In the 1920s, farmers succeeded in conquering The Great Prairie Plains of the Midwest. The plains were then transformed into the “amber waves of grain” we know today. However, this transformation came with a heavy price.

In fact, the agricultural triumph over The Plains was the tipping point that changed a typical La Nina-type drought cycle into an enormous environmental disaster that we now know as the Dust Bowl.

Depending on where you are in the world, a drought can have different meanings. According to the United States Weather Bureau, a drought is a period of 21 or more days during which rainfall is no more than 30 percent of the average rainfall for a specific geographical area at a designated time of year. 

The Dust Bowl was an area in the United States that experienced an extended and intense period of drought, which lasted from 1931 until 1939. The states that made up the Dust Bowl were Kansas, southeastern Colorado, northeastern and southeastern New Mexico, and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. 

Throughout the Dust Bowl, soil from roughly 150,000 square miles of farmland was blown by the wind into huge dust storms. Immense clouds of dust filled the sky as far east as New York City, New York and Baltimore, Maryland.

While the Dust Bowl occurred during a period of drought, researchers know that the Dust Bowl drought, while much hotter and drier than a typical drought, did not fit the profile of the periodic droughts that generally hit farther to the south. Actually, while regular climate oscillations may have triggered the initial drying, the contribution of human land degradation played a big part in this atypical disaster.

In the absence of modern agricultural techniques, large-scale crop failures at the drought’s onset reduced vegetation cover, which only exacerbated the heat. Then, the resulting dust storms brought on by the badly eroded croplands also affected the atmospheric moisture content enough to further intensify drought conditions.

In 1931, dust from the seriously over-plowed and over-grazed prairie lands began to blow. And, it continued to blow for eight long, dry years.

As the storms blew across the plains, it came in a yellowish-brown haze from the South and in rolling walls of black from the North. This just wasn’t any wind, this dust-filled wind made even the simplest acts of life difficult. Taking a walk, eating a meal and breathing were no longer easy and they couldn’t be taken for granted.

Most children wore dust masks to and from school, people started hanging damp sheets over windows in feeble attempts at stopping the dirt and farmers could only watch as their valuable crops were blown away. The agricultural devastation that resulted from the Dust Bowl windstorms helped to lengthen The Great Depression, whose effects were already being felt worldwide. 

During the years of normal rainfall, the grasslands in the Dust Bowl states had been deeply plowed and the land had produced bountiful crops of wheat. However, as the drought of the early 1930s worsened, farmers continued plowing and planting, even thought very little could thrive in the parched soil.

The ground cover that once held the soil in place was now gone. The winds had whipped across the fields pulling billowing clouds of dust and dirt into the skies often reducing visibility to just a few feet. The skies would be darkened for days, and it became common for even the most well-sealed homes to have a thick layer of dust on the furniture. In some of the hardest hit areas, dust drifted like snow and covered whatever was in its path, including farmsteads, cars and city streets.

In 1932, there were 14 reported dust storms, also referred to as “black blizzards” or “black rollers.” As conditions worsened, in 1933, the number of black blizzards jumped to 38. These devastating dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area and affected the entire country. The extensive drought that accompanied the dust storms is said to be the worst drought in United States history because it covered over 75 percent of the country and severely affected 27 states.

The Yearbook of Agriculture for 1934 says, Approximately 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land have essentially been destroyed for crop production; 100 million acres now in crops have lost all or most of the topsoil; 125 million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing topsoil.

Because this ecological and human disaster caused millions of acres of farmland to become useless, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes. These people became known as “Okies” because so many of them came from Oklahoma. Countless Okies migrated to California and other states in hopes of better living conditions and jobs.

However, what they found were economic conditions little better than those they had left behind in the Dust Bowl. Because they didn’t own land and had no home, many people traveled from farm to farm picking fruit and working in the fields for only starvation wages.

With no rain clouds in sight, the drought continued and so did the Dust Bowl storms. On Sunday, April 14, 1935, the worst black blizzard occurred, causing extensive devastation and turning the day to night.

