TVE Africa Partner Network

Earth Report: Is Green the New Black?

2008-04-04T19:10:00.000+03:00

TVE Press Release

Earth Report: Is Green the New Black?

April 4^th: with eco-friendly fashion increasingly hitting the headlines at catwalk shows in Paris, London and Milan, does the wave of celebrities brandishing their ‘green’ credentials now herald a new dress trend that can help save the planet?

Organic cotton and shoes made from recycled materials are all part of the new, ‘green’ lifestyle. But is this just a niche market for rich, environ-mentally conscious superstars - or is green fashion here to stay? This week’s Earth Report investigates the ‘greening’ of the rag trade.

Earth Report 'Is Green the New Black?' is broadcast on BBC World at the following times (all times quoted as UK time zone currently GMT+1):

Friday 4^th April - 20:30, with repeats at 10:30 on Monday 7^th April, 15:30 on Tuesday 8^th April, and 02:30 and 08:30 on Wednesday 9^th April.

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

Much of what we wear is made of cotton – and most cotton farmers use polluting chemicals. Cotton farms take up just 2.5 per cent of the world’s farmland – but, UK Government figures show, they’re responsible for 10 per cent of all the pesticides and 22 per cent of all the insecticides produced every year – with serious implications for public health. World Health Organization surveys show 20,000 people die every year from pesticide poisoning.

Now farmers in Gujarat, in North West India, are beginning to turn their back on chemicals and switch to organic cotton production. According to the Gujarat Government, 5,000 of more than 100,000 cotton farmers in the state are now growing organic cotton. And it’s not just health concerns that have persuaded them to change their growing practices - they also get a guaranteed minimum price for their cotton when world prices are low.

Marks & Spencers, the British retailer with 450 stores in 30 countries, claims that 10 per cent of all its cotton products are now ethically sourced, and that it’s using one-third of all the organic cotton worldwide. Working with Gujarat farmers over the last few years, M&S have just placed their first big order for organic cotton with Agrocel – an order which will account for a third of its total annual production.

There’s a long way to go before the world’s clothing producers all convert to sustainable production - rather than just a few seeing the light and showcasing new, eco-chic designs. But for the Gujarat region of India, the prospect of prosperity through a booming organic cotton trade is giving a major boost to rural communities.

“In organic farming, farmers are getting dual benefit... Farmers are getting assurance they will get minimum Fairtrade support price before sowing their crop, and at the end whatever they are selling, they are getting Fairtrade premium. That premium will take care of all development of entire society right from the environmental, educational, health and all development of society.”
Hasmukh Patel, General Manager, Agrocel

“I would say ‘recycled’ is the new black, because I would say it’s a statement of consciousness…if you can have the new ‘it’ bag of the season and it’s something that has been recycled from old ring pulls from cans which shows you actually have got your head screwed on about what is happening in the world today, then I would say it was double black really.” Cameron Saul, Founder of Bottletop

“Every single bit of cotton that you buy from M&S will in some way have better environmental or social standards. But we believe at the most ethical end - Fairtrade and organic - is where our customers want us to grow our business. We see that this has been building over the last few years, there has been a real buzz around eco-fashion this year and we believe that it’s here to stay.” Katie Stafford, Marks & Spencer

Is Green the New Black? was produced with the generous support of the European Union.

TVE distributes Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational use globally and works with its Partners to distribute programmes for use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

Contacts and information:

For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport

Clean Living Part 2

2008-03-28T09:21:00.000+03:00

TVE press release
World Water Day Earth Report- Clean Living Part 2

Thursday March 20^th: to mark World Water Day 2008 – as well as the International Year of Sanitation - this week’s Earth Report returns to Ethiopia. TVE has been tracking development in Ethiopia for over 24 years now, since the devastating 1984/5 famine that launched ‘Live Aid’ and the massive global aid response it triggered. But 24 years on, 40 million Ethiopians – half the total population - still don’t have access to a toilet, and the government acknowledges that almost half child deaths are linked to poor sanitation and hygiene.

But now Ethiopia’s government has ambitious plans to change this – reducing child mortality and ensuring all Ethiopians have access to a toilet by 2012. According to the Ethiopian Health Ministry, the number of Ethiopians who had access to a toilet increased from one in 10 in 2002 to just over half - 51 per cent – in 2007. Over the next five years, the government wants to ensure every single Ethiopian can use a toilet. Earth Report travels across the country to find out just what they are doing to meet their target.

Earth Report Clean Living Part 2 is broadcast on BBC World at the following times (all times quoted as UK time zone currently GMT):

Friday 21st March - 20:30, with repeats at 10:30 on Monday 24th March, 15:30 on Tuesday 25th, and 02:30 and 08:30 on Wednesday 26th.

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

Building latrines is part of the Ethiopian government’s strategy to halt diarrhoeal disease. But just building latrines won’t produce a revolution overnight. The government needs to change Ethiopians’ attitude toward using toilets too.

To make sure everyone has access to a toilet, the government is relying not just on local leaders to change Ethiopians’ attitudes to open defecation - it’s also working with women because they are the ones with the largest say in their families’ health and welfare. As a result, the government is employing an army of 24,000 female health extension workers, all trained in health, hygiene and sanitation.

As well as health benefits, latrines can provide other side benefits: one very simple toilet is called an ‘arborloo’ - a simple pit that costs less than US$5. When full, the old pit is the perfect fertile home for a young tree.

In a suburb of the capital Addis Ababa, another type of latrine addresses both the growing urban pollution problem as well as the need for cooking fuel. Human sewage, as well as organic material, is put down the latrine into a chamber where bacteria break down the waste, producing biogas – a clean fuel which can then be piped to the communal kitchens.

“With proper hand washing you can prevent about 45% of the diseases communicable through faeces.”
Kebede Faris, World Bank, Water and Sanitation Program

“Now we have these latrines, we can use them for a lot of our domestic waste. Using firewood is smokey, it dirties the house, and makes our clothes smell. The biogas is far better.” Kelemula Legesse

“The International Year of Sanitation, for us, I think it’s a great opportunity to augment whatever initiatives we have started. We have to make sure that our villages are free of open defecation.”
Shiferaw Teklemariam, Ethiopian Minister of Health

Clean Living Part 2 was produced with the help of the UK Department for International Development (DFID); UN Water; UNICEF and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

TVE distributes Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational use globally and works with its Partners to distribute programmes for use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

Contacts and information:

For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport

DFID’s work on water and sanitation www.dfid.gov.uk/mdg/water.asp

UN Water www.unwater.org/

Unicef’s work on water www.unicef.org/wes/index.html

Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council’s work www.wsscc.org/

Earth Report - Clean Living Part 2

2008-03-20T21:11:00.000+03:00

World Water Day Earth Report- Clean Living Part 2

Thursday March 20^th: to mark World Water Day 2008 – as well as the International Year of Sanitation - this week’s Earth Report returns to Ethiopia. TVE has been tracking development in Ethiopia for over 24 years now, since the devastating 1984/5 famine that launched ‘Live Aid’ and the massive global aid response it triggered. But 24 years on, 40 million Ethiopians – half the total population - still don’t have access to a toilet, and the government acknowledges that almost half child deaths are linked to poor sanitation and hygiene.

But now Ethiopia’s government has ambitious plans to change this – reducing child mortality and ensuring all Ethiopians have access to a toilet by 2012. According to the Ethiopian Health Ministry, the number of Ethiopians who had access to a toilet increased from one in 10 in 2002 to just over half - 51 per cent – in 2007. Over the next five years, the government wants to ensure every single Ethiopian can use a toilet. Earth Report travels across the country to find out just what they are doing to meet their target.

Earth Report Clean Living Part 2 is broadcast on BBC World at the following times (all times quoted as UK time zone currently GMT):

Friday 21st March - 20:30, with repeats at 10:30 on Monday 24th March, 15:30 on Tuesday 25th, and 02:30 and 08:30 on Wednesday 26th.

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

Building latrines is part of the Ethiopian government’s strategy to halt diarrhoeal disease. But just building latrines won’t produce a revolution overnight. The government needs to change Ethiopians’ attitude toward using toilets too.

To make sure everyone has access to a toilet, the government is relying not just on local leaders to change Ethiopians’ attitudes to open defecation - it’s also working with women because they are the ones with the largest say in their families’ health and welfare. As a result, the government is employing an army of 24,000 female health extension workers, all trained in health, hygiene and sanitation.

As well as health benefits, latrines can provide other side benefits: one very simple toilet is called an ‘arborloo’ - a simple pit that costs less than US$5. When full, the old pit is the perfect fertile home for a young tree.

In a suburb of the capital Addis Ababa, another type of latrine addresses both the growing urban pollution problem as well as the need for cooking fuel. Human sewage, as well as organic material, is put down the latrine into a chamber where bacteria break down the waste, producing biogas – a clean fuel which can then be piped to the communal kitchens.

“With proper hand washing you can prevent about 45% of the diseases communicable through faeces.”
Kebede Faris, World Bank, Water and Sanitation Program

“Now we have these latrines, we can use them for a lot of our domestic waste. Using firewood is smokey, it dirties the house, and makes our clothes smell. The biogas is far better.” Kelemula Legesse

“The International Year of Sanitation, for us, I think it’s a great opportunity to augment whatever initiatives we have started. We have to make sure that our villages are free of open defecation.”
Shiferaw Teklemariam, Ethiopian Minister of Health

Clean Living Part 2 was produced with the help of the UK Department for International Development (DFID); UN Water; UNICEF and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

TVE distributes Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational use globally and works with its Partners to distribute programmes for use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

Contacts and information:

For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport

DFID’s work on water and sanitation www.dfid.gov.uk/mdg/water.asp

UN Water www.unwater.org/

Unicef’s work on water www.unicef.org/wes/index.html

Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council’s work www.wsscc.org/

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INDIA LAUNCH OF 'WHY WOMEN COUNT'

2008-03-18T18:13:00.000+03:00

INDIA LAUNCH OF ‘WHY WOMEN COUNT’

Tuesday March 18, 2008: The most ambitious TV series yet on the lives of women around the world will be launched today in India before an audience of over 200 invited guests in New Delhi.

DFID India, the UK Department for International Development, together with TVE South Asia, will host the India launch of Why Women Count, the powerful new series from The Broadcasting for Change Network, at the British Council/British High Commission Auditorium. This follows other launch events around the world – including in London, hosted by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office with Human Rights Watch and Al Jazeera English, and in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, with support from UNDP Caribbean, in November 2007.

Fiona Lappin, Deputy Head, DFID India, Jenny Richards, Deputy Director, TVE, and Poojita Chowdhury, Producer, will introduce the evening, followed by a screening of seven of the Why Women Count films from Lebanon, Pakistan, Kosovo, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Bolivia and India.

After the screening, addresses will be given by Manjula Krishnan, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India; Ena Singh, Assistant Representative UNFPA, India; Rukmini Rao, TVE Trustee and finally the Chief Guest, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, Honourable Union Minister for Panchayati Raj and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports.

Why Women Count is the groundbreaking new series of 41 short films, made in 41 countries by the global Broadcasting for Change Network - a unique group of international broadcasters and producers founded by TVE in 1995, and committed to producing and airing programmes on women's rights and equality worldwide.

Fiona Lappin, Deputy Head, DFID India says: "there is a strong link between women's empowerment and progress against other development targets. Empowering women brings many positive, knock-on effects including better child health and economic growth. Mothers who have been to school are more likely to have children who survive and are healthy, and women who are educated are more able to claim their rights and contribute to development. We are happy to host the launch of the film series Why Women Count in India. We are sure that these stories from different parts of the globe will bring hope and inspiration for the fight against gender inequality."

Highlights of the films to be screened include Mai Masri’s profile of journalist Fadia Bazzeh’s report on the bombing of Lebanon in July 2006, awarded an honorary mention in the prestigious IAWRT awards in September, Nepalese champion Lily Thapa’s campaign to overturn stigmatization and discrimination against widows in Nepal, and Poojita Chowdhury’s story on women sarpanches, Panchayat leaders, entitled ‘Queens of the Grassroots’, which will be the focus of the Chief Guest’s address.

Broadcasts of the Why Women Count films worldwide are already taking place in countries across the world and new launch events and debates are planned over the next few months.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to preview the series for an Indian audience,” says TVE’s Regional Coordinator for South Asia, Chris Miller. “We hope the event will feed into the ongoing debate about why empowering women is so central to international development and lead to having the films versioned in the languages of India and broadcast widely to audiences throughout the country.”

The Why Women Count series is available on DVCam, VHS and DVD compilation tapes from TVE for non-broadcast use.

For more information about the launch and series, or to order DVDs or other tapes, please contact Anshul Ojha, tel +91 935 097 6737.

Or visit the website www.tve.org/whywomencount

Why Women Count was made possible with the generous help of: The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Global Opportunities Fund - FCO, Al Jazeera English, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNIFEM, the British Council, and Ascent Media.

Notes to editors:

TVE (Television for the Environment) is an independent, non-profit organisation, founded in 1984 – with the support of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), WWF and Central Television (now ITV) in the UK – to raise awareness and trigger informed debate about development, environment, health and human rights issues worldwide through television and other electronic media.

TVE produces, co-produces and distributes a wide range of programmes for broadcast and non-broadcast, educational and campaigning use. In 2006-7 TVE programmes were transmitted in 170 countries, reaching more than 280 million homes, and versioned into 23 languages.

TVE programmes are broadcast on global channels such as BBC World and Al Jazeera English. They are then distributed, for regional, national and local broadcast as well as non-broadcast educational outreach, via TVE’s 49 partners in Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean and through TVE’s distribution unit in London. TVE’s nine partners in South Asia are: the Community Development Library (CDL), Bangladesh; Development Alternatives (DA), India; the Centre for Science & Environment (CSE), India; the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), India; Earth Matters Foundation/Riverbank Studios, India; Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ), Nepal; Serendip Productions, Pakistan; TrustHELP, India, and WWF-Pakistan.

TVE now has a new, Regional Coordinating office in Delhi (hosted by Development Alternatives) working with all our South Asian Partners, which will enable us to increase the number of high profile launch events, discussions, broadcasts and non-broadcast distribution of programmes in the region. We are actively identifying various corporate sponsors, local foundations, international donors, and other partners to work with in developing new projects for wider use and distribution of existing films, to be used in their work and to reach the widest possible audiences, and for production of new films in collaboration with new partners.

The Why Women Count series was produced by broadcasters from the following countries: Afghanistan, Austria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Fiji, France, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe.

Core funders of TVE’s South Asia activities are Christian Aid and corporate sponsor InterfaceFLOR, through its recently launched project, “Fairworks” http://www.interfaceflor.eu/internet/web.nsf/webpages/why_fairworks_EN.html. TVE’s institutional host for the South Asia office is Development Alternatives.

Earth Report: Clean Living

2008-03-14T08:26:00.000+03:00

Earth Report: Clean Living

Forty per cent of the world’s population are without access to a latrine or toilet. In the International Year of Sanitation, Earth Report travels to Bangladesh to discover changing rural attitudes to hygiene. More and more villages are introducing their own sanitation and building their own toilets. Instead of top-down solutions, a new approach – Community Led Total Sanitation – has eradicated ‘open defecation’ in more than 300 villages.

Earth Report 'Clean Living' is broadcast on BBC World at the following times (all times quoted as UK time zone currently GMT):

Friday 14th March - 20:30, with repeats at 04.30 on Saturday 15 March; 10:30 on Monday 17 March; 15:30 on Tuesday 18 March; and 02:30 and 08:30 on Wednesday 19 March.

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world, yet half the population don’t have access to proper sanitation. It means they are forced to use areas around their villages as their toilet - including fields and rivers. Wandering livestock spreads the faeces around. It contaminates homes and food and the resulting diarrhoeal diseases, according to WaterAid, kill 125,000 children under the age of five, every year.

But a remarkable change is taking place. Health worker Kamal Kar is helping communities change their sanitation habits. He’s not doing this by giving away free or subsidised toilets but by encouraging people to fix their own sanitation problems. He calls this approach ‘Community Led Total Sanitation’, or CLTS.

The villagers are asked to draw a map of their village using blue powder. Then they are asked to put yellow powder in places where they defecate. The team then show how easily people and livestock spread faeces around the village, even inside people’s homes.

While using toilets helps stop the spread of diarrhoeal diseases, there are other surprising benefits. Once the land previously used as a lavatory is cleaned up, the villagers can grow food on it. This is particularly important during the time of Monga – the period of seasonal hunger between sowing and harvest when there’s no work.

“There is a huge amount of local knowledge that exists in the minds of the people and engineering knowledge for that matter, and they go on to form whole innovative approaches and develop things. But if we bring the technology and prescription from outside it blocks them.” Kamal Kar, Community Sanitation Expert

“We didn’t realise before that open defecation can cause a lot of diseases like diarrhoea and cholera. That’s why we are digging this toilet now.” Villager

“CLTS has now spread to nine different villages around here, and out of those 5 have 100 per cent toilet coverage and the other 4 partial work has been done.” CARE Worker

Clean Living was produced with the help of the UK Department for International Development (DFID); UN Water; UNICEF and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

TVE and its Partners distribute Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational and campaigning use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

Contacts and information:

For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport

DFID’s work on water and sanitation www.dfid.gov.uk/mdg/water.asp

UN Water www.unwater.org/

Unicef’s work on water www.unicef.org/wes/index.html

Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council’s work www.wsscc.org/

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY BROADCASTS FOR 'WHY WOMEN COUNT'

2008-03-08T11:32:00.001+03:00

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY BROADCASTS FOR ‘WHY WOMEN COUNT’

Friday March 7th: To mark International Women’s Day 2008, television channels in Brazil, Bosnia and Lithuania will broadcast films from the groundbreaking ‘Why Women Count’ series on March 8^th.

In Brazil, Sao Paolo-based TV Cultura starts weekly transmission of the series in the prime-time, 8.30 pm slot, from March 8^th, with a presenter introducing four of the ‘Why Women Count’ series every Saturday night. In Bosnia & Herzegovina, National TV channel BHT1 is broadcasting one film from the series every week in its weekly foreign affairs magazine GLOBAL transmitted on Sunday nights. And in Lithuania, LVT 2 - national TV’s second terrestrial and satellite channel - will broadcast a special 10-film compilation for International Women’s Day, including films from Rwanda, Lebanon, India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Spain, France, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Lithuania.

Other ‘Why Women Count’ screenings scheduled in March include broadcast of the Macedonian film, ‘Biljana from Alcatraz’ on Austrian state television, ORF, on March 5^th; the 18th International Film Festival held by the University of the Philippines Film Institute - ‘Wandering, Wondering, Wonderful Women’ - focusing specifically on women migrants and overseas Filipino workers, from 10^th – 13^th March 2008; and the India launch of the series, hosted by DFID at the British Council in New Delhi, on Tuesday March 18^th.

Coordinated by TVE, the 41 short films in the Why Women Count series were made in 41 countries around the world by the members of the global ‘Broadcasting for Change Network’ - a unique group of international broadcasters and producers committed to producing and airing programmes on women's rights and equality worldwide. The series focuses on women's empowerment and its role in the political, economic and social development of countries, communities and families. Broadcasts of the series have already taken place in Austria, Bolivia, China, Macedonia, Mexico, Nepal, Thailand, Uganda, Trinidad & Togabo and Zimbabwe.

The Lebanese film in the series, ‘In the Eye of the Storm’, directed by Mai Masri, won an honourable mention at the prestigious IAWRT awards in September 2007. Further broadcasts and launch events are planned for the summer of 2008.

The Why Women Count series is available on Beta, VHS and DVD compilation tapes from TVE for non-broadcast use. Through TVE, the Series is available in Spanish and English.

For more information about the launch and series visit the website www.tve.org/whywomencount

TVE Press Release – Grounds for Hope

2008-03-04T18:52:00.001+03:00

Earth Report – Grounds for Hope

4 March 2008: Feeding the growing global café craze, over half the world’s coffee now comes from Central America. Coffee farming is central to the region’s economy – but it’s also been a major culprit in the pollution of the rivers running through the Guatemala/Mexico border area. Communities living along the banks have compounded the damage by cutting the forests once covering the steep hillsides, eroding the fragile soils by sheep grazing, and using the rivers as a rubbish dump.

Now coffee farmers are leading the way in reversing the damage and rebuilding the threatened eco-system - at the same time tapping into a new market for top quality coffee. This week’s Earth Report goes to Guatemala and Mexico to see whether this really is a win-win situation.

Earth Report – Grounds for Hope will be broadcast on BBC World:

Friday 7 March - 20.30, with repeat broadcasts on Monday 10 March 10.30, Tuesday 11 March 15.30 and Wednesday 12 March 02.30 and 08.30 (All times quoted as GMT)

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

The Tajumulco and Tacana volcanoes soar high above the coffee plantations that cover the hillsides on the Guatemala-Mexico border - at the heart of a watershed system that is almost a million years old.

But the mountainsides once cloaked in trees are stripped bare as the dense, and growing, local population clears the forest for firewood and crop planting. Their sheep herds add to the damage, and – once the vegetation is gone - heavy tropical rainfalls wash the top soil down into the rivers, increasing the risk of devastating mudslides.

Coffee has been at the heart of Guatemala’s economy for over 100 years, and today generates a third of the country’s foreign earnings. And coffee farms are now changing the way they use their most precious resource - water. Newly harvested beans have to be soaked in gallons of water to remove the husks, and the acidic waste water is then dumped back in the river, harming aquatic life. One farm, La Igualdad, formerly used three million litres of water to process its yearly harvest of 70 tonnes of beans. Now, in a remarkable turnaround, La Igualdad recycles its water throughout the process – reducing consumption by 93 percent.

Farming communities are also doing their bit. In May 2007, they started a tree nursery in Tacana, planting 13,660 trees to replace those chopped down for firewood. Project leader Lazaro Peres hopes to increase this number to 30-40,000 trees planted in 2008. A similar project is replanting mangrove forest further down the river where it meets the sea.

“Because we are right at the very top her, this situation also affects the communities below us. Climate change has meant that we now see extremely heavy rain on a regular basis in one afternoon which this soil is unable to cope with.” Jeronimo Navarro, Mayor of Ixchiguan

“Farms used to behave very irresponsibly in terms of the environment. We have tried to look at ways of turning this around. This is why we are now working using a totally organic process.” Rene Lopez, Coffee Farmer

“[The mangroves] are extremely important as was seen by the recent Hurricanes Mitch and Stan because they were able to absorb large quantities of water. What we are aiming for is to have areas where the mangroves can be managed, areas like this that are stable for growth, and also areas where man’s hand cannot touch the established mangroves.” Martin Sanchez, Guatemala National Forestry Institute

* * *
Grounds for Hope was produced with the support of the IUCN Water Programme

TVE and its Partners distribute Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational and campaigning use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport

TVE Press Release - In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro

2008-03-04T12:57:00.002+03:00

Earth Report – In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro

28 February 2008: Beneath Mount Kilimanjaro’s majestic peak, there’s a growing struggle over scarce water supplies in East Africa. Nearly four million people depend on Tanzania’s Pangani river for their water. But poor rains and increasing demand have left the land, dams, people and their herds thirsty for water.

In the run-up to World Water Day on March 22nd, Earth Report investigates the root cause of the shortages and conflicts - and looks at a new strategy to share out the precious waters of the Pangani river basin.

Earth Report – In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro will be broadcast on BBC WORLD:

Friday 29 February - 20.30, with repeat broadcasts on Monday 3 March 10.30, Tuesday 4 March 15.30 and Wednesday 5 March 02.30 and 08.30 (All times quoted as GMT)

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

The Pangani River in North Eastern Tanzania starts high on the slopes of Mounts Kilimanjaro and Meru. From the lush foothills of these mighty volcanoes, the river travels 500 km south east before spilling into the Indian Ocean.

The basin covers an area of 48,000 square kilometres, and nearly four million people depend on it for water. But now this essential resource could be in jeopardy. Lake Jipe, one source of the Pangani River on the Tanzania/Kenya border, is shrinking. According to the Global Environment Facility, the lake’s volume has dropped by half in the last 10 years.
River levels in the Pangani have always fluctuated. But now the once reliable seasonal rains have become erratic, and local people can no longer rely on them to top up the lake in the rainy season.

Exacerbating the situation, farmers and a growing local population are extracting too much water, and large-scale industrial agriculture uses huge volumes of water to irrigate crops.

The three hydroelectric power stations situated on the Pangani River have the potential to provide 20 per cent of Tanzania’s electricity needs. Today they often run at just 30 per cent of their capacity. There’s just not enough water in the river to power them at full capacity.

The Pangani Basin Water Office has been established to manage the river and find a way to share out its diminishing resources. International consultants are training and working with local experts to predict how changes in water distribution will affect the river basin, and so help the Water Office to balance supply and demand. If they get it right, the Pangani River could become a leading example for the rest of the world.

“Before the establishment of the basin water office, the conflicts were enormous. With the establishment of the basin in 1991, we tried to educate people, to create awareness that water is everybody’s right.”
Hamza Sidiki, Pangani Basin Water Officer

“The change started in the 1970s. The reeds started growing a lot.
The lake is so small now, the reeds make fishing very difficult, and you can’t get many fish.”
Miraji Ramadhani, former fisherman, Lake Jipe

“Pangani Basin was one of the ten demonstration sites around the world to look into how people can sustainably manage and use water resources.
One of the outputs is to disseminate the information gathered here into other basins in the country, in the region, and in the world.”
Sylvand Kamugisha, Project Coordinator, IUCN

* * *

In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro was produced with the support of the IUCN Water Programme

TVE and its Partners distribute Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational and campaigning use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport

TVE Press Release - Earth Report Doomsday Vault

2008-02-23T14:30:00.002+03:00

Earth Report – Doomsday Vault

22 February 2008: The ultimate global safety net to safeguard the world’s seeds opens next week on the Arctic island of Spitzbergen. ‘The Doomsday Vault’ – officially the Svalbard Global Seed Vault – is stored in an underground bunker built deep inside a frozen arctic mountain by the Global Crop Diversity Trust with support from the Norwegian Government.

Store for a vast and irreplaceable collection of seeds from thousands of crop varieties, the Doomsday Vault’s role is to safeguard seeds from future global catastrophes - nuclear war, asteroid strikes, or the growing impact of climate change. The seed collection is an insurance policy, enabling scientists and farmers to start up food production again in any country, in the event of regional or global disasters. This week’s Earth Report follows the construction of the Vault, and talks to the scientists involved.

Earth Report – Doomsday Vault will be broadcast on BBC WORLD:

Friday 22 February - 20.30, with repeat broadcasts on Monday 25 February 10.30, Tuesday 26 February 15.30 and Wednesday 27 February 02.30 and 08.30 (All times quoted as GMT)

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

Svalbard is small group of islands lying 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole. Icy and pristine, they occupy a remote corner of Norwegian territory, with temperatures during the long Arctic winter dropping to minus 16C. This freezing climate, and Svalbard’s isolation, are the reason the Norwegians have selected the islands as the most secure location for the Seed bank.

The vault itself is essentially a 120 metre tunnel bored into the mountainside - big enough to hold over four million seed samples. Refrigeration guarantees a temperature of around minus 18C in the vault. But even if the cooling systems should fail, the ambient temperature in the vault’s mountain tunnel means the seed collections will be preserved for months, or even years. Norway has footed the US$9 million bill for the Doomsday Vault construction, which will then be run by the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Now the building is complete, genebanks from all over the world are starting to send duplicate seed collections to be stored in the Arctic vault. Countries sending these will retain ownership of all the samples - but under an international treaty, have agreed to share them internationally.

“This is the world cheapest insurance policy. There are art museums and they’re going to spend a lot more money this year on protecting those art collections than we’re going to spend on protecting the biological foundation of agriculture.”
Carey Fowler, Global Crop Diversity Trust

“We’ve got good reasons to send our seeds to Svalbard. Of course we’ve got nice facilities here but this facility is very close to the River Rhine. We don’t know what will happen in the future, what the chances are for the River Rhine to flood this area –we might have problems with fire, whatever... This place is a relatively safe place, but other places in the world have much more risks.”
Dr Bert Visser, Centre for Genetic Resources, Wageningen University

* * *

Doomsday Vault was produced with the support of the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust

TVE and its Partners distribute Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational and campaigning use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport

TVE APN Newsletter 2008, Issue no. 2

2008-02-21T17:49:00.000+03:00

All dark and gloomy, I’m afraid

What seemed to have been a Zimbabwean only, self-imposed, syndrome has now spread through the southern region. Power shortages have become a problem in the south and this will certainly raise energy concerns higher up on the Africa agenda. But has Africa taken into account how climate change – in relation to the energy crisis – will exacerbate the current concerns?

The reason these countries are taking it so hard, even if a good number of other countries in Africa have not had adequate power for decades, is simply because they were not prepared. My two year old already knows what a power cut is and participates in the shutdown procedure when the lights go out - i.e. unplug TV, microwave, fridge and other appliances; light the candles and prepare for a cold dinner. He also knows that when the lights come back, they usually trip out again almost immediately, so you wait for the third count.

If any good must come out of this darkness, then I certainly hope that his generation will develop the ability to see in the dark and, since all you he has sitting in the dark is his mind, then may he increase his computing ability so that by the time he leaves university to get a job he will walk into an office with no computer - and never need one.
- Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator for Africa

Dark days for southern Africa

February 16 2008. By Peter Fabricius and IFS Reporters

The South African government is often urged to cut off power to Zimbabwe to force President Robert Mugabe to behave himself. But, strangely, it turns out that power actually flows the other way. Last month, South Africa imported 100 megawatts (MW) of electricity from its disempowered neighbour. It exported nothing in return, and has not done so for about a year. This anomaly explains little about the odd behaviour of electricity - but a lot more about the parlous state of the regional power network.

The power utilities of SA, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi and Tanzania are all members of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), a network launched in 1995 to enable its members to buy and sell surplus electricity to their neighbours. At that time, SA had a large surplus and could supply all the needs of the smaller countries. However, like SA, the SAPP exhausted its reserves last year, and is now in deficit of about 1 000MW.

