If the international community wants the global benefits of rainforest preservation, it is going to have to stump up some of the costs, says a paper produced by Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn Programme (ASB) in Kenya that examines the land-use systems that replace natural forests after periods of deforestation. While part of the conservation answer lies in the developing countries themselves, the paper asks if these countries should have to shoulder the entire financial burden of forest conservation when all faced urgent development imperatives, such as educating and vaccinating rural children?

The environmental impact assessment of a planned nuclear reactor at Koeberg, near Cape Town, has been approved, the environmental affairs department said last Thursday.

The delay in establishing the Pondoland National Park in the Eastern Cape is due to opposition from the government in that province, Environment Minister Valli Moosa said last Thursday. "The Eastern Cape provincial government is opposed to the establishment of a national park on the Wild Coast," he said in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Democratic Alliance MP Errol Moorcroft.

A forgotten famine is reducing one of the world's richest stores of biodiversity, the rainforests of Madagascar, to ash. Farmers stricken by drought on the Indian Ocean island are burning swaths of primeval woodland to make charcoal.

U.S. President George Bush will be visiting South Africa on July 9 as part of his African safari taking in Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, and Botswana. American authorities insist that the visit is a follow-up to the administration's increased emphasis on its Africa policy, aimed at strengthening diplomatic relations and furthering the development agenda of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). The proposed visit has more to do with securing alternative sources of oil than furthering African development.

Migration studies in southern Africa have looked in detail at the history and politics of movements of people to frontier zones. But have they paid enough attention to the impact on indigenous inhabitants? Are migrants really the agents of modernity they are often depicted to be?

Seismic data suggest billions of barrels of oil could lie off Sao Tome's coast near oil-rich Nigeria, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in an increasingly important oil-producing region far from the risks of the Middle East. And that is driving an intense local struggle for power, complicated by the involvement of big outside players drawn to islands that had been getting by in quiet poverty, exporting a little cocoa and some bananas.

Environment ministers from more than 20 African countries have endorsed a proposed regional environmental plan for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). But no new funds have so far been allocated for the initiative, whose implementation is expected to cost US$250 million.

A conflict is brewing between the government of Kenya and the Maasai tribe who are threatening to kill all the lions at Nairobi National Park, some eight kilometres (five miles) south of the city of Nairobi, for killing their livestock.

The cheetah's deep, resonant purr always captivates visitors to a South African wildlife centre devoted to the world's fastest mammal. But some South Africans are less enthusiastic about the animals, which can beat a Ferrari in a 60-yard sprint. The De Wildt Trust says the rise of private game farming has intensified a long conflict between farmers and the endangered carnivore that has seen at least 200 wild cheetahs — from a wild population that may now be as low as 250 — killed or removed from their wild habitat in South Africa over the last two years.

More than 100 people were killed when a ruptured fuel pipeline exploded and caught fire at a remote village in southeastern Nigeria last Thursday, Red Cross and local government officials said.

On the southern side of Madagascar lies a wilderness paradise. The Indian Ocean washes over white sands. There is a primeval rainforest which is home to thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else. It is here that the world's largest mining company, Rio Tinto, intends to dredge hundreds of millions of tonnes of soil over 6 000 hectares to extract ilmenite, a mineral used to make paint and toothpaste.

The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has taken an interest in the Nigeria-South Africa oil saga and has visited some of those involved, including the wife of Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile. The Mail & Guardian revealed a month ago how a lucrative crude oil contract — awarded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the "Republic of South Africa" after lobbying by President Thabo Mbeki — was diverted to an offshore company. There was no benefit to South Africa. The government has offered no comprehensive explanation since then.

Angola on Thursday announced it would make public all its oil payments under a new push to stamp out corruption and attract aid and investment. Aguinaldo Jaime, the country's deputy prime minister, said: "For the first time in Angola's history, the budget will encompass all revenue and that will send to the donor community the signal that the Angolan government is committed to a fully transparent way of managing the budget."

Malawi's army has been sent to round up a herd of rampaging elephants that have killed at least three people since they broke out of a game reserve earlier this week, police said last Thursday.

Nigeria and Sao Tome have pledged to publish the financial results of their next licensing round for a $270m oilfield. The decision is a breakthrough for the UK-led campaign to reduce corruption in oil and mineral-rich developing countries by pushing governments to disclose the amount of money international companies pay to develop their resources.

Poor urban communities will from 1 July be without clean and safe drinking water, unless they reach to the bottom of their already dry purses to pay for the right to drink, cook and bathe from clean and safe water. The Water and Sewage Authority will hand over or close public standpipes to communities and implement new water charges starting July, disclosed WASA Chief Executive Officer, Sechoba Makhoalibe.

A pall of heavy smoke from thousands of backyard bonfires lit to chase away an evil spirit has created a foul atmosphere in the Guinean capital Conakry. Health workers and environmentalists have appealed over the radio for people to put out the fires, which have clogged the air with pollution for several days.

A South African private company has said that it has plans to take over a string of national parks throughout Africa.

Every year, vast patches of the Earth turn barren and unproductive, the consequence of drought and poor land management. This process - known as desertification - has far reaching costs to humanity, United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan said this week, and poses "an ever increasing global threat."