Shortly after Black Sunday, the United States Congress declared soil erosion “a national menace” and established the Soil Conservation Service in the Department of Agriculture. The SCS developed extensive conservation programs, which helped to retain topsoil and prevent irreparable damage to the land.

Farming techniques, including strip cropping, terracing, contour plowing, crop rotation and cover crops were promoted. Farmers were now paid to practice soil-conserving farming techniques.

The SCS and these new land-friendly farming techniques was a great step in the right direction, but the storm was not over yet. By the end the year, experts estimated that about 850,000,000 tons of topsoil had blown off the Southern Plains during 1935 alone. The fear was that if the drought continued, the total area affected would increase from 4,350,000 acres to 5,350,000 acres by the spring of 1936.

Because the Dust Bowl black blizzards raged on and the drought continued, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Shelterbelt Project in 1937, which called for large-scale planting of trees across The Great Plains, stretching in a 100-mile wide zone from Canada to northern Texas. The goal was to protect and preserve the land from erosion.

Native trees, including green ash and red cedar, were planted along fence rows separating properties, and the farmers were paid by the government to plant and cultivate these trees. Ultimately, the project cost roughly 75 million dollars over 12 years, and had somewhat limited success.

However, as time passed, even thought the drought continued, further land conservation efforts began to make progress. The extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, planting trees in shelterbelts and other conservation methods had finally resulted in a 65 percent reduction for soil blowing.

In the fall of 1939, after nearly a decade of drought, the rain finally came. This brought an end to the black blizzards of the Dust Bowl and allowed The Plains to recover and once again become golden with wheat.

In today’s ever-changing world, in areas where vegetation loss often leads to increased wind erosion, it appears that history could repeat itself and we could experience Dust Bowl-type droughts again in the future.

Researchers with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center report that, although it is not possible to predict the exact time, history suggests that another great drought could certainly occur in the future.

The first step for anyone wanting to predict the risk of a future catastrophic climate event is to look at past occurrences. Unfortunately, however, good rainfall records only go back about 100 years, and accurate atmospheric records only exist for the last 50 years.

With that said, historical measurements do suggest that droughts have been a fairly regular event in this country. North America experienced a dry spell during the 1950s and another in the late 1980s. NASA’s research suggests that there was almost a drought in the 1970s, but for some reason it did not happen.

On a much longer timetable, sediment records, tree rings and other alternative evidence of climate change suggest that The Great Plains has actually weathered multiple droughts, which lasted significantly longer than the Dust Bowl.

These severe droughts appear to have happened once or twice a century over the last 400 years. Some evidence even points to droughts lasting over a decade during the late 13th and 16th centuries, which were much more devastating than the droughts of the 20th century.

It seems that history indicates that we can expect much worse than the 1930s Dust Bowl in the future, but knowing when and where remains anyone’s guess.

Landslides caused by the Sichuan earthquake have blocked rivers and formed new, possibly unstable, lakes. Satellite images taken by the Taiwan’s National Space Organisation (NSPO) show one such lake forming in Beichuan County, one of the areas worst hit by the quake.

[via BBC]

The Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh has been home to the Marsh Arabs for thousands of years. Their homes are shown in Sumerian art from five thousand years ago.

The Marsh Arabs shared their home with Asian water buffaloes, wolves, and two kinds of otter. If you saw the film Ring of Bright Water, the star was an otter from this region. As many as two-thirds of the waterfowl that winter in the Middle East spend the cold months here: that’s seventy nine species, among them pelicans, flamingoes and many kinds of duck. The bandicoot rat and the Mesopotamian gerbil are only found in the marshes.

The marshes also cleaned the water which flowed into them and supported commercially important fisheries.

After the Shiites rose against Saddam Hussein, he began drying the marshes by channeling water away from them and directly into the Shatt el Arab. Most of the inhabitants were killed or fled to Iran, so that only 40,000 of the original 250,000 to 500,000 people remained. In the first four years, Saddam drained 60 percent of the marsh; today only 7 percent remains.

