The Sudan government has said that it is essential to act quickly on a serious problem of drought in a number of affected regions. In a high-level meeting between government officials, diplomats and humanitarian agencies this week in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the government called for "swift action domestically and at the international level".

Nigerian Nobel Prize winning author Wole Soyinka has an Earth Week message for the world about his homeland - at least a third of the entire country is polluted in some way.

High level talks on the Kyoto climate protocol at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York over the weekend have confirmed global opposition to America's decision to abandon the deal in its current form.

For the latest job openings for environmental professionals.

A British scientist has been banned from Bui National Park in Ghana, which is due to be flooded by a hydroelectric dam on the Black Volta River. University of Aberdeen zoologist Daniel Bennett says he is the only living scientist to have conducted biological research in the 1,800 square kilometer (700 square mile) reserve, which he says contains, "the last pristine wilderness in the entire Volta System."

Gary Comstock claims that the precautionary principle commits us at the same time to two contradictory courses of action, that we should develop GM crops and that we should not. He concludes that the principle is therefore 'incoherent'.

International experts representing private sector forest industries involved in paper and wood products will meet this week with their FAO counterparts to discuss issues related to climate change and the paper and wood products industry, and review recent progress made in forestry and forest products certification, FAO said.

American Rivers, The Nature Conservancy and other
non-profit organizations and federal agencies annouce "Managing River Flows for Biodiversity: A Conference on Science, Policy and Conservation Action" this summer in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
The case studies include: Upper Colorado River Basin, Missouri River, Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, Sacramento/San Joaquin BayDelta System, Klamath River, Zion National Park, Trinity River, Beaverkill River, San Pedro River, Roanoke River, as well as examples from Brazil and Africa. The conference is open to 350 attendees from diverse professional and academic backgrounds. Early registration ends May 1.

Proposing radical environmental protection measures, Kenyan members of Parliament Wednesday launched an attack against the government accusing it of systematically destroying forests and taking a casual attitude towards conservation.

U.S. President George W. Bush, trying to burnish his badly tarnished environmental image in advance of Earth Day, announced here Thursday that the United States will sign the UN Convention to ban or severely restrict persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as DDT and dioxins.

Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman of energy major Royal Dutch/Shell, has said that once he retires from his post in June he will lead a group of corporations in getting their positions on sustainable development heard by countries at the ten year review of Unite Nations' Earth Summit in Johannesburg next year.

Although there is no "famine" in the Horn of Africa, the people are hungry and destitute, and the situation is becoming increasingly precarious, reports Stephanie Baric from Danyere, Kenya.

Human modification and destruction of the planet's coastal zone is endangering marshes, estuaries, coral reefs and mangrove forests that provide a host of ecosystem services to humans, warns a new study released today. These services are vital - flood protection, water filtration, nursery habitat for fish and other species.

Aid agencies in Kenya have warned that the international community is responding inadequately to a drought crisis. They say that despite more than four million Kenyans being at risk of starvation there have been few pledges of aid to an appeal for $89 million by the Kenyan Government and the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP).

Improving living standards in the developing world without destroying the environment is a challenge explored in a new interactive CD-ROM offered by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP).

A son of President Moi and two others have been allocated forest land in Nairobi, Prof Anyang Nyong'o (Nominated, SDP) claimed yesterday.

The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), based in Pretoria, South Africa. Competitive salary, application by 20th April.Country Director
African Medical and Research Foundation South Africa, PO Box X11489
The Tramshed Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Tel: +27-12-320-1332/3
Fax: +27-12-320-1335

Sudanese rebels have threatened to attack international oil workers operating in the wartorn south of the country. The SPLA rebels, who are fighting for autonomy or independence in the south, said the Sudanese Government was using money from oil exports to finance its miltary operations.

The Nigerian federal government is bringing an action in the Supreme Court on Monday, asking it to rule on the contentious issue of how to share oil revenues.

Proceedings of the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin States (Nile-COM) who held an Extraordinary Meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, on March 28-29, 2001.