Eskom has contracts to supply Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, but because of the deficit in SA, it now supplies only Botswana (350MW), Lesotho (24MW) and Swaziland (180MW.) Eskom is importing 180MW from the Democratic Republic of Congo and 1,200MW from Mozambique's Cahora Bassa hydroelectric generator - and, intermittently - as with that 100MW last month - small amounts from Zimbabwe and Zambia. This usually happens at about 3am when the demand in these countries is lowest.

So, among the state power utilities of the SAPP, powerhouse SA is actually a net importer of about 750MW. But if you add in Eskom's contractual supplies to specific industrial users, like Mozambique's Mozal aluminium smelter, which takes a whopping 950MW, SA becomes a slight net exporter. But many South Africans are unhappy that the country is exporting electricity at all, while some foreign investors are contemplating suing the SA government for damages to reclaim their losses caused by the power failures.

They plan to argue that SA has violated bilateral investment treaties that demand favourable conditions for investment, including adequate power. Some mining companies are considering seeking compensation in an international court, arguing that they are being discriminated against because Eskom is exporting to the region, while they are being forced to cut production. But Eskom has responded that it must honour existing export contracts and that it exports only around 5 percent of its capacity - about 1 400MW to
1 600 MW.

"Some of the region's utilities are dependent on Eskom for up to 80 percent of their energy needs," Eskom says. "If exports are stopped, these countries would experience substantial energy shortages, which would have a crippling impact on their economies and put additional pressure on SA's socio-economic position. "Zero exports would only have a small impact on reducing domestic load-shedding needs."

Eskom also pointed out that it supplied power only to countries with firm contracts - Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho. To others, like Namibia, it was exporting on a day-ahead basis when excess power was available. Eskom also points out that it is striving to increase its imports from the region. It already gets 1 200MW from Cahora Bassa, 110MW from the DRC's Inga hydroelectric plan and an occasional 100MW from Zambia's Kariba. Eskom is helping to refurbish and extend these and other plants and is negotiating with the DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique.

Most notably, it has an interest in the plans to build Inga 3 and 4 hydroelectric stations on the Congo River, which would supply about 32 000MW to the SAPP grid. Some analysts argue that this clean power has the potential to make the building of further coal and nuclear-powered generators in SA unnecessary, but Eskom seems reluctant to risk further power failure disaster down the road by not building its own capacity. As in SA, mining - now Zimbabwe's biggest earner of foreign currency - is being hit hard.

Botswana lost 25 percent of its power last week to load shedding, partly because Eskom had reduced its contractual quota from 425MW to 350MW last year, while Namibia is scrambling to find alternatives and is bracing itself for a crash soon. Namibia has said it plans to build its own nuclear power station.

This article was originally published on page 4 of The Star on
February 16, 2008

Zimbabwe Jan inflation hits 100,586.2 pct yr/yr

HARARE, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's annual inflation surged to a record 100,580.2 percent in January, up from 66,212.3 percent the previous month, official data showed on Wednesday. The Central Statistical Office said inflation on a monthly basis rose to 120.8 percent in the period, down from 240.1 percent in December but still high enough for a country grappling with a severe economic crisis. Critics say President Robert Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle blacks, has worsened the crisis. The veteran leader denies the charges. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe)

Internet Operators Lament Lack of Access in Gambia

Internet Café operators and users have been complaining recently that they cannot access Internet services. They complained that it sometimes takes them two to three hours before they can access the Internet. Internet operators stated that they are having difficulties with their customers due to difficulties in accessing their email accounts.

Most customers who this reporter spoke to said that they cannot understand the slow process of browsing the Internet. They said they buy time which would be exhausted without accessing their emails. Some customers stated that they would buy two to three hours without accessing their mails which is a loss to them.

The Internet café operators within the Kanifing Municipality pinpointed the same problems they have been having since last week. They said it is very difficult for their clients to understand the delay in accessing the internet. They said they have to explain to their customers that the problem emanates from the main service providers. They said customers often ask them to refund them their monies as they cannot access the Internet. They indicated that they are encountering financial losses due to a drop in the number of customers; that they do refund some customers who insist on getting their monies back because of inaccessibility to the internet.

However, Foroyaa investigated the problem and found out that the Internet cable linking Gamtel and Sonatel, in Senegal has been faulty. According to our sources, The Gambia internet traffic passes through Senegal; that their main supply is the Senegalese telco Sonatel.

Yaya Manneh, of the Gamtel Internet Service unit, confirmed their problems pointing out that it was a cable problem emanating from their underground fibre connection with Senegal, which has been cut. But he was quick to add that they are tirelessly working on the problem. He indicated that, at first, they thought the fibre problem emanated from the Senegalese side but it was later discovered that it was from The Gambian side. He also confirmed that Gambia is not yet connected to World Wide Web due to lack of "Marine Cable," which Senegal have for easy access to the World Wide Web. He noted that their main back bone is Senegal. During his interview with the Foryaa newspaper, Manneh received another call saying the problem had been resolved.

(Source: Foroyaa Newspaper)

School Computers Rot in Store in Namibia

The bulk of a N$9 million consignment of computer equipment bought by the Ministry of Education early last year for distribution to 40 schools has not yet reached its intended destinations. The computers have been kept in storage at the Ministry's recently established National Education Technology Service and Support Centre (Netts) in Windhoek.

The reason for the delay appears to be a lack of proper infrastructure at most of the schools identified. Many of the schools, according to Ministry officials, do not have the necessary power points. There is also concern about a lack of security at some of the schools.

Sources in the Ministry are worried that the warranty on the computers could lapse before they are installed. But the Deputy Director at the Ministry, Johan van Wyk, yesterday said that the warranty would only take effect once the computers were installed. "We knew that the computers would be with us for a while, because some of the schools were just not ready yet," he said.

Van Wyk said about a third of the computers had been deployed since the arrival of the last consignment in July last year. This equipment, he said, was sent mostly to Windhoek schools and various colleges of education and vocational training centres across the country. Van Wyk said the Ministry was waiting on its regional directors to confirm that the identified schools were ready for the installation.

"I would rather have them rot here right now than send them to a school where I have no guarantee that they will be safe", added Jens Viëter, Director of the Netts centre.

Both officials rejected claims that the Ministry had been dragging its feet on the matter. "The last batch of the computers only reached us in July, and shortly after that was the start of the exams," Van Wyk said, adding that the Ministry had received a directive from Minister Nangolo Mbumba last year that no other activities were to be undertaken at schools during examinations. He said schools in the Erongo and Karas regions had recently confirmed that they were ready for the computers, and the installation should be done next week.

(Source: The Namibian)

Media news

Mobile Phones to Be Used in Aids Fight in Uganda

An innovative programme that uses cell phone text messages as an interactive tool in improving HIV/Aids sensitisation and education has been introduced in Uganda. The programme is a joint effort of Text to Change (TTC), the Aids Information Centre (AIC) and Celtel Uganda. Text to Change is a non profit organisation which is devoted to improving HIV/Aids education in sub-Saharan Africa. A joint press statement issued by TTC and AIC on Saturday said the pilot programme would officially be launched by the three partners in Mbarara on Valentines Day (February, 14).

According to the statement, the TTC came up with the idea after it realised that by utilising cell phones, HIV/Aids knowledge could reach more people especially the youth who are ignorant of the disease. "The first thing that came to my mind when I learnt about telephones was: if so many people are accessing mobile telephones in Sub Saharan Africa, why not use them for health education?" Text to Change's founder and Marketing Manager Bas Hoefman said.

(source: The Monitor)

Ghana: Metro TV Makes Impact
From a humble beginning, Metro TV has rose to become a force to reckon with in the media landscape in the country and beyond. Established some few years ago, it has made giant strides especially in the sports fraternity, having won the best TV Sports Station Award in succession.

Their exceptional coverage in sports has endeared them to both sports lovers and the non fanatics alike. What is more, their high sense of news have brought the world closer to its viewers more than before with the telecast of live programs internally and externally. Emerging as the best TV Station as far as covering the just-ended Africa Cup of Nations is concerned attests to their high high sense of duty and professionalism.

During the biennial soccer fiesta, their behind the scenes activities, live Black Stars updates and their quest to telecast all UEFA Champions League and 24hrs premier league games every Sunday and Monday, the composition of the Black Stars' cheer song by Talal Fattal and Love Ashitey places them far above their competitors.

A few months ago, it embarked on a successful soccer reality show dubbed "MTN Metro TV Soccer Academy" which churned out more soccer potentials. Among the soccer prospects it unveiled is Gideon Baah, whose exceptional speed and ball control saw him reigning supreme in the maiden soccer reality show. Tomorrow, Metro TV will telecast live the UEFA Champions League game between Liverpool and Inter Milan as well as the Arsenal-AC Milan game on Wednesday all at 8pm.
(Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra), 18 February 2008)

Environment news

Reuters: World switches on to Earth Hour switch-off

Tue Feb 19, By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - As many as 30 million people are tipped to switch off lights and televisions around the world to help fight climate change with 24 cities joining Earth Hour on March 29, environment group WWF said on Wednesday. Following last year's Earth Hour in Australia, where 2.2 million Sydneysiders powered-down for an hour, cities including Atlanta, San Francisco, Bangkok, Ottawa, Dublin, Vancouver, Montreal and Phoenix have also signed on, WWF said. They joined Copenhagen and Aarhus, Manila, Fiji's capital Suva, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Christchurch, Toronto, Odense and Aalborg, as well as major Australian cities including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and the national capital Canberra.

"If we see the same participation levels around the globe that we did in Sydney, then we can anticipate more than 30 million people involved," said Andy Ridley, Earth Hour's executive director. Earth Hour asks residents in participating cities to switch off lights and non-essential electrical items for one hour at 8 p.m. to raise awareness of carbon emissions that scientists blame for causing global warming. During last year's Sydney event, restaurants used candles and lights were turned off in homes and major landmarks, including the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

This year, Ridley said, other iconic buildings to be plunged into darkness would include San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Chicago's Sears Tower and Soldier Field Stadium football ground, as well as the 553-metre CN Tower in Toronto. "Climate change is a truly global issue and people around the world are demanding action," he said. During last year's Earth Hour in Sydney, essential lights were kept on for safety reasons, including street lights. Power provider Energy Australia said the event cut electricity consumption by 10.2 percent.

(Editing by David Fogarty)

South Africa: Paying the Price for Mining

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks: One legacy of South Africa's extensive mineral deposits is the infrastructure and wealth of the country. But another more troubling legacy is emerging as an increasingly urgent problem: environmental contamination from over 100 years of mining that could severely pollute the country's water, affecting the food chain and citizens' health. The magnitude of the potential problem has government agencies scrambling to coordinate a response to a relatively new issue for the regulatory bodies. "The truth of the matter is that as a nation we don't know how to deal with this problem because it has never happened to us before," said Dr Anthony Turton, a leading water researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). "This was always suppressed before because people didn't matter in the pre-1994 South Africa. All we've done so far is see the tip of the iceberg. We certainly don't have any coherent government strategies yet." http://allafrica.com/stories/200802150815.html

Namibia: Dune Belt to Be Protected

New Era (Windhoek): The dune belt between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay will be declared a protected area to safeguard the area from further deterioration. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism said on Tuesday it would submit a notice to the Cabinet to proclaim the area between the Walvis Bay, including Kuiseb Delta and Swakopmund up to the Swakop River mouth, a protected area on its own or to be incorporated into the existing Namibia Naukluft Park. The National West Coast Recreation Area will also become a national park in a move to protect the coastal areas from further damage. These measures, which will be finalized by June this year and be implemented fully before end of year holiday season, follow the ministry's failed attempts to get cooperation from drivers of off-road vehicles who continue to drive in prohibited areas. In a statement the Ministry of Environment and Tourism Permanent Secretary, Dr Kalumbi Shangula, said urgent action had to be taken against uncontrolled off-road driving in the dune belt between the two towns and the National West Coast Recreational Area to reduce further damage to the country's ecologically sensitive coastal areas. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802150353.html

Namibia: Community Forests a Boon

New Era (Windhoek): Community forests last year generated more than N$300 000 for rural communities living in the north-east of Namibia. Since 2005, communities in the project areas in Kavango, Caprivi and Otjozondjupa regions have derived an income by marketing forestry products such as timber and firewood, poles, wild fruits, devil's claw, thatching grass, tourism, honey from bee-keeping, wildlife, weaved baskets and crafts. About 16 registered forests earned the N$310 000 collectively. The advent of the forests has led to improved forest resource management and livelihoods of local people based on the empowerment of local communities with forest use rights. Based on the Forest Act of 2001, the project assists local communities to establish their own community forests, and to manage and utilize them in a sustainable manner. There are currently 20 000 beneficiaries in registered community forests in the three regions who manage the gazetted community forests. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802150530.html

Africa: Rwanda, Uganda, DRC Sign $92m Eco-Bid

East African Business Week (Kampala): Rwanda, Uganda and the DR Congo have launched a massive joint conservation programme in the Central Albertine rift. Embedded in a 10-year action plan, with a 30- year vision, the joint transboundary conservation programme aims at protecting the environment in the Central Albertine rift and wild lives in it. The three countries have devotedly agreed to protect the world's endangered species in the Central Albertine rift which is a major contributor to their tourism package. The joint transboundary conservation campaign that was recently launched in Kigali and attended by bosses of three wild life conservation authorities from Rwanda, Uganda and DRC , seeks about $92million in ten years to kick off. The plan started in 2006 and ends in 2016. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802190071.html

Nigeria: Gas Flaring - FG's Statement Embarrassing - ERA

Vanguard (Lagos): Alleged conflicting statements from the Federal Government on gas flare-out deadlines since January 1, 2008, when it ought to have taken effect constitute a clear indication that it does not have the muscle to clip the wings of oil multinationals that have deliberately frustrated any attempt at halting flaring in the Niger Delta, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has said. The environmental justice group in a statement in Lagos said government has refused to come out with a clear position on the December 31, 2008 deadline, adding that conflicting pronouncements from Ministers of State in the Energy Ministry on one hand, and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on the other, have become an embarrassment to the entire nation. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802190350.html

Uganda: Hima Cement to Extract Limestone From Queen Elizabeth National Park

New Vision (Kampala): The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has permitted Hima Cement to mine limestone in Queen Elizabeth National Park, a UNESCO designated reserve. UWA's decision followed wide consultations with various stakeholders, according to a press statement signed by Lillian Nsubuga, the public relations manager. "UWA supports the initiatives being taken by Hima Cement to boost the production of cement in Uganda. The board of trustees has authorised the executive director to sign a permit for Hima to mine limestone in the park," she said. She urged Hima to prevent soil run-offs from getting into rivers and deposit waste generated outside the park. Another mitigation measure Hima must implement is the restoration of the environment by ensuring that the top soil washed away is stored and managed so that it retains its biological and physical properties. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802190435.html

Angola: Large Amount of Fish Floats At Luanda Bay

Angola Press Agency (Luanda): At least one ton of dead fish is since Monday night floating at Luanda Island Bay, Angop learned. A team involving officers of the fiscal police, Fisheries Ministry and Port Authority inspectors is working to collect the fish for incineration. Speaking to Angop, the provincial director for Fisheries and Environment, Júlio Sebastião de Carvalho, said tests carried out by the Fishery Investigation Institute showed that the death of the fish is not associated with any kind of contamination. He said it is believed that fishermen may have caught the fish and lacking facilities to preserve it decided to return the haul to the sea, adding another team is investigating to find those responsible. Julião de Carvalho also assured there is not need of a Luanda Bay ban as the water is not contaminated. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802191412.html

TVE APN Newsletter 2008, Issue no. 1

2008-02-18T13:25:00.001+03:00

Been a long time coming…

I’m happy to now resume the TVE APN weekly newsletter that I started circulating mid last year and then took a break before our annual meeting in Kampala. This newsletter is a digest of general news related to the fields and regions we are working in. I do not have a software managed mailing list, so I literally run an old fashioned system where I plug in wires, turn knobs and crank wheels to get it going. In this case then, if you would not like to continue receiving the newsletters then you have to come over to Nairobi in person and tell me why not… or you could send me an email and I will pull a few wires to get you off this list.

The main objective here though is to feed you back information about what you are all doing so I would also appreciate you sending a homing pigeon once in a while with current updates or press information you would like me to publish. This Newsletter is also published on the APN Blog - http://tveafrica.blogspot.com/ If you have missed any newsletters, be sure to visit the archives.

This first issue is a quick update on what has been happening around the African media scene and, of course, the usual environment push. I look forward to a year of close communications - Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator for Africa

Media News

Namibia: Hundreds Audition for Local TV Drama Series
Some 500 first-time, established and would-be Namibian actors have auditioned for Namibia's first fully fledged 26-part television drama series soon to be shot on location in the capital. The series to be known as 'Things that Bind Us' is to be produced before the end of June by Optimedia of Abius Akwaake, who was also involved as a producer in the making of the feature film, Namibia: The Liberation Struggle.

"The response has just been overwhelming after my company had advertised extensively in the local print and electronic media during last year. This gives me hope for the future of the film industry in our country," said Akwaake, the producer of the series to be screened on NBC-tv by June this year.

The series was part of the NBC's commissioning television film system in 2007 and was given to Optimedia. "We are well on our way in completing the episodic scripts of which the first ten have already been submitted for final approval to the NBC commissioning editor. We are confident that the scripts will be accepted, after which time shooting on the serious will commence in and around the capital," he said.

According to Akwaake, the final character selection process has not gone very smoothly. "White character roles are still wide open due to the fact that so few white Namibian actors showed any interest and responded to our public call. This can be ascribed to the fact that white Namibians do not watch NBC and the fact that the series is produced and will be screened by the national broadcaster”.
(New Era (Windhoek), 1 February 2008)

Uganda: Museveni Criticised Over CNN Deal
The Democratic Party (DP) has criticised President Yoweri Museveni for allegedly playing a key role in the $1million (Shs. 1.7billion) six-month deal with CNN to market Uganda as a top tourist destination in Africa.

Party President John Ssebaana Kizito said on Tuesday that Museveni's alleged involvement in the deal discredited the Office of the President. "Giving contracts to relatives and friends is President Museveni's tradition especially when there is a juicy deal which is wrong," Ssebaana said.

Ssebaana's remarks follow a revelation by Ministry of Trade Permanent Secretary, Dr. Sam Nahamya that President Museveni pushed him to flout procurement laws to seal the deal.
Source: The Monitor (Kampala)

South Africa: Icasa may shut new free broadcaster
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) warned on Friday that it could block Free2View's satellite signal, or take other action, if the UK-based free-to-air broadcaster continued operating without a licence. Free2View launched its satellite broadcasting services last week, which will provide consumers with access to a variety of channels; such as live news programmes and documentaries for free. Consumers will only make a once-off payment of R1,400 (US$194) for a decoder and a satellite dish. Icasa, which regulates the broadcasting and telecoms sectors, has not issued Free2View with a licence or permission to operate. Any entity that planned to provide a broadcasting service in South Africa requires a licence and any attempt to provide such service without one constituted a criminal offence, Icasa said. If Free2View continued operating, Icasa could approach the court for an interdict to stop its operations.

Kenya: Pay-TV Firms Plan More Content At Reduced Rates
Local Pay-Television viewers will enjoy more content at reduced prices as competition for subscribers among two players hots up. The protagonists- MultiChoice Kenya and GTV- have unveiled their game plan for 2008 that will see them improve packages and offer lower prices, a move that sets the stage for a bruising battle for control of the local Pay-TV market that has remained sluggish over the past decade.

Now, both players are dangling the pricing card as a way to stir up the Pay-TV market, which for long has been considered a luxury in most homes. This, besides expanding their number of channels, notably with more local content, is emerging as the best bet to crack the lucrative although difficult Pay-TV market.

The latest entrant, GTV, is promising to cut its rates to below those charged by market leader MultiChoice Kenya as it races to maintain a foothold in the local market. GTV maintains that the penetration of services in the Pay-TV arena has been held back by high installation fees and monthly charges.

Earlier, GTV was talking of a price drop of up to Sh700 (US$10.35) per month, over a period they did not specify. MultiChoice Kenya, on the other hand, is working on another round of price cuts as it seeks to grow and defend its market turf from GTV and Oxygen Digital Television.

The Pay-TV scene has witnessed a number of price cuts in the past six months since GTV entered the local market, prompting a shift in the market structure where MultiChoice had maintained a monopoly.

MultiChoice was the first to lower prices to Sh1,750 (US$25.88) for a bundle of 33 channels before the entry of GTV that arrived with two bundles of 15 and 13 channels selling for Sh2,750 (US$40.67) and Sh1,750 (US$25.88) respectively. The GTV entry forced MultiChoice to unveil another lower cost bundle of 27 channels for Sh1,350 (US$19.96). Another round of price adjustments is aimed at stirring up the sluggish demand for Pay-TV products.

In Kenya, despite booming growth in telecommunications such as the online and mobile phone sectors, few Kenyans subscribe to TV services that charge a monthly fee. Of three million households in the country with TVs, fewer than 30,000-or one per cent - subscribe.

This compares poorly with the two per cent penetration levels in Africa, 93 per cent penetration in the United States and Europe whose penetration levels range between 15 and 36 per cent. MultiChoice is working on a strategy that will see it increase channels with more local content. GTV is also promising new channels and "better content" in 2008 and beyond.
(Business Daily (Nairobi), 28 January 2008)

South Africa: Cape Town backs 'film city' with R30m
The City of Cape Town is making R30-million available to restart the development of the Dreamworld Film City project, which is still hoping to turn the eastern suburbs of Cape Town into a southern-hemisphere Hollywood.

Simon Grindrod of the Independent Democrats, mayoral committee member for economic development and tourism, said on Wednesday, after the spending was approved by the city council that his department has spearheaded efforts to make available the city's R30-million contribution -- in terms of the provision of bulk infrastructure for the Dreamworld film studio.

"This project represents the single biggest opportunity to secure billions of rands' more income for the city in terms of film production and associated industries," he said. "The Cape Town film industry is estimated to be worth R20-billion."

South African film producer Anant Singh was chosen to build the country's first major Hollywood-style film studio in Cape Town four years ago. It was to be built on the Vergenoegd Farm in Faure off the N2 just outside Somerset West.

That decision came four years after the construction of a mega film studio in the city was first proposed by the Western Cape provincial government.

South Africa: State Plan for Digital TV to Go to Cabinet
The communications department says it will give the cabinet its long-awaited proposals on the move from analogue to digital terrestrial TV by the end of March. The strategy will include government recommendations on subsidising the set-top boxes required to receive digital signals and on whether the boxes would be made in SA or imported.

"In order to continue viewing TV using the current analogue TV sets, the public will be required to use set-top boxes, which convert the transmitted digital signal to analogue," Deputy Communications Minister Roy Padayachie said last week at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation conference in Sandton. "Otherwise it will be necessary to acquire digital-enabled TV sets.”

"Efforts should be made to explore developing capacities to manufacture set-top boxes locally to meet the local demand rather than importing them from abroad," Padayachie said.

Last year the cabinet approved the strategy to switch on the digital signal from this November. There would then be a "dual illumination" period until the analogue signal was switched off in November 2011. This would be four years ahead of international recommendations.

Sentech, the state-funded telecoms group responsible for rolling out the project, has said the cost of supplying SA's 7- million TV viewers now without set-top boxes could be R2,8bn-R4,2bn -- depending on the cost of the boxes. SA has 8,2-million TV watching households, 1,2-million of them on MultiChoice's DStv digital offering.

Three newly licensed pay-TV operators -- ODM, Telkom Media and MultiChoice, which was operating until now without a licence -- are awaiting a decision on the interoperability of the boxes. This enables multiple digital broadcasters to be received on any set-top box, regardless of who distributed it.

It is understood that some of the new operators were keen for the boxes to be opened up as this would let them use MultiChoice's existing network. MultiChoice, however, was not as keen as it believed this would make upgrading the boxes' software difficult. It was up to the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) regulator to decide whether the boxes could be interoperable.

Icasa chairman Paris Mashile indicated that interoperability would make sense. Introducing "a common box with different encryptions is the most logical thing to do", he said. "It is key, from an Icasa point of view, that these boxes are inter-operable."
(Business Day (Johannesburg), 31 January 2008)

Google Starts Recruitment Plan to Up Clout in Africa
Internet search company Google Kenya's Nairobi office is searching for five senior executives for its African operations, laying the foundation for a looming market share battle on the continent.

The Nairobi office serves as the company's African headquarters. The five senior managers are expected to complement nine other senior level appointments who are already working in the continent.

Advertisements posted on Google's website indicate that the company is looking for people with local expertise in marketing, logistics as well as technical support. Google is also searching for office leads in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria and Senegal.

Some of the positions were advertised and filled early last year, but the company says the current recruitment should help strengthen the company's operations. The move comes amid increasing finding that emerging markets such as Africa are poised to become the next frontier of growth for global Internet companies.

Less than five per cent of the African population is currently hooked on the Internet.

Locally, Google appears to be pursuing a low key strategy, with its most notable achievements so far being a partnership with tertiary educational institutions to support students. It has also entered into an agreement with mobile phone service provider Safaricom to offer e-mail and data services to Safaricom's subscribers.

The service is expected to offer the first formal Internet experience for millions of rural Kenyans. This partnership has also offered Safaricom a platform to launch a local version of Google Maps to add to its growing portfolio of Internet based services.

Google Kenya will be looking for Associate Product Marketing, Geographic Consultant, Office Associate, Strategic Partner Development (SPD), Local Markets, and Technical Support Associate.
(Source: Business Daily)

Nigeria: Much scepticism about OPLC project
One Lap Top Per Child Project has been putting a brave face on the pull-out of Intel from its project. However, the tide of scepticism is growing about the project as it seems to have failed to gain traction in terms of sales to developing countries that must be the acid test of its success. The analysis below a journalist from Nigeria’s This Day summarises many of the reasons – both rational and irrational – that the project will find hard to overcome.

With the expectations built around the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project initiated by Nicholas Negroponte and the recent hiccups/challenges it faces following the pull out of Intel, Efem Nkanga of This Day assesses the viability of the project for Nigeria and other developing countries

If you embark on a tour of public schools in Nigeria, your senses will be assaulted by the level of decay and rot in the schools. Many places of learning in the country today have become obsolete centres with no chairs and tables for the children to sit, the buildings are dilapidated and it is not uncommon to see children in some parts of the country taking lessons under trees and in some other places they take their own chairs to school.

All these in a major oil producing country in the world, a giant of Africa ,with over 140,000,000 million people and still counting, a country that cannot be described as poor, a country blessed with enviable natural resources, a country referred to by some as the headquarters of the Almighty, filled with highly religious people, yet engulfed by decay, corruption and lawlessness.

This is why when Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the "One laptop per child" visited Nigeria to solicit for the participation and partnership of the Nigerian government in the project sometime last year, many stakeholders wondered where the initiative that would have cost the Nigerian government over US$200 million would lead to. The project would have made laptops available to about one million Nigerian children. But since that visit was broadcast with Negroponte shaking the hands of President Obasanjo in a seemingly conclusive way with assurances on both sides for money and laptops to change hands, nothing has come out of the deal. Now the recent announcement by Intel's rival body that had joined the OLPC project after initially criticising Negroponte has in recent times not only raised doubts about the initiative but called to question the viability of the project for Nigeria.

Stakeholders see the action of Intel, which has its own rival laptop for children called the classmate PC as a pointer showing that the OLPC project might after all be a dream that cannot fly. Intel joined the OLPC board which began production of the laptops in China less than six months ago in a collaborative effort that will make millions of the laptop available in some developing countries. The questions begging for answers at the moment is why did Intel really pull out? While some are of the view that Intel pulled out after getting information about the inner workings of the project team, others are of the view that Intel might have stumbled on a managerial and technical error within the OLPC project management team that showed that the project was going no where soon or a clash of interest that will negatively affect Intel's own initiative could not be resolved. Though Intel's boss came out a few days ago to clarify that Intel pulled out because the OLPC team wanted it to stop the promotion of its own Classmate PCs, many are still nonplussed and not sure of what really went wrong.

What effects will the pull out have for Nigeria, given the fact that the country had shown interest in the project in 2006? Stakeholders in the information technology sector have diverse opinions as to the viability of the project for Nigeria. In the first place, because of the rot in the education system in the country in recent years, a lot of people are of the opinion that there are other critical areas begging for attention in the sector that the US$200 million could solve. The laptop in question, a green and white coloured XO machine designed specifically for children has a hand crank that the children can pull when it runs down. It's a rugged laptop said to have been built with the harsh conditions in developing countries in mind. The laptops initially expected to cost only $100 though now costs $188 due to increased production cost and would no doubt translate to double costs that would be borne by the beneficiaries.

Nigeria's interest in the initiative raised questions in some quarters given the fact that in most public schools, amenities are totally lacking and most students don't even have chairs to sit on. They don't have books, and other basic ingredients that make learning conducive and attractive, so how can a laptop make a difference when the main substances required to make the right pudding is not there.

Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachuku, Nigeria's Minister of Education is one of the many Nigerians who are skeptical of the project. He once remarked that the education ministry was more interested in laying a solid foundation for quality, efficient, accessible, and affordable education and wondered "What is the sense of introducing One Laptop per Child when children don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?"
Many Nigerians would have been more receptive and tolerant of the one laptop per child initiative if the project promoters were offering these laptops free to Nigerian children. Then and only then will people really believe that they are really out to better the lot of the children, but a situation where you seemingly give with one hand and take back with the other is not acceptable to a people already struggling with several challenges that impede their development.

Some also see the laptops as toys that would not stand the test of time. Children are notorious for using their toys for a short while and discarding them and what happens when it gets broken or malfunctions, where do they take it for repairs and who pays for the repairs?