According to a report made by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2001, the marshlands that once covered between 5,800 and 7,700 square miles now comprised just 386 square miles. UNEP ranked the destruction of the marsh with the desiccation of the Aral Sea and the deforestation of the Amazon as one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

Because of its importance both to birds that live and breed there, and to the migratory birds which use it as a stopover, the loss of the marsh has put 40 species of birds at risk. Seven species are already extinct and the Sacred Ibis and African darter are nearly so.

Many species of fish are also at risk.

Restoration of some of the marshland is possible, but salts in the soil and dams in Syria and Turkey make complete restoration very difficult.

Photos of Marsh Arabs on Flickr
Map and pictures from National Geographic:

Most of us have heard stories of some unsuspecting child or fisherman happening upon a frog that seems completely healthy, except for the fact that it has no legs or an extra eye. At one time, these stories were deemed as oddities or unusual, freak occurrences. Now, however, malformed frogs are much more common than once thought and are real life indicators of significant problems in our environment.

It is true that some variations of morphological abnormalities are expected among the world’s vast amphibian population, including more than 4,000 species of frogs and toads. These anticipated abnormalities, however, are typically due to some type of trauma, developmental problems and mutations rather than environmental factors.

The United States is home to roughly 230 amphibian species, which includes 90 frog and toad species. Beginning in the early 90s, in several of Minnesota’s wetlands, malformation rates were found to be between 30 to 50%. With the typical, expected malformation rate between zero and two percent, this finding was cause for concern. Once Minnesota’s frog problems were unearthed, elevated malformation rates were discovered in 56 of the United States’ native species and in 48 states.

While these abnormalities are often referred to as “deformities,” most of the abnormalities found are actually “malformations.” Notably, there is a real difference between the two conditions. Deformation is the process of disfiguring or distorting an already existing body part while malformation is the process of disrupting a normally-formed body part or organ during those vital first stages of development.

The malformations most commonly reported by herpetologists involve missing legs, extra legs and paralyzed or misshapen legs. Also seen are frogs with legs that are fused against the frog’s body, webbed together with extra skin or split into two new legs halfway down.

Images of malformed frogs

Other malformations are also reported. Frogs with missing or extra eyes, as well as eyes that are unusual in size, shape and location have also been found. Misshapen jaws and incomplete tail absorption have also been documented.

Because frogs are extremely sensitive to their environments, they have long been considered the “canary in a coal mine” for environmental disasters. In the past, before better methods had been developed, coal miners commonly relied upon canaries to detect toxic or explosive gases in mines. These delicate birds are more sensitive to toxic gases than we are and would collapse long before any miners were affected. A collapsed canary made the perfect alarm for miners to get out immediately and for management to investigate the noxious problem and fix it.

As with the coalmining canaries, frogs are especially vulnerable to the environment in which they live. Frogs are especially sensitive to pollution and other environmental stressors. They live at the meeting place of two very different environments, the land and the water, and easily absorb damaging pollutants directly through their skin.

As human beings, we breathe through our lungs, which are obviously tucked safely inside our bodies. Our bodies provide much protection from direct contact with polluted air and contaminated water. Although some amphibians do breathe completely through their skin, the majority breathe and receive their oxygen partially through their skin, which is always open to the elements. Whether breathing partially or completely through their skin, the amphibian body is much more vulnerable and susceptible to outside factors, including diseases, toxic chemicals, ionizing radiation (UV-B) from the sun and habitat destruction.

Because of this special vulnerability, we continue to see an increasing numbers of malformed frogs along with a steadily decreasing population of frogs, and amphibians as a whole. Like the coalminers, this should be our alarm to look into and fix this problem. This complex problem, however, will not be easy to remedy because there are several possible contributing causes.

Photo Credit: Hamed Saber

Consider this. Amphibians are such effective indicators of significant environmental variations that many ecological problems may go undetected by our human eyes until significant environmental damage has occurred. The current worldwide amphibian population is declining and the number of bodily malformations is increasing. This may be an early warning to us – an early warning of serious ecosystem imbalances.

