 has worldwide increased by 40% since the industrial revolution, and about 70% of this has been emitted since the mid-1970s (ibid).



Observations suggest that patterns in which floods and droughts occur in the same season have become widespread, with droughts happening earlier in the season around May/June and floods occurring later around August/September in South Sudan. These climatic shocks have wider negative impacts on people in terms of food security, health, and safety needs. The government and relevant actors can develop policy and institutional measures to address these shocks.

This review explores the magnitude of this year’s flood and its impacts in Bor Town. We used a boat to get us around the town surveying the extent of flood water and measuring its depth in the streets and in the residential neighborhoods. We also used the GPS to capture the geographical coordinates submerged under water, showing exactly the depth of flood in the town by locations.

In the context of the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), May 2019, this brief summarises key considerations about bushmeat (meat derived from wild animals for human consumption)in the context of preparedness activities in South Sudan. The brief details the socio-cultural and socio-economic significance of bushmeat amongst at risk communities and perceived risks of Ebola transmission through bushmeat. Its geographic focus rests on South Sudan’s south-western border with the north-eastern border of the DRC, where Yambio is the state capital and primary population hub. Key considerations and recommendations are tailored for this specific area, and may not be necessarily generalisable for other parts of South Sudan or beyond.

The brief is presented in two sections. ‘Section A’ focuses on bushmeat in light of the immediate risk of Ebola transmission from the active outbreak in the DRC to South Sudan (i.e., cross-border human-to-human transmission and in relation to the bushmeat trade). ‘Section B’ focuses more broadly on bushmeat in this specific geographic area, and the longer-term risk of a new Ebola or other infectious disease outbreak in South Sudan, as related to local bushmeat practices (i.e., unrelated to the current outbreak in DRC). The structure of this brief is designed to separate these issues and to support response partners to differentiate between the priorities for immediate preparedness activities underway in South Sudan and longer-term prevention actions.

This paper explores the history and ongoing transformation of the South Sudanese Sudd marshlands as a buffer zone in a variety of subsequent projects of domination and their sub-version. Its argument will be that the contemporary geopolitics of the Sudd cannot be understood properly without unwinding the historical layers of contestation and conflict around these projects of control and their reversal, projects which have sought to shape and have been shaped crucially by the area’s specific ecology. For more than a century, different external ventures – colonial, nationalist, secessionist – encountered in the southern Sudanese marshlands a formidable buffer to the realization of their various projects of control. Ambitions of making the Nile water flow, establishing effective state author-ity, or building lines of communication, get stuck in the Sudd’s difficult terrain. Building on the political ecology and wider social theory on terrain, resistance and warfare, The authors conceptualize the Sudd as a lively political ecology – one characterized by constant struggles and accommodations between the centripetal logics of state-making and the centrifugal propensities of vernacular political culture.

Local content requirements promote national capacity, employment, economic diversification, and economic growth (Kazzazi and Nouri 2012, Tordo et al., 2013). Local content develops capacities that link the oil and gas sector to other industries. While over 80% of the oil and gas sector’s workforce is South Sudanese, little is known about their earning levels, experience, and educational attainment, compared to their expatriate colleagues (Tiitmamer, 2015). This paper analyzes human resources data from two of the joint operating companies and determines how the South Sudanese compare to the expatriates. Second, the paper reviews the local content clauses to determine possible gaps in an effort to inform amendments stipulated in the Revitalized Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (RARCSS). The study reveals several insights with public policy relevance. First, nearly 90% (87.95%) of the oil and gas sector employees are South Sudanese. Second, expatriates, many of them Chinese, earn an average of $29,312.56 per month, compared to just $1,858.11 (6% of total income) for an average South Sudanese. Third, expatriates are extremely averse to sharing data on prior experience, education, and other professional qualifications, complicating comparisons with the South Sudanese workforce. This raises questions about the good will of oil and gas sector partners in the country. Finally, the Petroleum Act, 2012 inadequately addresses the local content matters, lending the oil companies leverage to exploit the South Sudanese. These findings support a call for immediate action, including developing strict enforcement and monitoring mechanisms and amending the Act.

