Science and Technology News in the Developing World

• Algeria: Major Science Funding

• Armenia: Discovery of Oldest Shoe in the World

• Bolivia: Indigenous Drink - Coca Colla

• Burkina Faso: Biosafety Law in Local Languages

• Egypt: Launch of WIPO Development Agenda Group

• Guyana: Oil Rich New Tree Species

• India: Intellectual Property Rights Patenting of Yoga Asanas

• Iran: Nanoscope

• Iraq: Cost Effective Concrete

• Libya: Nuclear Technology for Irrigation

• Pakistan: Cherry Tomatoes Using State-of-the-Art Plant Technology

• UAE: University-Industry Partnership

• Third Meeting of BASIC Ministers - Joint Statement

Algeria: Major Science Funding

On 23^rd May 2010 the Algerian parliament approved a bill to spend 100 billion Dinars (US$1.48 billion) on science over five years. The budget, unusually high for the Arab world, aims at reversing brain drain and bringing our scientists back home. The bill will allow the country to double its expenditure on scientific research, from 0.5 to one per cent of its GDP, way ahead of the 0.2 per cent average in Arab countries. Some 34 research programmes will be implemented during the first phase of the project, while the number of scientific researchers will increase from 21,000 to 28,000 and the number of scientific labs to 1,200 in five years. This will still be below the European standards of 600 researchers per million people, but it represents a huge step forward. Funded programmes will cover areas such as agriculture, health and energy, with emphasis on applied research and technology. The new project will allow a quantum leap in scientific research because it would reduce bureaucracy and give research centres more autonomy in decision-making, especially regarding financing projects.Academic sources said that around 150 talented researchers working in Canada, Europe and the United States have expressed their will to return home, but they are still waiting for the assurance that they and their families will be secure and economically comfortable. The Ministry of Higher Education has invited the researchers to submit proposals which will be evaluated by an international expert committee and 2-year contracts will be signed with researchers in November.

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Armenia: Discovery of Oldest Shoe in the World

PhD student Ms Diana Zardaryan of the Institute of Archaeology in Armenia, an archaelogist, found the oldest shoe in the world, with even the shoe-laces in preserved state, in a cave in the Vayotz Dzor region of Armenia, near the settlement of Areni, which is known for its wine industry. Vayotz Dzor sits on the border of Nakhichevan (An enclave of Azerbaijan) and Armenia, near the Armenian province of Ararat, which borders Turkey. The region is part of the Fertile Crescent, which is an area of the world where first civilizations began. The cave, Areni 1, is well known in the area due to its high visibility and the amount of dwellings in the cave. The 5,500 year old shoe made of cowhide and tanned with oil from a plant or vegetable was found perfectly preserved under layers of sheep dung and dates to around 3500 B.C. as validated by three seperate radiocarbon dating tests and is approximately 1000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), and about 400 years older than the oldest parts of Stonehenge (The area was used in rituals since ~8000 B.C. but the trench and chalk bank are from around 3100 B.C.). The previous oldest shoes in the world were found on the feet of Otzi the Iceman, a 5300 year old body found frozen in an Austrian glacier. The Areni shoe is also remarkably similar to shoe styles that were around for thousands of years after that period, looking much like the pampooties that were popular in the Aran Islands of Ireland into the 1950's. So while the Areni shoe is the oldest shoe in the world, the style has lived on for millenia. Both Otzi's shoes and the shoe from Areni, however, do not have the distinction of being the oldest known footwear in existence. The plant-fiber sandals found in Arnold Research Cave, Missouri outdate the Areni shoe by 2000-2500 years, although they are not technically shoes. Along with the shoe, the cave has yielded evidence of an ancient winemaking operation, and caches of what may be the oldest known intentionally dried fruits: apricots, grapes, prunes. The scientists, financed by the National Geographic Society and other institutions, also found skulls of three adolescents in ceramic vessels, suggesting ritualistic or religious practice. One skull even contained desiccated brain tissue older than the shoe, about 6000 years old.

Source: PanARMENIAN.Net, 11^th June 2010

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Bolivia has come up with a fizzy beverage it says is the real thing: Coca Colla. The drink, made from the coca leaf, a mild stimulant that wards off fatigue and hunger, and has been in use in the Andes for thousands of years in cooking, medicine and religious rites, named after the indigenous Colla people from Bolivia's highlands, went on sale in mid-April across the South American country. Coca is also the raw ingredient of cocaine, the powerful narcotic. It is black and sweet and comes in a bottle with a red label, priced about $1.50 for half a litre. The socialist government vowed zero tolerance for cocaine but expelled drug enforcement administration agents, accusing them of spying, and encouraged Bolivian companies to use coca to make teas, syrups, toothpaste, liqueurs, sweets and cakes. If the coca spin-offs work out, the government said the area of land authorised for legal cultivation of the leaf may expand from 12,000 hectares to as much as 20,000 hectares.

