South Africa’s largest farmers’ union expects to conclude a multimillion hectare farmland deal with the Republic of Congo and agree a smaller land lease with Libya next month, its deputy president said. Theo de Jager, Deputy President of farmers’ grouping AgriSA said on Wednesday the union expected to finalise its 10 million hectare deal with the Republic of Congo in mid October.

It is those at the heart of the Fairtrade movement, poor farmers and workers, in developing countries, that are at the very frontline of the climate crisis. These individuals and their families are already reporting to us the impact that climate
change is having on their livelihoods and their wellbeing. The Fairtrade movement has always fought to support small farmers and workers in their quest to find solutions to the challenges they face. As the climate crisis looms we will continue to do so, and this document outlines how we believe that our founding principles, experience, and the networks we have built up, mean that we are uniquely placed to play a specific role in the global response to climate change.

People and the environment in the vicinity of the North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania are being exposed to heavy metals and cyanide pollution, according to a report published in June for the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT). The study collected and analysed samples of water, sediments/soil for four heavy metals Nickel, Cadmium, Lead and Chromium. Concentrations of almost all of these were found to exceed the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Tanzanian and US Environmental Protection agencies.

Reflecting on the recent wave of protests and strikes across South Africa, just three months after Zuma won the election with two-thirds of the vote, Peter Dwyer examines why the country’s poorest have taken to the streets to express their anger. ‘Whenever the ANC government fails to deliver, it comes up with excuses and blames it on individuals. It’s true that its councillors lack commitment and skills, but it is the national leadership that is also to blame,’ said one protestor, ‘and meanwhile people have to suffer. The only way the government notices us is when we express our anger and rage. Then they understand how we feel.’

Tanzania is sitting on top of a US$39 billion ‘pot of gold’, Khadija Sharife writes in Pambazuka News, but unless the government can capture a more just proportion of royalties and taxes from the multi-nationals with concessions to mine the commodity, the country, one of the ten poorest in the world, is likely to get poorer still.

Ramakrishna Karuturi does not feature on any international power list. Perhaps he should. A new UNCTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Development) report names Karuturi Global Ltd as one of the top 25 agri transnational corporations in the world. Another report, by the International Food Policy Research Institute, says he owns one of the world's largest landbanks — over 3,000 sq km. In a conversation with The Times of India, he claimed, "I'm the largest landbank holder in the world."

In latest report from the SAIIA China in Africa project, Chris Alden and Cristina and Alves argues that China’s energy policy, particularly continues remains a strategic focus in Beijing’s foreign policy making and underpins China’s economic foray into Africa’s natural resources.

A comprehensive land audit to establish who owns what after almost a decade of often chaotic land transfers in Zimbabwe is being stalled by a lack of money. President Robert Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme in 2000 to redistribute white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks.

At least 36 million people were displaced by sudden-onset natural disasters which occurred in 2008, including over 20 million displaced by climate-related, sudden-onset disasters, according to a new report by NRC/IDMC and OCHA. In comparison, 4.6 million people were newly internally displaced during the year by conflict and violence. This report presents the results of a study carried out by IDMC and OCHA earlier this year.

A large quantity of petroleum products that were not properly cleaned up after the Ijegun pipeline rupture on May 15, 2008 have found its way into water-bearing wells used by residents of the community and may soon lead to massive explosions and loss of lives. ERA/FoEN monitors that visited Ijegun, located in Ikotun Local Government of Lagos State on Sunday September 13, 2009 observed that virtually all wells within the axis of the explosion and 14 streets away had large deposits of petrol that could be ignited by the strike of a match.

Political instability in Madagascar is having a serious effect on the already fragile and highly endangered ecology of this island nation. This is of profound concern as Madagascar contains many unique species that are already severely threatened.

The Tanzanian government has refuted media reports indicating that it has leased out 1000 square kilometres of farmland to South Koreans. It was reported that South Korea had agreed to develop farmland in Tanzania, the latest in series of such deals between rich and poor nations.

The climate crisis and the financial crisis highlight the need to organise for social change -- and also open unprecedented opportunities for doing so. But to prevent a destructive return to business as usual, the roots of both crises need to be understood, together with the nature and limitations of elite responses to them. As a contribution to this discussion, 10 new documents have recently been added to The Corner House's extensive collection of free books and articles on climate change and finance.

Large-scale tree planting on agricultural land can save those primary forests, agroforestry experts argue. But the new plantations are detrimental to biodiversity and indigenous people, critics respond. Professor P K Nair, director of the Centre of Subtropical Agroforestry at the University of Florida, believes planting trees on farmland is the way to conserve what's left of the world's rainforests.

While Western countries' role is not to be underplayed, we should be extremely wary of the moral assertions of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi around climate change, argues Rezene Hagos in this week's Pambazuka News. The Ethiopian government's record on both the environment and human rights is abysmal, writes Hagos, and Meles's demands for vast sums from donors in support of Africa's battle against climate change should be viewed with a great deal of scepticism.

Before Meles Zenawi starts campaigning for reparations from the West for climate change, perhaps he ought to start closer to home by offering compensation to the families affected by industrial pollution in Ethiopia’s Lake Koka, writes Alemayehu G. Mariam in this week’s Pambazuka News.

Dozens of farmers in northern Ghana claim they have been forced off their land with no alternative source of income after a multinational firm bought their farms to cultivate jatropha, a non-food crop whose seeds contain oil used to produce biofuel. Biofuel Africa Ltd has acquired over 23,700 hectares of Ghanaian land forcing out the inhabitants of seven villages – all of them farming communities -- in Tamale district.

It was in many ways a shotgun marriage, except that both the parties in Zimbabwe's unity government were equally unwilling. On 15 September 2008 President Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU-PF, and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway MDC faction, signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA), paving the way for the unity government to be established in February 2009.

Millions of years ago, Madagascar separated from the other continents and evolved separately. Today it has about 12,000 plants most of which can be found nowhere else in the world. Many of these plants have medicinal properties, but their habitat is under threat. In the town of Tolear, people rely on herbs as the nearest hospital is far away. Traditional healers combine plants and a little bit of magic to cure patients.

Kenyan authorities have begun to move residents out of Africa's largest slum - the Kibera settlement in Nairobi. Officials expect to take from two to five years to clear the slum, which is home to about one million people. The first people to move are being rehoused nearby in 300 newly built apartments, each paying about $10 (£6) a month in rent. But some residents and landlords have gone to court in a bid to stop the moves as they claim they own the land.