Africa has gained least from the international carbon market, whereby industrialised nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions by helping developing countries invest in clean technologies and infrastructure, a report released on Thursday (16 November 2006) said.

Delegates to a United Nations conference on climate change concluded their 12-day meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, by agreeing to a review of the protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gases in 2008. The Kyoto protocol's current commitment runs out in 2012.

Ghana found itself in a quagmire of choosing to get rid of blood diamonds or risk its Kimberly Process status. After a careful thinking, Ghanaian representatives at the just ended international Kimberly Process plenary meeting in the Botswana capital Gaborone have agreed to get rid of blood diamond trafficking in its territory.

At the 13th Africa Upstream conference, which opened today (15 November 2006) in Cape Town, optimism is present all over. Record oil prices and the world's least explored continent have it in for lucrative investments. International oil companies, hungrily flirting with African states, say the continent holds the key to steadily rising energy demands, and governments eagerly respond to the flirt.

Margnalised San communities living in the Tsumkwe West area are in danger of losing a proclaimed conservancy area of 10 000 square kilometres. Plans are in the pipeline to carve up the area into small-scale farms for resettlement. During a recent visit to Tsumkwe, Lands Minister Jerry Ekandjo told people that Government planned to push ahead with the smallscale farming project, sparking widespread concern that people from other rural areas might be settled there.

In the 1970s, the Club of Rome and others warned of the coming dire scarcity of food, oil and other essentials - the seemingly inexorable consequence of rising demand for limited resources. More recently, we have heard forecasts of inevitable “water wars”, predictions rooted in fears that there is simply not enough fresh water to meet the needs of an expanding and quickly urbanising global population.

Lands Minister Daniel Omara Atubo has strongly denied claims, mostly by politicians that the government plans to parcel out Acholi land to investors. Atubo said the government would not allocate any land in Acholi to investors without the consent of the owners.

Water treatment such as desalination and wastewater reuse could become much cheaper for developing countries, thanks to a purification membrane developed using nanotechnology. Researchers in the US have designed nanoparticles to create a membrane that does not clog easily, allowing the water to be pumped through using less energy.

Marginalised communities attending a United Nations conference on climate change being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have given accounts of how their lives are being altered for the worse -- something they blame on climate change.

Frequent droughts and floods in eastern Africa can partly be blamed on widespread deforestation in the region, experts have said. "Trees actually do two processes. They drill water into the ground. They funnel water into underground aquifers where it is stored to supply rivers during drought," Nick Nuttal, spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said.

Climate change is to blame for health problems such as increasing epidemics of malaria and water-borne diseases in Africa, heat wave-related deaths in Europe and the high incidence of cerebral-cardiovascular conditions in China, specialists said on Tuesday (14 November 2006) while calling for appropriate public-health responses to tackle the problem.

Squadrons of aeroplanes dumping pesticides on agricultural land to head off locust invasions could be a thing of the past if a fungus-based organic product currently being tested in Mauritania is successful.

The Reinforcement of African Peace keeping capacities (RECAMP) is once more in the limelight. Already in its fifth edition as from next Monday, the training programme prepares African countries for peace-keeping operations at the behest of the United Nations. Dubbed "SAWA 2006", this year's event involves eleven countries drawn principally from the Central African Economic Community.

Heavy rains and massive landslides have disrupted plans to resume the repatriation of Congolese refugees from Tanzania to the province of South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Due to security concerns, UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programmes to DRC were suspended about a week before the second round on October 29 of DRC's landmark presidential election.

Nine years ago, while working in Libya, Sudanese Professor Jalal Mohamed was diagnosed with a severe case of nostalgia. He was listless and had no appetite, but because he had passed all his physicals to work overseas, doctors attributed his malaise to homesickness. When he returned to his native Sudan, Mohamed was diagnosed with HIV. His wife stood by him after he was able to prove that he was infected during a surgical procedure. Today, at the age of 69, he is a spry, gaunt fellow who delights in his own erudition on his condition.

I just want to congratulate my fellow Angolan Rafael Marques for his wisdom and deep understanding of the Angolan situation. This speech is crystal clear about the current situation. Sadly, due to foreign interest in natural resources, I do not foresee a bright future for Angolans. Unfortunately, this is the reality. Leaders with vision like that of Rafael Marques are not welcome and usually crucified at the first opportunity. I even respect Rafael for being so forward and still going to Angola or living in Angola. Long life my brother, Angola needs people like you.

Kenyan Environment Minister Kivutha Kibwana opened the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi with a warning that climate change could endanger whatever gains have been made against poverty. He urged countries to work together to ensure that real action is achieved on the issue of adaptation to climate change. More than 5,000 participants from 178 countries are in Nairobi for the two-week meeting.

This study focuses on access to rural land for poorer groups. "The study examines the links between land access and poverty reduction, shifting approaches to land reform, different means to secure land rights and to achieve more equitable land distribution, the particular vulnerability of certain groups to losing their land rights, and the role of addressing land rights within conflict resolution and peace building. It concludes with broad recommendations for protecting land rights of poorer and more vulnerable groups," says the executive summary.

The Malaysian textile company, Ramatex, has bowed to industrial action by Namibian workers demanding better wages and benefits, while its environmental practices again came under scrutiny after revelations that its multimillion dollar plant has polluted ground water.

Across large areas of Nigeria’s southeastern rainforest belt hundreds of communities are threatened by erosion because of decades of uncontrolled deforestation and other types of pressure on the land. The town of Ekwulobia, or what remains of it, is a testament to the region’s environmental problems.