Using experimental data from a pilot project administered in rural Tonj South, Aweil West, and Aweil North, this paper studies climate services reception and application in South Sudan. The pilot climate service was first of its kind directly delivered to farmers and agro-pastoralists in the country. The results are encouraging: a vast majority of the project beneficiaries received climate conditions advice, used it, trusted it, and are now interested to make use of such services in the future. This positive reception implies a growing interest by agro-pastoralists and farmers to use weather forecasts to make informed farming decisions. We recommend a number of policies to strengthen this interest, with the objective of improving livelihoods for the rural population. First, there is need to establish a permanent national technical working group on climate services to coordinate, review, translate and disseminate climate information to key end users (e.g., agro-pastoralists, farmers, health professionals, airlines, etc). Support for this group could be drawn from the Global Environment Facility. Second, a financial and meteorological strategy for long-term climate services in South Sudan is desired. Third, the stakeholders should institute a climate data sharing agreement for more informed coordination and decision-making. These data would need generating using equipment that meets the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) standards. Fourth, more studies to increase understanding of the role of traditional rainmakers and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), creating an integrated climate services model to inform livelihoods and policies, are suggested. Finally, the stakeholders should mobilize resources to improve national capacity on climate information by strengthening South Sudan Meteorological Department through equipment acquisition, training and exchange visits with global forecasting centers, such NOAA’s Africa Training Desk.

Climate change poses global risks. These risks adversely affect women in developing countries because of their little capacity to adapt. Previous studies show that women are more vulnerable to climate change than men for a variety of reasons, including illiteracy, low socioeconomic skills, inadequate access to assets, and social isolation, among others. Thus, if empowered, women can contribute significantly to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Limited understanding exists on climate change gender impact disparity in South Sudan. Using literature and empirical data, we find that in South Sudan: Women are at the lower rung of social hierarchy, which produces imbalances that highly expose them to climate change disasters; Women have less resilience assets, rely more on natural resources, have high rate of illiteracy, low skills and low access to professional employment, which make them more vulnerable to climate change calamities than men, and Households headed by females are more vulnerable to disasters such as famine.

When the South Sudanese Petroleum Act was enacted in 2012, a flicker of hope of a better environmental management was felt after many years of environmental degradation due to negligence by the government in Khartoum. However, since the Act was passed three years ago, environmental ruin has continued. So what explains the continued social and environmental impacts of oil production in South Sudan? This paper, therefore, evaluates the extent to which the environmental provisions of the Act have been enforced, and attempts to identify the gaps and challenges facing the implementation. To determine the level of enforcement, we conducted structured interviews with key officials from the ministries of Environment and Petroleum and Mining and Nile Petroleum Corporation.
We found that environmental provisions in the Act have not been implemented as expected, no wonder that environmental degradation has continued. Only 23% of environmental standards, which have no reference to the Petroleum Act 2012, have been enforced and most of this enforcement happened before the Act was passed. Some of the factors and challenges cited as responsible for lack of implementation include the shutdown of oil operations in 2012, ongoing civil war, delay in the enactment of overall national environmental law and in establishment of an independent and technical environmental body, nonexistence of political will and lack of environmental awareness, among others. Some of the gaps identified include lack of provisions on climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA), Environmental Management System (EMS) and detailed processes on principles and triggers for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).

During times of severe food shortages, alternative sources of food are the only means of survival. When crops fail or are destroyed, markets, houses, livestock and food stores are demolished or stolen, and movement is limited due to conflict, local populations have only two sources of food left; aid and what is locally available in the surrounding environment. The utilization of wild plants, fish and game becomes a primary coping mechanism for people affected by conflict. While the killing of wild game is illegal, and fishing is supported with distributions of tools, knowledge on the role of indigenous wild plants in diets is not well understood. Although vital during times of food shortage, wild plants are also a normal part of diets in South Sudan. Research has found that wild plants are “the nutritional equivalent of- and in some cases are superior to- introduced vegetables and fruits” and their use both diversifies and improves diets.1 Some wild plants are particularly nutritious and could potentially play a significant role in creating a sustainable source of much needed nutrients in South Sudan.

Further some wild plants also hold economic value and are already traded in local, and even international markets. The domestication or sustainable collection of wild plants with agricultural or economic potential could create alternative sources of both income and food. Distribution of food aid is costly, unsustainable and not always a possibility. The potential for developing or promoting a local, sustainable food source should not be ignored. Utilizing and sharing indigenous knowledge on wild plants, including which ones are edible, how to prepare them and which have economic value, could play an important role in supporting communities. The expansion of the use of wild plants is not an immediate solution to the dire food situation currently found in South Sudan, and should not be promoted as such. However, the humanitarian community should not ignore any potential local solutions that exist. The correct utilization of indigenous wild food plants could play a significant role in improving the lives of people suffering due to conflict and food insecurity.