WHAT’S TO BLAME

First, consider the extensive use of pesticides across the United States. The chemical runoff collecting in the vast Midwestern farmlands is causing much damage to frog populations. Not only do excessive pesticides and other xenobiotic chemicals affect the sexual development of frogs, but it also makes them more susceptible to often fatal bacterial meningitis as well as some dangerous, parasitic fungi.

Scientists have confirmed that agricultural contaminants may be an important factor in amphibian declines in California. According to an article recently accepted by the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, a study by scientists of the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that organophosphorus pesticides from agricultural areas, which are transported to the Sierra Nevada on prevailing summer winds, may be affecting populations of amphibians that breed in mountain ponds and streams.
USGS

Studies at the University of California Berkeley have been conducted on delicate developing tadpoles. The tadpoles were reared in a watery environment contaminated with a mixture of nine pesticides, fungicides and herbicides – chemicals commonly found in ponds located close to Midwestern cornfields.

The evidence showed that polluted tadpoles take longer to complete their metamorphosis into adult frogs. Because of this delay, they are smaller, which makes it harder for them to catch and eat their prey and turns them into easier prey for other animals. Research also showed that these frogs had increased levels of a stress hormone that causes holes to develop in the thymus gland, which likely causes an impaired immune response to disease.

Photo Credit: Stadtwald

Pesticides are just one factor causing the decline of amphibian populations. This problem is the result of a combination of factors. Excessive chemical applications, the introduction of nonnative predators and competitors, increasing levels of ultraviolet light and global warming, acid rain, mercury pollution, eradication of wetlands and overall habitat destruction are all contributing to the decline of the frog.

While it is a natural occurring process for amphibian populations to fluctuate according to environmental conditions, such as rainfall amounts, the human population is the most likely component to the amphibian malformation and population decline.

Humans have the capability to improve or correct environmental problems. We also possess the ability to exacerbate the same ecological problems at local, regional and global levels. It’s up to us!

Pukatawagan is an Indian reservation in northern Manitoba. There is no permanent road, although the presence of a railroad does make it more accessible than many communities in northern Canada. In the winter there is an ice road, although in 2006 warm weather shortened its usefulness severely. When the road is open, the drive from Winnipeg, Manitoba’s largest city, to Pukatawagan is 835 kilometres (518 miles). The first and longest portion of that is paved, but road conditions in the winter can be questionable depending on the weather. Once a traveller reaches the ice roads, speeds slow to a crawl and the final quarter of the journey often takes as long or longer than the first three quarters.

To understand Pukatawagan and communities like it, you must first understand at least the basics of the history of Canada.

The Voyageurs opened up trade to the central and northern reaches of Canada, transporting furs back to Montreal on the lakes and rivers using large birchbark canoes. The process was expensive, with investors in each expedition having to wait 18 to 24 months for a return on their investment.

Two French explorers, Radisson and Grossielliers, came up with the idea of sailing into Hudson’s Bay and having the natives bring furs to a series of semi-permanent trading posts. They approached the French government who were not interested, so Radisson and Grossielliers took their idea to the English. The Hudson’s Bay Company was formed and the British king gave it monopoly rights over Rupertsland, a huge area encompassing much of central Canada and reaching down into what is now Minnesota, the Dakotas, and eastern Montana.

The Hudson’s Bay Company set up trading posts and began trade. Although the monopoly granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company was unenforceable and the Voyageurs continued trading in the area for some time, they could not compete in the long run because of the high overhead required for their canoe trips from Montreal. Meanwhile, the Hudson’s Bay Company sailed leased ships from England directly to their trading posts then back to England.

The Mathias Colomb Indian band which makes up most of Pukatawagan’s population was established in 1910 on the Prayer Indian Reserve. Additional lands were granted in the 1920′s, but the band still has land claims with the Canadian government that have not been settled. Before 1910 the Mathias Colomb band was bounced among several other bands that are part of Treaty Number 6 and was attached to several bands that were far away from them.

The imperialism of the fur trade and the paternalism of the Canadian government lead, predictably, to the morass of social problems so prevalent in societies with such histories. Substance abuse, crime and violence are rampant. A lack of industry and the remoteness of Pukatawagan cause widespread unemployment. Living conditions, while improving, are still more closely comparable to the third world than the first world conditions prevalent in the rest of Canada.

