The Green Belt Movement, founded by Nobel prize-winner Wangari Maathai, has a partnership with the Basque government for community-based tree planting and natural resource management initiatives in southern Mt.Kenya.

Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) calls on the International Criminal court to arrest Mswati as a perpetrator of human suffering for presiding over a crime against humanity.

Until the mid-20th century, many European countries grew rich on the resources of their colonies. Now, countries including China, Kuwait and Sweden are snapping up vast tracts of agricultural land in poorer nations, especially in Africa, to grow biofuels and food for themselves. The land grabs have sparked accusations of neocolonialism and fears that the practice could worsen poverty. Yet some organisations think this could be a chance for poor countries to trade land and labour for the technology and investment vital for developing their own food and energy production.

Environmental degradation, responsible for the dangerous displacement of sand dunes in Mauritania, has wiped out homes, livestock and livelihoods throughout the desert country. An October UN study estimated that land degradation costs nearly US$200 million annually in potential revenue losses and health care expenses.

Zambians are gradually turning to greener energy technologies to save trees after suffering years of extensive flooding and droughts, which could slow the impact of climate change. Charcoal-fed braziers are being replaced by those burning briquettes made of treated coal waste, which are smokeless and emit low levels of sulphur dioxide gas.

If the socio-economic development goals of the eight countries that share the Zambezi River basin are to be met, countries along the river should quickly implement plans towards managing water resources in an efficient, effective and sustainable manner. This was the agreement made during the Fourth Zambezi Basin-wide Stakeholders Forum which took place in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe from Nov. 26-27.

How can human rights principles help to focus climate change policymaking? This report from the International Council on Human Rights Policy discusses the human rights impacts of climate change and maps research agendas. It includes Forewords by Mary Robinson and Romina Picolotti.

The second edition of Climate Change and supporting website feature a range of articles that encourage the sharing of best practice and the development of new technologies. These initiatives, illustrates the opportunities for business and governments to reduce costs and increase profits while tackling climate change. Separated into four sections, the first three mirrors the thematic building blocks laid out by the Bali Action Plan in 2007, which will be discussed in detail during COP 14 - The United Nations Climate Conference in Poznon, Poland, and in the lead up to COP 15 in Copenhagen.

November, often the rainiest month of the year, has left most of Swaziland awash with flash floods: but in the eastern Lowveld, no rain has fallen, and the fear is of yet another drought year in which food aid will be needed. "Are we cursed, the people living here? Not a drop has fallen, not one drop," said Amos Zwane, a smallholder farmer near Lavumisa in the Shiselweni region in the south. The area is nearing its second decade of poor rainfall.

The Kalahari Bushmen have appealed to the Pope to support them in their struggle to return to their land, as the Vatican established diplomatic relations with Botswana earlier this month. A Bushman spokesman said, ‘We beg the Pope to help, to pray for us so that the government changes its attitude towards us and respects our rights as indigenous peoples of this land.’

Nigeria and Angola will be the highest earning oil-producing countries in a pack of 10 within the sub-saharan African region between 2006 and 2030, says the International Energy Agency (IEA). In a report entitled “World Energy Outlook 2008”, presented at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. by the organisation's Chief Economist, Dr Faith Birol, Nigeria and Angola will account for 86 per cent of the $4.1 trillion cumulative revenues of all 10 countries over 2006-2030.

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects different populations around the world in different ways. In South Africa, for example, there are situations caused by global warming, as in the rest of the African continent. Siziwe Khanyile, member of environmental organization GroundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa, talked about this.

The Johannesburg High Court ruling on 30th April 2008 declaring prepaid water meters to be illegal and unconstitutional was welcomed by many organisations including the Gauteng Province of the ANC, even though they are champions of the installation of those meters. It is thus entirely predictable that the Independent Democrats has been reported in the media several times over the last few weeks as calling on the Johannesburg City Council to listen to the voices of the people and stop the installation of prepaid water meters.

African countries have agreed to negotiate as a bloc in talks on a new global warming treaty, a move meant to give the continent highly threatened by climate change a greater say in the future pact. In a first, delegates from Africa's 53 nations signed an "Algiers Declaration" that seeks to ensure that the continent's voice is heard when the replacement to the Kyoto Protocol is discussed.

Daewoo Logistics of South Korea said it expected to pay nothing to farm maize and palm oil in an area of Madagascar half the size of Belgium, increasing concerns about the largest farmland investment of this kind. The Indian Ocean island will simply gain employment opportunities from Daewoo’s 99-year lease of 1.3m hectares, officials at the company said. They emphasised that the aim of the investment was to boost Seoul’s food security.

To better prepare Africa’s urban settlements for climate variability and change, the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) program invites combined research and capacity building proposals that address the vulnerabilities of Africa’s urban centres to climate change, and will help urban stakeholders work together in developing adaptation options.

Do you work with indigenous peoples? Are you concerned about their land rights? Would you like to learn new HRBD strategies and tools to enrich your work? Then this workshop is for you! As a side-event to the ESCR-Net General Assembly, Equalinrights will be organizing a workshop on Land and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights.

Taking up the example of the small village of Dumasi in Ghana’s Western Region and drawing upon her experience of filming a documentary entitled , Alexandra Sicotte-Lévesque discusses the destructive action of the Canadian Golden Star Resources mining company and its pressure on local people for forcible resettlement. While Canada’s anti-poverty agenda cancelled some CAD$18 million of Ghana’s debt in 2004, the author highlights the core contradictions of a Western nation that is conversely unwilling to accept any extraterritorial responsibilities in conflict with the needs of its own domestic economy. As Sicotte-Lévesque underlines, the principal poverty faced by local Ghanaian communities is above all one rooted in a lack of information, a lack underpinning a vicious cycle characterised by poor communities getting poorer as mining companies get richer.

Over the last year repression of freedom of expression and of the media has intensified in Sudan. Daily newspapers have been suspended, printed newspaper editions and equipment confiscated, in addition to increased harassment, arrest, detention and interrogation of journalists and preferring of criminal and civil charges.

The Dandora municipal waste site east of Nairobi continues to pose environmental and health risks even after a study recommended its closure, said specialists. “The dumpsite is a big, big health problem and it has had a very bad impact on the environment,” Njoroge Kimani, a biochemist, said, adding that the unrestricted dumping of domestic, industrial, hospital and agricultural waste at the city’s main dumping site was cause for concern.