A group of South African hunter-gatherers is to receive six per cent of all royalties received by South Africa's leading research organisation from a potential anti-obesity drug derived from the local hoodia plant. Under the deal, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will also pay the San community eight per cent of all milestone payments received from Phytopharm, its UK-based licencee for the drug. The money will be used for the "general upliftment, development and training of the San community".

It is mid-morning, and terrified Ernest is charging as fast as he can toward Lake Nakuru in the heart of Kenya's scenic Rift Valley, sending a flock of pink flamingos squawking into flight. The 3-year-old white rhino is the target of wildlife authorities trying to capture him and take him to another game park hundreds of miles away. They are keen to revive the number of rhinos which were nearly wiped out in a poaching attack years ago.

I read your article “Diamonds: Forever or For Good? The Economic Impact of Diamonds in Southern Africa” with interest. Whilst I agree with a lot of what Ralph Hazleton wrote, I fear that he has let Botswana off the hook a bit too much.

Ian Taylor, University of Botswana

The value of international summits and forums and the high costs of organising such events were questioned by many participants at the end of the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan. Critics say the expected outcome and activity plans of such international events do not justify the huge amount of money pumped into organising them. They argue that the money would be much better used in achieving the Millennium and World Summit on Sustainable Development targets set in Johannesburg last year.

Africa is facing a water and sanitation crisis. An estimated one in three Africans do not have access to adequate water supply and sanitation facilities. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) 40% of people lack access to a safe water supply and almost half suffer from water related diseases. In the face of these statistics, can the water and sanitation goals be met in Africa?

Traditionally hunter-gatherers, the Batwa forest peoples of Rwanda are recognized as having been the first inhabitants of the land. Yet the Batwa have been forced to the edges of their ancestral forests. With no compensation and no alternative forms of livelihood, most have become beggars and landless labourers. This study from Minority Rights International highlights the plight of the Batwa and the need for allocated lands to allow them to preserve their culture, values and traditional livelihoods.

In just two decades, the environmental justice movement, which has its roots in the United States, has spread across the globe: the call for environmental justice can be heard from south-central Los Angeles to south Durban. This grassroots movement is largely a response to environmental racism - any policy, practice or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (whether intentionally or unintentionally) individuals, groups or communities based on race or colour, says this article.

Water belongs to the earth and all species for all time. It is an inalienable human right and a public trust to be protected and nurtured by all peoples, communities and nations, and the bodies that represent them at the local, state, and international level. Based on these unwavering principles, we make the following claims: Water is not a commodity and must not be left to the whims of the market because no person or entity has the right to profit from it. Water must not, therefore, be commodified, privatized, traded or exported for commercial gain. Water must be excluded as a "good", a "service" and an "investment" in all international, regional and bilateral trade agreements. Every human being has the right to clean water. We demand that governments of the world substantially increase spending on clean water and sanitation for poor people with little or no access. We affirm that by reducing current astronomical levels of military spending that clean and safe water can be provided for every living person on this planet. We maintain that debt cancellation is essential for water security in poor countries, and demand that privatization cease to be used as a condition on international lending.

The mining of the world's largest titanium fields on the east African coast of Kenya appears to have hit another snag after the country's new government announced that it is planning to conduct a public forum to discuss whether Tiomin Resources Inc., a Canadian mining firm, should be licensed to start mining the mineral in Kenya.

The British government announced on Tuesday that it is backing an ecological scheme aimed at protecting Ethiopia’s indigenous plant life.

More than a week after an outbreak of ethnic violence in the oil-rich Delta region of Nigeria, the army sent by the government to quell the disturbances claims to have tightened its control on the volatile conflict zone. At the heart of the conflict are youths in the Niger Delta from the local Ijaw community, which claims to be the majority ethnic group in the area. They complain that they have been marginalised by central government and receive virtually none of the benefits from the oil wealth, which they say comes from their traditional lands in the region.

Lack of clean water in households causes millions of children in the developing world to suffer needlessly from disease, UNICEF says, adding that millions of girls are deterred from getting an education because of a dearth of sanitation facilities in schools. UNICEF said that a lack of access to clean water causes waterborne illnesses that kill more than 1.6 million young children each year.

A ministerial meeting tackling the world's water problems fell short of producing a clearly defined programme of action in its final declaration, which was released here in this central Japanese city on Sunday. Also missing in the final text seeking to achieve water security was language recognising the right to water as a human right. Furthermore, the ministerial declaration omitted mention of the need for a global mechanism to monitor the progress being made to solve water-related problems, particularly the lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

Even after the United Nations 'Water Decade' from 1981 to 1990 and Safe Water year in 2000, more than one billion people in the Least Developed Countries (LDC's) lack access to safe, clean water, and three billion to adequate sanitation. This paper from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) begins by providing background information on LDC's which are the world's 49 poorest, and comparing them with other developing countries. The authors state that LDC's on average use per capita about 1%-2% of the water used in Canada, but despite this, they still face formidable obstacles with regards to water, and globalisation appears to be deepening their vulnerability.

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) Wildlife and Poverty Study aims to assess how and why wildlife is important to the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable, review the key underlying policy and institutional issues, investigate the synergies and trade-offs between donor strategies and draw implications for appropriate strategy and intervention. The Study concludes that evidence indicates a significant dependence of poor people on wildlife for livelihood and food security, particularly through bushmeat and tourism.

The Rift Valley area of central Ethiopia is a place of chronic food shortage, especially in recent years as erratic rains have stunted crops, and diseases have killed off livestock. Years of deforestation have eroded the soil, and even the farmers near Ziway Lake struggle to find water for their families and crops. They lacked the equipment to move the water to their farms. But they knew that with some water pumps and pipes, and the technical expertise to maintain the equipment and grow their crops in drought conditions, they could overcome the dry climate.

Two teenagers spelt out the scale of the water crisis in drought-stricken Ethiopia at an international conference in Japan marking world water day on Saturday. Tireza Satheesh and Zerihun Mammo told how they witnessed first hand the suffering of communities in Ethiopia who have almost no access to water.

An impromptu walkout during the launch of the Camdessus report in the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure session sparked controversy as civil society sharply criticized the World Water Council's positions ranging from infrastructure and dam development to the privatization and pricing policies being pushed at the World Water Forum. The defiant act demonstrated critical opposition to the corporate influence.

After launching the ground invasion of Iraq, President Bush paused to have dinner Thursday with an unlikely guest, given the circumstances. Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met in the White House with the leader of Cameroon for a discussion of "common interests." Best known for poverty and corruption, Cameroon is among the nations being courted to support the war. But the country also figures prominently in a monumental new initiative to tap rich West African oil fields and reduce U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil, an aim that has taken on added urgency with the conflict in Iraq.

Tanzania ranks 70th among 122 selected countries world wide in terms of water quality, a report has indicated. South Africa is positioned at 47. The report by UNESCO PRESS, a news service of the World Water Development Agency on water quality indicator values released in Kyoto at the 3rd World Water Forum shows Finland ranking first as Belgium ranks last in terms of low quantity and quality of groundwater combined with heavy industrial pollution and poor treatment of wastewater. No African country is listed among the top ten, which chronologically include Finland, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Russian Federation, Republic of Korea, Sweden and France.