The northern location of communities like Pukatawagan make for many challenges. The weather can be extreme, with blizzards blowing in and winter temperatures often dipping dangerously low. The area can sometimes be cut off from the outside world for days at time, with air travel not possible and the winter roads closed. Supplies cannot get in and people cannot get out under such conditions.

A lack of cold weather can present similar problems. Warm winters like the one that Manitoba has had this year can delay the opening of the winter roads. When the roads are closed, the residents of Pukatawagan can’t get to larger centres to shop. The price of shipping in staples also rises considerably because they have to be flown in. When the ice road closes, the price of 4 litres (about 1 gallon) of milk can easily reach $9.00.

While prices rise with the temperature, the price that trappers get for furs sinks. Warm weather causes animals to produce lower quality furs. In a fur market already depressed by both changes in fashion and increasing concern for the humane treatment of animals, a warm winter pushes the prices down even further. Meanwhile, the cost of trapping increases because gasoline, needed for the snowmobiles used to get out on the trap lines, can double as it becomes more scarce. Trapping wild forest animals for their warm, furry goodness is one of the few sources of hard currency available to many people in remote communities.

Climate change is not the only problem facing Pukatawagan and other northern communities. Education has been sorely lacking. According to the 2001 Canadian Census, almost half of twenty-five year olds had not completed high school. Those who wish to take post-secondary education must move to a major city to do so. The culture shock of moving to a modern city from a remote northern community is a major obstacle for many, and many of those who do complete post-secondary education must remain in the south if they wish to work, discouraging a culture of education from developing.

As in so many northern communities, there is a housing shortage. The houses that are there are often substandard. Poorly insulated, often with types of insulation known to be carcinogenic, over-crowding can be extreme, sometimes with as many as 20 people living in 900 square foot house.

A diesel fuel spill dating back to the 1950′s has contaminated the ground and the water, causing ongoing health problems. In 1987, the contamination of the school grounds and water supply caused the evacuation of children to surrounding communities. Drug and alcohol abuse and teen suicide spiked upwards as the children tried to cope with being removed from their families. Gangs began both to recruit and prey on the community’s young people.

While community leaders and band elders have been working consistently to improve things in Canada’s northern communities, and the last Canadian government had signed the Kelowna agreement with First Nations leaders to attempt to address the problems Canada’s aboriginal people face, even the recent progress that had been made in addressing the many issues is now in question. Canada has recently elected the Conservative Party as its national government. This party has a poor record on issues like land claims, having voted against them while in opposition. Senior party members have stated that the Kelowna Agreement was, “written on the back of a napkin,” and have said that they will change it.

While it is not clear what changes the new government will seek to make, their less than stellar record on dealing with northern communities and aboriginal issues in the past does not bode well for those seeking to bring better living conditions, more education, and better employment opportunities to Pukatawagan and hundreds of other remote Canadian communities.

Imagine, the pressure the average man must feel to purchase the most expensive, perfectly cut diamond for his loving bride – it must be overwhelming. Perhaps, we should rephrase the slogan to “De Beers – Death, Poverty, and Despair,” which may ring true for many men preparing to march down the aisle.


But it is also an unbearable truth many countries face each day as war and destruction are caused by internal feuding over diamond mines. Sierra Leone was once a country that thrived off a strong agricultural economy, was one of the most highly educated countries in the world, and had an abundance of diamonds which were traded legally.

For over 70 years, Sierra Leone had been one of Africa’s top diamond producers. Recently, it has also become a nation of one of the lowest GNP rates in the world due to the onslaught of a corrupt government, and greedy mining companies, which all have played a part in Sierra Leone’s upheaval.

The history of Sierra Leone is a horrific story of government corruption, murder, and poverty. The country slowly began to unravel in the 1930s when these high-quality gems were discovered, and mining began through De Beers. It was also quickly discovered by that these precious diamonds were easy to smuggle illegally out of the country.

