In the last decade, discussions on the effects of climate change have become more intense. They mostly focus on reducing emissions in industrialised nations, but learning how to adapt to climate change is equally important. What lessons can policymakers learn from experiences to date?

The Western Kenyan highlands are one of the poorest regions in the world, with low agricultural yields and widespread poverty. Many experts believe restoring soil fertility is vital for improving agricultural production.

The International Development Research Centre and TrustAfrica have established an Investment Climate and Business Environment (ICBE) Research Fund which will make available up to US$2.8 million through various initiatives and rounds of funding for researchers in private sector development based in African universities, business schools, and independent research institutions.

Angola's soaring economic growth from its diamonds and oil exports comes with worsening human rights and health, two separate reports warn. Alleged problems are said to include security companies' "profoundly sadistic" human-rights violations in Angola's diamond-rich eastern region, reports the Financial Times.

At the August 2006 World Water Week in Stockholm, researchers presented initial findings from the "Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture" carried out by 700 experts over five years. In 2000, researchers had predicted that water scarcity would affect one third of the world's population by 2025.

Eleven dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers of Dutch origin are poised to take their case for compensation for confiscated land to an international tribunal, reports Business Day, Johannesburg.

An on-going project to erect a 400-kilometre long electric fence in Kenya's Laikipia district is being seen as a ploy to separate white ranchers from peasants. The project is part of a grand scheme to set up a series of mega-conservation sites along the Rift Valley.

The dramatic and in some cases damaging environmental changes sweeping Africa's lakes are brought into sharp focus in a new atlas. Produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Africa's Lakes: Atlas of Our Changing Environment compares and contrasts spectacular satellite images of the past few decades with contemporary ones.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will not support a South African Communist Party (SACP) breakaway from the tripartite alliance. Rather, it will work towards a new-look, "pro-poor" African National Congress (ANC) leadership to lead the party after President Thabo Mbeki steps down from the ANC presidency next year.

The HIV/AIDS phenomenon may force society to reconsider the rights it accords women. Although human rights may be universal and inherent in every human being, their practical realization tends to be dependent on the prevailing ruling class. Feminists have long asserted that women have the right of sovereignty over their own bodies and the right to own property.

Eskom is planning up to 15 extra coal-fired power stations to cater for South Africa’s soaring electri¬city demand -- which would at least double South Africa’s contribution to global climate change. Eskom coal specia¬list Johan Dempers identified the Waterberg in Limpopo as a new expansion area. He reportedly told a coal conference in Lephalale there was potential for eight new Eskom power stations in the Waterberg coalfields over the next 20 years.

The pervasiveness of corruption in the water sector, a natural resource vital for basic existence, spurred the world’s leading anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), and five leading water organisations to join forces and fight corruption through the Water Integrity Network (WIN), launched today (August 21).

The Western Kenyan highlands are one of the poorest regions in the world, with low agricultural yields and widespread poverty. Many experts believe restoring soil fertility is vital for improving agricultural production. Government and non-governmental organisations encourage and sustain the use of these techniques.

The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) believes that the growing environmental degradation of Africa is perhaps most starkly reflected in satellite images beamed from the skies. And so, the Nairobi-based U.N. agency introduced a new atlas at an international water conference here which shows "the dramatic and damaging" environmental changes sweeping across the beleaguered African continent.

After the initial chaos of Zimbabwe's farm invasions, a tenuous truce based on a survival philosophy of negotiations, barter and political alliances has left about 600 white farmers on their land. Sustained by a belief that things "will get better", after nearly 4,000 other white farmers were driven off their land by the ZANU-PF government's fast-track land redistribution programme that started in 2000, these diehards are overcoming the insecurity that their farms can be taken in an instant.

Failing to limit our emissions of carbon dioxide will have severe consequences for the world’s oceans. This report contends that the marine environment is doubly affected: continuing warming and ongoing acidification both pose threats. Accordingly, proactive and resolute action is needed in order to ensure that the oceans do not overstep critical system limits.

As fears of its destruction mount, city authorities have taken steps to protect the forest, or the greenbelt, around Niamey and evict squatters living within its confines. The forest protects the city from encroaching desertification and the extremes of Niger's climate. Although an ultimatum to vacate the greenbelt was issued Apr. 30, IPS has verified that the forest is still being occupied by the squatters.

Bishop Kodji, a small fishing and canoe carving island in the Atlantic Ocean off Nigeria's sprawling commercial hub of Lagos, has become the first village to be electrified under the Lagos State government's pilot solar energy project. Before setting up the project, the village, with a population of 5,000, had not known electricity since its existence.

The Kenyan lands ministry has said it will repossess all land owned by "absentee landlords" in the coastal strip and redistribute it to squatters. The ministry says it will seize such land in Coast Province by next Monday (August 28), in line with a presidential decree. The land question is a particular problem in the province, where half of the 4m residents are squatters.

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls the capital, Mogadishu, and much of south and central Somalia, issued a directive on Tuesday banning exports of charcoal and rare birds and animals, an official told IRIN. The Executive Committee of the UIC issued the directive after a full committee meeting agreed to the ban, Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the UIC Vice-Chairman, said. "The decision was reached after the committee was briefed on the dangers posed by the indiscriminate cutting of our trees," he said.