In May, Algeria will inaugurate a reserve around a small oasis in the south-west where plants and animals are to be protected in the service of a broader goal. Hopes are that the Taghit National Park will help stop the advance of the Sahara Desert, which already stretches across almost all of this North African country (IPS news).

Stretching over more than 4,000 kilometres, the Niger is West Africa's longest river, and greatly threatened in the country of the same name by environmental degradation that is causing the water course to silt up, according to an IPS report.

Climate change and the need for alternative energy sources in southern Africa have led experts to develop a new technology to produce electricity with a so-called green tower. The tower is more than one kilometre high and collects hot air sucked up through its chimney, causing large turbines at its base to rotate and generate power.

A recent bold statement by UK supermarket Tesco ushering in "carbon friendly" measures - such as restricting the imports of air freighted goods by half and the introduction of "carbon counting" labelling - has had environmentalists dancing in the fresh produce aisles, but has left African horticulturists confused and concerned.

Thousands of people in northern Niger who lost their homes in floods last August are still living in emergency shelters and struggling to survive cold desert weather. The August floods in Bilma, near the regional capital Agadez in northern Niger, destroyed around 1,200 houses and made 4,400 people homeless when their mud-walled houses were washed away.

Two prominent leaders of the Manasir, one of three groups being displaced by the Merowe Dam in Sudan, have narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by security personnel employed by the Merowe Dam Implementation Unit on 10th February 2007.
The Merowe Dam, funded by the China Ex-Im Bank, is currently under construction on the River Nile, 350 kilometres north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

With one eye on the chaotic and violent land transfers in Zimbabwe which has left the country unable to feed itself, South Africa has sought an orderly redistribution. But even supporters say the reform is failing, with just 4% of white-owned land transferred so far, Chris McGreal reports for The Guardian.

Kibera is the de rigeur stop off for caring foreign dignitaries. It reached a worldwide audience as a backdrop to the British blockbuster "The Constant Gardener". Andrew Cawthorne reports for Reuters that any journalist wanting a quick Africa poverty story can find it there in half an hour. And now at least one travel agency offers tours round Kenya's Kibera slum, one of Africa's largest.

Drought cycles are coming more often to northeastern Uganda: every two years instead of every five, according to a Reuters report. This year, crops dried out when the rains failed, leaving about half a million people dependent on United Nations food aid.

The Dutch-based multinational Trafigura has agreed to pay the equivalent of US $198 million to the Cote d’Ivoire government in a settlement over a toxic waste scandal. In exchange, Ivorian officials have agreed to abandon legal action against the company.

At least 30,000 people have been displaced and 60 killed in continuing clashes over land in the western Mt Elgon District of Kenya, the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said on Wednesday.

Global Response organizes international letter-writing campaigns to support local communities that are engaged in struggles to stop environmental destruction. Most often the local communities are indigenous peoples whose struggle is for human rights and land rights as well as environmental protection. For example, our current campaign supports indigenous and Garifuna communities in Belize that are trying to stop oil development in a wetland area where they live. If you’d like to write a letter in solidarity with them to the Prime Minister of Belize, please see the action alert at

I’m developing a new campaign now, based on meetings I had in Nairobi with residents of the Yala Swamp region on the shores of Lake Victoria. You might have heard the Yala Swamp residents present their case at the Peoples’ Tribunal during the Forum. I’ll send you our action alert for this campaign as soon as it’s ready.

If you have networks or listserves, I wonder if you would send the Yala Swamp alert to your lists? It would be great if you would also send them a link to and ask them to register to receive our campaign alerts and updates directly. This would be a great way for us to expand our international network of citizen activists.

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) hails the decision taken by the Executive Council (EC)-South Africa's GM regulatory body on the 30 January 2007 to turn down an application by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR) to conduct experiments with genetically modified (GM) sorghum in a level three containment facility.

On March 14, 2007, unite with communities around the world to celebrate the 10TH ANNIVERSARY of the International Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers, Water and Life! Ten years ago, the International Day of Action was launched at the First International Meeting of People Affected by Dams in Curitiba, Brazil.

Decentralisation creates opportunities for local people to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. Decentralising the management of natural resources can contribute significantly to poverty reduction. Poor people can express their needs more clearly and local authorities can target services more effectively.

The pollution of rivers, lakes and acquifers from domestic and industrial wastewater discharges, mining runoff, agro-chemicals and other sources is a growing threat to water resources in most countries in southern Africa. Water is a basic right; everyone in the region has a role to play that enhances water's value and protects river ecosystems.

Escalating clashes over fertile land in Kenya's Mount Elgon region have killed 60 people and forced tens of thousands more from their homes since December, the Kenya Red Cross has said. Local members of parliament say the latest clashes broke out when people displaced from their ancestral land attacked communities now occupying their land. Police blamed the violence on criminal gangs.

China's exponential expansion into Africa is well known and has been the subject of numerous reports. But China's environmental footprint on the continent has not yet been fully addressed. And this is becoming an increasingly hot topic within Africa.

Pressures on the use of global fresh water have reached levels unprecedented in human history. Water has become a major factor in contemporary strategic conflicts and struggles, and as a species we are beginning to glimpse the crucial importance of this simple resource. Not only is water essential to human sustenance in the form of drinking water and the use of water in agriculture, but also industrial development could not occur without it.

The president of Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, Gen Mahmud Muse Hirsi, has appealed for help in tackling an environmental emergency caused by increased charcoal burning, which has been compounded by greater numbers of displaced people since 1992. Hirsi said due to the influx of displaced people and drought-induced displacement of pastoral communities - which pushed them to urban areas - more acacia trees are being burned for charcoal.