Since that early revelation, diamond smuggling has become a rampant source of despair for a once prosperous country. In 1968, Siaka Stevens became Prime Minister, bringing the country one party rule, but by this time diamond smuggling had already begun to get out of control. Under Stevens, legitimate diamond trading dropped from more than 2 million carats in 1970 to 48,000 in 1988.

It had become so corrupt that De Beers sold its mining rights and the Precious Metal Mining Company. Stevens resigned from parliament, and the government transformed itself into a multi-party system.

In 1991, it was noted that the country was being run by a corrupt and immoral government which openly accepted illicit diamond trading, and was suffering from an inequitable economy. Sierra Leone had become a exposed and attractive site for armed rebellion. On March 23, a civil war began when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a group of 100 fighters from Sierra Leone and Liberia, invaded east Sierra Leone.

Foday Sankoh, an ex-army sergeant led the RUF representing “The Urban dispossessed” and “promising impoverished peasants a greater share in the mineral wealth misused by the corrupt government.” However, Sankoh used brutal tactics, such as mutilation and amputation, against these same peasants to allegedly expose the government’s inability to protect its citizens.

Sankoh believed that the mutilation and amputation of too many of these impoverished people would prevent them from working in the mines, and make them powerless to fight back against his rebel army. His primary focus was not to help the people of Sierra Leone, but to ravish their countryside and gain complete access to their abundant sources of diamonds.

He was zealously aware that if he could take over the major diamond fields than he could effortlessly afford to support his brutal rebellion, mining more funds into soldiers and military weapons. This onslaught placed Sierra Leone in complete isolation. The country could no longer even trust its own soldiers as they were known to be “rebels by day” and “soldiers by night.”

A UN expert panel report published in December 2000 estimated that the RUF diamond trade moved from $25 million to $125 million in diamonds per year in the late 1990s. Also in this decade-long battle over diamonds, it has left over 50,000 dead, half a million refugees, and a thousand amputees attempting to rebuild their lives.

The people of Sierra Leone have suffered an ongoing nightmare that no person could truly comprehend or understand. They have been beaten, raped, and mutilated by these rebel forces. Yet, they still have the strength to attempt to rebuild an impoverished country that has been beaten to the core, over a shiny, senseless rock which is precious to so many people in Western countries.

Since the onslaught of the civil war, Sierra Leone has attempted to rebuild its country. With the U.N. ban on Sierra Leone’s diamond exports and De Beers’ promise to help the country learn to peacefully profit from its resources, the government again has a chance to regain power over legitimate mining and thereby the nation.

Until the 1980s, De Beers was directly involved in Sierra Leone but its involvement has since become indirect. It maintains a diamond trading company in Liberia and a buying office in Conakry, Guinea.

Interesting, that DeBeers would pull itself out of Sierra Leone during a time of struggle, and position itself in Liberia, were most diamonds would be smuggled out to be resold.

DeBeers is one of the largest mining companies in the world and sets the price for rough cut diamonds on the global market. It is also has the ability to manipulate the supply and demand of diamonds based out of its Central Selling Organization headquarters in London.

De Beers claims that it does not purchase Sierra Leonean diamonds; but with its purchasing companies in West Africa, the company procures diamonds that could have come from virtually anywhere in the world. It is highly unlikely that the company is not purchasing illegally smuggled diamonds from Sierra Leone.

Last year alone, Americans spent over 12 billion dollars in diamonds for every special occasion. “How many diamonds of those 12 billion dollars was are actually legal diamonds that have not been smuggled across the borders of Sierra Leone to Liberia and then resold to billion dollar corporations?

It is estimated in 2002, only $41 million of the $300 million diamonds mined in Sierra Leone were legally exported.

Imagine the capital losses for this country each year when it is trying to rebuild itself, and become prosperous once again – for its children and its people.

Imagine, if De Beers marketed to the bride on her wedding day, the precious truth about the gem resting on her finger. Perhaps, as she gazed down at longingly, she could be reminded that children under the age of ten were sent into mines under appalling conditions each day digging over a period of eight hours making less than 50 cents a day in order to feed their families.