Going forward, the reality is that such an initiative for now is not the solution to the educational quagmire that the nation is presently battling. Other things that are more pressing in the sector should be tackled first before such funds is wasted on a wide goose chase leading nowhere and ultimately benefiting no one, certainly not the Nigerian child.
(Source: This Day)

Environment News

Business Daily (Nairobi): Company executives are increasingly viewing environmental concerns as an integral part of their strategy making efforts, a new global survey indicates. The renewed interest comes against the backdrop of a recent tilt in climate change debate in favour of activists, who have for nearly two decades been warning about the negative impact of human activity on the global climate. The McKinsey Quarterly survey found that the majority of executives now view environmental concerns as important for their companies seeing both opportunity and risk. In Kenya, a number of companies have integrated environmental concerns in their daily activities pointing to ties between the national and global economy. Companies that have gone big on environmental conservation include Kenya Airways and Kenya Airports Authority - which are most exposed to the impact of any initiatives to curb global warming. To shield themselves from exposure to the ongoing drive to curb aviation industry's contribution to greenhouse gases that are being blamed for global warming, KQ and KAA have started tree planting projects that they hope will help absorb some of the harmful emissions from the planes. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802111073.html

Tanzania: Dar Gets Mercury Contamination Warning
The East African (Nairobi): The unregulated use of mercury by small-scale miners in Tanzania is a standing danger to both life and the environment. According to Prof Okey Ibeanu, special rapporteur for the UN on toxic waste, while the government has the mechanisms in place to deal with issues of chemical management, the high incidence of unregulated small-scale mining around the country is a cause for worry. Prof Ibeanu says he has witnessed first hand small-scale miners using mercury in the mineral extraction process without proper safety equipment. In some cases, the miners do not have adequate information about the effects of mercury on their health nor about the dangers of improper disposal of tailings and effect on their lives and the environment. http://allafrica.com/stories/200802111560.html

TVE Press Release - Earth Report Forgotten Fruit

2008-02-18T13:23:00.001+03:00

Earth Report - Forgotten Fruit

14 February 2008: Seventy-five per cent of the food crop varieties we once grew have disappeared in the last 100 years. Today we rely on just three – wheat, rice and maize – for over two thirds of our calories.

The trend toward standardised food crops has been accelerated by the global push to modernise agriculture, and by the ‘Green Revolution’ of the 1960s and ‘70s which led to higher yielding crop varieties that helped end famine in India and feed an expanding world population. But now some scientists are concerned we may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. They worry that the drive to improve a few crops may have led to the neglect of many other, traditional crops potentially vital to future global food security. Earth Report goes to India and Italy to find out how, with more investment, crops of the past may be the foods of the future.

Earth Report – Forgotten Fruit will be broadcast on BBC WORLD:

Friday 15 February - 20.30, with repeat broadcasts on Monday 18 February 10.30, Tuesday 19 February 15.30 and Wednesday 20 February 02.30 and 08.30 (All times quoted as GMT)

For more information on programme schedules in local time zones visit www.bbcworld.com

In the Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, agronomists are working with local farmers to reintroduce millet. In recent decades millet has fallen out of favour as farmers have moved to cash crops like cassava instead, and used the profits to buy rice. Millet is highly nutritious and very hardy. The downside is that processing the grain for eating takes time and effort. Because of this, millet is one of the so-called ‘orphan crops’ – crops which have no commercial value and so don’t attract investment from scientific improvers. But with some real investment and development, millet could be a valuable contributor to world food security - especially with the threat of climate change leading to increasing drought and flood.

In Italy, Isabella Dalla Ragione runs the Associazone Archeologia Arborea. She seeks out forgotten fruit varieties that are no longer cultivated and grows them in her orchard. So far she has amassed 400 different fruit varieties that might otherwise have become extinct. She is working with the University of Perugia to determine how these rare fruits could become commercially-viable crops once more.

Meanwhile Indian researchers from the University of Bangalore are busy breeding millet varieties to make them more disease-resistant and higher yielding - and building machines that make processing less arduous. The net result of all this investment is that local shops are now selling millet for the first time, and - if the market takes off - fields of millet could once again be a common sight in the Kolli Hills.

“I think the environments are going to be more unpredictable so we need crops that are going to be safe, therefore we need to think about food security rather than food production.”
Sayed Azam-Ali, Professor of Tropical Agronomy, University of Nottingham, UK

“It's not just a nostalgic view because some of these [traditional] varieties are very good, very good to sell, good smell and good flavour and so why lose, why throw away? So they are our past and they can also be our future.”
Isabella Dalla Ragione, Associazone Archeologia Arborea

“These grains are going to be important. The rich people are becoming more health-conscious. There are more diabetics in India than in any other country. Therefore, your crops have a great future, don't abandon them.” Professor M S Swaminathan, Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

* * *

Forgotten Fruit was produced with the support of Bioversity, Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species and IFAD.

TVE and its Partners distribute Earth Report programmes for broadcast and educational and campaigning use in countries across Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean – to schools, colleges, universities, NGOs, environmental agencies and other ‘multiplier’ organisations.

Contacts and information:
For further information on the programme, production team and issues raised look up www.tve.org/earthreport
For further information about Earth Report – contact Nick Rance, Earth Report: tel. +44 20 7901 8837; email: nick.rance@tve.org.uk
For tape or DVD orders – contact Dina Junkermann, TVE distribution manager: tel. +44 20 7901 8834; email: dina.junkermann@tve.org.uk

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter- 13th September to 19th September 2007

2007-09-13T17:33:00.001+03:00

Tell it till you are green!

Every day I scan through up to 100 pages of worldwide environment news that comes through to my mailbox and then I summarise the news that grabs me – that’s if you’ve wondered so far where I get my news from. The theme for each week is an even easier task. After I have selected the news I enjoyed, I find a common theme and delete the rest, otherwise I would send you hundreds of pages. With that in mind, I wonder if it were possible to tell you enough environment news that you would actually turn green!

A colleague of mine has just bought a year 2000 Toyota Prius, which is a hybrid car that automatically alternates between fuel engine and a battery-powered motor thus saving up to 75% of the normal fuel consumption. This intelligent car is fully computerised and drives as an ordinary car would whilst in manages your fuel consumption by alternating between the two power sources. The basic science is that it uses the petrol engine to generate power for storage into the extra battery pack and thus you never need to plug the car into an electric source (as with the 100% electric cars).

A price to pay for being going green

Another colleague bought a 2004 Prius and this one doesn’t even have a key to start the car as it is voice activated. The car parks itself and warns you when there children or animals lurking around dangerously as you drive off. The only problem is he bought it from Japan and it talks to him all the time in Japanese – which he doesn’t understand. If he knew what she was saying at all, he might even be able to turn her voice off. That is one price to pay for being green.

Another price, for Al Gore, is that he is now being criticised for not being a vegetarian. As it turns out, eating meat is contributing to climate change. Enock Chinyenze – Regional Coordinator for Africa, TVE.

LA Times: 8 September, 2007. Independent carmakers lead the way on plug-in hybrids. Martin Zimmerman

Yet another environmentally friendly automobile is headed your way -- if you have a spare $80,000 or so. Irvine-based car designer Henrik Fisker just announced plans to unveil a plug-in hybrid at the Detroit auto show in January and to have his high-performance gasoline-electric sedans ready for sale in the U.S. within 18 months. If Fisker's hybrid is too rich for your blood, and you're patient, no worries.

Industry veteran Malcolm Bricklin, who introduced America to both the Subaru brand and the Yugo, also announced plans for a luxury plug-in hybrid sedan, saying his cars would be available in the U.S. by 2010. And he said the sticker price would be about $35,000. Whatever the price, suddenly, the plug-in hybrid market looks crowded. The hybrids on the road now are powered by a gasoline engine that is assisted by an electric motor and can run short distances at low speeds on electric power alone.

The plug-in hybrids on the drawing board will feature much more powerful battery packs that can power the car on electricity alone for many miles at highway speeds. And unlike electric cars, when the battery gives out, the gasoline motor takes over -- either to drive the wheels directly or to produce electricity to power the electric motor. The batteries could be recharged overnight at a household outlet. Both Fisker and Bricklin are aiming for electricity-only ranges of 45 to 50 miles -- far enough to allow many drivers to spend most days cruising on electrons alone.

"Our car can become your main car," Fisker says. "If you decide this afternoon, 'Hey, I want to go to Las Vegas,' you can do that. You can't do that in an electric car." Plug-ins could be just the thing to satisfy car buyers looking for relief from high gas prices -- and for auto companies facing the possibility of much tougher fuel economy standards from the federal government.

General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are pursuing plug-in technology but aren't expected to have models in showrooms until shortcomings of the current generation of batteries are overcome. Fisker is a well-known designer of high-end sports cars, including the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage. To produce the plug-in hybrid, he has formed a joint venture with Irvine-based Quantum Technologies, which will provide the crucial battery and powertrain design.

While providing few details, Chief Executive Alan Niedzwiecki said his company had developed a lithium ion battery pack that solves the overheating problems that have complicated development of plug-ins. "There are few automotive companies that have their own battery, and we're one of them," he said. The joint venture, named Fisker Automotive Inc., will contract out the production of the cars to a vehicle manufacturer. Initial plans are to build 15,000 of the premium-priced vehicles a year, and then in four to five years introduce a second plug-in design priced at $35,000 to $40,000.

Fisker wouldn't discuss financing, other than to say the company has attracted interest from venture capitalists and has enough cash for initial operations. Bricklin, whose up-and-down auto industry career has earned him comparisons to P.T. Barnum, is raising money from a network of dealer-investors and also plans to announce more investors this month. He originally planned to build the cars in China but now is considering other sites.

Fisker said he was confident he could find buyers for his pricey plug-ins, especially because he plans to market the car heavily in Europe. He expects the car to be popular with movie stars and other wealthy individuals who want to be "eco chic." "We wanted to create a vehicle that's environmentally correct but looks good and performs better than the car you're driving today," he said. Another high-end, eco-friendly carmaker, Tesla Motors Inc. of San Carlos, Calif., is finding a receptive audience for its $98,000 electric roadster. The company has received nearly 600 orders for the high-performance car, which will be built in England and have a range of more than 200 miles.

"That's way more than what we were anticipating," said Darryl Siry, head of marketing and sales for Tesla. "We're very happy with it." Tesla hopes to ship the first roadster this year and has plans to introduce a less expensive vehicle -- although still priced at more than $50,000 -- by 2010. That car will be assembled in New Mexico. Rumors are swirling that the car, code-named Whitestar, will be a plug-in hybrid, which could give it a broader appeal than the electric-only roadster. Siry declined to comment on the rumors. Jack Nerad, an auto market analyst at Irvine-based Kelley Blue Book, said independent carmakers like Fisker and Tesla are aiming to meet demand from consumers who are tired of waiting for GM, Toyota and the other auto giants to bring new technology to market.

"There's a thirst from a segment of the public for environmentally friendlier vehicles than what is now available from the big manufacturers -- even beyond what is available in hybrids," Nerad said. "And this is fueling the entrepreneurial spirit. There are people who think they can make money at this."

The Washington Post. Parking the SUV Temporarily: D.C. Mayor Hops Metrobus to Push Environmental Jobs, Public Transit Use. David Nakamura and Nikita Stewart

The mayor's advisers were stumped. No one could agree on the savviest way to handle the sensitive political situation. How would Mayor Adrian M. Fenty travel 2.1 miles from the John A. Wilson Building to Cardozo High School on Clifton Street NW for a news conference in which he was to tell residents to protect the environment and leave their cars behind?

Showing up in his usual gas-guzzling, government-issued Lincoln Navigator seemed politically incorrect. The Metro was an option, but Fenty was running late and would have to walk several blocks. Someone offered a vehicle from the city's fleet of hybrids, but the mayor ruled that out. He countered by offering to hop on the expensive Cannondale bicycle he uses for triathlons, but then aides reminded him that he might become sweaty in his navy business suit. So he walked up 14th Street NW and took the No. 52 bus north.

The mayor's appearance, without security, on the bus caused quite a stir. One woman had her picture taken with Fenty (D), and a male passenger handed the mayor a business card. "People were very surprised," said D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who rode the same bus to the news conference. At the conference, the mayor helped promote the numerous jobs available in the environmental industry and the city's first Car Free Day, which is scheduled for next Tuesday and was approved by the council in the spring. The District will join 1,500 cities worldwide to raise awareness about alternative transportation, said Wells, who usually rides his steel-gray Bianchi bicycle to the Wilson Building each day.

Wells said that because more people are moving to the District, a day without cars can deliver an important message. "We don't want to create a traffic nightmare," he said. "You don't need a car to get around. That's what makes us different than the suburbs." The District is a leader in public transportation. Statistics show that the city is second only to New York in the percentage of residents who use public transit and leads in the percentage of residents who walk to work. Residents can find out how to participate in Car Free Day at http://www.carfreedc.info.

In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), whose administration has served as a model for Fenty's, regularly takes the subway to work. But he was recently embarrassed by published reports that he takes a government car a few blocks from his residence to the subway entrance. During his tenure as chairman of the D.C. Council, the late David A. Clarke was known for balancing his 6-foot-8 frame on a beaten-up bicycle to get around. Fenty usually takes the Navigator. But a few weeks ago, he lightened its load by dropping his security detail on some days and driving himself through the city.

When the mayor decided on the bus yesterday, Wells had already left city hall for the news conference. A mayoral aide called Wells, who jumped off his bus at 14th and K streets NW and waited for Fenty's bus to arrive. Wells then joined Fenty and mayoral aide Veronica Washington for the rest of the trip. After the news conference, Fenty took the subway to the Wilson Building. But by last night, he was back in the Ford Expedition he owns, heading to a pair of community meetings across town.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/10/AR2007091002308.html

Reuters: 11 September, 2007. Mercedes to sell fuel-cell car from 2010. Frankfurt.

Mercedes-Benz will begin serial production within three years of a small car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, the premium brand of DaimlerChrysler said on Tuesday. "The small-scale series production of the B-Class F-Cell will begin in early 2010," the carmaker said in a statement at the Frankfurt International Motor Show.

"The engine for this innovative vehicle will be a new generation of fuel-cell engine that is much more compact and yet at the same time more powerful and completely practicable for everyday use." It did not say how much the car will cost or how many it intended to sell. Fuel cells use the interaction between hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity that powers the car while emitting only water. They have not yet become commercially viable because of their high cost and limited durability.

The new B-Class car's electric engine will generate top output of 136 horsepower and perform on par with a two-liter petrol engine, the company said. It will consume the equivalent of 2.9 liters of diesel fuel per 100 kilometers driven.

Reuters: 7 September, 2007. Cars Neither "Green" Nor "Clean" - New Norway Rules. Oslo, Norway. Alister Doyle

No car can be "green", "clean" or "environmentally friendly", according to some of the world's strictest advertising guidelines set to enter into force in Norway next month. "Cars cannot do anything good for the environment except less damage than others," Bente Oeverli, a senior official at the office of the state-run Consumer Ombudsman, told Reuters on Thursday. Carmakers such as Toyota, General Motor's Opel, Mitsubishi, Peugeot Citroen, Saab and Suzuki had all used phrases this year in advertisements that the watchdog judged misleading, she said.

One Toyota advertisement for a Prius, for instance, described the gasoline-electric hybrid as "the world's most environmentally friendly car." "If someone says their car is more 'green' or 'environmentally friendly' than others then they would have to be able to document it in every aspect from production, to emissions, to energy use, to recycling," she said. "In practice that can't be done," she said of tougher guidelines entering into force in Norway from Oct. 15.

The guidelines distributed to carmakers said: "We ask that ... phrases such as 'environmentally friendly', 'green', 'clean', 'environmental car', 'natural' or similar descriptions not be used in marketing cars." Carmakers would risk fines if they failed to drop the words. Oeverli said she did not know of other countries going so far in cracking down on cars and the environment.

Utmost respect?

In one ruling abroad, for instance, Britain's advertising watchdog said that Volvo advertisements should not repeat a claim that its C30 car was "designed with the utmost respect for the environment in mind". Oeverli said carmakers, who are making huge investments in cleaning up emissions, seemed happy to get clearer rules about advertising. In future in Norway, they could only give information that could be firmly documented.

That meant that even phrases such as "Car X has low emissions of carbon dioxide", the main greenhouse gas released by burning oil, should be avoided. The watchdog argued that mentioning carbon dioxide alone could mislead buyers into believing that the car also had low emissions of toxic nitrous oxide or other polluting particles.

Transport, mainly trucks and cars, accounts for about a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions from human sources, widely blamed for stoking a warming that could bring more floods, desertification, heatwaves and rising seas.

The Nation (Thailand). 8 September, 2007. Growing green minds:Thailand's representative at Germany's 'Tunza' conference on the environment joined youngsters from around the globe spearheading the fight against climate change. Leverkusen, Germany

Concern for the environment opened the door for a boy from Ubon Ratchathani to attend a world youth conference in Germany. Siriwat "Big" Rittapai, who has been interested in ecological preservation for many years, was Thailand's representative at the "Tunza International Youth Conference" hosted by Bayer AG in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The 19-year-old Benchamamaharat School student was among 180 environmentalists aged 15 to 24 from 85 countries who swapped ideas on "Technology in Service of the Environment" at the event from August 26 to 30. "It's a great opportunity to make new friends from all over the world who have the same interest. Each of us has his own ideas and experiences that can be shared to prevent global warming," he says during a break at the camp.

This was his second time at the environmental forum in Germany. Last year he and four other teenagers from the Bayer Young Environment Envoy programme, established by Bayer Thai, represented Thailand on a five-day field trip. The Matthayom 6 student was very impressed with the German government's policy to protect the environment through such measures as renewable energy and waste separation. The young environmentalists debated key global environmental issues such as climate change, renewable energy, technology transfer and the agenda for environmental work in their own countries. The programme also included excursions to model environmental projects and facilities in Germany, including T?V Rheinland's solar-cell testing lab in which Siriwat took a keen interest.

"I will finish high school this year and I'm eager to learn about renewable energy, something that Germany is well-advanced in. I've talked with an engineer here on where and how I could study in this field," he says. However, Siriwat will need to find a scholarship to study in Germany. If that plan fails, he'll go King Mongkut's Institute of Technology in Thonburi. Siriwat says the inspiration for his concern for the environment was his participation in an environmental and energy camp at King Mongkut's three years ago. "Then I became a speaker for an environment club at my school and we did all sorts of activities based on the issue."

Another highlight of the "Tunza" programme was a presentation by astronaut Gerhard Thiele, head of the Astronaut Centre of the European Space Agency. Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, said at the opening ceremony that he hoped the conference would give an overview on the state of environmental protection in an industrialised country, but also have a motivating effect on the young minds present. "Our hope is that on the basis of discussions at this conference, 180 young people will return to their communities and nations and become beacons for many others to play a part in addressing environmental challenges." Werner Wenning, chairman of Bayer, said the German company supported UNEP's activities in the areas of youth and the environment because youths' commitment to sustainable development had earned respect, and the voice of the young must be heard.

At the event, Steiner and Wenning signed a new three-year cooperation agreement, with Bayer supporting UNEP with its own programmes and a yearly payment of ค1.2 million (Bt54 million), up from the ค1 million of the past three years. UNEP chose the 180 participants from more than 1,000 applications in an online selection process. All the applicants were nominated by organisations or schools where they had actively contributed to projects supporting environmental work in their country.

The word "Tunza" that appears in the conference's title comes from the East African language Swahili and means "to treat with care and affection". It is also the slogan for UNEP's complete programme for young people and children. The organisation is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. The "Tunza" programme, endorsed in 2003, is a comprehensive, six-year strategy to promote the participation of children and youths in every part of the world in environmental activities.

It focuses on four thematic areas - awareness building, capacity building, information exchange and facilitating the involvement of young people in environmental decision making. The event in Leverkusen followed conferences in Dubna, Russia, in 2003 and Bangalore, India, in 2005. At the end of the conference, participants from each region elected their own representative to serve on the Tunza Youth Advisory Council, which will advise UNEP on issues relating to youth environmental work for the next two years.

Young environmentalists from China and the Philippines are the new Tunza Youth Advisory Council members representing Asia-Pacific. "I want to make the voices of young people heard," says Sara Svensson, from Sweden, a new member for Europe. "The council is a place where we can also share ideas on ways to have a better future."

New Strait Times (Malaysia). 10 September, 2007. Being green comes naturally. Nisha Sabanayagam. Kuala Lumpur.

It was the cartoon series in the 1990s called Captain Planet that started off 16-year-old Hana Shazwin Azizan’s environmental crusade. Captain Planet had sky-blue skin and wore red boots but he spread the important message about environmental hazards. Hana Shazwin recalled that even at the age of 5, she would berate her parents and brothers if they did something "wrong", such as wasting electricity or water. "I learnt this from the cartoon series." When she was 9, Hana Shazwin joined Yayasan Anak Warisan Alam, a non-governmental organisation that organises environmental education projects and activities for children. "That’s when my green lifestyle took off," she said. She mingled with like-minded people who are environmentally conscious. Soon, being green became second nature to her.

"It’s really not that hard to live this way." Now, Hana Shazwin has a portfolio that would make many people "green" with envy. She has travelled to Argentina, Australia, Japan and Kenya, representing Malaysia as a youth ambassador mainly for environmental conferences. Together with former schoolmate Jes Ebrahim Izaidin, 14, their parents and some friends, she has formed an environmental NGO called the Tree Theatre Group to provide a platform for other environmental-conscious children to share and present their projects.

"Malaysian youth have many ideas but have no platform to execute or present those ideas," said Hana Shazwin. The Tree Theatre Group will also make the youth aware of the opportunities available to represent their countries and attend environmental conferences. "We want to help others, especially children in the rural community, to be able to enjoy such activities," she said. Hana Shazwin has also hosted television shows for educational channel Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan, formerly known as TV Pendidikan.

The young environmentalist has also won numerous essays and public speaking competitions. She and Jes Ebrahim wrote the song Tears for Trees, which was sung by 63 Malaysian children at the opening ceremony of the 24th United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) Governing Council Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in February. The song, which reportedly left some of the ministers teary-eyed, has been chosen as the theme song for Unep’s Billion Tree Campaign, which initiates projects in communities worldwide to encourage people to plant one billion trees by the end of the year.

Thus, it was only fitting that Hana Shazwin was chosen to represent Malaysia in the Tunza International Youth Conference 2007. The biennial conference is a long-term strategy of Unep, which partners with multinational company Bayer to engage young people from 15 to 24 years old in environmental activities and in the work of Unep. Hana Shazwin’s trip to Germany was sponsored by Bayer, which became official partners with Unep in 2004 to jointly organise environmental projects for young people around the world. "We learnt about starting and managing environmental projects and, of course, network with other youth ambassadors," said Hana Shazwin.

The conference, held from Aug 26 to 30 in Leverkusen, Germany, included meetings with politicians and Bayer’s industrial environment protection experts, workshops, plenary sessions and excursions. The theme for this year’s conference was "Technology in Service of the Environment". Hana Shazwin talked about Malaysia’s technological innovations, including locally-produced mobile incinerators and a multi-purpose organic fibrous material made of coconut husks. She also talked about recognising apathy as an environmental problem. Hana Shazwin already had a headstart on starting and managing projects.

The Tree Theatre Group has started the Janda Baik Eco School project, which aims to create young environmentalists through several project-based and subject-based programmes. This includes a "tree bank" to plant about 26 million trees in five years from next year to 2013. "We want to help the country achieve a neutral carbon dioxide status," said Hana Shazwin.

The New York Times. 11 September, 2007. ‘Feel Good’ vs. ‘Do Good’ on Climate. John Tierney.

After looking at one too many projections of global-warming disasters — computer graphics of coasts swamped by rising seas, mounting death tolls from heat waves — I was ready for a reality check. Instead of imagining a warmer planet, I traveled to a place that has already felt the heat, accompanied by Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish political scientist and scourge of environmentalist orthodoxy.

It was not an arduous expedition. We went to an old wooden building near the Brooklyn Bridge that is home to the Bridge Cafe, which bills itself as “New York’s Oldest Drinking Establishment.” There’s been drinking in the building since the late 18th century, when it was erected on Water Street along the shore of Lower Manhattan.

Since record-keeping began in the 19th century, the sea level in New York has been rising about a foot per century, which happens to be about the same increase estimated to occur over the next century by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The temperature has also risen as New York has been covered with asphalt and concrete, creating an “urban heat island” that’s estimated to have raised nighttime temperatures by 7 degrees Fahrenheit. The warming that has already occurred locally is on the same scale as what’s expected globally in the next century.

The impact of these changes on Lower Manhattan isn’t quite as striking as the computer graphics. We couldn’t see any evidence of the higher sea level near the Bridge Cafe, mainly because Water Street isn’t next to the water anymore. Dr. Lomborg and I had to walk over two-and-a-half blocks of landfill to reach the current shoreline.

The effect of the rising temperatures is more complicated to gauge. Hotter summer weather can indeed be fatal, as Al Gore likes us to remind audiences by citing the 35,000 deaths attributed to the 2003 heat wave in Europe. But there are a couple of confounding factors explained in Dr. Lomborg’s new book, “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming.”

The first is that winter can be deadlier than summer. About seven times more deaths in Europe are attributed annually to cold weather (which aggravates circulatory and respiratory illness) than to hot weather, Dr. Lomborg notes, pointing to studies showing that a warmer planet would mean fewer temperature-related deaths in Europe and worldwide.

The second factor is that the weather matters a lot less than how people respond to it. Just because there are hotter summers in New York doesn’t mean that more people die — in fact, just the reverse has occurred. Researchers led by Robert Davis, a climatologist at the University of Virginia, concluded that the number of heat-related deaths in New York in the 1990s was only a third as high as in the 1960s. The main reason is simple, and evident as you as walk into the Bridge Cafe on a warm afternoon: air-conditioning.

The lesson from our expedition is not that global warming is a trivial problem. Although Dr. Lomborg believes its dangers have been hyped, he agrees that global warming is real and will do more harm than good. He advocates a carbon tax and a treaty forcing nations to budget hefty increases for research into low-carbon energy technologies.

But the best strategy, he says, is to make the rest of the world as rich as New York, so that people elsewhere can afford to do things like shore up their coastlines and buy air conditioners. He calls Kyoto-style treaties to cut greenhouse-gas emissions a mistake because they cost too much and do too little too late. Even if the United States were to join in the Kyoto treaty, he notes, the cuts in emissions would merely postpone the projected rise in sea level by four years: from 2100 to 2104.

“We could spend all that money to cut emissions and end up with more land flooded next century because people would be poorer,” Dr. Lomborg said as we surveyed Manhattan’s expanded shoreline. “Wealth is a more important factor than sea-level rise in protecting you from the sea. You can draw maps showing 100 million people flooded out of their homes from global warming, but look at what’s happened here in New York. It’s the same story in Denmark and Holland — we’ve been gaining land as the sea rises.”

Dr. Lomborg, who’s best known (and most reviled in some circles) for an earlier book, “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” runs the Copenhagen Consensus Center, which gathers economists to set priorities in tackling global problems. In his new book, he dismisses the Kyoto emissions cuts as a “feel-good” strategy because it sounds virtuous and lets politicians make promises they don’t have to keep. He outlines an alternative “do-good” strategy that would cost less but accomplish more in dealing with climate change as well as more pressing threats like malaria, AIDS, polluted drinking water and malnutrition.

If you’re worried about stronger hurricanes flooding coasts, he says, concentrate on limiting coastal development and expanding wetlands right now rather than trying to slightly delay warming decades from now. To give urbanites a break from hotter summers, concentrate on reducing the urban-heat-island effect. If cities planted more greenery and painted roofs and streets white, he says, they could more than offset the impact of global warming.

The biggest limitation to his cost-benefit analyses is that no one knows exactly what global warming will produce. It may not be worth taking expensive steps to forestall a one-foot rise in the sea level, but what if the seas rise much higher? Dr. Lomborg’s critics argue that we owe it to future generations to prepare for the worst-case projections.

But preparing for the worst in future climate is expensive, which means less money for the most serious threats today — and later this century. You can imagine plenty of worst-case projections that have nothing to do with climate change, as Dr. Lomborg reminded me at the end of our expedition.

“No historian would look back at the last two centuries and rank the rising sea level here as one of the city’s major problems,” he said, sitting safely dry and cool inside the Bridge Cafe. “I don’t think our descendants will thank us for leaving them poorer and less healthy just so we could do a little bit to slow global warming. I’d rather we were remembered for solving the other problems first.”

The Sunday Telegraph (UK). 9 September, 2007. Activists take Gore to task oh his diet. Philip Sherwell

HE MAY be the hero of the environmental movement for his crusade against global warming but Al Gore is about to be targeted by animal rights activists over his carnivorous contribution to greenhouse gases. Citing United Nations research that the meat industry is worse for the environment than driving and flying, animal rights groups are directing a campaign at the former American vice-president's diet.

When he delivers a lecture on global warming in Denver next month, protesters will display billboards bearing a cartoon image of Mr Gore eating a drumstick and the message: "Too chicken to go vegetarian? Meat is the No 1 cause of global warming''. The campaign is being organised by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) and is backed by other animal rights groups. "For Al Gore, the fact that his diet is a leading contributor to global warming is a highly inconven-ient truth - pun intended,'' said Matt Prescott, a spokesman for Peta.

Mr Gore won an Oscar this year for An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary based on his lecture-circuit presenta-tion detailing how man is allegedly destroying the environment. But he is now under fire for failing to highlight the im-pact of meat-eating. According to recent UN Food and Agriculture Organisation research, animal agriculture generates 18 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions - more than the 13.5 per cent produced by all forms of transport combined. Mr Gore's eating habits have previously drawn attention only because of his dramatic weight fluctuations. He cut a far slimmer figure in the run-up to the 2000 election than since - and observers would regard a reduction in his waistline as a likely sign that he intends join the Democrats' race for the White House next year.

AP: 12 september, 2007. Eating less meat may slow climate change. Maria Cheng. London.

Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday. In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming.

"We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study. "If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said.

Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide. "That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors.

The amount of meat eaten varies considerably worldwide. In developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams per day. But in Africa, most people only get about 31 grams a day. With demand for meat increasing worldwide, experts worry that this increased livestock production will mean more gases like methane and nitrous oxide heating up the atmosphere. In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago. Powles said that if the global average were 90 grams per day, that would prevent the levels of gases from speeding up climate change.

