Date: 2013-06-11

Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki(CON), (PDP, Kwara Central), Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment & Ecology and Founding President of GLOBE Nigeria chaired a special session at the GLOBE Natural Capital Summit that took place between June 6-8 at the German Parliament in Berlin. Other National Assembly and GLOBE Nigeria members that formed the Nigerian Delegation to Berlin were Honorable Aminu Shagari (PDP, Yabo/Shagari - Sokoto) and Honorable Ayo Omidiran (ACN, Ayedaade/Irewole/Isekan - Osun).

Delegations from over 20 countries attended the summit. Notable international speakers includes the Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, German Cabinet Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Hon. Dirk Niebel, CEO and Chair of the Global Environment Facility, Dr. Naoko Ishii, World Bank Director of Agriculture and Environmental Services, Mr. Juergen Voegele, Georgian Deputy Finance Minister, Hon. Giorgi Tabuashvili, Georgian Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Hon. Khatuna Ghodaladze, Mr. Ivo Havinga from the Chief Economic Statistics Office of the United Nations Statistics Division and Mr. Yuvan Beejadhur of the World Bank WAVES Initiative.

GLOBE Nigeria established on 12th March 2013, is the newest chapter of the GLOBE family. GLOBE Legislators Organisation (GLOBE International) is a global network of legislators who are committed to addressing the major sustainable development challenges through coordinated policies and legislation. GLOBE legislators from around the world meet and share their experiences of advancing legislation and scrutinizing government commitments in other to achieve sustainable development. GLOBE International's policy programs focuses on climate change, biodiversity, deforestation and natural capital. With a current bicameral membership base of over 40 environmentally minded National Assembly members representing all political parties, geographical zone and gender, activities within the Nigerian chapter have picked up.

According to Mr. Innocent Onah who Coordinates GLOBE Nigeria Secretariat, the summit formally launched the GLOBE Natural Capital Legislation Study covering 8 pilot countries covers Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Georgia, Germany, Peru, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. The Special Advisor and Head of UNEP's Green Economy Initiative, Mr. Pavan Sukhdev while presenting the study to the German Minister for Development and Economic Cooperation stated that there's a strong link between natural capital and poverty reduction and that destroying ecosystem services mean depriving the poor from developing themselves which implies that investing in natural capital means investing in sustainable development.

Saraki who was the leader of the Nigerian delegation while chairing presentations by Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru and the United Kingdom observed that turning the concept into effective action in Nigeria would need strategic partnership between the Federal Ministries of Environment, Finance, and National Planning starting from a massive cross-sectoral awareness campaign on the issue and setting up a national ecosystem service assessment and economic valuation study.

Saraki further reiterated that the concept of natural capital conservation is multifaceted and underscores the importance and the connection between our very survival as a people and the health of the Nigerian environment. He stated that there is increasing desertification impacting North from the Sahel belt, massive gully erosions in the East, Coastal Erosion in the West and oil spill degradation in the South South all calls for concerted effort in taking the issue of natural capital accounting very seriously. Representatives from Germany, the European Union Georgia, South Africa, Peru, Japan, Denmark and Botswana all took similar positions.

The summit was the first major legislator's conference organized under the GLOBE Natural Capital Initiative (GNCI), an international legislative initiative aimed at supporting legislators to develop and introduce domestic legislation on the incorporation of Natural Capital into government accounting frameworks. As legislators have responsibility for passing laws and approving budgets, it is critical for them to share best practices, identify policy proposals that are appropriate to local national interests and to link with key experts on Natural Capital Accounting. At the end of the summit a communique cosigned by all countries present was issued calling on countries to start the process of assessing the value their ecosystem services brings to the development of national economies with a view to developing sustainable natural capital legislative frameworks by 2020.

GLOBE Nigeria is expected to join her colleagues from other countries at the International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation Policy, Practice and Legislation to be held in Beijing, China between July 2nd to 4th 2013.