Suchergebnisse

24th Conference of the Geological Society of Africa – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, January 6–14, 2013: international aid vs. "scientific neocolonialism".A b s t r a c t. 24th Colloquium of Geological Society of Africa covered a wide range of fields in geology, from basic research and mineral resources geology to hydrogeology and geotourism. Presentations delivered at the colloquium confirmed vast scale of mineral wealth of Africa, showing at the same time that any substantial further progress in identifying new resources is hampered by the lack of good geological maps at appropriate scales. Some major problems in exploitation of mineral resources in Africa are related to artisanal and small scale mining (ASM). On one hand, ASM provides an income that is sufficient to cover basic needs for tens of millions of Africans, and on the other hand – its environmental impact may be very harmful, especially in the case of mining and processing of gold-bearing ores. Geological research in Africa is usually supported scientifically and financially by EU countries, USA, Canada, Australia as well as China. This is due to the lack of local specialists and sufficiently equipped laboratories practically everywhere except for RSA. Also two papers presented by the Author and his team gave results of research carried out in Angola and Zambia mainly thanks to assistance projects financed by the Polish Aid Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.

Support of African geological surveys by their European partners in the context of the Polish initiatives.A b s t r a c t. African countries in the 1960s began to recover their independence. These facts coincided with the good results in raw materials findings of the Polish geologists and geophysicists. Therefore, in the 1960s and 1970s, geologists of the Polish Geological Institute and other companies indicated their presence in the research works in several countries of the African continent. Nowadays, the EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) members with the support from the Organization of African Geological Surveys (OAGS) prepared a strategy for sustainable strengthening of African countries' geological administrations. The strategy focuses on natural resources governance, enforcing sustainable mineral resources exploitation as well as preventing and mitigating natural disasters by establishing long-term strategic cooperation relationships in these areas. EGS, on behalf of the European Commission's DG Development and Cooperation (DEVCO) and with the support and additional supervision of DG ENTR, was requested to cooperate with the OAGS to develop, over a period of about twelve months, a feasibility study focusing on one key priority of the EU-Africa Strategy Action Plan 2011–13, which is to "foster further co-operation between African and European geological surveys". As the result of this cooperation the identification of the Africa's challenges in geological knowledge and skills has been done, that emerged by analysis of targeted information derived from questionnaires distributed via OAGS to their members.