In recent years as globalization and market liberalization have marched forward unabated and the global commons continue to be commodified and privatized at a rapid pace. In this global process, the ownership, sale and supply of water is increasingly the flashpoint for debates and conflict over privatization and nowhere is the debate more advanced or acute than southern Africa. "The Age of Commodity" provides an overview on the debates over water privatization including a conceptual overview of water ‘privatization,’ how it relates to human rights, macro-economic policy and GATS and how the debates are shaped by research methodologies.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), in collaboration with the 3rd World Water Forum Secretariat and the World Water Council, has created a peer-to-peer announcement list called WATER-L. This list will be used, in the short-term, for the distribution by WATER-L list members to other WATER-L list members of announcements during the 3rd World Water Forum. Please send an email to [email protected] for more information.

This study explores the relationship between HIV/AIDS and land rights in Kenya, with a particular focus on women as a socially vulnerable group. It examines: the ways that HIV/ AIDS-affected households are coping in terms of land access, use and management; the consequences of these coping strategies on security of access and rights to land; and how changes in land tenure, access and rights to land among different categories of people are affecting agricultural productivity, food security and poverty.

International scientists have joined hands with non-governmental organisations such as World Vision to launch a five-million dollar research initiative to improve the lives of millions of poor farmers living in and around the Limpopo river basin. Almost 14 million people live in the Limpopo river basin, which has a catchment area of 413,000 square kilometres – including rivers and tributaries flowing through Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

The Burundian government and the international community are attentively focused on the mass repatriation of Burundian refugees from Tanzania with perceived improved security scenario within Burundi. But the American based Refugees International, RI, and the Kenya based policy think-tank, ACTS have called on the UN High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, to slow the repatriation process down until the government of Burundi has shown more progress towards addressing key social issues, such as access to land and housing.

The Chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Maina Kiai has underscored the need to approach historical land injustices with soberness. Maina said land issues are critical, sensitive and complex and can only be solved through dialogue. He noted that although land might have been taken away from helpless, ignorant indigenous Kenyans, there are existing realities and dispensations that cannot allow the people to go back to the traditional settings.

The commercial agricultural organisation, Agri SA, has welcomed the South African government's announcement that it would soon reach an agreement with Zimbabwe on land rights for South Africans in that country. SABC radio has reported that Mandisi Mpahlwa, the trade and industry minister, had said negotiations had been finalised and that an agreement was ready to be signed.

Global biodiversity is shrinking at an unprecedented rate and the prognosis given by one of the world's leading conservation bodies, at the opening of a major environment conference, is alarming. One in three amphibians and almost half of all freshwater turtles are threatened, on top of the one in eight birds and one in four mammals known to be jeopardy, said the IUCN at its 3rd World Conservation Congress being held in the Thai capital from Nov. 17-25.

Poverty and rapid population growth have driven the destruction of almost 90 percent of Madagascar’s rainforest, home to thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth. In the documentary Finding Balance, rare interviews with local women brings the links between population growth and environmental destruction into sharp focus.

In this Comment, Lloyd Sachikonye, a specialist in agrarian and labour studies from Zimbabwe, examines post-independence approaches to land reform and their impact on the people of southern Africa. He argues that the capacity of the land to give life to the people of the region can best be harnessed by incorporating land reform within national development strategies that strive for poverty reduction and social justice.

Mining ministers from central Africa's diamond-producing countries have agreed to set up a committee to oversee the trade in diamonds and other precious gems in the region. They also vowed to "apply the recommendations made by experts" just before their meeting, including to "better follow the movement of diamonds, to improve border checks, and fight against corruption and the potential implosion of the (diamond) sector".

"The World Bank in collaboration with WaterAid plans to hold a World Bank - Civil Society Dialogue on Urban Water Supply and Sanitation, "Forging Global and Local Coalitions for Reform," to be held on November 18-19, 2004 in London.

Some of the organizations signed below were invited to attend, but we have decided to join with the global social movements protesting 60 years of World Bank policies and projects promoting privatization of essential services, trade liberalization and resource extraction that have further impoverished small farmers, local businesses, workers, and low-income citizens while destroying the environment.

We join with global civil society and social movements calling for the World Bank to halt these harmful policies and projects. We make this decision to boycott the World Bank - Civil Society Dialogue on Urban Water Supply and Sanitation because it is clear that the World Bank does not have any serious intention of addressing our issues of concern. Nor could the organizers guarantee that the dialogue would take place in U.N languages in order to include non-English-speaking participants."

Italy's biggest construction company, Impregilo, has been hauled before the Lesotho High Court as authorities launched their sixth corruption prosecution relating to the multibillion-dollar Lesotho Highlands Water Project. And as if taking on one corporate giant was not enough, the latest court indictment also links multinational giant Fiat, through its shareholding, to bribery claims.

Overfishing by subsidized European fleets off the coast of West Africa is hurting local fisheries and forcing people to slaughter wildlife to get enough to eat, researchers report. They said the so-called bushmeat trade in Ghana is strongly driven by a lack of fish, and added that the country risked even worse poverty and social unrest - as well as the loss of an irreplaceable natural resource - unless something changes.

Youth representatives of the Batwa, a group of indigenous people found across central Africa, have asked the governments of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda to ensure they get equal access to land, education and health as other ethnic groups in these countries. The representatives, who have been meeting in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, since Monday, said they planned to empower Batwa youth to protect themselves.

"We, the landless people of South Africa, declare our needs for our government and the world to know. We are the people who have borne the brunt of colonialism and neo-colonialism, of the invasion of our land by the wealthy countries of the world, of the theft of our natural resources, and of the forced extraction of our labour by the colonists. We are the people who have borne the brunt of apartheid, of forced removals from our fields and homes, of poverty in the rural areas, of oppression on the farms and of starvation, neglect and disease in the Bantustans."

Many of the routes delivering food, medicine and other necessary relief to hundreds of thousands of homeless in Darfur are increasingly labeled ‘no-go’ areas because of stepped up fighting from all sides, though many foreign non-governmental organisations have defied UN warnings in attempts to provide assistance. In early November the UN said some 160,000 people were inaccessible due to growing insecurity. The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that at least 70,000 people had died in the camps from disease and malnutrition since March 2004.

The African Conservation Foundation (ACF) has announced an exciting new Art for Conservation project, “When Paintings Come Alive” - The Endangered Species Project and are teaming up with internationally renowned creative artist Daniel Taylor to raise funds for the conservation of three endangered species in Africa: gorillas, elephants and lions. Taylor will create an original wildlife painting of each of these animals in the unique style of High Realist painting in acrylic. ACF will receive 100% of the revenues from the sale of these signed and numbered limited edition prints. The money raised will be used to fund the conservation of gorillas, elephants and lions in Africa.

Environmentalists have reacted with guarded caution to announcements of new plans to mine more bauxite and iron in Guinea. The plans were released after conclusion of the International Forum on the Mining Sector (FISM) held in this West African country last month. The meeting, held in the northeastern city of Boffa, about 130 kilometres from the Guinean capital Conakry, attracted multinational corporations such as Alcoa (the United States), Alcan (Canada), Rio Tinto (Britain) and EuroNimba with ambitious mining projects. It is hoped that these projects will stimulate Guinea’s economy, which is cash-strapped but rich in natural resources.

In the 1980s, an uncontrolled poaching spree reduced the rhino population by 98%, but anti-poaching activities have now given the rhinos a chance to recover their numbers and rebuild populations. However, the problem of accurately monitoring the rhinos to implement realistic wildlife management strategies remains.