Eating less red meat would also improve health in general. Powles and his co-authors estimate that reducing meat consumption would reduce the numbers of people with heart disease and cancer. One study has estimated that the risk of colorectal cancer drops by about a third for every 100 grams of red meat that is cut out of your diet. "As a society, we are overconsuming protein," Brewster said. "If we ate less red meat, it would also help stop the obesity epidemic."

Experts said that it would probably take decades to wane the public off of its meat-eating tendency. "We need to better understand the implications of our diet," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of director of the World Health Organization's department of public health and the environment. "It is an interesting theory that needs to be further examined," she said. "But eating less meat could definitely be one way to reduce gas emissions and climate change."

Environment News in Africa

Kenya: Agencies Push for Levy to Counter Ban On Plastics

The Nation (Nairobi): Agencies with a stake in the environment are pushing for a joint plan for the management of plastic waste in Kenya. The plan by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema), Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) is seen as an alternative to the ban imposed on certain types of plastics by Finance minister Amos Kimunya in his Budget Speech for the 2007/08 financial year. The report is based on a report by the Kenya Institute of Policy and Research Analysis. Mr Kimunya banned the manufacture and importation of plastic bags below 30 microns. The minister also introduced a 120 per cent excise duty on polythene bags. But the three agencies have called for implementation of a parliamentary paper that proposed a plastic levy (green levy) instead of the excise duty. While calling for introduction of the plastic levy, the three argued that the proposed excise duty on plastics may not be readily available to stakeholders for direct environmental conservation, particularly management of plastic waste. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070175.html

South Africa: Willard to Recycle Old Batteries, Plant Trees

BuaNews (Tshwane): Willard Batteries has embarked on a recycling and tree planting initiative in Soweto, to promote and support this year's Arbour Week. A programme introduced by Willard Batteries is showing South Africans that scrap batteries can and should be recycled. Contrary to popular belief that old car batteries are dirty and useless, over 90 percent of a scrap battery can be recycled and used in the production of new batteries. The savings made through the recycling initiative is being channeled by Willard into tree planting as part of the company's environmental "carbon footprint." National environmental campaign Indalo Yethu is supporting Willard's initiative, since it complements Indalo Yethu's mission to popularise the notion that environmentally sound practices bring tangible economic and social benefits. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070369.html

Zambia: Country's Number 2 Chair for Combat Desertification

The Times of Zambia (Ndola): Zambia has been elected vice chair of the Africa Working Group at the on-going United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) conference of the Parties eighth Session (COP8), in Madrid, Spain. Zambian delegates have also been co-opted into sub-committees of the Africa Working Group whose core objective is to make follow-ups on the 10-year UNCCD strategic plan which spells out measures to be undertaken in reversing or mitigating the effects of desertification. One of the critical issues that call for the attention of developed country Parties is increased funding to give added impetus to African countries' capacity to respond adequately to the challenge of fighting desertification. Alternate Head of the Zambian delegation to the conference, Godwin Gondwe, is Vice Chairperson of the Africa Working Group. Mr Gondwe who is also UNCCD focal point person for Zambia, expressed confidence that the African Group would make a break-through in convincing cooperating partners to consider increasing funding levels in aid of programmes and projects aimed at combating desertification and other environmental concerns across the continent. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070520.html

Angola: Port Activities Should Safeguard Environment

Angola Press Agency (Luanda): Consciousness of workers, energetic and amended actions, in the execution of port and marine activities, safeguarding the environment, were aspects stressed Thursday, here, by the managing board chairman of Luanda's Port, Sílvio Vinhas. Speaking at the opening of the workshop on "Depollution, Environmental Management and Security of Luanda's Port", the official warned about the need for a change in the current pollution scene in the coastal region of Luanda, which he considered as "worrying". "We have to carry out a set of actions and seek to place Luanda's Port at the same level of the best ports in accomplishing internationally acceptable environmental standards", stated Sílvio Vinhas. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070047.html

Zimbabwe: Open Fire Ban Long Overdue

The Herald (Harare): The banning of open fires for the next three months by Government this week should send strong signals to those who play with fire and destroy our environment that their time is up. The ban was, in fact, long overdue as it came when millions of hectares of grazing land and forestry have been torched to ashes by uncontrolled veld fires. This week alone, uncontrolled fires destroyed swathes of grassland in Mukuvisi Woodlands in Harare and Matopo National Park outside Bulawayo, destroying the natural habitat for animals in these sanctuaries. These fires have destroyed millions of acres of grazing land and forestry as it has become a habit for some people to burn grass every dry season. Sadly, our communities have over the years watched this evil practice with indifference. It is estimated that timber worth more than $800 million has so far been destroyed by wild fires since the beginning of the dry season. But with the ban invoked by the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Cde Francis Nhema, this week, it is hoped that the Government will put its foot down and effectively deal with those causing these fires. According to Statutory Instrument 7 Environmental Management (Environmental Impact Assessment and Ecosystems Protection) of 2007, no one shall start a fire outside residential and commercial premises. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070095.html

Nigeria: FG Pledges to Address Environmental Degradation

Daily Trust (Abuja): Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Chief Sarafa Tunji Isola, has expressed commitment by the federal government to address environmental degradation as a result of mining and other environment related activities in the country. The minister made the pledge at a recent joint meeting between officials of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and the Ministry of Environment and Housing on the need to solve the problem of environmental degradation in several parts of the country. He noted that the nation is faced with environmental challenges as a result of mining and other environment related activities which require the collaboration of the two ministries as well as the World Bank to achieve a common goal. Chief Isola assured participants at the meeting that appropriate environmental considerations and plans were being incorporated in all facets of mining.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070489.html

Kenya: Battle Lines Drawn as Plans to Revive Forest Farms Unveiled

The Nation (Nairobi): Environment and Natural Resources minister David Mwiraria said the re-introduction of non-residential cultivation was a cheap way of replanting depleted forests, adding that this would benefit both the Government and the local communities. Mr Mwiraria explained that his ministry's small workforce could not plant and effectively look after the trees as most workers were retrenched a few years ago while the money allocated for replanting trees was not enough. But the suggestion has elicited stiff opposition from conservationists, who have warned that the shamba system posed a threat to natural biodiversity. Renowned environmentalist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai dismissed the minister's assertion that farmers would only be allowed to cultivate on the periphery of forests, where lantana, a wild flowery weed akin to the water hyacinth, grows. She insisted that the system was vulnerable to abuse. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709110628.html

Kenya: Group Petitions Tribunal On Villas

The Nation (Nairobi): Residents and conservation groups have petitioned the National Environment Tribunal over planned construction of villas at a lagoon in Malindi. The group is opposed to a decision by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) to allow construction of villas at Blue Lagoon in Watamu. A total of 270 local residents appended their signatures to a memorandum opposing the project over claims that it will harm the environment. An Italian investor intends to build exclusive tourist apartments on the cliff. However, his representative, Mr Walter Kondik, said the residents were consulted and had endorsed the project. He said they had met environmental protection rules. During a tension-packed meeting at Watamu, officials of the seven associations vowed to block any construction. Controversy over the Blue Lagoon has raged for two years pitting Nema, residents and the Malindi District Environment Committee. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709111007.html

Uganda: Floods Wreck Havoc in East And North

New Vision (Kampala): Thousands of former internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Lango sub-region have fled back to the camps after their homes were destroyed by floods. The water has also swept away 20 bridges in the region. The rehabilitation of schools and health centres has stopped and the delivery of humanitarian aid came to a halt. A water drilling project for the Anti-Stock Theft Unit at Alir in Olilim sub-county also stalled as trucks, ferrying the materials, got stuck in the mud. The worst-affected counties in Lira include Otuke, Moroto, Erute North, some parts of Dokolo, Amolatar and Oyam districts. Amonmaka Bridge, which links Lira to Kotido district, has been completely flooded, making it impassable. The Ajur bridge and the bridges in Obalanga were also washed away, thus cutting all links to Teso. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709110007.html

Sierra Leone: Alpha Timbo Linked to Environmental Tragedy At Devil Hole

Concord Times (Freetown): A prominent government minister is responsible for an environmental nightmare east of Freetown which has polluted the local water supply and caused sickness among inhabitants. Minister of Labour Alpha Timbo is part-owner of Simosima Town Development Corporation - the company responsible for the environmental scandal and the cause of numerous problems in the Devil Hole community. Kothor Kamara points to the slick, black ground along the Rokel Highway outside Freetown. Used oil from the plant flows along the road outside the rundown building and into the nearby river, contaminating his village's water and destroying their crops. The company, which uses Chinese technology to convert second-hand oil into diesel, has been operating beside Kamara's home for three years and he's angry that regular complaints to its owners have been ignored. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709101154.html

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter- 6th September to 12th September 2007

2007-09-07T14:14:00.000+03:00

Love making linked to global warming?

So what’s new this week? The media houses have been slow in the past few weeks and this is of course linked to the summer holidays but it has not stopped the unnatural phenomenon of global warming effects. It seems almost fashionable to link anything to global warming.

An extract from ‘The Volokh Conspiracy’ blog says, “Have you ever noticed how Global Warming Theory is like some kind of unified field theory of the universe or string theory or something, because to the believers NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, it’s proof of and predicted by Global Warming. If its colder, its predicted by global warming, if its dryer its predicted by global warming, if its wetter its predicted by global warming, more hurricanes yep global warming, no hurricanes the next year yep global warming, Mars heats up yep SUV's on earth driven by big oil execs global warming, end of the ice age yep predicted by global warming theory, increases in teen pregnancy yep global warming making for more love making to avoid thoughts of the heat.”

Live green, die green.
Dozens of recommendations have been made on how to live green. If you are one of those that have become very conscious of the impact you have on nature and have resolved to ‘live green’, then what better way to end your life than to die green? Hindus are being urged to adopt ‘green’ cremation. Enock Chinyenze, Regional Coordinator for Africa – TVE

Environment news in Africa

Associated Press (also in NY Times, Forbes magazine and FoxNews). 1 September, 2007. Climate change could worsen Africa's struggle to feed itself, but simple steps — a cistern to catch rainwater, a solar panel, or hardier seeds for crops — could help the continent's subsistence farms, specialists and activists said Friday. Oslo, Norway.

About 250 researchers, donors, and officials met in Oslo this week for the Second Green Africa Revolution Conference, which follows up a 2004 challenge from former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to revolutionize African farming. Africa imports about 25 percent of its food, and one in three of its residents suffer chronic hunger, according to a report at the conference. That will worsen if climate changes cause rains to dry up in some areas and flood others.

David Stainforth, climate expert at Britain's Exeter University, said change is coming. Although most scientists are hesitant to make detailed regional predictions, he said, "We are certainly looking at a very dramatic situation." "Accounting for climate change could make the difference between the long-term success or the long-term failure of a project like the Green Africa Revolution," he said.

An April report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a network of 2,000 scientists, said that by 2020 an additional 75 million to 250 million people could suffer water shortages due to climate change. Kanayo Nwanze, vice president of the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development, said most African governments are aware of the threat, but are often already overrun by other problems, such as epidemics of HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

"It is not that they ignore climate change, they just don't have the capacity," he said. Nwanze said such steps as rice crops genetically engineered to ripen faster, would help conserve water for other crops. Howard Shapiro, director of plant science and external research for Mars Inc., said farmers could be provided with seeds that are hardier and more resistant to drought.

In many areas, 60 percent of the rainfall runs off before African farmers can use it so "a simple cistern (to collect rainwater) could provide potable water," he said. "Even the smallest amount of irrigation at the right time can save a crop." John Boehmer, of Kyoto Energy Ltd., said African women do 60-70 percent of the farming, and then also haul water along with wood or other fuel to provide heat.

His company is developing a program in which Western industry could finance simple technology — solar panels or solar water heaters — for African families, paid for by offsetting the company's own carbon emission quotas. "This is not aid, this is business," he said. Boehmer said some families' costs would immediately be cut in half, and time would be freed up to farm instead of gather fuel.

AFP. 31 August, 2007. Desertification is creeping up on world agriculture. UN agency

GENEVA (AFP) — Extreme weather patterns are threatening a number of regions around the world with desertification and a steep drop off in food resources, a senior World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) official said Friday. Speaking ahead of a UN conference on desertification that opens next week in Madrid, the head of the WMO's Agricultural Meteorology Division, M. Mannava Sivakumar, warned that the resulting shrinkage in arable land could have severe consequences on food resources.

"There has been an increasing trend in extreme events observed during the last 50 years, particularly heavy precipitation events, hot days, hot nights and heat waves," Sivakumar said. "The combination of these events can lead to land degradation and subsequently desertification," he said, pointing to a fall of between 40 and 60 percent in corn production in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho.

"Only about 11 percent of the global land surface can be considered as prime land, which must feed a world population of 6.3 billion today and the 8.2 billion expected in the year 2020," he added.

Reuters. 30 August, 2007. How to clean up the slums -- cook on garbage. Barry Moody. Nairobi.

Entering Nairobi's fetid slums the senses are first assaulted by a gagging stench and the sight of garbage everywhere, some even hanging from trees or smoldering in acrid fires. The city government does not recognize the "informal settlements" where more than 60 percent of the population live, so no services are provided and no garbage collected. The result is frighteningly unsanitary conditions.

Rubbish, "flying toilets" -- excrement in plastic bags -- and even aborted fetuses pile up in dumps along the muddy tracks or find their way into the rivers, where children play along the banks. Garbage pollutes the air and seeps into ground water, or is picked over by pigs and other farm animals, its toxins entering the food chain and causing intestinal diseases. Now a "community cooker" project in Africa's biggest slum, Kibera, offers a way not only of getting rid of garbage, but of creating work for unemployed youths, and providing hot water and cooking facilities.

The people developing the project, a Nairobi architectural practice, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and a Kenyan non-governmental organization, hope it can be a prototype for cookers all over Africa.The cooker, dreamed up by Kenyan architect Jim Archer, has taken eight years to develop and is still overcoming design problems. "My thinking was how do we get rid of the rubbish and ... how can we induce people to pick it up. Then I thought, well if we can convert it to heat on which people can cook..."

Industrial incinerators from Europe would cost $50 million. "This was way out of the realms of reality ... and it wouldn't give anything back," Archer said. He set out to design and find financing for a simple, labor intensive device with a minimum of moving parts that would be easy to repair and require no imported technology. Archer consulted engineering companies in Britain. "They just couldn't understand simplicity. They could computer control it. They could mechanically handle the rubbish. But we want this to be labor intensive because there are so many people with no jobs."

Firebox Francis
Then Archer found brass foundry worker Francis Gwehonah, nicknamed "Firebox" because of his remarkable self-taught skill at furnace building. "It is a talent in me. I haven't gone through any kind of training," says Gwehonah. First attempts to burn the rubbish produced choking smoke and soot that brought complaints from Kibera residents that the cooker caused more pollution than it eliminated. By trial and error Gwehonah found that if he superheated a steel plate in the cooker he could ignite discarded sump oil, another pollutant.

By vaporizing droplets of water to split off the oxygen and mixing it with the burning oil, he has pushed up the temperature to more than 600 degrees centigrade and is working to get it even higher to destroy all the toxins in the smoke. The scheme, run by a community group in Kibera's Laini Saba area, where 50,000 people live, has more benefits than burning garbage. Local youth workers who go door to door collecting rubbish -- for which they are paid a small fee by slum dwellers -- can exchange it for cooking time or hot washing water.

John Githinji, from the 40-strong youth group that collects the rubbish, stoked the furnace with sweat pouring from his face. "People throw rubbish on the ground and it causes sickness," he grunted through the smoke. Water will also be boiled for drinking and eventually the cooker will be used for baking bread and cakes to sell. "The trash has started to help us a bit after the cooker came. There are less diseases like diarrhea and the environment has improved. ... I think burning the rubbish will bring good health to this community," said Patricia Ndunge as she fried onions on the cooker.

About 60 percent of the slum rubbish can be burned if the temperature is high enough. Much of the rest can be sold to recycling companies. The project, funded by Archer and his business partner, UNEP and a local paints company, has cost around $150,000 to develop, but once the prototype is perfected, future cookers should cost less than $10,000. Kenya's big supermarket chain Nakumatt has pledged to fund at least 20 more slum cookers and Archer believes they can eventually be adapted to distil dirty water, fire pottery kilns and operate scrap metal foundries.

"Most people dump in rivers and roadsides, on top of roofs, or on railway sidings. Finally there is somewhere we can take our waste, " said Celine Achieng of the Umande Trust NGO working in Kibera, where more than 800,000 people live. "This will solve a lot of problems. We are trying to change perceptions to persuade people not to take their waste to the river."

Vanguard. Erosion Wrecks Havoc in Imo. Lagos, Nigeria.

Scores of residential homes, public buildings, roads and farmlands are on the verge of being swallowed by gully erosion in parts of Ikeduru local government area of Imo State. Speaking after taking journalists on a tour of erosion devastated Ugirike and Okwu communities, the state Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport, Chief Chuka Odom, identified Owu Amakohia, Onuoma, Avuvu, Eziama as some of the communities currently threatened by erosion. "A passenger vehicle recently plunged into the abyss created by erosion at Ugirike. Granted that no life was lost in that accident, we may not be that lucky next time", the Commissioner said. In his opinion, over 70 percent of Imo people live in rural communities adding that if they are having problems with food security, they should not have problems with communication. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708310130.html

New Times. Ministry Sets Anti-Desertification Plan. Kigali, Rwanda

The National Action Programme (NAP) to fight desertification will be ready by October this year, Lands and Environment Minister Christophe Bazivamo has said. The programme is required by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).Rwanda is among the African countries that haven't yet submitted the NAP to UNCCD secretariat. Other countries behind schedule include Cameroon, Angola, Somalia, Libya, Ivory Cost and Central Africa. "We delayed to have NAP in place as early as possible but they (UNCCD) should realise that our efforts to halt desertification have reached at remarkable stage," Bazivamo said yesterday. Bazivamo said that NAP's key role will be to promote the UNCCD activities in the country. Tree-planting on degraded land, the fight against soil erosion through ploughing of radical terraces in hilly areas are some of the activities required. He said that the ten-year national action plan that encompasses the required UNCCD effort and other essential activities for protection of land and its vegetation cover is in place. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708310377.html

The Nation. Floods 'Sweeping Chemicals And Plastics Into Lake'. Nairobi, Kenya

Flooded rivers are sweeping chemicals and plastic bags into Lake Nakuru thereby frustrating efforts to conserve the lake. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) employees said the plastic bags and poisonous chemicals find their way into the lake because of limited capacity to control such pollution. KWS employees based at Lake Nakuru National Park said they were having difficulty in controlling pollution posed by the floods that carried with it waste products. In their bid to control such pollution, they said they were now forced to collect the plastic bags manually because some of them are blown off into the park by winds. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709030932.html

BuaNews. South Africa: Mbeki Urges SA to Grow Trees for Food, Tshwane, South Africa.

President Thabo Mbeki has called on South Africans to grow trees in order to provide food and to green the country, making it more beautiful. "Let us grow fruit trees, let us green our land and let us build parks," he said at the Arbor Day celebrations in Ga-Rankuwa, Saturday. He pledged his support and called for the nation's support for the Trees for Food Programme, an initiative of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to plant more than a million trees each year, most of which are fruit trees. In this regard Mr Mbeki expressed his gratitude that most of the trees would be fruit trees, and would thus boost food security in the country. The President joined hundreds of residents of Ga-Rakuwa, north-west of Pretoria to mark Arbor Day and to launch the National Arbor Week, which is held annually from 1 to 7 September. During Arbor Week the department and other stakeholders undertake a major national awareness programme, reiterating the value of trees and the department's key role towards sustaining people's livelihoods now and for future generations. This year it is marked under the theme: "Plant a tree - Grow our future". http://allafrica.com/stories/200709030166.html

This Day Nigeria: Desertification Threatening Us, Says Lamido. Lagos, Nigeria

About 35 per cent of the total land mass of Jigawa State is under threat of desertification, Governor Sule Lamido has declared. The Governor made this declaration in Kanarya, a village on the outskirts of Dutse, the state Capital while launching this year's tree planting campaign. Noting that the state is one of the eleven states prone to desertification in the country, he said the only way to stop the menace was to carry out massive tree planting. According to him, this would help the state create shelter beds which would halt the progress of the menace and lead to a gradual reclamation of areas already claimed by desertification. He reminded the populace that desertification was just one of the ecological challenges threatening the economy and physical wellbeing of the citizens of the state. He listed floods, gully erosion and attacks of Quela birds as some of the ecological problems facing the state. He however reported that the state is hopeful of receiving federal government's assistance on some of the problems. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709030865.html

SPX. 30 August, 2007. Discovery Could Help Stop Malaria At Its Source - The Mosquito. Staff Writers. Troy NY

As summer temperatures cool in the United States, fewer mosquitoes whir around our tiki torches. But mosquitoes swarming around nearly 40 percent of the world's population will continue to spread a deadly parasitic disease - malaria. Now an interdisciplinary team led by researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has found a key link that causes malarial infection in both humans and mosquitoes.

If this link in the chain of infection can be broken at its source - the mosquito - then the spread of malaria could be stopped without any man, woman, or child needing to a take a drug. The researchers' discovery will be published in the Aug. 31 edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The team found that humans and the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite share the same complex carbohydrate, heparan sulfate. In both humans and mosquitoes, heparan sulfate is a receptor for the malaria parasite, binding to the parasite and giving it quick and easy transport through the body. The team was led by Robert J. Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent Jr. '59 Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer.

"The discovery allows us to think differently about preventing the disease," Linhardt said. "If we can stop heparan sulfate from binding to the parasite in mosquitoes, we will not just be treating the disease, we will be stopping its spread completely."

Malaria parasites are extremely finicky about their hosts, Linhardt explained. Birds, rodents, humans, and primates all can be infected with malaria, but each species is infected by a different species of mosquito - and each of those mosquitoes is infected by a different malaria parasite. In other words, there needs to be a perfect match at the molecular basis for malaria to spread from one species to another, Linhardt said. Researchers have long understood this deadly partnership, but the molecular basis for the match had never been determined.

"The discovery marks a paradigm shift in stopping malaria," Linhardt said "Now, we can work to develop an environmentally safe, inexpensive way to block infection in mosquitoes and not have to worry about drug side effects in humans." Malaria kills over one million people around the world, mostly young children. And the problem is growing, Linhardt noted. As the Earth heats up due to global warming, outbreaks of malaria are being reported higher up the coast of South America and Mexico each year, he said. "Unfortunately, there is little direct funding on malaria in this country outside of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, because it is not considered a major threat in this country," Linhardt noted. "We do our research on a shoestring. Malaria research funding needs to move higher up on the scientific priority list."

Linhardt and his collaborators were the first to discover the link between the spread of malaria in humans and heparan sulfate in 2003. Those findings were also published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. In this earlier study, Linhardt compared the receptors in the liver of humans to those of rodents. The liver is the first organ to be infected by the malaria parasite in mammals. The researchers found that heparan sulfate in the human liver was the unwitting transporter of the disease to the human bloodstream. The receptor found in rodents was a different heparan sulfate.

The next step for Linhardt, outlined in the current research, was to determine if heparan sulfate was also present in the species of mosquito known to spread malaria to humans, Anopheles stephensi. To make this key link, Linhardt and his current research team, which includes Rensselaer doctoral students Melissa Kemp and Jin Xie, enlisted the help of New York University physician and entomologist Photini Sinnis. Sinnis and her team at NYU provided their entomological expertise and the ill-fated mosquitoes needed for the experiments. After finding heparan sulfate in mashed mosquitoes, the researchers needed to determine if heparan sulfate was in the mosquito organs known to host the malaria parasite. If so, it was likely that heparan sulfate was the reason malaria spreads from mosquito to human and human to mosquito.

In mosquitoes, the malaria parasite infects the digestive tract. A mosquito bites a human who carries the malaria parasite in his or her bloodstream. The parasites move into the bug's gut and then to their salivary glands, allowing the mosquito to infect another human during its next blood meal. To isolate a two-microgram salivary gland and the four-microgram digestive tract from each mosquito required the extreme skill of Sinnis and her team, which included Alida Coppi. Once isolated, the guts and glands were analyzed by internationally renowned microanalysts Toshihiko Toida, Hidenao Toyoda, and Akiko Kinoshita-Toyoda at Chiba University in Japan. Heparan sulfate was found in both mosquito organs. As a final step, the Rensselaer team proved that the heparan sulfate in the mosquito bound to the same malaria parasite that heparan sulfate found in the human liver did. It was an unfortunate perfect match.

Worldwide

Reuters. 2 September, 2007. Greek forest fires could be CO2 threat. Robin Pomeroy. Athens.

Greece's huge forest fires have been blamed by some on global warming, but satellite images of smoke plumes drifting as far as Africa prompt the question: are forests a major source of greenhouse gas? Usually it is cars, factories and power stations that are most often mentioned as sources of carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas which traps heat in the atmosphere. Trees, considered the "lungs of the planet", soak the gas up. But what if they burn? "Global emissions from deforestation and the degradation of forests are the second single source after coal," said Stefan Singer of WWF (the World Wildlife Fund).

Every year 13 million hectares of the world's forests disappear -- an area the size of Greece -- according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization which says deforestation accounts for 18 percent of CO2 emissions. Although paling in significance next to deforestation in the Amazon, Congo and Indonesia, forest fires in the Mediterranean might also be a net source of emissions, experts said. Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow and climatologists see forests as carbon "sinks" -- places where large amounts of that element are stored. When they burn, whether in forest fires or as logs in a stove, it is released.

In the atmosphere, CO2 is the main gas which contributes to the greenhouse effect -- trapping the earth's heat which would otherwise be radiated into space. The latest U.N. report on global warming says temperatures will rise by a best estimate of 1.8 to 4.0 Celsius (3 to 7 Fahrenheit) this century and sea levels will rise by between 18 and 59 centimeters.

Cause and effect
The resulting hotter, drier summers in countries like Greece could mean forests are more frequently brought to the tinder-box conditions which allowed fires to spread so devastatingly. Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni said the summer's devastating floods in Britain and the worst fires in Greek memory demonstrated climate change was already happening. "From that moment everyone understood that the phenomena caused by climatic change need to be confronted with much more coordination and speed from the EU," she told a news conference.

Scientists said it was too early to judge how much C02 was released by the Greek fires which are the most intense in Europe in at least a decade and have killed 63 people. If the trees grow back, they will eventually reabsorb the CO2. "If not, the fires will have contributed to greenhouse gas emissions," said Earl Saxon of the Geneva-based World Conservation Union (IUCN). Bakoyanni tried to allay fears that the scorched land would be used for building. "We are determined that not the smallest piece of land will not be reforested. Nobody will build on burnt land," she said. Any net loss of CO2 would not count against Greece's legal obligation to control greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Greece, was allowed to increase its emissions by 25 percent over 1990 levels. Non man-made sources, such as wildfires do not count.

The IUCN's Saxon said forests have a natural cycle of fires and regrowth but that global warming could upset the balance. If hotter and drier summers mean more frequent forest fires, that could well mean a net emission of CO2. "If they become more frequent, then vegetation doesn't have time to grow back and the net effect is that you lose more carbon from the eco-system than the eco-system can recapture before the next fire."

The Independent. 2 Septemeber, 2007. More 'megafires' to come, say scientists. Geoffrey Lean.

Fires of unprecedented ferocity are sweeping around the world, fuelled by global warming and misguided environmentalism. Dubbed "megafires", they rage over thousands of miles at 1,000C and create their own weather, even triggering tornadoes. Rapidly increasing in number, they are often unquenchable by any human efforts, burning unchecked until they reach coasts or are put out by heavy rainfall. The devastating fires that have ravaged Greece killed at least 63 people and charred 482,000 acres of land. This summer, as record heatwaves hit much of southern Europe, more than 1.9 million acres have gone up in smoke .

Matters are even worse in the United States, where 20 years ago, fires burning over 5,000 acres were relatively rare. In the past 10 years, however, there have more than 200 conflagrations 10 times the size. Last year, 9.6 million acres of the country were devastated, beating an all-time record set 2005. This is the sixth time in the past decade that a record year has immediately been surpassed in the following 12 months. A year ago the Australian state of Victoria suffered 200 fires in a single day. There have also been megafires in France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Russia, Mongolia, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil.

Experts agree that they are caused partly by droughts and higher temperatures brought by global warming, but they also point to conservation practices which have discouraged controlled burning of forests and caused a huge build-up of up to 30 of 40 tons of tinder dry kindling on each acre of ground. Once lit – by lightning, arson or human error – they produce 20ft flames and generate temperatures of up to 1,200C. At this intensity they generate their own winds. One such fire caused tornados near Canberra in 2003.

Professor Stephen J Pyne, an expert at Arizona State University called the fires "climatic tsunamis", and Kevin O'Loughlin, the head of Melbourne's Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre added: "They cannot be controlled by any suppression resources that we have available anywhere in the world."

Los Angeles Times. 3 September, 2007. Hindus urged to adopt 'green' cremation. Most Hindus prefer open funeral pyres, which enable them to perform key rituals. One Indian group offers a method that uses less wood to burn bodies. Some are wary. Bruce Wallace. Varanasi, India.

Cremation fires crackle all day long on the chipped concrete steps of this riverside holy city, the blazes spewing ash and flakes over the mourners who crowd its famous piers. Sweating, bare-chested men stoke the funeral pyres, squinting against the sting of smoke as they lug and stack the bundles of logs needed to burn the procession of Hindu dead. And when the bodies are incinerated and the families have taken away the ashes of their loved ones, the men sweep the residue into the Ganges River.

The detritus of death, mingling with life.
Devout Hindus regard cremation as an essential rite that frees the soul from the body, enabling its journey to the next level. But with India's Hindu population of about 800 million ensuring a massive number of open-air cremations, there is a growing awareness that this adherence to religious orthodoxy carries a toll for the temporal world. It takes a lot of wood to burn a body: The demand for funeral pyres strips the country of more than 50 million trees annually, according to some estimates. Cremations also release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And the body parts sometimes dumped into rivers and streams add further toxicity to water that is already badly polluted.

