By Abiola Olawale
The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has announced on Friday that it will be partnering with Ecole Urbaine de Lyon in hosting the first School of Ecology (SoE) for 2021.
Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey announced this during a recent virtual press conference. He said the Ecole Urbaine de Lyon (Lyon urban School), France will organize the third edition of Ecole de l’Anthropocene (School of Anthropocene). He also added that the program will run for one week, from 25th to 31st of January, 2021.
Bassey further stated that the program will feature many African ecologist.
“Featuring in the SoE are Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety and Mama dou Goita of IRPAD, Mali who will be speaking on “Who feeds the planet”, Firoze Manji of Daraja press speaking on “Plantain and Extractivism”and Ikal Angelei of Friends of Lake Turkana, Kenya, speaking on “Green Colonialism.”
The SoE aims to explore the problems that plague our environment. The school will also formulate solutions to the environmental problems. While speaking on this, Basset expressed his concerns about the current geological age called the “Anthropocence”.
He said, “sustainability has been on the card for decades and everyone speaks about sustainable development. Yet the three circles of sustainability which includes the economy, the environment and social aspects covering the 3ps representing people, planet and profit, are not balanced in the scheme of corporate operations. Focus is mostly on the economic aspect of sustainability leading to economic system of exploitation, destruction, dispossession and extractivism.”
Bassey also advocated for a new approach to the challenge of Climate change, saying the new approach should focus on repairing connections which have been weakened by undue competition and lack of solidarity and care among humans.
He said, “we must stay connected to reclaim the pathways that will make the universe livable. We must reconnect to ourselves and to mother Earth. We can continue with business as usual.”
HOMEF’s SoE is an ecological think tank organisation advocating for environmental/climate justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and Africa at large.
The organization is focused on unearthing the systemic roots (social, political and economic factors) of environmental and food challenges.