Source: The Guardian, 14^th April 2010

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Burkina Faso: Biosafety Law in Local Languages

Source: Crop Biotech Update, 21^st May 2010

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Egypt: Launch of WIPO Development Agenda Group

At the meeting on 26^th April 2010 of the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP), the Egyptian Ambassador, Mr.Hisham Badr, announced that a new group of developing countries named the WIPO Development Agenda Group (DAG) had been formed. The DAG comprises WIPO member states that are like-minded in their support for a development-oriented perspective on IP issues, and the mainstreaming of the development agenda across all areas of WIPO's work. The DAG currently has 18 developing countries, Algeria, Brazil, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uruguay and Yemen. Egypt currently coordinates the Group. According to the statement by the Ambassador, the adoption of the Development Agenda by WIPO's General Assembly in 2007 was a milestone in achieving the aspiration of developing countries for a paradigm shift from viewing IP as an end in itself to viewing it as a means to serve the larger public goals of social, economic and cultural development. The implementation and mainstreaming of the recommendations of the Development Agenda (adopted by the WIPO General Assembly) now presents a considerable challenge. It requires a sustained and multi-faceted approach to the range of WIPO activities. A 4-page document, the Development Agenda Group's Guiding Principles Paper, is attached to the Egyptian statement, which provides the background to the Development Agenda initiative by developing countries in WIPO, and gives details on the group's views on how the Development Agenda should be implemented.

Source: South Bulletin, 3^rd May 2010

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Guyana: Oil Rich New Tree Species

Botanists have discovered a new species of tree, Carapa akuri, in Guyana with commercial significance. This species had long been mistaken for Carapa guianensis, a tree widely dispersed across the Amazon and commonly logged for the furniture industry. Carapa akuri is named after the red-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) which is likely the main seed disperser of Carapa in Guyana. The indigenous Makushi name for the agouti is 'akuri'. The find is significant because it is an important source of natural oil for Makushi Amerindians and the cosmetic market. Oil from Carapa's large seeds is used for a variety of purposes, including treatment for dandruff and rashes, insect repellent and as a moisturizer. When produced from Carapa guianensis the oil is known as Crabwood oil or Andiroba. The species is also endemic to the region and may be at risk from logging, providing new impetus for protecting its diverse rainforest habitat. This single tree can save a forest as it is an important source of sustainable development within the Iwokrama forest, Guyana's innovative forest reserve that has become the centerpiece for the country's efforts to protect its forests through sustainable management.

Source: Non-Wood News, January 2010

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India: Intellectual Property Rights Patenting of Yoga Asanas

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of India has prepared patent formats of nearly 900 yoga asanas (postures) to prevent European and American companies involved in fitness-related activities from claiming them as their own. Video recordings of the asanas are also being made and recorded to prevent them from being stolen. All these asanas will be included in the digitalised Traditional Knowledge Library (TKDL), set up by the Council to collect and record traditional treatment therapy knowledge. Medicines and yoga asanas registered with it enjoy the status of being patented. These 900 asanas have been collected from Patanjali's classic work on yoga, as well as other ancient classics like the Bhagwat Gita. The CSIR began the project in 2006. A number of countries had already laid claim to around 250 of these postures. Some foreign companies have even patented some of them. Foreign companies have been selling some of the yoga postures as therapies to relieve stress or backaches. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) alone has issued around 3000 patents on yoga postures and their variations. The CSIR's next step will be to move against the yoga patents already registered abroad.

Iran: Nanoscope

Nanoscope is an imaging system to provide resolution at the nanometer scale by using the application of nanotechnology. It is a high-tech device, for which only 6 nations worldwide possess the necessary technical and production capability. Among these, Iran has also completely in-house designed and constructed the nanoscope. Recently Iranian President presented his Brazilian and Venezuelan counterparts with a locally produced Nanoscope as a token of peace and friendship between the three nations. The Iranian Nanoscopes have technical/operational compliance and lower price compared to those from the other 5 supplier countries, because of which these are in demand by many countries.

Source: IraNNano, February 2010

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Iraq: Cost Effective Concrete

With funding from Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), Iraqi scientists have prepared and produced polymer quick setting concrete of high qualities and made of local raw materials. It is non-poisonous and resistant to chemicals and temperature, and can be produced using simple technology. Hence it is very feasible both economically and technologically as compared to the currently used kinds.