"We have come to a stage where if we don't come up with a solution for dealing with the dead, we are going to affect the survival of the living," said Anshul Garg, director of Mokshda, a nonprofit group in New Delhi that is campaigning for an environmentally friendly approach to cremation. In traditional Hindu cremations, the body is placed atop a pile of wood. The corpse is then covered with more wood and burned in the open air. Mokshda says this method requires as much as 880 pounds of wood to burn a single corpse (though the wood porters in Varanasi say the amount is closer to 600 pounds), a process that can take as long as six hours.

Mokshda's alternative is the "Green Cremation System," a cremation bier it developed 15 years ago and has been tinkering with since. The organization believes it has perfected its design, saying it can burn a body using a mere 220 pounds of wood in a third of the time. Wood is integral to Hindu cremation rites, a symbolic connection between the body and the earth, which is why the first layer of wood is laid on the ground. The Mokshda system's innovation is to place that first layer of wood on a raised metal grate, allowing for better air circulation. A chimney is placed over the pyre to cut heat loss.

"We have improved the flow of air and where there is a proper flow of air, your combustion efficiency increases," Garg said. "This is not a new technological gizmo. It's a simplicity, like improving the efficiency of a wood stove." Mokshda's system has made only tiny inroads so far. It has 12 units of its latest model, which on average costs about $30,000, in operation, with orders for 80 more in the pipeline. But the potential demand is enormous. Mokshda says it has identified 800 crematoriums across India as possible users. The Delhi metropolitan area alone has about 350 crematoriums, their flaky residue occasionally drifting over nearby neighborhoods.

But the Mokshda system faces two big obstacles to acceptance. For one thing, improving cremation methods is a low priority for cash-strapped municipalities facing a host of public health issues. An even greater obstacle is the resistance of traditionalists who don't want to mess with a matter as sensitive as the fate of a loved one's soul. "We have changed other rituals -- marriage, eating habits, clothing -- but rituals around death are the hardest to change," Garg said. "People are hesitant to talk about death; there is a fear. So they say they'll stick with what they've been following through the ages."

The government also has largely failed to get Hindus to sign on to environmentally friendly cremations. Beginning in the 1960s, municipal governments began installing electric or gas-fueled crematoriums, offering to dispose of bodies at a fraction of the cost of traditional cremations, which can be $50 to $75, depending on the quality and amount of wood used. But most Hindus have balked at this option, saying that oven-like crematoriums prevent them from carrying out important rituals such as the mukhagni, in which a fire is lighted in the body's mouth, and the kapal kriya, in which the corpse's skull is shattered by a blow from a bamboo stick to release the soul.

It is mostly unclaimed corpses that are burned in electric and gas crematoriums, stigmatizing them as being for the poorest of the poor. "It's a good method -- there's less pollution because you are not dumping lumps of flesh into the river -- but we don't get many bodies," said Panchdev Singh, 47, the operator of Varanasi's electric crematorium. There are no bodies awaiting Singh's attention. One of his two machines is out of order, and business has fallen off since 2000, when the municipality raised the price to about $12. "Now the only people who come here are the very poor or the ones brought in by the police," Singh said.

Mokshda says its system can succeed where the electric one failed because it allows Hindus to perform traditional rituals. The challenge is to convince devout Hindus that using less wood does not break with orthodoxy. Even Garg acknowledges that it will be a while before Mokshda's cremation bier is welcome in a place such as Varanasi. "I doubt it would be a hit here," said Dinesh Yadav, 21, who has taken over the family wood business, running a gang of 10 porters for cremations on Varanasi's ghats, or riverside steps. "People want to do it the Hindu way. Older people, especially, will never settle for being burned with less than the required quantity of wood."

Yet the realities of the outside world intrude even on this holiest of Hindu cities. Yadav recalled the wood shortage of 2005, when scarcity meant the bodies backed up on the ghats while they waited for supplies. The price of wood is 50% higher than it was five years ago. "A time will come when we'll probably have to move to a new way," he said. And in his office on Varanasi's back streets, Kameshwar Upadhyay, a Hindu scholar known for his strict views, looked thoughtfully at photographs of the Mokshda system and didn't dismiss it as heretical. He acknowledged that India is groaning under the stress of an expanding population. And if he was not about to welcome the Mokshda system in the spiritual center of Varanasi, he thought it might not be a bad idea in big cities.

"There is a provision that after death, a person needs to be completely de-linked from this Earth, and fire helps in that goal," Upadhyay said. "But there are changing situations that come to us on Earth and we have to work out compromises for that. As long as mukhagni and kapal kriya can be followed, there should be no problem. "Fire," he said, "is fire."

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter-30 August to 5th September 2007

2007-09-03T14:46:00.000+03:00

Environment Technology

Frequently we are bombarded with negative environment news that makes one wonder how much longer the earth could hold. Many struggle with accepting the reality of what is taking place in the world today. Consider for a minute how every 10 seconds part of the rain forest, the size of a football field, is lost forever. The gravity and rate of destruction causes most people to go into denial. How sustainable is the sustainable growth of our industries?

This week I focus on the technological aspect of the environment, but however always a political issue. If we are destroying the environment, then we can fix it right? China is turning on a new coal-fired power plant once every four days and is estimated to surpass the US before 2010 in becoming the biggest carbon-emitting culprit. Whilst there is a genuine need for the development of their power generating capacity, the real problem is that there lacks a technological solution (worldwide) that can provide China an alternative source of energy to use.

On this premise, therefore, what is happening on the technological front? Enock Chinyenze - Regional Coordinator for Africa, TVE

Sangonet. 8 August, 2007. Africa's ICT Development Still "Haunted" By The Past. Kelvin Chibomba

The demons of the past will remain the evils that will continue cursing the development of ICT in Africa, if not exorcised. This was the sentiment held by the delegates attending the session on 'ICT Policy in Africa' at the SANGONeT conference. Delegates from various countries in Africa were given an opportunity to share experiences of the information technology communication (ICT) environment in their countries.

Giving a description on ICT policy in Congo Brazaville, Sylvie Niombo from African Women Coordinator and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) told delegates that due to the post conflict environment of the Congo Brazaville, infrastructure had been destroyed. This resulted in the country's ICT industry developing at a very slow pace. Very few institutions of higher learning offered ICT training in Congo Brazaville, “That’s why students travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for training,” said Niombo.

Niombo explained that computer equipment in Congo Brazaville is very expensive, noting that a second hand Pentium III computer can cost up to 800 US$. Internet connection can cost 2000 US$, she said. Niombo said that the telephone market in Congo Brazaville is dominated by international companies such as Celltel and MTN. However, not many local people benefited from such a cellphone market. Niombo told delegates that ICT’s were not seen as a priority by the government and as a result there was no political will and financial commitments to ICT.

Coura Fall, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) CIPP Africa Manager in Senegal, said there has been some improvements in Senegal. Initially the media industry did not understand ICT policies, but NGO’s took a responsibility to train journalists. She said through training, journalists were equipped to report and inform people about ICT. Senegal now had ITC debates on national television.

The constraints though were the slight control monopoly and weak competition in the mobile networks. The only internet operator in Senegal was Sonatel, she said. Milton Aineruhanga, Programme Officer of Wougnet, gave a gender perspective on ICT in Uganda. Patriarchy seemed to be one of the obstacles that hindered access to ICT by women.

Aineruhanga said women in rural areas did not have ICT access in the appropriate suitable times, as they had to fulfil their roles as women. Aineruhanga said part of the remedy to this would be to give access to women at times when they were done with their chores and also locate ICT systems in venues that women frequented. Places near health centres would be appropriate as women were tasked with the responsibility to take children to clinics.

Aineruhanga said there was a strong need for women in Uganda to be represented in fora where major decisions on ICT’s were made. At the moment, there were few women that participated in the planning, implementation and ownership of ICT’s. Abi Jagun from African ICT policy research said focus needed to be put on the increasing and expanding of telecom infrastructure. She said there was a need for liberalisation of the market to allow for more ICT companies.

Much has been said on the state of Africa's ICT policies, but what ought to be understood is that ICT development will not exist outside social and political framework. If socio-political evils are not addressed ICT access to the majority will remain a miracle from heaven.

UN. 25 August, 2007. Media for Freedom: Technology To Save Environment.

More than 180 young people from 85 countries will meet in Germany next week in a United Nations-sponsored conference to discuss the ways in which technology can be used to promote environmental protection. “Our hope is that on the basis of discussions at this Conference, 180 young people will return to their communities and nations and become beacons of activities and also motivators for many others to play a part in addressing environmental challenges” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said today.

“Technology in service of the environment” is the theme of the third Tunza International Youth Conference, organized by UNEP in Leverkusen, Germany, from 26 to 30 August. The participants, aged 15 to 24, are all involved in environmental activities in their respective countries. Meeting at the headquarters of Bayer, the health care giant which is the largest sponsor of UNEP’s children and youth activities, the youngsters will discuss climate change, clean development and renewable energy, participating in workshops and field trips to experience first-hand how technology and environment can go hand-in-hand.

The Tunza Conference, which derives its name from a Kiswahili word meaning “to treat with care and affection” or “to nurture,” will reinforce the links between a growing network of young people working with UNEP on various environmental issues. At the end of the Conference the participants will elect a new Tunza Youth Advisory Council, with two advisors for each of the six UNEP regions - Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and West Asia - and two advisors representing indigenous youth organizations.

The Council’s main objective is to represent youth in international environmental fora and to make their voices heard. The Council also advises UNEP on better ways of engaging young people in its work. “We are looking forward to welcoming young environmental protection activists from all over the world to Bayer,” Bayer Board of Management Chairman Werner Wenning said. “This Conference is a further milestone of our partnership with UNEP.” The Tunza Programme, endorsed in 2003, is a comprehensive six-year strategy to promote the participation of children and youth in every part of the world in environmental activities. It focuses on four thematic areas: awareness building, capacity building, information exchange, and facilitating the involvement of young people in environmental decision-making.

Reuters. 22 August, 2007. U.S., Canadian West set joint carbon-cutting target. Adam Tanner

Western U.S. states and Canadian provinces on Wednesday agreed to cut greenhouse emissions 15 percent by 2020 in the latest regional pact to regulate the gases, an approach opposed by U.S. President George W. Bush. "Our collective commitment will build a successful regional system to be linked with other efforts across the nation and eventually the world," California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

The Western Climate Initiative, led by Schwarzenegger, seeks to slash greenhouse emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. Mandatory cuts are at odds with the voluntary approach favored by his Schwarzenegger's fellow Republican Bush. Schwarzenegger signed a landmark law last year mandating California to cut its carbon emissions 25 percent by 2020. California produces about 2 percent of the world's carbon emissions, state officials say.

"We also feel the federal government needs to step up and take action and today's action sends, I think, another strong signal to Washington," Linda Adams, California's secretary for Environmental Protection, told reporters. "In the absence of federal action, states and provinces are not waiting, they are in fact leading the way. The White House this month announced a meeting of the biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries on September 27-28 in Washington. The meeting is an effort to involve developing countries in the move to cut the pollutants.

Scientists say high levels of heat-trapping emissions, such as carbon dioxide, will lead to catastrophic storms, droughts and floods as temperatures rise and glaciers melt. The group of six Western states and two provinces also agreed to design a market-based mechanism, such as a cap-and-trade program, by the end of August 2008 to help reach the goal. The pact's goal is modest compared to reductions of 80 percent by 2050 that two states -- New Jersey and Florida -- recently adopted.

Heavy lifting

Environmentalists welcomed the announcement although some said the targets were too lenient. "These targets are barely consistent with what needs to be done," said John Coequyt, energy policy analyst with Greenpeace in Washington. The Western pact, along with a U.S. East Coast emissions agreement between 10 states, may pressure the U.S. Congress to pass laws regulating heat-trapping gases, he said. But he cautioned that the modest 2020 goal could make it "heavy lifting" for advocates to push for agreement on deeper emissions cuts in the future.

The Western pact does not include Alberta, the Canadian province that is home to oil and natural gas fields, including the tar sands, whose development is extremely carbon-intensive. It also excludes Nevada, California's neighbor which lacks emissions targets and has sought to lure Golden State businesses with tax benefits and other incentives. "This was a big concern in California that companies would move to other states and this kind of a regional program will certainly help to minimize that," said California's Adams. Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington and Utah are the U.S. members of the pact, along with Canada's Manitoba and British Columbia.

"A regional cap...should ensure that all businesses in the region will operate on a level playing field," said Christopher Busch, climate economist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "A regional cap is a clear indication that the future for business is in cutting pollution, not escaping regulation." The United States is the largest greenhouse gas emitter, followed closely by China.
States in the U.S. East formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative pact starting in 2003. The group of 10 states seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants starting in 2009.

UN. 24 August, 2007. UN officials call on Chinese business leaders to utilize technology for development

United Nations officials yesterday called on top Chinese executives to utilize information technology to improve the plight of poor people in their home country and around the world. “Development is no longer the sole responsibility of governments and non-governmental organizations,” Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang told a group of more than 40 Chinese executives gathered in New York. “We also need to harness the collective strength of private sector entities in support of our development efforts. We therefore consider you as an indispensable stakeholder in the fight against poverty, illiteracy and disease.”

Speaking at a panel on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) to address development problems, Mr. Sha said that “ICT connects the world and can give everyone a voice. It can aid education through distance learning, content creation and teacher training. It can empower women by helping them to acquire new skills, create business enterprises and create wealth.”

Sarbuland Khan, the Executive Coordinator of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, said the Alliance provides an opportunity for private sector executives from China to express their views on how to minimize poverty in China, India and across the developing world. “You can take advantage of our platform to become more profitable, but also to contribute to the reduction of poverty,” he noted.

Participants agreed that bolstering information technology can serve to improve quality of life, and that the provision of training is in the best interest of corporations. Some attendees cited impediments to the spread of technology, such as the lack of appropriate software and computer illiteracy.

The panel was part of an all-day meeting, organized by Friendship Across Frontier and the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, which brought together Chinese and United States executives to discuss bilateral economic relations, trends in business and technology, and strategies in steering private Chinese companies into the global business arena.

AFP. 22 August, 2007. China behind in pollution drive. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Beijing.

China has failed to meet its targets in cutting pollution this year as dirty factories continue to have free rein in pumping out discharges, authorities said in comments published Wednesday. However some progress is being made and pollution emissions are showing signs of easing, the China Daily reported, citing a joint study by the government's main environment and economic departments. China has set a goal of reducing two major pollutant indicators -- sulphur dioxide for air and chemical oxygen demand for water -- each by 10 percent from 2006 to 2010, an average decline of two percent a year.

However sulphur dioxide emissions fell by just 0.88 percent in the first six months of this year, while chemical oxygen demand increased by 0.24 percent. The failure to meet the targets in the first half of 2007 comes after both the pollution indicators increased last year, putting China immediately well behind in its five-year campaign.

A senior official with the State Environment Protection Administration, Zhao Hualin, said local governments were largely to blame for ignoring orders from Beijing and chasing short-term economic gains at the cost of the environment.

Zhao said local governments too often failed to monitor or punish polluters. However the administration pointed out that at least the pollutant emissions had come down slightly from previous years, showing that some progress was being made. An editorial in the China Daily also said local governments were to blame for the failure to meet the environmental targets. "Local officials are yet to change their mentality of placing economic growth before environmental concerns," the editorial said.

It referred tostatistics showing power plants, steel, and other highly-polluting industries increasing by more than 20 percent in the first six months of the year, negating good work by other sectors.

SPX. 29 August, 2007. Airplane Monitors Great Lakes Algae. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Cleveland OH.

A rare bird has been flying over the Great Lakes recently, and it isn't migrating or searching for prey. This hawkeyed species is a Learjet aircraft outfitted with an advanced imaging system. Engineers at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland modified the plane to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitor algae in western Lake Erie and Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. The Glenn team began its latest round of flights in August. The plane's new imaging system incorporates instruments originally designed by Glenn engineers to study dust on Mars with a high-resolution scientific camera called a hyperspectral imager. It is allowing scientists to study incredibly detailed pictures of algal blooms in the lakes.

What's so interesting about algae?

Most algae are harmless and even important to the health of the ecosystem. But when algae grow rapidly enough to form blooms that float on the water or wash ashore, they can be a nuisance. The blooms may, for example, lead to smelly, foul-tasting drinking water and unpleasant swimming conditions. What's worse, some algal blooms produce toxins that can make humans and other animals sick. Algal blooms vexed swimmers and skiers in the Great Lakes throughout the 1960s, until the federal government limited the use of phosphorus in detergents and fertilizers. Over the past decade, however, Microcystis, a type of blue-green algae known to produce the toxin microcystin, has returned to the Great Lakes. No single cause has been pinpointed, but runoff from cities, fertilizers, septic tank overflow, zebra mussels, and livestock near water supplies are likely culprits.

This concerns government and business leaders because the Great Lakes provide drinking water to 40 million people and have more than 500 recreational beaches. The lakes also generate approximately $4 billion in commercial and sport fishing business, according to NOAA. Although municipal water plants filter the toxins and no illnesses have been reported, scientists at NOAA's Center of Excellence for Great Lakes and Human Health are researching and developing technology to detect and predict the blooms.

Eyes in the Sky

For years, the Michigan laboratory's researchers have been measuring microcystin levels in western Lake Erie and Saginaw Bay by collecting samples of the blue-green algae. When toxin levels exceed the World Health Organization's recommended limit, they notify local health departments. But the area's vastness makes finding the blooms by boat difficult and time consuming. To solve this problem, the laboratory has been working with NASA to develop techniques for distinguishing harmful algae from other types of algae using satellite and aerial images.

In a 2000 study funded by NASA Glenn, scientists from the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University in Ohio were able to identify blue-green algae using satellite images. The data collected from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites matched toxin concentrations in the water samples. Since then, NOAA has also used the Landsat TM Earth-observing satellite, which is equipped with a stronger imaging system, to monitor the blooms. While satellites are the best way to observe a large area, they do have some limitations. "Landsat passes over the lakes once every eight days," said John Lekki, an optical systems research engineer at Glenn. "If the sky is cloudy, it might not capture a clear image."

Aerial monitoring complements satellite monitoring by allowing researchers to take to the skies quickly when conditions are right. "In an airplane, we can pass over a bloom hourly and fly under clouds," Lekki added. "Since we're flying at a lower altitude, we can capture higher resolution images, too." Aerial monitoring also produces quick results, enabling researchers to take water samples immediately after the air crew spots a suspicious bloom. "We are basically NOAA's eye in the sky," Lekki said. "It's difficult to cover these large areas with a boat, so we make their lives easier by letting them know where we have spotted blooms. Then, they can take their boats directly to the algae and collect water samples."

Glenn first monitored the Great Lakes with its T-34 aircraft late last summer and early last fall. Lekki and a team of engineers modified both planes by adding a state-of-the-art imaging system, which includes the hyperspectral imager. "Hyperspectral imaging is the gold standard," Lekki said. "The level of detail it provides is unmatched." Designed by Glenn engineers, this hyperspectral imager can cut one picture into 250 color-specific images, covering the spectrum from ultraviolet to infrared. Each image shows a unique characteristic, not discernable to the human eye. Therefore, each substance in the lake has a different spectroscopic signature, much like every person has a different fingerprint.

What's Next?

NOAA is analyzing the data from the imaging system and comparing it to measurements taken from the water samples and satellites. The goal? To eventually make remote monitoring so accurate that it can be used to predict harmful algal blooms and give early warning to municipal water plants, beaches, boaters, skiers or anyone planning a day on the Great Lakes. "It is always nice when our work helps make things better here on Earth," Lekki said, "especially in our own back yard."

SPX. 22 August, 2007. Frog Plus Frying Pan Equals Better Antibiotic. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Ann Arbor MI.

By creating "Teflon" versions of natural antibiotics found in frog skin, a research team led by biological chemist E. Neil Marsh has made the potential drugs better at thwarting bacterial defenses, an improvement that could enhance their effectiveness. Marsh will discuss the work Aug. 20 at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. Marsh and collaborators work with compounds called antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are produced by virtually all animals, from insects to frogs to humans. AMPs are the immune system's early line of defense, battling microbes at the first places they try to penetrate: skin, mucous membranes and other surfaces.

They're copiously produced in injured or infected frog skin, for instance, and the linings of the human respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts also crank out the short proteins in response to invading pathogens. In addition to fighting bacteria, AMPs attack viruses, fungi and even cancer cells, so drugs designed to mimic them could have widespread medical applications. Scientists have been interested in exploiting these natural antibiotics since their discovery in the 1980s, but they haven't been able to overcome some limitations. In particular, AMPs are easily broken down by protein-degrading enzymes (proteases) that are secreted by bacteria and are also naturally present in the body.

Increasing the concentration of AMPs in an effort to get around that problem can cause toxic side effects, such as the destruction of red blood cells---those critical carriers of oxygen in the bloodstream. That seems to happen because sticky parts of the AMP molecule interact with the cell membrane in a harmful way. Marsh had the idea of replacing sticky portions of the peptides with nonstick analogs. His inspiration came from the kitchen as much as the chemistry lab: nonstick cookware is coated with fluorinated polymers, plastic-like compounds composed of chains of carbon atoms completely surrounded by fluorine atoms. The fluorine not only makes Teflon slippery, it also makes the coating inert to almost every known chemical.

When Marsh and co-workers swapped sticky parts of their AMP molecule with nonstick, fluorinated versions, the molecules became much more resistant to proteases. "The difference was quite striking," said Marsh, a U-M professor of chemistry. "When we treated them with purified proteases, the nonfluorinated AMPs were all degraded within 30 minutes. Under the same conditions, the fluorinated AMP was completely intact after 10 hours. We think that should make them more effective, as they'll stay around longer in the body. "We also showed that they seem to be at least as good at killing bacteria as their nonfluorinated counterparts, and for some bacteria they're actually significantly better."

Next, the researchers plan experiments to learn whether Teflon AMPs are also less toxic than their stickier equivalents. If they are, and if further studies continue to point to their promise, eventually producing large enough quantities of fluorinated AMPs for clinical trials should be quite feasible, Marsh said. Though the research now has obvious practical applications, it started as an exploration in basic science.

"We were just interested in translating useful properties of man-made materials into biological molecules," Marsh said. "But fairly immediately we saw the potential for applying our fundamental science to a very important clinical problem, which is the way that more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to more and more conventional antibiotics."

Marsh's collaborators on this project include associate professor of chemistry Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, graduate students Lindsey Gottler and Hyang-Yeol Lee, and Charles Shelburne, an assistant research scientist in the School of Dentistry. The researchers have funding from the American Heart Association and the National Science Foundation.

SPX. 30 August, 2007. Go Green Swimming Pools With Clear Water. Terra Daily Staff Writers. Phoenix AZ.

AquavidaPools.com is in full swing with a variety of Alternative and Low Energy Efficient products for pool owners looking to "Go Green". The benefits to Go Green are trendy but owners can now become less dependent on high output products using outdated technologies. "Almost every manufacturer has developed enhanced products with low Amperage or Solar pumps to decrease energy bills from homeowners and to increase the value of homes living green," says Thomas Lopez of Aquavida Pools.

Aquavida Pools has updated consumer information and Energy Saving tips for pool owners who are considering pool resurfacing and shopping new products in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona. We expect to continue being a leading pool remodeling company providing Green Living products with solar water heaters and solar pumps just a beginning. We are preparing to see a huge increase in consumer actions searching for Energy related Pool products.

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter-23rd to 29th August 2007

2007-08-23T17:07:00.002+03:00

Question and Answer.

How much do you really know about the environment and would you be prepared to take a quiz? Filipino students have won an Ozone contest organized by UNEP. Will china clear the pollution smog covering the city before the Olympics? Should the ‘rich’ pay the ‘poor’ to cover up their dirty work? Or put in other terms, should the ‘rich’ pay the ‘poor’ for carbon emissions? Does flying harm the planet? The Big Question is: Are there more hurricanes, and are they the result of global warming?

9 of the rarest mountain gorillas are dead in the DRC? Who is killing them and for what motive? There are only 370 left in the world and now the mystery unfolds as the remains of another gorilla are discovered. Are littered plastic bags now a symbol of Africa’s landscape?

Is Kenya prepared to handle and earthquake disaster or is there no need to fear one at all, even if tremors continue to take place more frequently? Are Zimbabwe’s problems exaggerated? How then would you classify someone loosing an eye in a food fight – desperate or not? Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator - Africa

The Nation. 22 August 2007. The Independent: Conservation in a conflict zone: Mystery of the murdered gorillas

They are the latest victims of the chaos in Congo: nine mountain gorillas slaughtered in an apparently motiveless crime. Now the UN is trying to uncover the truth behind the massacre. Michael McCarthy and David Lewis report

Here it comes again, in an acute form, one of the most agonising questions for anyone who cares about the natural world: can Africa's wonderful wildlife ever be effectively protected? It is being thrown into sharp relief by the killing this year, in four separate incidents, of nine mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mountain gorillas are among the world's rarest animals; there are only about 700 left, in two populations, one in the Virunga region, and one in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.

But they're not only very rare, they're very special. Although all creatures surely have equal worth, it remains the case that some appeal to us more than others - the ones that serious zoologists sometimes lump together and label, with a sarcastic suggestion of the celebrity culture invading even natural history, charismatic megafauna. Tigers, giant pandas, golden eagles, dolphins, orchids - you couldn't really argue that most of us aren't drawn to them more than we are to rats and goldfish, spiders and lichens. And in that megafauna list, few creatures have more charismatic appeal than Gorilla berengei berengei.

It is nearly 30 years since the largest of all the great apes burst onto our consciousness, in the close encounters with David Attenborough, filmed for the twelfth episode of his series Life On Earth. In those magical 1978 meetings, when Attenborough patiently sat and waited for the Virunga animals to get used to him, and then actually played with them, we saw at first-hand what magnificent creatures they were - especially the huge, older males, known as silverbacks for the grizzled coat they develop. And we also saw the surprising truth about this beast which had been demonised as a skyscraper-toppling monster in King Kong: it is the gentlest of all the apes.

Five years later the American primatologist Dian Fossey published her own remarkable account of life with the Virunga animals, Gorillas in the Mist, which gave them a romantic, almost mythical status, enhanced by Fossey's own murder as she worked to protect them, in 1985. Ever since, they have been among the world's most cherished animals - at least in the rich west. Yet they live at the heart of a region which exemplifies all that is increasingly tragic about Africa, in human terms, for the last three decades: the combination of poverty, unsustainable development, and war.

The Virunga region, the forested slopes of a range of extinct volcanoes, actually stretches over three countries: Rwanda and Uganda, as well as the DRC. All are very poor; all have been ravaged by conflict. Rwanda saw the genocidal war between Hutus and Tutsis in 1994; earlier, Uganda saw thousands die under the dictatorial regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote. But it is the DRC, one of Africa's biggest (and potentially richest) countries, which has suffered on the widest basis. In 1998 the regime of President Laurent Kabila was challenged by rebels backed by both Rwanda and Uganda; Kabila in turn brought in troops from Angola, Chad, Namibia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. It was one of Africa's worst civil wars. Though it was officially brought to an end by Kabila's son Joseph, after his assassination, various rebel bands roamed at will, with Virunga one of the worst affected regions. When the people are desperately poor and civil order is in tatters, where is the funding for conservation? Where is the priority?

The Congolese have tried to make a fist of it, in spite of all the difficulties, through the Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), the DRC's wildlife and protected areas authority. But the cost has been huge. In the last 10 years, no fewer than 120 rangers from the Virunga National park have been killed by rebels and poachers. Yet despite all this - or perhaps because of the heroic effort these fatalities represent - Virunga's mountain gorillas have been doing well, and the population has increased from 330 to about 380. Which is why the recent killings have been do disturbing.

In January, two lone males were shot in separate incidents, it is thought by militiamen loyal to a rebel warlord, General Laurent Nkunda. In June, an adult female was shot in another incident, but her baby was saved and taken into care. The most distressing incident of all occurred in late July, when four members of a well-known, 12-strong gorilla band in the Mikeno sector were found executed - there doesn't really seem any other word for it.

They included the silverback and leader of the group, named by the rangers Rugendo, and three females: Neeza, Mburanumwe, who was pregnant, and Safari, whose baby Ndeze was brought to the town of Goma to be cared for by vets. (Another female gorilla and her baby are missing). The pictures of the group of four slaughtered animals, which went round the world, were wretched in the extreme.

Although there is a growing African trade in "bushmeat", (the hunting of forest animals, including primates, for human consumption) the gorillas' potentially valuable carcasses had been left lying where they were shot. Nor were they shot for trophies: the bodies had been burnt and slashed with machetes.

"It seems the people who did this were making a point," said Dr Noelle Kumpel, Bushmeats and Forests Conservation Programme Manager for the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which is one of the western groups actively trying to help with gorilla conservation. "There are a lot of problems within the park, a lot of people living and trying to work inside the park." The main suspect at the moment is the local charcoal industry. Illegal charcoal traders have been cutting down trees in the gorillas' habitat and see the national park as a direct rival. It is an industry thought to be worth about 30 million dollars a year, as charcoal is in heavy demand in the mushrooming town of Goma - a village 10 years ago, now with a population of 400,000 - and also in neighbouring Rwanda, where there are heavy demands for charcoal but there are stict laws on producing it.

"There is a lot of pressure on the park to fuel the charcoal industry," said Samantha Newport, a spokeswoman for WildlifeDirect, a group supporting conservationists in Africa working in dangerous situations. "The killings are being interpreted as an attack on the park itself. There is no reason to suspect it is anything but sabotage. It is a way to exert pressure on the park to try and ensure it doesn't exist." Two major responses to the killings have been made by conservationists. The first is a three-month emergency action plan, which includes round-the-clock monitoring for the six remaining gorilla families in the Mikeno sector. Teams of park rangers are working in relay to ensure that the remaining families are protected from attacks 24 hours a day. Furthermore, there will be increased patrols of critical areas by 30 guards mobilised from other parts of the park, and a census of the remaining gorillas by the endof August, to ensure an accurate, up-to-date understanding of the current situation.