Imagine, if jewelers informed the groom before purchasing this precious gem for his lovely bride to be that whole families were wiped out, and many left behind mutilated and amputated, so they would never be able to work, again.

Do you think diamonds would be as precious to North American consumers if we actually told the truth behind their dazzling story? I wonder what the sale of diamonds would be and how these people would react to discover they were wearing a true symbol of death, the death of childhood, the death of families, the death of culture, and the eternal cycle of poverty.

Several Initiatives have taken the lead in helping rebuild Sierra Leone. The Peace Diamond Alliance and The Kimberly Process are both working to improve the management of Sierra Leone’s diamond resources and its capacity, in order to ensure the profit from diamonds flows back into Sierra Leone’s communities. It is time to build a future for Sierra Leone where corruption and poverty are no longer a part of the future.

References

Snapshot of Sierra Leone and its turbulent history with the exploitation of diamonds

Transition for Sierra Leone as it rebuilds its country and regulates diamond trade through initiatives with USAID and Diamond Alliance Planning Task Force.

Overview of diamond trade and DeBeers link to Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone from The Diamonds and Human Securities Project, examining the past, present, and future of Sierra Leone (pdf).

United Nations focus on Sierra Leone

Snapshot of Sierra Leone economy

Offers valuable insight into Sierra Leone’s trade, and history

Sites several mining fields, and corporations operating in Sierra Leone

Peace Diamond Alliance Website

One Sky Diamond Campaign to end blood diamonds

The Kimberly Process and their initiative with conflict diamonds

Insight into child labor in diamond mines

DeBeers website and Strategic Marketing

“The Rules of the Engagement Ring”, a prime example of North America’s obsession with marriage and diamonds.

marketing, and more marketing

Involved in mining in Sierra Leone for several years

Now this same land is being taken away by developers with the cooperation of local and state governments.

What’s being lost is not just land or money: It’s community. Five, six, even eight generations of the same families have lived continuously in these coastal communities. The neighborhoods they form are tight-knit, safe, and supportive – a rarity in modern American life.

Generations without wills or the need for them

Every state in the US requires that land deeds be transferred in writing. However this was not an option for the African American property owners during Reconstruction.

It was illegal to teach slaves to read and write, so that first generation couldn’t possibly have written wills. The Jim Crow laws that followed Emancipation then impeded black people’s access to the legal system, according to Willie Heyward of the Center for Heirs Property Preservation. So, the first generations of these land owners were unable to create written wills, and property was handed down verbally.

The tradition of verbal bequeaths continued in the African-American community. Rather than honoring a verbal will, the State considers land left by those without a written will (those who are “intestate”) to be equally owned, by all heirs.

Thus, there are many tracts of “Heirs’ Properties” in the South in which the last recorded deed is from the Reconstruction period. Some of these properties can have over a hundred heirs associated with them.

Turning Bottom-land to Gold

The introduction of air conditioning and mosquito control has turned these properties into the type of gold that makes developers drool. Since the mid-50’s, coastal islands and marsh-front properties have been converted to high-end housing, resort and commercial properties, displacing the long-standing African American communities.

The SC Government has so favored developers that they have changed the laws defining land ownership. For instance, persons who possess a piece of land, pay taxes on it, and were verbally deeded it by an ancestor do not have “clear title” to that land in South Carolina. This lack of clear title leaves the land vulnerable to court-forced sale, if even a single heir chooses to raise the question of ownership.

Once a court orders the sale, the developers are standing in line at the auction with more cash in their hands than the heirs could ever hope to raise.

Techniques of Taking The Property

Unclear Title

So long as there is no clear title to a property, a single heir can force its sale. In all heirs’ property cases a ruling from a court is required to “clear” the deed. Quite often, there are too many heirs, or the plat is too small, for equal and reasonable division. So, the court orders the property to be sold at auction, and profit is split between the heirs.

Build Something Really Nice Next Door

Property taxes in places other than California are assessed based on the value of the house and land. This value is based on subjective factors – how much would people be willing to pay for it? A $10,000 house surrounded by other ten thousand dollar houses will be assessed at ten thousand dollars. However, if someone builds a single $1 million dollar house next door, the property value of the $10,000 will go up – a hundred fold.