Source: COMSTECH VISB, 31^st May 2010

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Libya: Nuclear Technology for Irrigation

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was the key in dismantling Libya's atomic bomb programmes, is now involved in developing a more peaceful use of nuclear technology in North Africa. In Libya, a project by IAEA and the government is using isotopic and nuclear techniques to improve agricultural water management. Constraints to water use efficiency are identified with these techniques, and appropriate land and irrigation management practices are put in place to enhance more crops per drop of water and improve soil water storage. IAEA reports from Libya that the project is already giving results. Fertigation, which is the application of fertilizer through drip irrigation system, was said to be an efficient way of controlling water and nutrients in the root-zone helped to increase yield of the potato tuber by more than 150 percent, and reduced the water and nitrogen fertilizer use by more than 50 percent. Proper fertigation management identified through nuclear techniques resulted in tremendous savings of water and fertilizer and reduced the environmental impact of irrigation and fertilizer application. Additional benefits had included savings on chemical and labour with increased income for farmers. With support from IAEA, drip irrigation and fertigation is now becoming a well adapted water management practice on light-textured soils of coastal belt in Libya. The Biotechnology Research Centre in Tripoli carried out a series of drip fertigation for potato production. Drip fertigation is a potential irrigation and nitrogen management tool for potato production in Libya that can improve field water-use efficiency.

In neighbouring Algeria, nuclear techniques are now being used to stop desertification, soil salinisation and the recent drastic reduction of arable land. In the western part of the country, where major irrigation schemes are located, some 30 percent of arable lands are risking to be lost to desertification and salinisation. Algerian authorities, together with IAEA, have started a project in western Algeria using nuclear techniques to reduce salinity induced land degradation through developing appropriate irrigation, drainage, soil and crop management practices so that preventive and corrective measures of salt-affected agricultural lands can be established. The use of nuclear technology in Algeria's agricultures is mostly defined to the mapping of problem areas, such as monitoring salinity levels, measuring nutrition levels and identifying water quality. This again can be used to control irrigation scheduling according to crop needs, thus assuring healthy crops and avoiding further salinisation of soils. This peaceful use of nuclear technology in North Africa indeed is a welcome contribution to agricultural science. Sub-Saharan Africa is among the regions that could benefit most from this research. 18 African countries are now participating in a new regional irrigation project to introduce and pilot-test appropriate small scale irrigation technologies with the aim of developing irrigation systems for small-scale farmers for increasing yield and quality of high value crops and to improve their income and livelihood.

Source: afrol News, 24^th March 2010

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Pakistan: Cherry Tomatoes Using State-of-the-Art Plant Technology

The biotechnology wing of HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi, Pakistan, working under the umbrella of ICCBS, the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences, has cultivated cherry tomatoes using state-of-the-art plant technology. Seeds of cherry tomato were initially taken from Canada and germinated at the biotechnology wing. For initial adaptation the plant was grown in green houses where environmental conditions were comparatively controlled and insects free environment. After first cultivation from seeds, disease-free and healthy plants were propagated at mass scale using plant tissue culture techniques and cutting techniques. The newly propagated plants were allowed to grow for fruiting in such a system that they utilize the maximum light, humidity and nutrient sprayed. Liquid fertilisers (greener, blooming enhancer and stress supplement) developed at the ICCBS were also used. The synergetic effect of growing techniques such as plant tissue culture, cutting and auto pot system, and liquid fertilisers bestowed upon plant the several characteristic features, including fruiting round the year, longer fruit shelf life (more than 30 days), increased number of fruits, untiring successive, flowering and fruiting and full of pulp. The tomatoes could be picked when they are glossy and evenly coloured, except in the case of streaked heirloom tomatoes. A handful of plants will produce a large volume of the small tomatoes, especially once they really get going in the hot summer months. 'In cooler climates, cherry tomatoes do best in a greenhouse, especially if temperatures get below 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius). The mass scale propagation using these techniques is in a successful progress and soon will be introduced for marketing as a new variety of tomato fruit with excellent features and its plants for local farmers for cultivation in mass scale.

UAE: University-Industry Partnership

The United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), a leading national university, has officially launched an education programme 'Ta'awon' in partnership with the Dubai Aluminium Company and other leading businesses. The programme aims to promote the role of the university in leading scientific and engineering research for the UAE, allowing students to work with companies on real-life science and engineering challenges and is a first step in implementing the Gulf country's 'UAE Vision 2021' project which focuses on using innovation, research, science and technology to build a knowledge-based, highly productive and competitive economy. The idea is diversification and creating sustainable wealth, driven by entrepreneurs in a business-friendly environment where public and private sectors form effective partnerships. Announced in late March, the private-public cooperation programme focuses on reforming higher education so it gives graduates greater competence as innovators and they can then enhance the economic growth of the country by developing its human resources capabilities. This is a Dubai initiative to enhance industry collaboration with prominent universities in the UAE embodying a commitment to giving UAEU students exceptional opportunities to work on genuine engineering problems and aiming at providing support for students enrolled in engineering colleges, with respect to their graduation projects. An economic report published by the National Bank of Dubai in December 2007 stated that the UAE had increased the share of engineering and science students to 29% of all higher education students in an attempt to encourage innovators in its economy. A composite ranking index focusing on the quality, performance and volume of research, and the rate of growth for research quality in various regional organisations classed the UAEU as the top university among the six other Arab Gulf States, second among the 22 Arab States and ninth among 57 Islamic countries.