The second has been a formal investigation into the killings by Unesco, the United Nations cultural organisation, which maintains the list of World Heritage Sites, of which the Virunga National Park was one of the first to be declared, in 1978.

A team including representatives from Unesco, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the United Nations Environment Programme and the DRC's conservation body, the ICCN, have spent the last week trying to find out the truth about the massacre of the Rugendo band. The leader of the team, Yvette Kaboza, gets back to Unesco's Paris headquarters today and the report should be ready within 10 days.

It is hoped that its conclusions will feed into the emergency protection plan. But the scheme, which has been put together by the five main western-based conservation groups supporting the gorillas, including the ZSL, only has funds for three months and more money is urgently required. The protection is a tough task. "Each month we go out for 10 days and monitor the families. This is very dangerous - there are armed groups in the park," said Innocent Mburanumwe, a ranger in charge of monitoring the gorilla families in the park's southern sector. "We face all sorts of problems, from the armed groups and the charcoal traders to the corruption. But if we risk death, we will fight to protect nature and the gorillas from being wiped out. It is our job."

"It's an example of the difficulties that face conservation in so many parts of Africa," said the ZSL's Dr Kumpel. And that determination to try, against such great odds, gives hope that conservation may succeed. But it isn't all a hopeful picture. At the weekend, the missing female from Rugendo's band was found - and she too, had been killed, and her baby must be presumed dead along with her. The Zoological Society of London is appealing for funds to maintain the emergency gorilla protection programme in Virunga beyond its three-month initial phase. Donations to the fund can be made by sending cheques payable to the Zoological Society of London to Dr Noelle Kumpel, Bushmeat and Forests Conservation Programme, Outer Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4RY. Donations can also be made via the ZSL website: www.zsl.org

Brunei Times. 21 August, 2007. Africa wages war on plague of plastic bags. Nairobi

They’ve become as much a symbol of Africa's landscape as the stereotypical lions and plains. Discarded plastic bags _ in the billions _ flutter from thorn-bushes across the continent, and clog up cities from Cape Town to Casablanca.South Africa was once producing 7 billion bags a year; Somaliland residents became so used to them they re-named them "flowers of Hargeisa" after their capital; and Kenya not so long ago churned out about 4,000 tonnes of polythene bags a month.” They’re an eyesore across Africa, but there are damaging health and environment ... too," said the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Africa industry officer Desta Mebratu.

Produced _ and then strewn _ en masse in most countries, the flimsy bags block drains and sewage systems and can kill livestock who nibble and digest them. They spread malaria by holding mini-pools of warm water for mosquitoes to breed in. They choke soil and plants, and leak colour additives into food. The phenomenon began in the late 1990s when new technology made production cheap and easy. The consequent throw-away culture meant plastic bags quickly became an ugly but integral part of the African landscape. Now UNEP and other concerned bodies are spearheading a fast-growing campaign to contain the menace.

Their emphasis is not just on curbing production, but also promoting re-use of bags, and recycling of plastic waste. "The plastic problem is now on the agenda of almost every African country," Mebratu, an Ethiopian, said at his office in a UN compound in Nairobi. "The major focus is to promote rational use and disposal of plastic bags." Rwanda and Eritrea have already banned the bags outright, the United Nations says. "Go to the airport in Kigali and if you have a plastic bag, they will confiscate it," Mebratu said. Somaliland, an autonomous and self-declared independent region of Somalia, has taken a similarly draconian measure.

Larger countries such as South Africa, Uganda and Kenya have introduced minimum thickness rules, while Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho and Tanzania are considering such measures too. Some nations are also slapping levies on plastic bag production to ensure consumers re-use rather than trash them. Senegal and Egypt get high marks for their recycling initiatives, Mebratu said. "We are very much encouraged by what is happening, but there is a long way to go still. Anyone can see that." Not surprisingly, African manufacturers do not believe in drastic measures or high taxes on plastic bags, but rather a culture change among consumers.

Instead of punishing producers, they say, users should be better educated on disposal, re-use and recycling to prevent mass dumping of plastic bags. "Manufacturers want to help clean the environment," Bimal Kantaria, a board member of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, told Reuters. "But we want to do so effectively and target the problem, which is irresponsible disposal. We in the industry understand there is a problem with plastic bags polluting the environment."

Reuters. 21 August, 2007. Earthquakes Jolt East Africa – USGS. Nairobi

A strong earthquake hit East Africa on Monday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, the second quake since Saturday. The USGS said on its Web site a magnitude 5.2 quake struck northern Tanzania, 85 km (55 miles) northwest of Arusha. The tremors could be felt up to 180 km (110 miles) away in the Kenyan capital Nairobi where residential and high rise buildings shook gently for several minutes. "There was a small one, then half an hour later there was a big one. The bed and the walls were shaking," a Reuters witness said of the early morning quake.

According to the USGS another magnitude 5.2 quake hit the region on Saturday. Kenya and Tanzania lie along the geologically active Great Rift Valley. The latest quakes revived July fears when panicked workers emptied high rise buildings after several tremors struck Nairobi over five days. The government blamed the successive July quakes on stirring underneath Ol Donyo Lengai, an active volcano 240 km (150 miles) southwest of Nairobi in Tanzania. Kenyan geologists could not immediately be reached to confirm the epicentre of the weekend quakes.

The last time a major quake struck the region was December 2005.

Mail & Guardian. 18 August 2007. Zim's problems 'exaggerated.' Mariette le Roux

Southern African leaders failed on Friday to heed calls for strong action against the embattled Zimbabwean government, saying the ailing country's problems are "exaggerated". "We ... feel that the problems in Zimbabwe have been exaggerated. We feel they will solve their economic problems," the Zambian President and chairperson of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), Levy Mwanawasa, told journalists at the end of a two-day heads-of-state summit in Lusaka, Zambia. "We are quite satisfied with the report from South African President Thabo Mbeki on the crisis in Zimbabwe," said the Zambian leader, who recently likened neighbouring Zimbabwe to a "sinking Titanic".

Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis with inflation well past the 5 000% mark, four in five people jobless and 80% of the population living below the poverty threshold. The SADC mandated Mbeki in March to mediate between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mbeki reported on progress to the summit, while SADC secretariat executive chairperson Tomaz Salomao briefed heads of state on Zimbabwe's dire economic straits.

'Work in progress'

Mbeki told a news conference later the rival Zimbabwean parties remain engaged in talks on the basis of a mutually agreed agenda, describing it as "work in progress". "They ... are making progress in these discussions," said the president, adding any breakthrough would be reported to SADC. "Everybody is interested that when the presidential and parliamentary elections take place in March next year in Zimbabwe, they should be held in an atmosphere that will result in free and fair elections without controversies and so on." But Mbeki said no conditions or deadlines have been set. "Nobody has talked about conditionalities of anything."

Mwanawasa said SADC is satisfied that Zimbabwe's existing electoral laws are conducive to free and fair polls. Mugabe has blamed his country's woes on drought and Western sanctions, but critics say problems started with a controversial government land-reform programme that saw thousands of white-owned commercial farms seized and redistributed to landless blacks and government cronies. Mugabe is also criticised for stifling democracy and overseeing a violent government clampdown on the opposition.

Economic problems

Mbeki said Zimbabwe's economic problems will be looked into urgently, on the basis of Salomao's report, by a committee of finance ministers. The ministers will discuss the matter with the Zimbabwean government "to pin down in some detail what indeed the region can do with regard to economic recovery". "There is urgency for us to get into this matter [of Zimbabwe's failing economy]," said Mbeki. Before the summit opened, Mugabe's Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said on Thursday that no political reforms are necessary in his country. "We have a democracy like any other democracy in this world ... I cannot see how a system can be any fairer or more transparent [than it is in Zimbabwe]," he told journalists.

"You have a situation where issues are being portrayed, exaggerated. People portray Zimbabwe as a country that has become ungovernable. Nothing is further from the truth," the minister said. Zanu-PF has been the ruling political party in Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. Mbeki and the SADC are accused by critics in the West and civic bodies around the world of treating Mugabe with kid gloves. Global watchdog Human Rights Watch had urged SADC to use the summit to put pressure on Mugabe's government to "end its broadscale attack on human rights".

Mugabe was absent from Friday's closing ceremony for the summit. He told Zambia's state ZNBC television on Friday that sanctions, comprising a travel ban and a freeze on the European accounts of top Zimbabwean officials, are to blame for his country's economic woes, adding things are getting better. "It is going well, relatively," he said. "We are trying to use our resources to bring about a turn-around." The defiant, 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader was given a rousing welcome to the summit on Thursday, despite mounting global criticism of the crisis in his country.

Support

Meanwhile, the United States said on Friday it supports efforts by Southern African leaders to resolve a political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said in a statement that such engagement shows "the region considers the situation an increasing threat to stability and is committed to a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe". "We regret that the Mugabe regime has not expressed a similar commitment," McCormack said. The US, the statement said, deplores "the Mugabe regime's continued acts of oppression against all segments of society".

22 Aug 2007. Ex-soldier loses eye in wholesale fracas. Zimbabwe. Caroline Murapa. Chitungwiza

Disaster reared its head again at Irvines’ Wholesale Center on the margins of Harare South when an army deserter lost an eye and four teeth in an ugly fracas that erupted at the center Tuesday morning as shortages of basic commodities continue unabated. A lance corporal in the Zimbabwe National Army Solomon Goremusandu sustained a ruptured left eye and lost four front teeth when he was brutally attacked by a group of armed riot and military police who were maintaining law and order at the busy wholesale center.

Sources say disaster struck when Goremusandu tried to run away from military police officers who were pursuing the soldier intending to interrogate him over his suspicious activities at the egg and chicken wholesale center. Goremusandu had arrived at the wholesale center Tuesday morning clad in army fatigue and pretending to be a soldier on duty. The soldier, sources say, tried to take advantage of the situation to get to the front of the queue ahead of thousands of buyers who had thronged the chicken producing wholesale center some as early as 5 AM.

Eye witnesses said when other military policemen noticed the confusion that Goremusandu was causing in the front section of the massive queue at the main entrance into Irvines’, they charged towards him intending to interrogate him.

Goremusandu immediately noticed that a group riot and military policemen were charging towards him prompting him to bolt away towards the perimeter fence of the wholesale premises. Eye witnesses say Goremusandu fell down head first when he tried to hurriedly scale the perimeter fence around the complex as he tried to run away from the armed riot policemen who were in hot pursuit.

“The riot police did not give him the chance to resurrect but started attacking him with booted feet and baton sticks. There was a piercing wail when one of the riot police officers used the butt of his gun to hit the hapless soldier hard on the temple”, said one eye witness. It later emerged that Goremusandu who had to be rushed to hospital in police truck had crushed the socket of his left eye resulting in his eye rupturing instantly. Goremusandu who was bleeding profusely from the mouth also lost four of his front teeth during the fracas as he failed to escape the snare of his brutal attackers.

Realising the real prospect of being discovered and arrested by fellow state security officers Goremusandu had decided to run away. Investigations by ZimDaily revealed that Goremusandu is infact an army deserter who went Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) 14 months ago in June 2006. Chitungwiza police confirmed the incident at Irvines’ saying they had arrested Goremusandu who was masquerading as an army officer when in fact he deserted the force in June last year. Officer commanding Chitungwiza District Chief Inspector Alex Titus Chagwedera revealed that the arrested army deserter had been admitted into a private hospital in Chitungwiza under police guard.

“The police arrested one Solomon Goremusandu during a patrol at Irvines’ Wholesale Center in Harare South District this (Tuesday) morning. Our investigations show that he is an army deserter who left the army in June 2006 but continued to use the army fatigue while on personal errands”, said Inspector Chagwedera. The lance corporal who was using his army camouflage to create the impression of an officer on duty was using this trick to get easy access to basic commodities where ever they were being sold in order to resell them on the black market for profit.

Apparently the army deserter had turned to buying and selling of chickens and eggs from Irvines’ to earn a living after failing to make ends meet with the paltry salary he earned as a soldier. On average a soldier in the Zimbabwe National Army earns $3 million a month not enough to buy 10 liters of petrol. Thousands of buyers including vendors and small scale retailers from Harare and Chitungwiza now throng Irvines’ Wholesale Center on the outskirts of Harare South along the Highfields-Chitungwiza road daily to buy scarce chicken meat and eggs.

In an country were four out of every five people are not employed many have turned to vending and buying and selling of scarce basic commodities on the illegal black market to make ends meet. Chicken meat and eggs which have vanished from all butcheries and supermarket shelves since the Zanu PF government introduced price controls all basic commodities early July have ready buyers on the thriving black market where they fetch treble the official price.

Last month the minister of Trade and Commerce Obert Mpofu ordered businesses to freeze price increases and reduce prices to the pre June 18 levels or alternatively cut prices by 50 percent. The price blitz has now backfired with basic goods disappearing from shop shelves and butcheries closing down as abattoirs fail to provide cheap meat. Manufacturers, wholesalers, supermarkets, and other retailers now say they are failing to restock as they have operated at a loss since the introduction of price controls by government in July.

Over 7000 business executives were arrested for flouting government regulations during the price blitz with most of them being convicted and performing community service. President Robert Mugabe’s government insists that the price controls will continue as the Zanu PF government says it is protecting the ordinary people against greedy and unscrupulous businessmen who are bent on making super profits while over charging poor people. But millions of Zimbabweans now face imminent starvation as basic foodstuffs such as bread, sugar, maize-meal, beef and cooking oil have completely vanished from the market.

Worldwide Environment News

The Nation. 22 August, 2007. Big quiz win for Filipino students: Two Filipino students won the first prize at an environmental quiz in Bangkok held by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Pongphon Sarnsamak

Lawrence Medina and Paulo Manzanilla, fourth-year students at Philippine Science High School, received US$1,500 (Bt51,500) as a grant to initiate an environmental project in school and will attend celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol in Canada next month. "I was very surprised to be the winner because most of the questions were unexpected, even though we did prepare ourselves very well," said Paulo. He said the competition had provided him with knowledge about the ozone layer and its importance in protecting the environment.

The pair will disseminate this information to their school and society to raise more awareness about environmental problems, particularly air pollution in Manila

A team from Sri Lanka was second in the competition, with Thailand and Malaysia taking the third and fourth places. Apinut Wongkietkachorn and Ajaree Sattaratnamai, of Triam Udomsuksa School, represented Thailand. Apinut said it was a good chance for Thai students to share knowledge with students from other countries. "I did not feel that other students were rivals because we were aiming to help each other," he said.

The Regional Ozone Quiz Competition was organised by UNEP in cooperation with Bangkok's Ruamrudee International School, where the semi-finals and final were held. Most questions tested scientific and historical knowledge of the Montreal Protocol. Thanavat Junchaya, regional network coordinator for UNEP, said the competition aimed to make students more aware about environmental problems in this region and around the world.

The Guardian. 21 August, 2007. China prays for Olympic wind as car bans fail to shift Beijing smog. Jonathan Watts, Beijing

Prayers for strong winds look set to become a major component of Beijing's Olympic preparations after a traffic-reduction trial failed to shift the smog that hangs over the city. More than a million cars were taken off the roads for the four-day test period, but there was no improvement in the air quality, according to city officials. Yesterday the skies above Beijing were the same dirty grey shade as when the test started on Friday. As of Sunday the air quality ranking had not budged from level two on China's five-tier scale, in which level one represents clear unpolluted skies.

Nonetheless, the city's Olympic organisers declared the test, which ends today, a success. Because there was no wind, they argued, pollution would have grown thicker without the special restrictions. "Level two is a good enough standard for athletic competition," said Yu Xianoxuan, environmental director of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee. "If we had not had the traffic controls we could not have maintained this level because the temperature and humidity were very high. So we can see the restrictions worked."

Whether this will reassure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is another matter. Earlier this month the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, warned that events might be postponed if pollution levels threatened the performance of athletes. To minimise that risk and the damage to the city's international reputation, Beijing plans to ban more than a third of the city's 3m cars for the two-week period of the games. During the four-day trial cars with odd- and even-numbered plates were supposed to stay off the roads on alternate days. Violaters were liable to fines of 100 yuan (£6.60). Although the measures did not make much of an impact on the environment, the traffic that usually jams the city was noticeably better in many areas.

BBC. Rich 'can pay poor to cut carbon.' Roger Harrabin, BBC News

Rich nations should be absolved from the need to cut emissions if they pay developing countries to do it on their behalf, a senior UN official has said. The controversial suggestion from Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has angered environmental groups. They say climate change will not be solved unless rich and poor nations both cut emissions together.

But Mr de Boer said the challenge was so great that action was needed now.

Carbon credits

The UN's binding global climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, currently requires industrialised nations to reduce the majority of emissions themselves. But Mr de Boer said this was illogical, adding that the scale of the problem facing the world meant that countries should be allowed to invest in emission cuts wherever in the world it was cheapest. "We have been reducing emissions and making energy use more efficient in industrialised countries for a long time," he told BBC News.

"So it is quite expensive in these nations to reduce emissions any more. "But in developing nations, less has been done to reduce emissions and less has been done to address energy efficiency," Mr de Boer observed.

"So it actually becomes economically quite attractive for a company, for example in the UK, that has a target to achieve this goal by reducing emissions in China." He said rich nations should be able to buy their way out of 100% of their responsibilities - though he doubted that any country would want to do so. Green groups said the proposal was against the spirit of the UN, which agreed that wealthy countries - who were responsible for climate change - should do most to cure it. Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth said: "This proposal simply won't deliver the cuts we need in time. The scientists are telling us that we need to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) by 50-80% by 2050.

"Unless rich countries start to wean themselves off fossil fuels right away this won't happen." Doug Parr of Greenpeace was equally critical of Mr de Boer's suggestion.

"The current trading system is not delivering emissions reductions as it is," he said. "Expanding it like this to give rich countries a completely free hand will simply not work."

The Time. 20 August, 2007. Does Flying Harm the Planet? Brian Walsh

A protestor is subdued by riot police after a blockade of the British Airports Authority headquarters near Heathrow on August 19, 2007 in London. Given the rage that air travel can provoke in even the most tranquil among us these days, it may be surprising that riot police aren't a more regular feature at airports. But Sunday's pitched battle between roughly 500 environmental activists and a phalanx of baton-wielding police at London's Heathrow airport wasn't about long lines, delays, lost luggage or missed connections. Instead, the protesters — who had demonstrated outside Heathrow all of last week — were trying to draw travelers' attention to the impact on climate change of the carbon gases emitted by the aircraft in which they fly. A placard from one activist at Heathrow expressed it thus:

"You Fly, They Die."

A graphic guide to improving America's air traffic system, how to avoid delays and the optimal times to get to the airport

The Next Move on Global Warming

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Greenhouse Airlines

Right now, Prince Charles is probably wishing he had hit the slopes after all. Britain‘s Prince of W...

On the Front Lines Of Climate Change

With his curly, salt-and-pepper hair and thoughtful demeanor, Chris West looks like just another mid...

Is There Cause for Fear of Flying?

As record numbers of travelers crowd into airports, the question of safety is on many minds. Just th...

Airplanes operate on petroleum fuel, which means they release large amounts of carbon dioxide when they fly. Commercial air travel is currently responsible for a relatively tiny part of the global carbon footprint —just 3.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But the unique chemistry of high-altitude jet emissions may produce an additional warming effect, while the explosive growth in air travel makes it one of the fastest-growing sources of carbon gases in the atmosphere. And unlike energy or automobiles, where carbon-free or lower-carbon alternatives already exist, even if they have yet to be widely adopted, there is no low-carbon way to fly, and there likely won't be for decades.

"It's not so much where we are now, but where we'll be in 30 years time," says Peter Lockley, head of policy development at the Aviation Environment Federation in London. "We need to bring global carbon emissions down rapidly, but this sector is just going to grow." And grow. The Airports Council International estimates that the number of airline tickets sold per year will double to more than 9 billion by 2025. Much of the growth will come in rapidly developing Asia, where passenger numbers are increasing by 10-15% annually. The already badly overburdened Heathrow — the busiest airport in Europe — is pushing to open up a third runway by 2020, a move that touched off last week's protests.

Airplane manufacturers and airlines are working on ways to cut carbon emissions by raising fuel efficiency — building lighter and more aerodynamic planes, towing jets on the ground, and improving engine capacity. Designers are looking at running planes on biofuel, and Virgin Atlantic head Richard Branson has promised to build a biofuelled jet by next year. But industry experts believe such incremental changes could improve efficiency by 1% or 2% a year at most, while passenger miles are set to grow at 5% to 6% annually. "We're left with a sustainability gap," says Roger Gardner, chief executive of OMEGA, a British study group looking at aviation and the environment.

Even as carbon emissions from air travel grow rapidly, scientists are investigating claims that they may double the warming effect because of the altitude at which they're emitted. As jets soar they leave behind contrails, vapor threads of condensation that can persist for hours, especially in colder areas, and behave like high-altitude cirrus clouds. Those clouds seem to have a net warming effect, trapping heat in the atmosphere. Planes also create ozone, a greenhouse gas that has a stronger warming effect at high altitudes than low. The science is still being nailed down, but the side effects of high-altitude emissions could double air travel's contributions to global warming, says Dan Lashof, science director for the Natural Resource Defense Council's Climate Center.

Though there's no technological silver bullet, there are policy options available to manage air travel emissions such as carbon cap and trade schemes. But those won't be simple: Air travel was left out of the Kyoto Protocol on curbing emissions in part due to the complexity of assigning national responsibility for gases spewed by international flights. Just getting governments to share air space more freely, which would allow planes to fly more direct routes and cut fuel consumption, has proven to be an ongoing headache.

So what's the solution? Perhaps that there is no solution, or at least no simple one — aside from just flying less, as the Heathrow activists demanded. And there's little sign of that happening, as air passenger numbers rose 6.3% globally through the first half of 2007. So, expect similar protests in the future. The activists at Heathrow threw out a moral challenge to those well-off on a global scale (anyone who can afford a JetBlue ticket) to stop flying in order to save the poor from the effects of climate change. It's not quite that simple, but until technology and policy catch up — which still seems a long way off — carbon emissions will only slow if consumers choose to use less energy, live more modestly, and fly less. In other words, stay at home to save the world.

The Independent. 21 August, 2007. The Big Question: Are there more hurricanes, and are they the result of global warming? Michael Mccarthy.

Why are we asking this now?

Because hurricanes like the one which has careered across the Caribbean and was last night striking Mexico are only formed when the surface temperature of the ocean exceeds a specific point, which is 26C. As the oceans warm globally with climate change, much larger areas of water will exceed the threshold, and more energy will be available to power a given storm. On the face of it, therefore, the connection might seem a reasonable, even a natural one.

So is it happening already?

Some scientists have put forward fairly dramatic evidence that it may be, and this has been seized on by the environmental community as another piece of the global warming jigsaw, to impress on governments the need to act to cut back on the carbon emissions causing the climate to heat up. But other scientists resolutely dispute the proposition, and say it cannot be proved.

What is the dramatic evidence?

It came in two peer-reviewed scientific papers published within a short time of each other in the summer of 2005. They kicked off the whole hurricane-global warming argument. In fact, they caused a sensation. The first, in the journal Nature, was by Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's leading hurricane researchers. Dr Emmanuel devised a new way of measuring hurricane intensity which he called the power dissipation index, and he said he could detect an increase in this which could be related to increases in sea surface temperatures over recent decades.

The second paper was by Greg Holland of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society). Holland and Webster said they had discovered a rise in the number of Atlantic hurricanes that tracked the increase in sea surface temperature related to climate change over the last century, and taking the conventional measure of hurricane strength, the Saffir-Simpson scale, they said that the number of storms that were reaching the top categories of 4 and 5 had doubled in recent decades.

And these papers caused a sensation?

They sure did. A worldwide one.

Not least because they were published in 2005, in the middle of the worst season of Atlantic hurricanes on record, which culminated in the disaster of Hurricane Katrina which hammered New Orleans so terribly in August. The 2005 season included a record 26 named storms, of which 13 grew big enough to be classified as hurricanes (so many that for the first time since 1953, when scientists started give tropical Atlantic storms names, letters of the Greek alphabet had to be used, as meteorologists had run through the original list of 21 alphabetically-ordered names. The final 2005 tropical storm was christened Epsilon.) For the environmental community the two papers were yet another devastating indictment of the lack of action on climate change, especially by the US government of George W Bush.

So is the connection proved?

Not at all. It is hotly disputed. The difficulty lies in how we use and interpret the database of records of previous storms. Before the late-Sixties and early-Seventies, there was no global satellite coverage and measurement of tropical cyclones (which is the generic term for circular tropical storms - they're hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the west Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean). So the strength of some early recorded storms may have been misinterpreted - they may actually have been much stronger than we think, and thus a general increase in intensity may be an illusion. Some storms may well have not been observed at all.

Furthermore, an increase may be part of a natural cycle, rather than being caused by human activities. The leading proponent of the no-link theory, Christopher Landsea, a senior American hurricane researcher and forecaster based at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, has published research contending that the historical hurricane database simply cannot support the claims made by Emanuel, and by Holland and Webster, in their respective papers.

Has the argument become politicised?

'Fraid so. For example, the Bush administration put forward Landsea to assert that there was no connection between Hurricane Katrina and climate change, and he is often attacked by environmentalists. But he is a serious and respected scientist and he is by no means alone in his concern that the record does not show an increase in hurricane power and strength. One of Britain's leading experts on tropical cyclones, Julian Heming of the UK Met Office, says: "I am of the view that this issue of the historical database is a significant one, and I think we need to be cautious about deriving too many definitive conclusion from the historical records."

Is there no consensus?

Well, there is much more of a consensus between scientists about what is likely to happen in future, than about what has happened in the past or what is happening now. The supercomputer models used for climate change prediction tend to show an increase in future hurricane wind speed and rainfall if the climate continues to warm (though not in hurricane frequency). This is not generally disputed. However, it is a smaller increase than that which the two papers from 2005 claim to have detected already.

Where is the argument now?

We can give you chapter and verse on that. Last November, the World Meteorological Organisation held an International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones in Costa Rica, and at its conclusion, it issued a one-page document entitled "Summary Statement on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change". Its first paragraph states: "Though there is evidence both for and against the existence of a detectable anthropogenic signal [signs of a human cause such as man-made global warming] in the tropical cyclone climate record to date, no firm conclusion can be made on this point."

So the jury's out?

Not quite. The fourth assessment report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in February this year, gives a table showing recent climatic trends. It suggests that intense tropical cyclone activity has probably increased in some regions since 1970, and under the heading "Likelihood of a human contribution to observed trend" it observes succinctly: "More likely than not."

So is climate change to blame?

Yes...

* The historical database shows a definite increase in frequency and intensity (one view)

* Supercomputer climate models unanimously predict that climate change will make hurricanes worse

* Warmer oceans contain more energy for storms

No...

* The historical database cannot be trusted to prove an increase in frequency and intensity (the other view)

* Any increase may be part of a natural cycle

Even in a warming world, various climatic mechanisms may act to reduce increases

Other Environment News

Nigeria: Govt Spends N34m On Flood Victims

This Day (Lagos): Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, has spent N34 million to provide succour to flood disaster victims in the state. Jang said this in his office when officials of the Zenith Bank, North central zone, led by Abbas Andrew Dayilim, paid him a condolence visit over the recent flood, which ravaged southern part of the state. He said several lives were lost to the flood, which rendered many homeless, broke down bridges that cut off some from Jos, the state capital. He called on the Federal Government to come to the state's aid, saying more dead bodies were still being discovered from the affected villages in the five local councils in the southern part of the state. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708170172.html

South Africa: Guide to Help NPA With 'Green' Crimes

Business Day (Johannesburg): Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk yesterday launched a "prosecutor's guide" to help the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in processing environmental crimes in courts throughout SA. Van Schalkwyk said at the designation ceremony of 20 new environmental management inspectors, or Green Scorpions, that the guide would support prosecutors in taking on the cases prepared by the Green Scorpions. The guide was compiled by legal experts Phil Snijman and Clarissa Molteno. Snijman said that the guide was the culmination of years of development and networking between many "dedicated and overworked" prosecutors and enforcement officials, and the disappointments and successes in courts all over the country and in other parts of the world. Van Schalkwyk said the guide would be made available to the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions and all its offices countrywide. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708170292.html

Ghana: Ghana Poised for CDM

Accra Mail (Accra): The Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, Mr. Kwadwo Adjei Darko has said the threat of global climate change to sustainable development is one of the major environmental concerns of the world. The impact of climate change continues to attract the attention of most national governments. He said the solution is to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases being emitted presently. Speaking at a seminar on 'Clean Development Mechanism and Carbon Trading' in Accra he said reducing greenhouse gas emissions without stifling economic growth and development calls for the use of innovative mechanisms. The Minister said the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one such mechanism that ensures socio economic development and minimizes environmental degradation. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708170996.html

Experts mull regional oil spill control plan

Accra, Ghana (PANA) - About 40 experts in marine science from 16 West African countries have began meeting in Accra to fine-tune a draft sub-regional oil spill contingency plan. The plan, which comes in the wake of more oil discoveries along the African coast stretching from Guinea Bissau in the north to Angola in the south, is to help participating nations to intervene jointly in cases of major spills either in territorial waters of a single nation or in a trans-boundary case. The meeting, which began Monday, is being organized under the auspices of the Interim Guinea Current Commission in cooperation with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA). It is being supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Ghana’s minister for Harbors and railways, Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, said the meeting was being held at a time when maritime safety and the protection of the marine environment were receiving renewed attention and active support from all countries. He said the plan would help all the partners share their limited resources in joint efforts to address incidences of pollution as well as provide a synergy that would lead to rapid response. IMO technical officer, Malamine Thiam, said the region was currently susceptible to major pollution from the petroleum exploration taking place offshore, hence the need for the contingency plan. "This meeting would enable us to formalize the project to be presented to the governments.

