The Liberian rainforest is threatened by destructive logging operations, according to the first Liberian nongovernmental report on the forest industry released by La Fondation pour la Sauvegarde de l’Avenir (SAMFU)in September. This Liberian nongovernmental organisation was founded in 1987, but remained dormant during most of the 1990s because of the civil war in Liberia.

Europe's biggest environmental headache for a decade appears to have been solved by the simple, if cynical, ruse of towing the stricken oil tanker Prestige from Spain to Africa. As European countries demanded that the ageing tanker, described by environmentalists as "a chemical time-bomb", be taken away from their coasts before it sank and released its deadly cargo of 70 000 tons of fuel oil, the Dutch salvage company in charge of the rescue operation began towing it south.

The impact of Zimbabwe's controversial fast-track land reform programme has rippled through the economy, but it has been the country's once robust agro-industries that have been the hardest hit.

This posting from Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe comments on media commentary of Zimbabwe's 2003 budget proposal by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa and coverage of the US/Zimbabwe relations with regards to the warning by the US against alleged politicization of food by ZANU PF. The update also examines the manner in which the media covered the land issue in relation to the country's food security.

South Africa said Thursday it did not deliberately withhold information about elephant poaching at one of its national parks from a U.N. organization deciding whether to allow sales of ivory stockpiles. On Tuesday, the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to allow South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to stage one-time sales of ivory from their stockpiles in 2004 provided it did not lead to a surge in poaching by criminals hoping to launder fresh tusks among the legitimate sales.

Residents of Swakopmund's DRC informal settlement are still struggling with water problems, more than three months after the installation of a new vandal proof pre-paid water meter system.

The Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Co-operation (LVRLAC) is to expand to include Rwanda and Burundi, in a bid to protect and conserve the waters and surrounding areas of Lake Victoria. Dr. Julius Odongo, LVRLAC's secretary general, says the organisation took this decision because both Rwanda and Burundi partly share the waters of the lake. "What these countries do in regard to their environment ultimately affects Lake Victoria and its surroundings," he says.

Zambia's five rare white rhinos are facing starvation due to a drought that has nearly destroyed grazing pastures in the famine-threatened southern African country, officials said on Thursday. The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) said the drought had already claimed 48 other wild animals in the Musi-O-Tunya national park in southern Zambia since June.

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International has announced an action plan to halt a recent poaching spree that has left six mountain gorillas dead, one infant in temporary captivity and several others missing in Rwanda.

Sharp divisions between rich and poor nations on how to cope with climate change deepened last week at international climate change talks in Delhi, with developing countries rejecting Western demands to set targets to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases.

Beehives could help to protect African farms from damage caused by elephants by stopping them from eating crops, according to new research. Elephants can destroy whole fields of crops, especially where farmland borders reserves in countries such as Kenya. But they avoid beehives, and researchers have found that even empty hives are enough to reduce elephant damage, probably due to their odour.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has condemned the arrest by state security officials of Sidahmed Khalifa, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper "Al-Watan", and his son Adil Sidahmed Khalifa, a journalist from the same newspaper, on November 9. The editor was arrested a few hours after criticising, at a press conference, the seizure of an issue of his own newspaper and those of two others published in Khartoum.

The conversion of East African rangelands to cultivation is giving rise to conflicts over different land uses. How can tensions be resolved? This study explores the impact of such changes on different groups and asks questions about the implications for their livelihoods and the environment. It also seeks pathways to limit conflict in the buffer zones around the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.

The Botswana government has denied that diamonds were behind the controversial relocation of the Basarwa bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and has accused British advocacy group Survival International of a "campaign of deception." The Botswana human rights group Ditshwanelo, which is part of an NGO negotiating team on the future of the Basarwa, has distanced itself from Survival International's campaign which has focused on the alleged role of diamonds and the firm de Beers. Ditshwanelo said this "confrontational" intervention had stalled talks between the government and the negotiating team.

Southern African countries have won their fight to resume limited trade in ivory, angering conservationists who said this would be a green light for poachers to resume the illegal killing of elephants. Countries at the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) meeting in Chile gave the go-ahead to Botswana and Namibia for a once-off sale of its ivory stockpile.

Traditional, indigenous knowledge and modern land management techniques will be wedded in a new $50 million program to heal dying and degraded lands on the margins of Africa's deserts. These lands account for about five percent of Africa's land area and are home to an estimated 22 million people.

Under a mango tree, three men squatted in the dust with pliers, twisting thick wire from poachers' snares into decorative baskets. Trimmed in gold, red, and blue, they sell them to tourists for $6 each. "We help save the animals and people find another way to make money," said Kelvin Phiri, a craftsman and founder of Mango Tree Crafts, a cooperative formed four months ago in this eastern Zambian valley.

Sebastian Chuwa, Tanzanian botanist and conservationist, was honoured as recipient of an Associate Laureate award by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise committee at The Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, England. The award was given to support his conservation work for the African blackwood, the national tree of Tanzania. The Blackwood, or mpingo, is used internationally to manufacture woodwind instruments and is becoming threatened due to overharvestin.

South African scientists have documented what organisations have warned about for years; water privatisation in African countries, which means denying access to safe drinking water to the poor. In South Africa alone, there have been 10 million water cuts since commercialisation started in 1994.

Namibian workers at the N,2 billion Skorpion zinc mine in the Karas Region, are accusing construction companies of laying them off and replacing them with South Africans. They allege they are being punished for taking part in a strike two months ago.