The Third Meeting of the Ministers of the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) on Climate Change took place in Cape Town on 25-26 April 2010. Expressing their determination to continue to show leadership in acting on Climate Change, the BASIC Ministers issued a Joint Statement at the conclusion of the deliberations, which had the following highlights:
 

Developing countries strongly support international legally binding agreements, as the lack of such agreements hurts developing countries more than developed countries. The internationally binding legal agreements already exist in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its' Kyoto Protocol. In accordance with the Convention, Brazil, China, India and South Africa are taking ambitious nationally appropriate mitigation actions, as announced in Copenhagen.

In accordance with the mandate of the Bali Roadmap, such agreements must follow two tracks and include an agreement on quantified emission reduction targets under a second commitment period for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol, as well as a legally binding agreement on long-term cooperative action under the Convention. A legally binding outcome should be concluded at Cancún, Mexico in 2010, or at the latest in South Africa by 2011.

Negotiations should follow a two-pronged approach which:

develops a politically balanced comprehensive outcome in the formal negotiations under the two Ad hoc Working Groups, underpinned by the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities

uses the 2010 $10 billion fast-start funding to develop, test and demonstrate practical implementation approaches to both adaptation and mitigation, which can be used to inform the comprehensive package.

Building on the discussion held in New Delhi (January 2010), the areas in which progress could be made in the run-up to Cancún, include:

The early flow of fast-start finance of the $10 bn in 2010 pledged by developed countries;

Implementation of the REDD+ mechanism;

Architecture of technology development and transfer;

Adaptation framework encompassing implementation programmes;

A work programme on measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of commitments to finance, technology and capacity building support by developed countries, starting with a common reporting format for financial contributions by developed countries.

Ministers noted news reports that domestic legislation in the USA had been postponed and indicated that the world could not wait indefinitely, as it hinders our ability to reach an internationally legally binding agreement. A step-change is required in negotiations, and incremental progress on its own will not raise the level of ambition to the extent needed to avoid dangerous climate change and impacts on poor countries and communities.

Equity will be a key issue for any agreement. The Copenhagen Accord sets a global goal of keeping temperature increase below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, without jeopardizing economic growth and poverty alleviation. This implies a certain global carbon budget. The implications of this budget for individual countries require careful analysis, and must be based on a multilateral agreement about equitable burden-sharing, including historical responsibility for climate change, the need to allow developing countries equitable space for development, and adequate finance, technology and capacity-building support provided by developed countries for all developing countries.

Ministers outlined their understanding of how the political agreements on contentious issues, as reflected in the Copenhagen Accord, should be translated into the official negotiating texts under the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWGLCA) and Ad hoc Working Group on further Commitments by Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWGKP). They reaffirmed that negotiations must be based on the official negotiating texts in the AWGLCA and AWGKP, and negotiations conducted in an inclusive manner.

The only legitimate forum for negotiation of climate change is the UNFCCC. Small groups can make a contribution in resolving conflicts, but they must be representative and their composition must be determined through fully inclusive and transparent negotiations, with a mechanism for reporting back to the multi-lateral forum.

Further elaborating on finance,

The Copenhagen Accord provides for the scale of finance in short and medium-term. The commitments to provide finance must be operationalised. Both the $ 30 billion (2010-2012) and the $ 100 billion annually (by 2020) should be provided by developed countries.

Finance must balance adaptation and mitigation, not only in the next three years, but also in the medium-term.

Ministers were of the view that it will not be possible to deal with mitigation actions by developing countries, without also dealing with support for those actions and the two-fold commitments by developed countries to both provide finance for developing countries and reduce their own emissions, with consequences of non-fulfillment. In this regard, Ministers urged all Annex I countries to raise their level of ambition.

Ministers affirmed that the BASIC countries will continue their consultations with other countries and groups, following the “BASICPlus” approach, in order to facilitate the resolution of contentious issues in the negotiations.

It was emphasised again that BASIC is more than a forum focused on negotiations. They supported collaboration among experts from BASIC countries and welcomed the creation of an on-going forum, including work on adaptation and mitigation action plans and scenarios.

Ministers agreed that remaining anchored in the G77 & China, they will continue to contribute constructively to the multilateral negotiations on climate change.

Ministers welcomed Brazil's offer to host the next BASIC Ministerial at the end of July and China's offer to host a meeting at the end of October 2010.

The BASIC Ministerials will bring together analytical work done on several issues, including a focus on equity.

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