Kenya: Radioactive Waste Site Planned

The Nation (Nairobi): Newspaper readers barely noticed it. Indeed, few gave the notice in the local press placed by the Radiation Protection Board about a month ago a passing glance. In the notice, the board was inviting applications from consultants to provide architectural, quantity and land surveying, electrical/mechanical, structural and civil engineering services for the design and construction of a radioactive waste processing (RAWP) facility. The project, worth over Sh100 million, is to be put up at the Karen-based Institute of Primate Research and is scheduled to be complete by the end of next year. It is expected to handle all liquid and solid radioactive materials produced by hospitals and other research institutions around the country. The proposed facility is to be located in a gazetted forest (Ololua, Bp No. 180/15 of Legal Notice 174 of 1964), an area served by roads that are unable to handle the traffic of domestic intensity. It is to the northeast of Karen southeast of the informal Kataka settlement. Although Karen residents have expressed concern over the location of the facility in a residential area, the Radiation Protection Board insists that the country desperately needs a facility to handle highly radioactive material. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708200457.html

Namibia: Government to Act Against Plant Pirates

The Namibian (Windhoek): Government will set up a special committee to combat unlawful exploitation and trade of biological products, which include plants like hoodia, devil's claw and marula nuts. Namibia needs to guard against unlawful exploitation and bio-piracy, but has no such policies and laws in place, Cabinet noted during its latest meeting. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism is drafting a law on Access to Biological Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, which Cabinet expects to be finalised before the end of this year. Trading in these products, which often means exploitation for financial gain without including indigenous people, who have centuries-old knowledge of the use of such plants, requires regulation to avoid exploitation, Cabinet noted. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708200554.html

Nigeria: AEPB Establishes Mobile Courts in Karu, Nyanya

Daily Trust (Abuja): The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has established mobile courts in Karu, Nyanya and their environs to prosecute environmental law defaulters. An environmental health officer in Karu, Mr Samuel Uwuota, last Friday said the decision by the board's director, Dr Engr Kosamat Bolaji Anibilowo, to establish the mobile courts was a result of the rising number of environmental law violators in the areas. He said the development would save the board's taskforce the stress of conveying violators to city centres like Wuse and Garki for prosecution on a weekly basis, and would as well reduce the workload on those mobile courts in the city. "Because of the number of persons we take to Garki and Wuse for trial, prosecutions are always delayed. With the establishment of our own courts here, cases would be given accelerated hearing, and quick prosecution would be assured," he said. He said mobile courts would make residents in the area take environmental issues seriously because prosecution was being brought to their doorsteps. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708201436.html

Nigeria: Akwa/Ibom Assembly to Sanction Shell

Daily Trust (Abuja): The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has vowed to sanction Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited if the company fails to appear before it to explain oil spillages at Ikot Abasi local government of the state. The house gave the oil company until Wednesday to appear before it. The Speaker of the House, Engr. Ignatius Edet made this known in Uyo when the company defied its invitation to appear before an executive session of the House last week. The oil company had written to the house giving excuse that they were not ready to appear before it. Infuriated by Shell's response, the speaker promised to sanction the multinational company, adding that it was irresponsible of the company not to be sensitive to the plight of the people living in Ikot Abasi who have suffered hardship due to oil spillage in the last few weeks. Engr. Edet condemned the nonchalant attitude of the company and urged them to have a re-think. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708201510.html

Uganda: 50 Indigenous Tree Species Restored in Mabira Forest

The Monitor (Kampala): About 50 indigenous tree species that had diminished in some parts of Mabira Central Forest Reserve due to encroachment have been restored, a new study has shown. The study, carried out early this year by the former Commissioner in the Ministry of Environment, Mr Peter Karani, shows that even a host of birds and wild animals that had abandoned the area have began returning. This was revealed to the State Minister for Environment, Ms Jessica Eriyo, last week during her tour of Mabira Forest. The Lakeshore Range Manager - where Mabira falls, Mr Reuben Arinaitwe, told the minister that the forest fog which had also disappeared has been regained. Mabira Forest Reserve (at over 30,000 hectares) is said to be home to 30 per cent of all the bird species in the country. Over 300 bird species, including the endangered Naban's Francolin (Francolinus nabani) are found in Mabira. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708201538.html

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter-16th to 22nd August 2007

2007-08-17T11:12:00.000+03:00

Flood gates are open.

I wonder if you have noticed the increase in flooding worldwide. If not this week’s newsletter is flooded with news from these occurrences starting from disastrous mudslides in Kenya to a barrage of other events worldwide.

Registration for the Commonwealth Peoples Forum is also now underway and you need to log on and submit your details well in advance. Expect to receive more information on the annual APN meeting from next week.

Don’t forget to check out the last section – Film News – of this newsletter. Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator - Africa

BBC: Hunt for Kenya mudslide victims

District officials are searching for survivors and bodies buried in mud by a number of landslides in a village in western Kenya. Police say 13 people are believed to have been buried and killed in Saturday's slides, but residents say the real figure may be more than 20. Some of the victims were swept away by a second mudslide, while digging to try to find those buried by the first.

Officials evacuated the village on Sunday, fearing it might happen again. "We have evacuated people from the area because there is a risk of another landslide," said Peter Kavila, a western provincial police officer. "We advise people to stay away from the area and let experts embark on search and rescue," he said, according to the Associated Press.

A Red Cross spokesman said 39 people were injured and several homes destroyed in Saturday's landslides near Malava, about 600km (375 miles) from the capital, Nairobi. The spokesman said there was little chance of finding any survivors. A local man described how the first landslide struck while people slept. "We heard screaming last night, we rushed here and we started to look for the people who were missing, they were three we knew of, but we have only found one," he said. "The people who were helping with the rescue also got covered in the landslide at around 1230 pm," he added.

IRIN. 15 August 2007. Sea destroys homes in coastal communities. Monrovia

More than 700 people are homeless in Liberia after ocean waves slammed coastline communities, destroying more than 100 homes and other structures.
“We have been confronted with increasing high tides…wiping away most human settlements along the beaches,” Daniel Clarke, head of the Liberian Red Cross Society, told IRIN. He called the situation “a disaster”.

Between 30 July and 2 August, rising sea levels damaged homes and property in fishing villages in Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount and Montsserado counties, according to a recent report by the UN mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Since then, on 14 August, a wave wiped out eight houses in a shanty town in the capital, Monrovia, leaving 86 people without shelter. Clarke said the Red Cross has so far registered more than 700 people displaced by the coastal destruction and the count continues.

Relocating communities
Families living along Liberia’s coast are encouraged to move to safer areas. “We tried to relocate those affected in Cape Mount County but they are not keen on [moving],” the Red Cross’s Clarke said. “They insist on having their shelters near the ocean because fishing is their only livelihood,” he said.

Sand mining
The war-torn country’s massive reconstruction effort is also contributing to a general problem of coastal erosion, experts say, as more and more people mine sand for building. The UN Development Programme’s report on Liberia’s environment released in June called beach sand mining “one of the most serious threats to the coastline and marine environment” in the country. In the report UNDP noted that the government lacked regulatory measures to guard against the practice.

Liberia’s deputy information minister, Gabriel Williams, told IRIN the government would soon put a ban on sand mining in some coastal areas. The country's top environment official recently told reporters people are not aware of the damage they are doing. “Most people are not educated on the negative aspect of taking away sand from beaches,” Ben Donnie, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said.

Media campaign
Local newspapers and radio stations have recently urged citizens to help stave off coastal erosion. “The continuous destruction caused by the sea erosion taking place is quite troubling and if nothing is done about the situation, half of the dry land of the country would soon be washed away”, said a 15 August editorial in The Inquirer newspaper.

New York Times. August 15, 2007. Deadly Floods, Disease Afflict Africa's Arid Sahel

Skip to next paragraph DAKAR (Reuters) - A few weeks ago farmers in parts of Africa's arid Sahel region were fretting that late rains had failed their crops. Now many are struggling to survive after downpours swept away food stocks, destroyed thousands of homes and killed well over 100 people across the Sahel, which stretches from Senegal on the Atlantic seaboard to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. "This country is a paradox. Floods are just one of the natural disasters which hit it regularly, after bush fires and drought," said Hamani Harouna, head of the national humanitarian Early Warning System in impoverished Niger, at the heart of the Sahel.

Last month, farmers in nearby Ivory Coast were complaining seasonal rains had failed to arrive on time, meaning seeds had not germinated and key crops such as cotton were under threat. Since then there has been a deluge. Scientists have told the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that rising temperatures around the world will contribute to changing weather patterns in the Sahel. Some have fingered global warming as a factor behind extreme temperatures, storms and drought around the world this year.

In Sudan, Africa's biggest country and the worst affected by recent weather, floods have carried away or drowned more than 70 people since the rains began -- which in Sudan's case came earlier than usual. "The rains started at the very beginning of July. Normally they start a bit later with this intensity," Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for U.N. humanitarian coordinator OCHA, told Reuters. At least 365,000 people there have lost food stocks, possessions or part of their home, including 50,000 whose homes were completely destroyed, OCHA said.

Disease

The agency expects further rainfall and flooding will affect 265,000 more people in the coming weeks, while flood waters have contaminated water sources and spread cholera, bringing the death toll from the water-borne disease to 53 this rainy season, according to the World Health Organisation. "We have to be prepared for the worst possible scenario," Giuliano said. In neighboring Chad, violent rain storms last weekend destroyed hundreds of homes and killed thousands of livestock -- the main form of wealth for many of the region's farming and nomadic peoples.

"It's a disastrous situation. Lots of people have taken refuge in trees or in schools -- those which were not flattened," Bakary Tchaksam, a journalist working a local radio station in southwestern Chad, told Reuters. "This is the first time anything like this has happened here. There's a sense of being powerless," he said. After a late start in western parts of the Sahel, the sheer force of the rain storms took people by surprise. Mud houses, which are cheap and practical during the dry season and generally survive the rains with a few annual repairs, proved no match for this year's violent weather.

"Houses flooded and some have collapsed," Gueladio Ba told Reuters by phone from Thies in Senegal, where local media reported 127 mm (5 inches) of rain fell on Sunday night alone. "In some parts of town the water was more than a meter (yard) deep," he said. "The destruction is enormous. We haven't seen rain like this for 30 years." (Additional reporting by Abigail Haulohner, Opheera McDoom, Abdoulaye Massalatchi, Betel Miarom, Tiemoko Diallo, Diadie Ba & Katrina Manson)

Worldwide

UN agencies increase relief effort in South Asia after devastating floods

14 August - United Nations humanitarian agencies continue to step up their relief efforts in the wake of the recent deadly floods across South Asia, distributing food and emergency supplies, vaccinating against infectious diseases and launching public awareness campaigns on the importance of using clean water. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have so far distributed 90 tons of high-protein biscuits in Bangladesh and plan to deliver another 24 tons this week, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters today.

In Nepal, also struck by this year’s exceptionally heavy monsoon rains, UNICEF has provided more than 2,000 mosquito nets. In addition, the agency has delivered radio broadcasts in the country’s four regional languages on the need for water purification to prevent the outbreak of diseases. An estimated 45 million people across India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been affected by the flooding, with many of them forced to leave their homes. At least 2,200 people have been killed.

UNICEF is distributing water purification packs, rehydration packs and water jerry cans in India, where it is also conducting a large-scale vaccination campaign to prevent an outbreak of chicken pox.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has already announced that it is increasing its support of South Asian governments as they respond to the flooding, including by drawing from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Elsewhere, in Sudan, which has been hit by its own recent floods, OCHA now estimates that at least 365,000 people have been affected, and the number of people requiring food assistance is also likely to rise.

WFP is providing food rations to some 38,500 people in northern Sudan, the worst-affected region of the country, but also to more than 5,000 people in the south of the vast African nation. The World Health Organization (WHO) has pre-positioned medical supplies in several locations in anticipation of disease outbreaks and has also prepared a plan to prevent further outbreaks of diarrhoea.

Xinhua. China View: Eight dead, four missing as floods hit Shandong Province. Beijing.

Eight persons have been killed and four missing as floods caused by heavy rain hit east China's Shandong Province in the past week, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Wednesday. Heavy rains have poured down in 12 cities including Jinan, Qingdao, Yantai and Weihai in Shandong Province since Aug. 9, and some places were hit by tornado. The ministry has sent rescue teams to the flood-affected areas. More than 2.51 million people were affected by the floods and some 122,000 people have been evacuated, according to the ministry. The floods have destroyed 182,000 hectares of farmland and toppled down more than 5,500 houses in the province, said the ministry.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/15/content_6535575.htm

Sunday Herald: Warning that A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall. Rob Edwards.

It was 38 years ago after he got lost in the Sahara desert that photographer Mark Edwards got the idea. The Tuareg nomad who rescued him produced a tape machine and played a bootlegged version of Bob Dylan's prophetic song about global decay, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". In the decades since, Edwards has roamed the world taking and collecting pictures to illustrate every image-laden line of the song. The result is an arresting display of 44 photographs now on show at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, as part of the Festival.

Climate chaos, global poverty and environmental collapse are all strikingly illustrated with images that echo Dylan's lyric, originally written during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. It is said that Dylan penned the song in just half an hour. The song, like much of Dylan's work, has intrigued fans and scholars ever since, with its biblical, almost apocalyptic, visions of a world gone wrong. "I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'", it ends. "But I'll know my song well before I start singin'."

Edwards has also published an accompanying book, and written to world leaders demanding action. Environmental degradation and human poverty reinforce and feed off one another, he told them. "Yet you - and we - do little or nothing." Research has shown that most of the planet's ecosystems are losing their ability to service human needs, Edwards said. "More than one billion people are living in absolute poverty, a poverty that kills many of them, including the 1.7 million children who die each year from preventable diseases."

The book has already prompted a welter of supportive responses, including messages from the former prime minister, Tony Blair, the Tory leader David Cameron, the LibDem leader Menzies Campbell, and the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, said: "Your book is a piece of sustained beauty. I treasure it." Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme described it as a "powerful call for action".

A portion of the proceeds from the book are being donated to the ecological centre, the Eden Project, in Cornwall. The project's co-founder and chief executive, Tim Smit, regards the exhibition as disturbing and moving.

"It is a masterpiece that summons up the ghosts of our past and a vision of the future that was ours to change," Smit said. "Regret and optimism make strange bedfellows, but great artists have always known this." www.hardrainproject.com

Reuters. August 13, 2007. Floods Show Need for Disaster Risk Reduction – UN. Geneva.

Severe floods which have taken a heavy toll in South Asia and Europe this year illustrate the need to spend more on reducing the risks communities face from natural disasters, a United Nations agency said on Friday. Sturdy houses must be built away from low-lying areas, and early warning systems should be set up to save lives in line with an agreement backed by 168 countries in 2005 in Kobe, Japan, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said. "It is not rocket science. It is plain and simple stuff about building stronger houses, putting in warning systems and educating the public so we're not flat-footed when these events come," ISDR expert Reid Basher told reporters in Geneva.

Monsoon flood waters have killed hundreds in Asia, affecting some 30 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Heavy rains have also inundated parts of Europe, including Switzerland where the United Nations has its European base. "We can't say it is due to climate change but we are sure it is the type of thing we will expect to see more of in the future," Basher said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN grouping of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme weather events over the past 50 years. In reports released this year, the IPCC said storms, droughts and floods would likely intensify as a result of global warming stoked by human activities such as burning heat-trapping fossil fuels.

Flooding

Many millions more people are likely to be flooded every year by the 2080s "as a result of climate change", according to the Geneva-based ISDR. "The number affected will be largest in the mega-deltas of Asia and Africa and the small island states, struck by the double threat of sea level rise and river flooding," it said.

Floods accounted for 84 percent of all deaths in disasters from 2000 to 2005, as well as 65 percent of the $466 billion in losses caused by disasters from 1992 to 2001, it said. Britain's flooding this year was estimated to have cost about $12 billion alone, it said. The so-called Hyogo Framework is a blueprint that was hammered out in Kobe following the devastating tsunami which killed 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

Basher praised China for taking steps to improve housing and otherwise protect poor, vulnerable communities from disasters. While some two million people were killed by flooding in China in 1959, "now every year they have the same sorts of floods, possibly even worse, but the numbers killed are only on the order of say 500 people a year," he said. "There are modest investments in early warning systems, evacuation systems, public education and better building standards. These pay off -- and clearly in the China case, pay off very handsomely."

中华人民共和国水利部, China : Rainstorms kill five, affect 700,000 in China

2007-8-14

Five people were killed and more than 700,000 people were affected after fresh rainstorms ravaged northwest, southwest and central China. Nearly 150 millimeters of rain hit Jingchuan county, northwestern Gansu province, between 7:40 p.m. and 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday, an official with the Gansu Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said. The rainstorm, which destroyed 430 houses, left two dead, one missing, three injured and affected nearly 100,000 people in 72 villages, the official said, adding that road and agricultural facilities were also seriously damaged.

Two farmers in Huocheng county, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, were swept away by floods triggered by heavy rain on Tuesday night and died. At least 48 herdsmen and 13,000 goats have been stranded for nearly two days in a mountainous area in northwestern Xinjiang after a landslide cut off their path on Monday. Fallen rocks and mud have erected a huge dam between two opposite mountains in Jinghe county of Bortala prefecture, which is about 400 km northwest of the capital city of Urumqi. Flooding water has filled in the dam, forming two lakes of 3,000 sq. m. and1,000 sq.m. each and completely blocking the mountain paths.

Two teams of rescuers and experts, carrying communication equipment and food and drinking water, have been searching new access to the herdsmen, who were depasturing their goats in a mountainous pasturing area when the landslide suddenly rushed down. A rainstorm on Monday in southwestern Guizhou Province caused one death and affected 640,000 people Xifeng and Yinjiang counties saw rainfall of 100 to 114 millimeters on Monday, while the downtown area of Guiyang, Guizhou's capital, received 64 millimeters of rain from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

Some 425 houses have collapsed in the rainstorms in Guizhou. Rain which began on Saturday has also swollen rivers in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in central Hunan province. More than 100,000 people have been called up to protect the embankments of the rivers, where the water level was three to seven meters higher than the warning line. Longshan, a county in the prefecture, saw 317 millimeters of rain, the strongest storm in a decade.

The water level at the middle section of the Yangtze River has also risen to the warning lines. At 2 p.m. Wednesday, the water level of the river's section in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province, was 24.96 meters, approaching the 25-meter line which marks the need to start implementing flood control plans. It is estimated that the flood would push up the river to 25.05meters at about 8 p.m. Thursday as more downpours are expected in three days in the river's upper and middle reaches, making the flood control situation even worse.

Surveillance will be reinforced along the river, particularly at dams, water gates and reservoirs in the wake of upcoming flood crest, said Li Xiansheng, mayor of Wuhan and also the commander in chief of the city's flood control operation. The water level of the middle and lower sections of the Hanjiang river, the biggest branch of the Yangtze, has already exceeded warning lines. About 26,000 people have been mobilized to protect the dikes in Hubei Province.

Meanwhile, the water level of the swollen Huaihe River in the east is rising again due to continuous rain. The river has been swollen for more than 20 days. Water level at the Wangjiaba, a key hydrological station of the Huaihe, rose to 27.63 meters at 3 p.m. Wednesday, 0.13 meters higher than the warning line. "The flood control work of the Huaihe is still at a critical period as the water level has been high for a long time and many sections of the river's dikes are facing an increasing risk of being breached," said an official with the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

In Anhui Province, a tornado hammered 33 villages in ten townships for 40 minutes early Wednesday morning, bringing down 133 houses and destroying 290 hectares of cropland and 90,000 trees. It also cut off many electricity and telephone wires, incurring an economic lose of 21 million yuan (2.77 million U.S. dollars). No casualties have been reported. China's death toll from natural disasters was 715 with 129 people missing by July 16 this year, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions, along with its branches in the flood-hit regions, has extended 10.7 million yuan (1.4 million U.S. dollars) to help people survive the mischance.

http://www.mwr.gov.cn/english/20070814/86194.asp

Philippines Star. August 14, 2007. Hundreds dead, missing in NKorea floods: report. Seoul

North Korea late yesterday said hundreds of people were dead or missing and thousands of houses destroyed in torrential rains which battered the country over the past week. In a rare admission of problems within the reclusive country the North's official Korean Central News Agency said heavy downpours since August 7 had caused "huge human and material damage." "According to the preliminary information available from different parts of the country as of August 12, the torrential rain left hundreds of persons dead or missing and destroyed more than 30,000 houses for over 63,300 families, or rendered them inundated," KCNA said.

"It also left tens of thousands of hectares (acres) of farmland inundated, buried under silt and washed away." At least 800 public buildings, more than 540 bridges and sections of railway were destroyed in the heavy rain, the news agency said.

The southern provinces of Kangwon and North Hwanghae which border South Korea and South Hamgyong in the east were among the worst hit with thousands of familes left homeless after their houses were inundated. "The material damage so far is estimated to be very big. This unceasing heavy rain destroyed the nation's major railways, roads and bridges, suspended power supply and cut off the communications network," KCNA said.

The capital Pyongyang and the neighbouring provinces of South Hwanghae province southwest of Pyongyang and South Phyongan north of the capital were also badly affected, it said. In a separate dispatch, KCNA said many parts of the country received between 30 and 67 centimetres (about one to two feet) of rain between August 7 and 12. "As a result, the farmland in those areas was inundated, washed away and buried under silt and dwelling houses, public buildings, production establishments and other objects were completely or partly destroyed," the agency said.

Experts say decades of reckless deforestation have stripped North Korea of tree cover that provides natural protection from flooding. Energy-starved residents have used every scrap of wood from the countryside to cook food or heat homes through the bitter winters, leaving large areas of the country vulnerable to flooding and landslides. Officials have worsened the problem by encouraging residents to expand farmland into the hillsides in a bid to grow more food.

http://www.philstar.com/index.php?News%20Flash&p=54&type=2&sec=91&aid=200708146

Reuters. August 14, 2007. More Floods, Deaths Add to Misery in South Asia. Kolkata.

The death toll from flooding in eastern India rose by at least 63 on Monday as thousands more people were marooned due to fresh rains in parts of the monsoon-battered region, officials said. The new flooding occurred as governments in South Asia struggled to provide aid to millions already affected by monsoon rains, with authorities in Bangladesh cancelling leave for state doctors due to the rising number of cases of waterborne diseases. Around 780 have died in South Asia in the past few weeks.

Highlighting the desperation caused by weeks of bad weather and the anger at the authorities' response, an Indian villager died from injuries sustained after being beaten by police in the impoverished state of Bihar on Sunday. Another 25 were hurt in Bihar's Saharsa district as police used batons to disperse villagers, furious about sluggish aid operations, an official said. "It was tense and getting out of hand, forcing us to use batons to chase them away," said Kunwar Singh, a senior police officer, by phone.

Flood waters have been receding over the past few days in Bihar -- a densely populated state of 90 million -- but millions are yet to get any substantial relief from authorities. As water levels fell, more bodies were discovered, pushing the death toll up by 58 in the state since Sunday morning. A defence official said air drops had been stopped as the flood situation improved, though aid agencies said the air operation -- using just four helicopters -- had been grossly insufficient from the start.

Flooding again, and again

In Kolkata, eastern India's biggest city and capital of West Bengal state, rain water entered homes and disrupted transport. Dozens of train services were cancelled, and buses and cars stayed off the streets. Those who went to work had to wade through filthy water. In the neighbouring state of Orissa, thousands of people were cut off after swollen rivers, triggered by an overnight storm, broke through mud embankments and swamped villages. At least four people drowned in the state on Monday.

In the northern Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, landslides and flash floods killed 14 people late on Sunday, taking the toll to 25 in the state since Saturday. A TV journalist on assignment was among those killed after she was hit by a landslide.

In Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, more than 400 people have been killed since flooding began in mid-July.

On Monday, officials voiced concerns about diarrhoea and other diseases. Nearly 45,000 people have been treated in hospitals and clinics across the country since late July. "Diarrhoea has taken an alarming turn with the floodwaters receding," said A.S.M. Matiur Rahman, health adviser to the country's army-backed interim government. Rescuers pulled five bodies from the Bay of Bengal, a day after 14 fishermen went missing in storms. In Nepal, at least six members of a family were killed in a landslide that buried a house in the country's west, taking the death toll in this year's monsoon rains to 105.

(Additional reporting by Reuters reporters in Patna, Bhubaneswar, Serajul Islam Qaudir in Dhaka, Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu and Geetinder Garewal in Chandigarh)

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43679/story.htm

General Environment News

Daily Nation. August 15, 2007 Kenya; Mt Kenya Loses Appeal to Tourists As Snow Melts. Nairobi

Tour companies that operate around Mt Kenya have expressed concern that business may decrease due to loss of a key attraction on the mountain to climate change. Several Tour companies said visitors are frequently complaining of lack of glaciers on Africa's second largest mountain, a stark contrast to the captivating visual impression found in books, travel magazines and documentaries. The glaciers are large, slow moving rivers of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, which slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity. The glaciers are responsible for the beautiful view of the mountain that is usually a mixture of dark rocks and sparkling white of snow that is usually visible on the mountain.

Now tour companies say that the current situation may discourage thousands of tourists who visit the mountain. "Most tourists visiting the mountain want to view the magnificent scenery that is brought by the presence of snow. Indeed mountain climbers who want to reach Batian are unable to because the route is impassable due to lack of snow," said Mr Joseph Muthui of Ice Rock Tour Company. The route is usually used by technical mountain climbers who use the Diamond Couler route to reach Batian, the highest point for the climbers.

However, the least affected are the hikers who usually rely on the rocks to reach the point Lenana, which is 163,000 ft above the sea level and is the third highest point of the mountain. "Most tourists visiting the mountain feel disappointed at the sight of bare rocks. The white snow and ice that once added beauty to the mountain is long gone," said Mr John Ndegwa of Summit venture Expeditions. Mr Ndegwa, who is also chairman of Mt Kenya Biodiversity Conservation Group, said companies that are involved in guiding tourists around the mountain face a bleak future.

The climatic challenges facing the mountain were recently supported by a study carried out by 300 researchers whose report titled the public global outlook to ice and snow was released in June in Nairobi. According to one of the scientists working with UNEP, Mr Christian Lambrechts, Mt Kenya has lost 80 percent of the glaciers and snow cover over the last 10 years. Mr Lambretchts said the worrying trend is also evident in several other mountains in the world including Mt Kilimanjaro that is blamed on adverse climate changes in the world occasioned by global warming.

According to the scientist, the loss of the glaciers means that over 11,000 years of the historical data on the mountain will disappear as the glaciers are an important source of data on mountain formation. However even though glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on earth, and second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water, farmers that rely on the rivers that flow from the mountain need not to worry, according to Mr Lambrechts. He said only one per cent of the water flows in to rivers such as River Ewaso Ngiro.

UNEP moves to protect Virunga National Park

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Achim Steiner, has said the agency will deploy a technical mission to the Virunga National Park in DR Congo. The move is geared towards stopping the wanton killing of one of the rarest great apes, the mountain gorilla, by poachers, as well as stopping the human tragedy and environmental degradation there. The UNEP chief made the announcement at the agency's headquarters here Monday after meeting the DR Congo Environment, Nature Conservation, Water and Forestry Minister, Didace Pembe.

They reviewed in detail the escalating situation in the Virunga National Park, which resulted recently in the death of a park ranger and injuries to others, as well as the death of a number of mountain gorillas. "The instability surrounding the Virunga is an illustration of the unfolding human and environmental tragedy," he said. The park is home to 50% of the mountain gorilla population and to numerous other endemic and endangered species. "It is the duty of the international community to assist the DRC authorities," said Steiner at the conclusion of the meeting. Based on a request from the Minister, he announced the immediate dispatch of a UNEP technical team to assist the Congolese authorities and stressed the need to stabilize the situation around the National Park.

"The continuing problems in the Virunga reveal the need for a sustainable solution to the management of the Park and other protected areas in DRC," Steiner said. He said any lasting approach must involve the local communities and the protection of their livelihoods, and pledged to support the government in identifying appropriate courses of action. "I am also very pleased that other partners of UNEP are conscious of the necessity to provide assistance, such as UNESCO and a number of non-governmental organizations, with whom we collaborate in the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP)," he added. During the meeting with Minister Pembe, the Executive Director agreed to work with the government of the DRC to develop a post conflict environmental assessment programme, which will take into account issues of capacity building, waste management, the development of a framework environmental law and legislation to strengthen the forestry code.