So while the property tax on the ten thousand dollar house was just a couple hundred dollars and easily paid, the property tax on the same house next to a mansion is in the tens of thousands and beyond the reach of the average South Carolinian.

Tax ‘em Out

While many States consider land ownership to be a basic and inviolable right, South Carolina acts aggressively to remove land from people who cannot pay property taxes.

South Carolina will sell off a person’s land if they are ten months late in the payment of taxes. Other states give people several years to pay back taxes and some even have laws preventing tax sales. For instance, in Ohio, a lien may be placed on a property for delinquent taxes, but the land cannot be forced into sale.

The taxes on heirs’ properties were quite reasonable for a very long time. However, as the value of the land has gone up, thanks to air conditioning, mosquito control, and mansions placed on neighboring properties, the tax bills have also increased.

It can be difficult to keep track of a single tax bill, which is applied to large tracts where dozens of families live. If the person who has taken responsibility for paying the taxes dies or moves away, the bill is often forgotten.

It is also possible for any person to go to the County offices and change the address on any tax bill.

Would the developers do this and then enjoy the confusion as the land goes into tax sale?

It would explain a few incidents.

South Carolinians are only given nine months to pay their property tax bill. After that, they must pay what is owed, plus the taxes that will be due next year to prevent the sale of their land in the tenth month.

For example, in 2005 taxes are due on January 15 and delinquent properties are sold on October 3. Developers, with loads of cash in hand, will be ready to snatch up the valuable properties at auction, pricing heirs out of the picture but still often buying at well below market value.

Even though the governing agency is only allowed to sell as much land as is necessary to cover the delinquent taxes, they have traditionally sold the entire plat.

Regulate ‘em Out

In other places, the local government has lent the developers a hand by creating regulations that surpass the means of the Heirs’ Property owners. For instance, in Mount Pleasant, sewer hookup is now required for all new houses and renovations. But the City did not run the sewer line close enough to the Heirs’ Property sites to allow for hookup at a reasonable cost; They actually went around one Heirs’ Property site to put sewer lines to a new sub-division.

So now the property owners must pay tens of thousands of dollars to “tap in” to the system. If unable to pay, they can not modify their homes, build new homes, or even repair the existing septic systems when they break. In effect, they are forced to sell the land, to someone who has enough money to pay for the sewer connection.

What Is Being Done

The Center for Heirs Property Preservation is fighting hard to preserving these unique communities in Charleston and surrounding areas. They are providing community education by doing things like leaving pamphlets at government offices and community centers and teaching Heirs Property seminars. There has been a Public Television special about Heirs Property.

They are additionally providing legal and mediation services to embattled Heirs Property owners, and helping to clear the titles. Also they work to change State laws that disadvantage Heirs Property owners.

In one ingenious approach, according to Willy Heyward, they are helping families create autonomous entities to manage and own land in potentially disputed heirs’ properties. Once this entity is formed — a Partnership, Limited Liability Corporation, or other form of Corporation — each heir is given shares in it equal to their stake in the land. Developers cannot then get a single heir to force a sale; the majority of the share holders must agree to what will be done with the property.

A State-appointed task force that includes members of the Center for Heirs Property Preservation and Charleston School of Law is looking at ways to protect property owners’ rights. One law they are working on would require mediation amongst heirs prior to, or instead of, going to court, in order to avoid a forced sale.

Even the world-famous Spoleto Festival USA is getting involved. Their Evoking History project for the 2006 Festival involves the members of the Phillips Community – one of the Heirs’ Properties that is being threatened by developers.

In the end, it all comes down to how well groups of heirs, some numbering over 100, can cooperate to save their communities. The sad thing is that they have to fight against both developers, and their own government.

Sources

http://ccfgives.org/heirsproperty.htm

http://www.lri.lsc.gov/abstracts/abstract.asp?level1=SPA&level2=Housing&abstractid=030017&ImageId=1

http://www.pfdf.org/innovation/innovation/innovation.asp?innov_id=567

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