Transfrontier conservation initiatives refer to environmental and wildlife management programmes that cross political boundaries and national borders. The hope is that a combined approach to ecosystem management will produce positive environmental outcomes and benefits for local communities. However, the benefits to communities living in or alongside conservation areas are variable, and often they are not treated as equal stakeholders.

Wildlife tourism in Kenya generates more than one third of foreign exchange revenue. The livelihoods of many rural Kenyans are connected to wildlife-related policies and businesses. How can the competing demands on Kenya's wildlife be met, while protecting both livelihoods and habitats?

A civic rights group from Angola's oil-rich Cabinda province said on Tuesday that oil had been a "curse" for the region and called on American giant ChevronTexaco and others to recognise the dire humanitarian conditions of the people who live there. "Oil is a veritable curse for the population of Cabinda - a source of problems and not solutions," said Raul Danda, who heads the Mpalabanda rights group, the most influential in the northern enclave.

The children at Lubilini primary school in eastern Swaziland have never had a real playground. Now they get to spin a merry-go-round in the school's dirt courtyard, not only for exercise and entertainment, but to pump water out of the ground. The water is used to prepare their meals, for sanitation facilities and to irrigate the school vegetable garden.

The National Association of Professional Environmentalists (Nape) has asked the government to halt the process of selecting the Bujagali dam developer until the controversies surrounding the project are resolved. "Appreciating the government's efforts towards providing adequate electricity, the proposed Bujagali dam is marred with numerous technical, environmental, social and economic flaws," they said.

The day before the anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in history, (the 26th April was the 19th commemoration of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown) Earthlife Africa Tshwane Metro uncovered high nuclear radiation levels in the vicinity of Pelindaba. A mere twenty meters away from a newly established low-cost housing scheme a site has been discovered where it appears radio active materials have been buried. The discovery and subsequent media frenzy has resulted in heated debate about nuclear energy.

The latest edition of World Rivers Review, published by the International Rivers Network, examines the US$1.8 billion Merowe Dam in Sudan, the largest dam project currently being built in Africa. The 67-meter-high dam will create a 174-kilometer-long reservoir that will displace about 50,000 people. The main purpose of the project is to generate electricity for Sudan's cities and the petroleum industry. It is being built by Chinese companies. European companies Lahmeyer (Germany) and Alstom (France) are also involved. World Rivers Review examines the fate of those displaced.

Hunger is a perennial challenge facing African countries, and Zambia is no exception. But while some nations are prepared to boost supplies by importing food containing genetically modified (GM) organisms, Zambia is sticking to its guns and saying no. Zambia's agriculture minister Mundia Sikatana says the government is staying firm on plans to develop legislation on GM products, and is reaffirming its ban on their entry into the country until it is satisfied they pose no threat to health or the environment.

Thousands of megawatts of new renewable energy potential in Africa, Asia, South and Central America have been discovered by a pioneering project to map the solar and wind resource of 13 developing countries. The multi-million dollar project, called the Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA), is proving that the potential for deploying solar panels and wind turbines in these countries is far greater than previously supposed.

A new comprehensive report on the world's environment warns that the Earth is on the 'tipping point' of irreversible and possibly catastrophic changes. The planet can still be saved, but big policy changes are needed. Martin Khor from Third World Network argues: "The environment used to be a high-priority issue, discussed seriously at global summits and national meetings. But lately it has been displaced by other seemingly more pressing problems, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan arising from September 11, the instability in the Middle East, and economic competition among countries catalysed by trade liberalisation."

Governments including Japan, Korea, Mexico and the United States are planning to use new World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations to dismantle a wide range of national laws protecting the environment, social well being and health, Friends of the Earth International says. A list compiled by the environmental group before trade negotiators meet in Geneva shows that legislation covering food, fisheries, timber and petroleum production, energy efficiency, chemical testing, recycling and standards in the electronics and automobile industries have all been raised as potential "barriers to trade" in the past few months.

The huge waves which battered northern Somalia after the tsunami in December are believed to have stirred up tonnes of nuclear and toxic waste illegally dumped in the war-racked country during the early 1990s. Apart from killing about 300 people and destroying thousands of homes, the waves broke up rusting barrels and other containers and hazardous waste dumped along the long, remote shoreline, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) said.

Humans have significantly affected the flow of half of the world's major rivers by building dams, according to the first detailed global assessment of the activity's impact, published in Science. Another study, also in Science, shows that dam building, among other human actions, has altered the amount of sediment that rivers carry to the coast, with implications for marine ecology, fisheries and coastal erosion.

Debt owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other multilateral institutions has grown rapidly in recent years and these institutions are now the major creditors of the world's poorest countries. Civil society organisations across the globe have long advocated the use of the International Monetary Fund's impressive and massively undervalued gold reserves to fund further debt relief for impoverished nations. Now the viability of this proposal, after years of opposition, has been formally recognised by the staff of the IMF in a new paper. Read more at the website of European Network on Debt and Development.

The production of pulp and paper has long been associated with deforestation and environmental pollution. More recently, it has been the driving force behind the spread of fast-growth tree monocultures to feed ever-increasing paper and cardboard consumption. As trees grow faster in tropical and subtropical countries - where land, water and labour are cheap and where environmental protection is less stringent than in the North - the industry has also begun to shift pulp production to the South. The book (also available in Spanish and soon in Portuguese) is divided into two sections: the first one, presents a series of analytical articles on the pulp and paper scenario, and the second one consists of a selection of articles on pulp mills and related pulpwood plantations in a large number of countries in Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania. Non Governmental Organizations and Indigenous Peoples Organizations can ask for a free copy of the book. To do so, please contact the WRM International Secretariat at: [email protected]

Can carved masks, toy drums and grass baskets pull Swazis out of the chronic poverty that grips two-thirds of Swaziland's population? Ntombi Dlamini, King Mswati's mother, is backing a new enterprise that will centralise the diversity of wood carvers and handicraft makers, and give them access to customers worldwide via the Internet. But environmentalists warn there is a price to pay: a loss of indigenous trees and their habitats.

A new edition of the Africa Water Journalists Network has been released and is full of newsy bits and pieces, including updates on the network, writing opportunities, fellowships and invitations to conferences, recently published global reports and much more. Visit www.africawaterjournalists.org for more information.

Mount Kilimanjaro is drying up. Climate change, coupled with widespread deforestation of the slopes, is melting the ice and snow that has crowned Africa's highest peak for more than 11,000 years, dramatically altering the surrounding ecosystem. Scientists warn most of the glaciers may be gone by 2020.

Widespread use of wood as a household fuel in sub-Saharan Africa will cause ten million premature deaths by 2030 and make a significant contribution to climate change, says a study published in Science. The study predicts that unless African households adopt cleaner, more efficient fuels, the equivalent of 6.7 billion tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere by 2050.

The Africa Water Journalists Network is a community of more than 1,000 journalists concerned with water. The network offers: A website and blog, places to share information, write more personally about water issues and your personal and professional water-related experiences, ask questions to colleagues in other countries, or just express your feelings about being a journalist in Africa. The network was officially launched on March 22 in Addis Ababa at the United Nations' celebration of World Water Day.