RESEARCH PRESENTATION ON TRADE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO

NIGERIA

RESEARCH PRESENTATION

ON

TRADE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

BY

UNDERGRADUATE FINAL YEAR STUDENTS 2014

SUPERVISED

BY

M. M.YUSIF

Introduction

Social Science research is a social criticism. As such any which is not a criticism is a dead research which is not worth reading.

Here is presentation of undergraduate Research Reports which are critical assessment of the issues at two levels:

1.     Reformulation and criticisms of the existing literature to explain a research problem

2.     Second, is a simple effort to collect primary data through a survey research to find an answer to some questions

In this academic year (2013/2014) I selected an area for research by my students on “Trade, Environment and Development.

Understanding the environment, especially as we see it in term of interactions between nature and human activities deserve studying the earth from its core to its atmosphere, including its climate, forests, population, etc and examining the social and economic dimensions of its development and sustainability e.g. Agriculture, industry, etc

This indeed requires such study from many subjects and with a multidisciplinary approach that combines an in-depth analysis of biological, geographical, physical and chemical processes, together with social sciences to understand the dynamics of its development and modify society’s responses to its changes naturally and globally. 

I believe that only by integrating the perspectives of many diverse fields can we begin to address the enormous complexities of global environmental problems in the twenty-first century.

Subject perspectives for understanding environment include physics, geology, geography, history, economics, political sciences, biotechnology, remote sensing, geophysics, soil sciences and hydrology, etc

These diverse sciences searching for explanations of different aspects of environment gives political sciences a great advantage. To borrow the phrase of Spiro, who said political science is a “Master Science”, it fits into this search of scientific knowledge with greater advantage because political science adopts from all sciences, theories and methods and turn them to become its own. Secondly, political science is a fragmentary science, so it becomes political sciences which is capable of snatching any field to become its own. Thirdly, in order to avoid the conflict which this trend of the science show, across the globe it is called “politics” instead of the original political science.

I have gone briefly into this analysis to convince sceptics who would say that environmental study in political science is wrong. It looks that the general theme of the projects i.e. “Trade, Environment and Development” and the analysis that came out from the studies reveal social and economic development of both developing and developed countries.

S/N	NAME & REG. NUMBER	TITLE OF PROJECT	BRIEF ON THE PROJECT	GRADE
1	Mustapha Ibrahim SMS/09/POL/00676	Effects of Environmental measures on market Access for Developing Countries	Inspite of free  economic environment some countries still use protectionist measures to protect their economies which in turn weaken the economies of the developing countries
2	Uchechukwu Iheanacho Ibekalam SMS/09/POL/00669	Trade Liberalisation and Environmental Protectionism	Liberalisation of trade encourage overuse of available resources thereby causing environmental degradation
3	Abubakar Ali Tofa SMS/10/POL/01286	The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Environmental Services	Trade Liberalisation intensifies growth of the Services Sector especially the Utilisation of Environmental Services
4	Rabiu Shamma SMS/09/POL/00726	Organic Agriculture, Trade and sustainable development	Organic Agriculture is capable of creating food security and boost sustainable Agriculture in Nigeria
5	Nura Bello SMS/10/POL/01175	Impact of Agricultural policy and practices on trade and the Environment in Nigeria	An Overview of how Agriculture affects or changes on the Environment in Nigeria
6	Joseph Manga SMS/09/POL/00784	Agriculture and Environment: A case of Ganye LGA Adamawa State	Support to small farmers increase harvests and food security
7	Garba Shuaibu Babaita SMS/09/POL/00658	The impact of Trade in Chemical Fertilizers in Agriculture	The implication of fertiliser to yields and to soil
8	Nasiru Aliyu SMS/09/POL/00646	Trade and Deforestation: A case of  Nigeria	Trade liberalisation increase deforestation in Nigeria
9	Bashir Danjuma SMS/09/POL/00771	Economic and Environmental impact of deforestation: A case of Dawakin Tofa – Kano	An Assessment of deforestation on the economy and environment of Dawakin Tofa – Kano
10	Junaidu Mohammed SMS/10/POL/01244	Trade and Environment: Implications of Electronics Equipment to Development	An assessment of the negative impact of E-waste on health
11	Khalifa A.B. Mohammed SMS/09/POL/00802	Electronic Communication: Development and the Environment	Electronics communication enhances environmental development
12	Mubarak Aminu SMS/09/POL/00764	Environmental Governance and Economic Development	The relationship between Environment and Economic Development is reciprocal
13	Muhammad Dauda Aliyu SMS/10/POL/01162	The Triangle of Trade energy and Environment: Politics and Policies in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria	Oil exploration in Niger Delta Area of Nigeria causes economic development while at the same time resulted in Environmental degradation
14	Maryam Aliyu Rufai SMS/10/POL/01259	The Policy and Practice of the WTO on Trade and Environment	The relationship between trade and environment causes damages to the latter
15	Muntasir Kabir Sani SMS/10/POL/01266	Trade and Environment: Relation of conflict under WTO	Relations between trade and Environment leads to conflict between them which called management under WTO regime
16	Iman Sani SMS/09/POL/00678	Environmental effect of Population growth to sustainable development: A case of Funtua - Nigeria	Low density Population better Environment and vice-versa
17	Sadiq Ibrahim Ayuba SMS/09/POL/00648	Environmental Services and Development in Nigeria : A case of water and waste management	The management of Environmental services in Nigeria is not adequate and their privatisation affects the capacity of the sector
18	Musa Ahmad Muazu SMS/10/POL/01249	Impact of Trade on Health and the Environment	Trade between countries transmits diseases from one part of the world to another
19	Ibfrahim Aisar Mukhtar SMS/09/POL/00767	Environmental Hazard by local industries: A case study of Sharada Industrial Area	Industries of Sharada industrial area resulted in environmental hazards in Kano
20	Anas Abdulmumin Usman SMS/09/POL/00742	Radicalism in the politics of Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi and his contribution to Democracy	Radicalism and Democracy under Rimi regime in Kano brought social justice

Specifically, as we could see from the above table, there are many changes to the environment, as a result of increased liberalisation of trade. These changes are normally disastrous to lives of human being.

However, global organisations, such as the WTO, UN and even regional groups are trying to manage the development with minimal dangers to human lives.

Methodological Observations

The traditional social science research method originally became very common in sociological and anthropology studies, but with development of American political science in the early twentieth century was adopted by political science method, and inspite of new political science in some research and educational institutions it remains the dominant approach.

The orientation of many young researchers, in all levels of research is that primary data comes through a survey research, whether it is relevant or not. As if there are no other options or are not capable of going beyond the survey method.

However, very few of these students used the survey research which I feel must be combined with another method in order to overcome the problem of generalisation from what few people said. It looks they are not equipped methodologically to be able to do that.

Thus, most of the students employ the method of “Secondary Analysis”. This method is of re-interpretation and making analysis of the available literature to explain the research question and the hypothesis formulated.

In this too, one can observe many methodological difficulties confronting the young researchers. One is that they become overwhelmed by the existing literature on subject of their work online. This affects the management of the resources available to them and sometimes access readymade kind of analysis they want to make. Here comes the second difficulty which is in many cases the inability of researchers to make an independent criticism and contribution to knowledge.

Indeed, the internet system has its own problems as it has advantages. The point however, is to control these problems so that we continue to make maximum use of it.

M.M. Yusuf

2013/2014 Academic Session

13/06/2014