When Zimbabwe designated a 5,000 square kilometre stretch of southern savannah as the Gonarezhou National Park in 1966, the new park boundaries did more than protect the wildlife within; they locked people out. With the creation of the park, the government forcibly relocated a number of traditional communities that had lived on the land for generations. The conflict between parks and local people is not unique to Zimbabwe. Disputes can be found all over Africa. The continent has a history of displacement of villagers to make way for the establishment of national parks.

Land reform has brought about the most far-reaching redistribution of resources in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. After a slow but orderly process of redistribution between 1980 and 1999, a fast-track programme was implemented between 2000 and 2002. This phase of land reform involved the acquisition of 11 million hectares from white commercial farmers for redistribution in a process marked by considerable coercion and violence. Prior to land reform, an estimated 320,000 to 350,000 farm workers were employed on commercial farms owned by about 4,500 white farmers. Their dependants numbered between 1.8 and 2 million. How did farm workers fare in the massive redistribution of land? What was the broad impact on them? And what are their future prospects? This is the subject of a recent report, 'The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers after Land Reform in Zimbabwe', prepared for the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe.

Angola's offshore oil riches will soon propel the country into the million-barrel-a-day club, but corruption and poor governance threaten billions of dollars in future investment, analysts say. Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest producer behind Nigeria, producing some 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil with a significant increase seen over the next five years.

A new report launched at the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) corrects some major popular misconceptions about tree plantations, and warns that the rapid expansion of often heavily subsidized industrial fast wood plantations cannot be relied upon to stop deforestation or generate employment.

The Environmental Program Management Specialist is a key member of the core SO team and the expanded teams for the CARPE Strategic Objective. Under the general supervision of the CARPE Project Manager, the incumbent has a wide-ranging, pivotal role in supervising a highly specialized SO Team, providing overall program management and planning support, achieving results, monitoring the performance of the CARPE, and coordination of implementing partners and donors. S/He is expected to exercise considerable independent judgment and initiative in executing all duties and responsibilities, and work with minimal direct supervision.

Cases of typhoid and diarrhoea among children in the northern town of Bambari in the Central African Republic (CAR) have increased due to lack of safe drinking water, government-run Radio Centrafrique reported on Saturday.

The drought in southern Africa is coming to an end, according to a report released by the Southern African Development Community food security network. The monthly regional ministerial brief forecasts that this year's crops will be six per cent above last year's and three per cent higher than the past five-year average.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is asking EU diplomats to give 4 minutes of their time to listen to the views of African fishermen before deciding on the future of fishing deals between the EU and developing countries. The European Commission proposes to turn its ‘cash for access’ deals - whereby the EU pays developing countries for EU boats to fish in their waters - into “partnership agreements” aimed at developing sustainable fisheries. But WWF, and African fishermen, are very critical of the EU’s record on fishing in developing countries.

Tanzania's national environment agency has warned that most of the country's water supply will become dangerously toxic unless drastic anti-pollution measures are taken. Untreated industrial waste is being pumped into the country's rivers, creating a potentially devastating future crisis, the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) has said.

In 2001, the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change revealed that although due to underdevelopment Africa emits negligible amounts of greenhouse gases, it will suffer the most from the impact of climate change. Africa's fate will lie squarely on the doorsteps of the industrialised countries responsible for spewing out greenhouse gases. Their reluctance to reduce these emissions will only make matters worse.

As wildlife authorities step up anti-poaching operations to curb illegal trafficking of endangered birds, poachers of the African Grey parrot have devised ways of beating the system. The New Vision has learnt that poachers illegally hunt the parrots and later get permits from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

An oil spillage has occurred at Egbebiri in Yenagoa local government area of Bayelsa State. The oil spillage was from Idu, Well 5, one of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC) facilities, and was said to have devastated farmlands, fish ponds and the only source of drinking water in the area.

African governments and major international oil explorers are meeting in Angola to discuss how to exploit offshore oil from West and Central African nations. The government of host nation Angola has been criticised by international donors for failing to stop corrupt officials pocketing oil revenues.

Top investors urged companies toward greater openness over the cash paid to governments for oil drilling and mining rights in an initiative launched on Tuesday. Political violence in Nigeria, where decades of corruption have wasted tens of billions of dollars of western oil money since an oil boom began in the 1970s, has been a catalyst for the initiative.

President Sam Nujoma has sold his dream of 'piping' water from the Congo River to the rest of southern Africa. The President boasted how his initial vision of a pipeline from the mouth of the Congo River to Namibia is now being translated into reality.

Once hunted to the verge of extinction, the magnificent southern right whale has not only staged a comeback but is now a major revenue earner for South Africa. Thousands of tourists flock to our shores between May and October to view the gentle giants of the oceans. Each winter and spring the whales congregate in the many small bays along the Cape coast to mate and calf.

The European Commission has approved a major project to support the second phase of a nationwide landmine impact survey for Somalia. In a statement on Wednesday, the EC said it had allocated US $1.73 million to the project. An EC official told IRIN that this second phase - to be implemented by the UN Development Programme and the UN Office for Project Services - will be carried out in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland and southern Somalia, particularly in the Baidoa area, "security and access permitting".

The triumph of President Olusegun Obasanjo and his ruling party in Nigeria's general elections was as sweeping as it was unprecedented. But given widespread accusations of electoral fraud on a massive scale, their resounding victory has a hollow ring.

"Understanding Environmental Policy Processes" answers the following questions: How are environmental policies created and once put to effect, why are they so difficult to change despite sometimes becoming detrimental to the environment they are set up to protect? African environmental policy is largely controlled by Northern concepts of how the environment should be handled - are these Northern ideals best for Africa itself? What can be done to make policy making more participatory?

Crude oil from a ruptured pipeline oozed across farms and into a creek in southern Nigeria, unleashed by what residents and officials said Monday was tampering by unidentified saboteurs. A spokesman for Shell's Nigerian subsidiary said workers had found signs of "excavations" and "disturbed vegetation" surrounding the broken pipeline at Ubianuge village, near the oil port of Warri.