A commitment was also made for the rehabilitation of the Presidential Park of N'Sele. While in Nairobi, Pembe, in his capacity as Chair of the Meetings of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, also held consultations with UNEP's officials ahead of the 19th meeting of the partners and the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Montreal protocol. http://www.panapress.com/newslat.asp?code=eng023368&dte=14/08/2007

Uganda: Reduced Ice Cap On Mountain Ruwenzori Irks Scientists

New Vision (Kampala): The ice cap on Mountain Ruwenzori has reduced from six square kilometres to less than one square kilometre in the last 100 years, according to researchers. "Glaciers that covered six square kilometres in 1906 have reduced to 0.86 square kilometres," said professor Giorgio Vassena. Scientists attribute the problem to global warming, adding that research was ongoing to analyse the cause of the drastic recession of the glaciers. Speaking at a conference at the Italian embassy, Vassena added that the Italian government was working with partners like Makerere University, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and AVSI, an Italian non-governmental organisation, to improve the environment around the mountains. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708090049.html

Uganda: Oil Policy to Provide for the Environment

New Vision (Kampala): The upcoming national oil and gas policy will cater for environmental concerns of mineral exploitation, the energy ministry has said. "The policy will cover environmental concerns approved by the National Environment Management Authority," a statement from the ministry said. The minerals state minister, Kamanda Bataringaya, said the policy would soon be tabled before the Cabinet. "The policy is at the ministry level. It will enable the creation of institutions, which will manage the resources and ensure that the oil resources are used for developing social infrastructure," said Bataringaya at a UN Conference on Trade and Development in Nairobi recently. The conference director, Lakshmi Puri said: "The oil and gas industry is the most important wealth creating sector on the continent. For some countries, it generates over 90% of total revenue and accounts for over 50% of Gross Domestic Product." http://allafrica.com/stories/200708090107.html

Nigeria: Oil Spills - A/Ibom House Summons Shell

Daily Champion (Lagos): Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Akwa Ibom State government may be heading for a collision over the former's alleged poor handling of environmental problems in the state. Daily Champion recalls that Ikot Ada Udo community, in Ikot Abasi local government area was recently hit by oil spillage which affected the socio-economic activities of the area. During the house's deliberations, the lawmakers recalled that, SPDC for over 40 years had recklessly abandoned several corked oil wells in various communities of the state to spill without servicing or decommissioning them for the benefit of the host communities. The house leader, Prince Jerome Isangedighi in a motion seconded by Mr. Anietie Etuk representing Nsit Ubium state constituency urged SPDC to appear before the house over the oil spillage. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708100143.html

Ethiopia: Millennium Secretariat Says Tree Planting Campaign More Than Successful

Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa): Over 470 mln seedlings of tree have so far been planted in the country in two months under the millennium campaign, the country's millennium secretariat disclosed on Wednesday Speaking to reporters at his office, Seyoum Bereded, Director of the Secretariat said, the number of trees planted within the stated period surpassed the Secretariat's initial plan which was to plant up to 60 million trees. Seyoum attributed the success to an active participation of all involved in the campaign-from the individual, institutional and organizational levels in the 'Two tree for 2000' campaign. Seyoum said he believed the society would continue to play an active role so at least 80% of the already planted trees would grow. He urged all the organizations who participated in the campaign and the public at large to properly keep and take care of the plants to rescue them from the ever threatening of environmental degradation. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708100828.html

Nigeria: Mark Promises Legislative Backing for Clean Environment

This Day (Lagos): Senate President David Mark has declared the intention and readiness of the National Assembly to give the necessary legislative backing and maximum cooperation to ensure that the Nigerian environment is more friendly and attractive to the rest of the world in line with the Clean and Green Initiative of Imo State Governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim. Launching the Imo State Clean and Green programme yesterday at Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, Mark said the National Assembly should not only support the laudable programme of reclaiming the state, but must give the necessary legislative backing as well as enjoining other states to emulate the idea. "What we are doing today under your able and dynamic governor is to reclaim what belongs to you, and then set an agenda for a nationwide clean and green programme. Apart from commending the government and people of Imo State for pioneering this programme, I wish to urge you to ensure the success and sustainability of this project," he said. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708110043.html

South Africa: Outcry At Plan to Slaughter Sharks

Cape Argus (Cape Town): Top marine scientists have lashed out at a planned shark-fishing competition off Durban next weekend with one describing it as a return to the "dark days of revenge killing" of the creatures. About 35 anglers will compete to kill sharks which they claim in a newsletter are so plentiful they "can be seen under the boats waiting to grab fish as they are brought to the surface". Malcolm Smile, a marine biologist at the Bayworld Aquarium in Port Elizabeth, said the slaughter was totally unjustifiable and that the anglers were on a mission to hunt and kill sharks - sharks that others enjoyed seeing and which contributed to ecotourism on the South African coast. Lesley Rochat, of the Afri-Oceans Conservation Alliance, said the competition "in the guise of a very questionable charity event", would target sharks above 20kg and the fins would be "donated" through a local Asian buyer. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708130391.html

Film News

Screen Africa. 15 Aug 2007. Crime thriller with bite for SA

Fireworks International, a division of the UK’s ContentFilm plc, announced on Tuesday 14 August that it had negotiated a raft of deals for the crime thriller Blood Ties, which will see the 22 x one-hour drama set to air in a range of territories worldwide including South Africa and French speaking Africa. Created by award-winning producer and writer Peter Mohan, Blood Ties, based on Tanya Huff’s best-selling ‘Vicki Nelson’ novels known as the ‘Blood’ series, charts the misadventures of ex-cop turned private investigator Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox). In South Africa, the SABC have snapped up the series. In the UK, Virgin Media Television channel Living will air the series shortly as part of its primetime schedule. NBC Universal has licensed the series for Calle 13 for Spain, Andorra and Portugal; STAR has licensed the series for its Star World channels for Asia; Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has acquired the series for its AXN channels in Italian speaking Europe, Latin America and Israel; whilst Tele Muenchen Fernseh GmbH & Co has committed to the series for Germany.

Further licenses confirmed for Blood Ties include Orion Cinema Network, Inc. for audiences in South Korea and Euro TV for French speaking Europe. Produced by Toronto’s Kaleidoscope Entertainment Inc. and Vancouver’s Insight Film Studios in association with Citytv and SPACE, and airing on those channels in Canada, Blood Ties follows Vicki Nelson, a gorgeous and determined 29-year old whose world is turned upside down after witnessing a horrific murder. She finds herself caught up with a mysterious stranger who is also investigating the murder -- Henry Fitzroy (played by Kyle Schmid; A History of Violence) -- a 450-year old vampire who just happens to be the bastard son of King Henry VIII. After solving the murder, Vicki finds her new venture into supernatural crime is far from over as she is drawn into more intriguing cases involving a terrifying pantheon of occult adversaries.

Vicki and Henry's unlikely alliance soon progresses beyond a purely professional arrangement, creating a love triangle dilemma for Vicki and her long-suffering ex-partner in policing and love, Detective Mike Celluci (played by Dylan Neal; CSI Miami). Kaleidoscope’s President, Randall Zalken, commented, “Blood Ties has far exceeded expectations. The fans are awesome...the broadcasters supportive and the press flattering overall for our romantic vampire love triangle adventures.” Greg Phillips, President, Fireworks International, added, “Blood Ties has generated great attention from broadcasters worldwide since its launch and these deals are testament to the quality and universal appeal of the series. We are confident that the drama will prove a hit with international audiences.”

Screen Africa.14 Aug 2007. Brazilian telenovela deubts in Mazambique

On 11 August, the Brazilian miniseries Amazonia debuted during primetime on STV in Mozambique. The partnership between Globo TV International, the Brazilian distributor and STV is longstanding, and currently there are four Globo telenovelas being aired by the channel, both during prime time and access prime time. Written by Glória Perez, who also wrote the international hit The Clone, the telenovela Amazonia recounts the saga of the conquest of Acre state and the fight to preserve Amazonian biodiversity.

The drama, rich in adventure, romance and excitement, follows the international conflict and its consequences over 100 years. The story of Chico Mendes is one of the high points of the miniseries. This activist called world attention to the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, which had been going on since the 70s. Chico Mendes created a peaceful resistance movement to block deforestation, uniting rubber harvesters and Indians, and using only dialogue as a weapon. The activist was honored by the UNO for his efforts to protect the environment.

In 1988, at 44 years old, he was assassinated in front of his house. His partners, friends and family have continued this rubber leader’s fight, showing that it is possible to responsibly use natural resources, preserving the beauty of the largest tropical rainforest in the world. The cast of Amazonia includes such great Brazilian actors as Giovanna Antonelli (Jade from The Clone), José Wilker (Her Own Destiny), Cristiane Torloni (Women in Love) and Antonio Caloni (Terra Nostra).

Screen Africa. 07 Aug 2007. It's Big Brother time!

Amidst much pomp and fanfare, pay-TV broadcaster M-Net’s “Big Brother Africa 2” got underway on the evening of 5 August in Johannesburg. The reality show will run for 98-days and sees 12 contestants from different African countries housed in a tiny apartment, with a multitude of cameras, microphones and TV viewers following their every move, competing for the grand prize of US$100 000. The series is set to be seen in its entirety on MultiChoice’s DStv platform in over 40 countries in Africa. It is presented by popular Channel O personality Kabelo “KB” Ngakane.

Widely traveled across Africa, Ngakane has visited Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia. This makes him uniquely qualified to host the series. Ngakane will be the only person, other than Big Brother himself, to have a continuous interaction with the housemates while they are in the house. Says Ngakane: “If you miss this show, you’ll really miss out and may even miss the point of what the African renaissance is all about.” M-Net's AfricaMagic channel will also screen a host of “Big Brother Africa 2” programming including a daily 30-minute edited highlights show (running from Tuesday to Friday). There'll also be a 60-minute Saturday highlights show, 60-minute Sunday eviction show, a 60-minute Monday nomination show and a Friday evening 30-minute ‘Uncut’ show for audiences to enjoy. For news of all the action, drama and excitement in the Big Brother house, log on to www.mnetafrica.com/bigbrother. “Big Brother Africa 2” is sponsored by MTN, in association with Ecobank.

Screen Africa. 15 Aug 2007. Growing SA’s celeb culture

A new entertainment documentary series on South African free-to-air channel e.tv aims to grow the local celebrity culture through in-depth profiles of well-known personalities in film, TV, music, theatre and fashion. The series commences on Wednesday 5 September at 8pm. “Behind the Name” is a 10-part series produced under the banner of “The Showbiz Report”, e.tv’s popular weekly entertainment magazine show produced, written and presented by Nicky Greenwall. Teaming up with documentary producer/director Tamarin Kaplan, Greenwall conceived and co-directs “Behind the Name”. Some of the celebrities to be featured include kwaito star Mandoza, comedian Marc Lottering, fashion photographer and ex Calvin Klein model Josie Borain, sisters and TV personalities Kuli Roberts & Hlubi Mboya, South Africa’s “Princess of Pop” Yvonnne Chaka-Chaka, legendary satirist Pieter Dirk-Uys, actor Hakeem Kae-Kazim, model Minki van der Westhuizen and actor/presenter Colin Moss.

Says Greenwall: “So far I’ve produced 125 episodes of “The Showbiz Report” and sometimes after an episode I think I could have done a particular insert better if I’d had more time. Last year I approached e.tv Channel Director Bronwyn Keene-Young with the idea of doing a 10-part entertainment documentary series that I could put all my energy and passion into and she told me to go-ahead. That’s when I asked Tamarin Kaplan to come on board. “South Africa, unlike Hollywood, is still in the process of building its celebrity culture and we’ve got a long way to go. It’s certainly worth developing as the celebrity business is a lucrative one. From our test audiences we’ve found that the local celebrity culture is very segregated; celebrities in some South African cultures are virtually unknown in others.”

Kaplan adds: “This series is an intimate look at the lives of some of South Africa’s most famous celebrities. Nicky and I approached this project as a documentary series – it’s definitely not a talk show. We allow each celebrity to tell their own story and we’ve had access to some amazing, never before seen archival footage.

“Behind the Name” is an exclusive look at some incredible people. The celebrity phenomenon is a definite hook for TV viewers. In a way this series is anthropological as it is about South Africa’s many different cultures.”

To ensure an in-depth look at their celebrity subjects, Greenwall and Kaplan conducted very long interviews, some that lasted two days. It took a year to complete five episodes of the seires, with each episode taking up to four months. “It’s certainly not a weekly show in terms of production time, as each episode is very deeply crafted. We’ve also staged some re-enactments,” comments Kaplan. In keeping with the “The Showbiz Report” brand, the featured personality in each episode of “Behind the Name” is introduced to viewers by Greenwall herself. “Other than that I don’t appear in the episodes, although I do narrate them. We feel that “The Showbiz Report” is a valuable brand for e.tv and it provides a link for audiences.”

Greenwall is well known to e.tv viewers having begun her career as entertainment reporter on e.tv’s 7pm news show. She then did the half-hour entertainment magazine “Nightlife” before doing “The Showbiz Report”, which enjoys the Saturday prime time slot of 7.30pm.

Screen Africa. 15 Aug 2007. Israel tops Kenyan awards

Israeli films won the two major awards at the recent Lola Kenya Screen film festival for children and youth held in Nairobi. The 76-minute feature film “Giborim Ktanim” (“Little Heroes”) by Itai Lev won the Golden Mboni, with the 51-minute “Ringo & Taher” by Jony Arbid winning the Silver Mboni. “My Date from Hell”, a 14-minute animation film directed by Tim Weimann and Tim Bracht of Germany, won the Bronze Mboni. It was also ranked the best short film by the festival jury, comprising Esther Njeri, Jaycy Wali, Mina Ogova, Adima Mesa NyOdero and Phoebe Akinyi Ahoya, whose ages range between 9 and 16 years.

Winning the Creativity Award at the ceremony presided over by Director of Culture Silverse Anami and child rights activist Catherine Mumma at Goethe-Institut in Nairobi CBD was “Little Knowledge is Dangerous”, a five-minute animation film made by Samora Michelle, Adede Hawi NyOdero and Karama K Ogova. This was one of the three, five-minute films made during the second Lola Kenya Screen film production workshop facilitated by Maikki Kantola of Finland for Project ANIMA of Denmark. Other films made during the six-day workshop were “The Wise Bride” and “Ogre in the Village”.

Other winners at Lola Kenya Screen were:
Best Child Rights Film: “Agaram” by J Ramesh, India
Best Animation Film: “More, Strycku, Proc Je Slane?” (“The Sea, Uncle, Why Is It Salty?”) By Jan Balej, Czech Republic
Best Experimental Film: “Itmanna” (“Make a Wish”) by Cherien Dabis, Palestine/ USA
Best Student Film: “The Girl Through The Telescope” by Niels Bisbo, Denmark
Best Directorial Debut Film: “Vanaja” by Rajnesh Domalpalli, India
Audience’s Choice Award: “Drommen” (“We Shall Overcome”) by Niels A Oplev, Denmark
Jury Commendation: “Antes Y Despues De Besar A Maria” (“Before and After Kissing Maria”) by Ramon Alos, Spain
Best East African Film: “Real Saharawi” by Caroline Kamya, Uganda

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter-9th to 15th August 2007

2007-08-17T10:21:00.000+03:00

Unlikely Heroes

I have an unusual collection of news reports this week that focus on the entertainment media and how they have been responding to climate change advocacy. Whilst I usually spotlight Africa alone, there is of course the international aspect and from next week I will be including an international environment news section.

If you have ever drawn up a list of this you never imagined would happen in your lifetime, you might need to append it and add The Simpsons (animated film), Jack Bauer (24), and Steve Carell (‘The Office’ TV series) as your new environment heroes. Popular television networks have, one by one, been announcing that they are going green. This last July however seemed to have an increase in incidence of this response and I can only attribute this to Al Gore’s ‘Live Earth’ rock concert. Whether the concert itself was a success or not is subjective and critics aren’t always kind in situations like this. When Al Gore’s journey ends (and I hope not anytime soon), he will always be remembered for championing climate change and targeting policy makers.

India plants 10.5 million trees in one day and this has now been acknowledged as the greenest day on their calendar ever. If you haven’t already heard about the ‘Billion Tree Campaign’ you should log onto http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/ immediately and you must pledge to plant trees or register the ones that you planted recently. UNEP website also features pictures uploaded by those you have planted trees on their homepage and you could just be a day’s hero.

The Commonwealth Peoples Forum (CPF) registration has begun and those of you we have invited to join us will be receiving more personalised information on the activities as they unfold. The output from the workshops, from which all invited APN partners will participate (in particular the media workshop), will be presented in a communiqué to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) for consideration in the decisions they will make in their closed meeting. Whilst we all look forward to this event, and I don’t want to raise expectations too high, but in light of my topical theme for this weeks newsletter if the activities are a success and resolutions carried forward by our leaders, then you too could be this year’s ‘unlikely hero.’ Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator – Africa

The Observer. 29 July 2007. The Simpsons Movie. Philip French

Ecowarriors lynch hapless Homer as The Simpsons migrate to the big screen. Along the way their entertaining odyssey fits in pigs, pollution and even President Arnie. Eat my Schwarz!

There are no doubt some people who, standing aloof from popular culture, think a film called The Simpsons Movie must be a prequel to 'Wallis and Edward: The Windsor Years'. Most, however, will recognise it as a big-screen spin-off from the TV animated show The Simpsons, initially created by Matt Groening as a filler cartoon for The Tracey Ullman Show in the late 1980s. They'll either be devoted fans who've been eagerly awaiting a cinematic version, or occasional viewers who recognise it as an inevitable but by no means momentous occasion.

In the event the film is enjoyable and reasonably inventive. As with many films nowadays (Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for instance), the audience is expected to be conversant with the setting and characters. Thus the movie has a pre-credit sequence featuring Itchy and Scratchy, the blue mouse and black cat, a parody of violent cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and the Roadrunner films where animal characters get flattened and blown up. They are regularly watched on TV by the Simpson family but here they are seen in a cinema by Bart, Lisa and their parents, Marge and Homer. Homer gets up and asks why anyone would be stupid enough to pay to see something available for free on TV. A smarter question than those the dumb Homer usually asks. The film-makers try to answer it over the next 87 minutes before the Simpsons appear in a movie audience again, this time watching the final credits. Unlike most of the audience I saw it with, they remain in their seats because sensitive liberal Lisa won't leave until she's seen the announcement that no animals were hurt during the making of the picture.

The film's chosen theme - not a new one in the series - is the threatened environment. In the picture's first major parody, US rock group Green Day, on a floating bandstand in the local beauty spot Lake Springfield, are attempting to preach a lesson on environmental protection while polluted waters eat away the stage. Swapping their guitars for violins, they play 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' as the raft sinks like the Titanic. At a memorial service for the band, Grandpa has a vision of an impending apocalypse and the concerned Lisa decides to lead a campaign to clean up the lake. In the film's second sharp parody she addresses the complacent citizens of Springfield on 'An Irritating Truth'. Cleverly skewering the gimmicky folksiness of Al Gore, she gets stuck on a rising ramp used to accompany a giant graph.

Despite Springfield and its wily mayor having fenced off the lake, Homer dumps a load of dangerous pig excrement in it, produced by the porker he's fallen in love with. The resultant pollution creates mutant creatures out of a horror movie. This comes to the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency, whose manipulative chief gets newly elected President Arnold Schwarzenegger to cocoon Springfield by offering him five alternative plans, none of which he actually looks at. 'I was elected to lead, not to read,' says Arnie. A little unfair perhaps to the Governor of California, who's been converted to good causes during the time this film has been in production. The upshot is that Homer becomes a pariah, mobs march on his home and he escapes with the family to start a new life in Alaska, advertised as 'a place where you can't be too fat or too drunk'.

The movie sags somewhat at this point, possibly due to the need to develop a larger narrative and capture the sympathies of a wider audience who don't quite get the knife-edged postmodern satire the TV series plays on. Al Jean, one of the programme regular writers and co-producers, has said that it was necessary for the film that: 'Each Simpson family member has a story arc of growth and redemption, even the baby. We wanted the film to hold audiences emotionally through the end, and that was perhaps our biggest struggle. The Simpsons Movie also had to have big scenes, locations and themes.'

Unless he's having us on, this is a trifle solemn and self-important, and leads to a tale in which the ever-loving Marge and her children desert Homer and leave him to what is inevitably called his odyssey, a journey home to reconciliation and an earned heroism. Unlike the South Park team, the makers of The Simpsons Movie haven't used the freedom of the cinema to shock or offend.

It is customary in the TV series to feature cameo appearances by real-life figures ranging from Tony Blair and Stephen Hawking to Michael Moore and Jerry Springer. This follows on from the likes of Richard Nixon and John Wayne mocking themselves in a mild way on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In, which back in the late Sixties and early Seventies passed for satire on American TV. In The Simpsons Movie the lead guest star is Tom Hanks, present 'to lend credibility to government policy' on the environment. He's fairly amusing and clearly being a good sport. However, my favourite moment in the film comes when Springfield is faced with disaster and possibly extinction. The congregation rushes from the church into the bar next door in search of a stiff drink. They pass the habitues of Moe's Tavern, fleeing in the opposite direction to make their peace with God in church.

The simple, highly stylised animation is a pleasant change from the overly smooth, realistic style of current CGI animation, and happily Marge's blue bouffant hairdo remains intact. A whole battalion of Korean artists have been recruited to help out, and the director is David Silverman, who's been associated with The Simpsons for 20 years but has also worked on animated pictures in a different mode, among them Robots, Monsters, Inc. and The Ice Age. Ultimately, perhaps, the graphic and comic styles are better suited to the shorter TV format. I laughed sporadically at this enjoyable film. The other night on TV I watched a Halloween edition of The Simpsons featuring parodies of Child's Play, King Kong and Night of the Living Dead, and zombie versions of Washington, Shakespeare and Einstein. It had me constantly roaring with laughter and left me full of admiration.

The Independent. 6 August 2007. Jack Bauer, the hero of '24', takes on global warming. Stephen Foley, New York

The battle against climate change has just got its toughest new recruit: Jack Bauer, hero of the TV show 24. The programme's creators, Fox, are promising their next series will introduce a host of environmentally-friendly production measures, as the industry gropes for ways to make carbon neutral television.

The producers will swap diesel generators at the studio for electric power and buy the electricity from renewable sources, and put the crew in hybrid vehicles or convert the giant production trucks to biodiesel. And global warming will be incorporated into the plot, too, once again putting Hollywood in the forefront of bringing the issue to public attention in America. A Fox spokesman insisted the carbon reductions were real, not a publicity stunt to promote the show's upcoming storylines.

By cutting its carbon footprint by a planned one-twentyfourth, the show is expected to heavily publicise a "carbon-neutral" season finale when it is aired next summer. Filming is to start in the next few weeks. "Global warming is a crime for which we are all guilty, from our cars, our homes and our workplaces," said Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Jack Bauer. "All of us at 24 understand the urgency of this problem and, over the next year, we will be implementing creative new ways to produce our show and significantly reduce our carbon footprint." Sutherland will also present a series of public education videos designed to highlight simple measures that people can take to reduce their own contributions to global warming.

CNET. 17 July 2007. "The Office" Going Green?

Somewhat weird news, but I think it gives us an opportunity to flex our creative muscles a bit...

The initial fan response to this news has been, shall we say, mixed. Some seem to have faith in the show's writers, but most are knocking NBC for throwing a political message into a big chunk of its programming. Personally, I fall into the former category, at least with regards to "The Office." My feeling is, the writers of this show have never let us down before, so why would they start now? While an eco-friendly storyline might seem forced for some shows, the fact that "The Office" focuses on a paper company should actually make it quite easy to work the message into the show - in a funny way, no less.

John Krasinski didn't have any trouble making the environmentally-friendly connection with Dunder-Mifflin. In fact, he joked about it with the media on Monday. "We're a paper company, so we're screwed."

So with that all being said...I have two questions for you to consider.

1. What are your general thoughts on this news?

2. How would you work this into a funny and sensible storyline on the show?

BBC. 17 July 2007. Bishop of Manchester: The Bishop's 'going green'

The Bishop of Manchester has joined the Hollywood trend by taking delivery of a new hybrid car. Hybrid cars, which are all the rage in Hollywood, are driven by actors such as George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio. The Bishop is believed to be one of the first clerics in the country opting to drive a Toyota Prius, which uses an engine that is driven by both petrol and electricity. Bishop Nigel McCulloch said, "I am in the middle of a three-year pilgrimage, travelling hundreds of miles a year visiting every parish in my diocese.

"Buying a hybrid car made sense; not only is it very economical but emissions are greatly reduced leading to less pollution. "These are important issues for any city, I hope others will consider 'going hybrid' when choosing a car for business travel or even the school run." Commenting on the driving experience, the bishop said, "It is a very different travelling in a hybrid. "At traffic lights, your engine is switched off by the onboard computer. As you pull away, there is still no engine noise as the batteries kick in. The car computer shows 99 miles per gallon at times as it switches silently between electricity and petrol fuel."

The Bishop's move is part of a nationwide initiative by the Church of England to raise awareness of climate change. 'Shrinking the Footprint' is a campaign that aims to involve all churches by asking them to take part in an Energy Audit, which will help the church to reduce their carbon footprint by 2008.

Courant.com 25 July 2007. TV Eco Push: Very Verde. Do not adjust the tint control on your television. Roger Catlin

Networks are going green voluntarily.

And if that doesn't mean they are messing with the TV color pallet, they're initiating environmental changes in the way they do business in an effort to help the planet.

Weeks after the LiveEarth concerts held world wide to demonstrate how viewers can change habits to possibly slow climate change (concerts that didn’t do all that great in the ratings, by the way), networks have been taking time to explain their individual efforts to go green, or at least greener, as part of the campaign.

That means not only more reporting on environmental issues at places like CNN, whose four hour documentary ''Planet in Peril'' runs in October, but infusing entertainment programs with the similar messages. NBC, for one, announced a week in which all of its primetime shows will have a green theme.

Finally, networks explained how they'll change the way they do business in order to lessen their environmental harm, including Fox network's plan to ditch limos for hybrid cars at the Emmy Awards in September, or save enough fuel during season-long changes at ''24'' such that its finale will be entirely ''carbon neutral.'' Ahead of the curve in some ways has been the Sundance Channel, which announced plans for a second season of its environmental series it started earlier this year under the title ''Robert Redford Presents the Green.'' Second seasons for the documentary series of information and encouragement, ''Big Ideas for a Small Planet,'' ''Ecoists,'' ''Eco-Biz'' and the BBC import ''It’s Not Easy Being Green'' were announced for second seasons next year.

''The programming has been well-received, and we are pleased to renew all of the programs in the block, which will continue on a 52-week-a-year basis,'' Laura Michalchyshyn, executive vice president and general manager of programming at Sundance Channel told reporters at press tour. Michael Williams, an executive producer of ''Big Ideas for a Small Planet,'' said in a release that ''the first season was just the tip of the melting iceberg of terriffic stories about the dedicated movers and shakers on the environmental front.''

A day earlier, Discovery networks had upped the ante by announcing plans for a whole network dedicated to the subject, starting in early 2008. Planet Green will take its place alongside the network’s History, Science, Animal Planet and Travel Channels as ''a 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network.'' Its first project is a 13-part series describing the rebuilding of the tiny Kansas town destroyed by a tornado in May, replacing it with with ''a sustainable model of eco-living and one that will save it from future environemtal catastrophe.'' Produced in part by Leonardo DeCaprio, the destroyed town already had a name that fit into the campaign – Greensburg.

The press tour itself, usually an exercise of excess in paper and food, with the air conditioning cranked to arctic levels, showed some changes from years past.

A party thrown by The CW had a green theme, with environmental hints as part of the décor. And Fox promised “the eco-friendliest TCA presentation of the tour,” Fox publicity chief Joe Earley said.

It involved providing computer flash drives instead of the usual binders of information, using recycled paper annd pens, lanyards made from recycled bottles, and a party at the Santa Monica pier using alternative energy, with stars arriving in hybrid cars and a Ferris wheel called ''the country’s first run on solar power.''

Fox also announced plans to have ''an eco-friendly and carbon-neutral'' Emmy Awards ceremon Sept. 16, using recycled materials where possible, hybrid vehicles, reducing power requirements and using alternative energy sources for its elements and replacing production golf carts with bicycles.

Plans were also announced for a eco-friendly season of the series ''24'' when it starts up in January, using biodiesel fuels to power generators and production vehicles; power from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar; use of electric generators instead of diesel-fueled; and using hybrid vehicles. The goal was to save enough energy to make the show’s finale the first to be entirely carbon neutral.

More than that, the environmental message will be part of the show ''when appropriate, incorporating the issue of global warming and the importance of carbon emission reduction into storylines,'' a release said.

Changing content was a major part of a green gauntlet thrown by Lauren Zalaznick of Bravo, announcing plans for an initiative on all the networks owned by NBC Universal, as part of a corporation-wide effort started by their owner GE. A weeklong ''Green is Universal'' campaign from the NBC Universal Green Council Nov. 4-11 will feature entirely ''green-themed programming'' and consumer events, involving its networks, websites and theme parks. ''It's our first demonstration of kind of our individual responsibility, our collective responsibility, and maybe most importantly our corporate responsibility to change the way we think and hopefully change the way we and other people act,'' Zalaznick said. ''For the future, I'm really envisioning more than just a week even though that's a lot.

''We may not change the world in a week, but 'Green is Universal' is a huge commitment for us,'' Zalaznick said. ''We will have every single one of our primetime shows with storylines themed to green with our characters from Michael Scott to "The Journeyman" being agents of change and being pro-active, positive, green members of our going-green society,” NBC Entertainment co-president Ben Silverman said. Not only will the event be marked by shows from the ''Today'' show to ''The Tonight Show,'' Silverman said he himself would also carpool that week.

The campaign and its requirements for green-themed episodes seemed to be news to many of the network’s producers, though.

''Green-themed episodes?'' wondered Dick Wolf, producer of the ''Law & Order'' series of shows. ''Crime isn't very green.'' ''I would assume the burden is less for comedies because I would doubt that any show here is going to be preachy, and is going to handle it in a comedic way,'' said ''Scrubs'' creator Bill Lawrence. ''Although 'Law & Order' is usually pretty funny, I doubt they'll do the same jokes that we all do.'' ''We're screwed,'' said John Krasinski, cast member of ''The Office.'' ''We're a paper company. We're going to get hammered.'' The whole thing could get out of hand, ''My Name is Earl'' creator Greg Garcia suggested. ''If they turn off their TVs,'' he said, ''think about how much energy that will save.''

The Economist. 26 July 2007. Precious goes to Hollywood. GABORONE

From The Economist print edition

A small African country steps into the limelight

AT THE foot of Kgale Hill in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, the fully equipped Last Chance hair salon and several shops opened their doors earlier this month. Local residents tried to get haircuts and make some purchases. But they were turned away: the buildings, looking rather weathered despite being new, are a film set, erected in a few weeks out of the bush. “The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency”, Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling novel, set in Botswana, is making it to the screen.

Jill Scott as Precious Ramotswe

This is the first film to be entirely shot in Botswana. Anthony Minghella—of “The English Patient” fame—is directing, and an American singer, Jill Scott, plays the heroine, the no-nonsense Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only female detective. The film will first be shown on British television, before being distributed worldwide. A series is then expected to be shot at the same location.

Botswana, a country almost the size of Texas with 1.6m people, is known for its diamonds, wildlife and stunning landscapes, but movies are something new. Yet Amy Moore, the American producer, wanted the film to be shot there. “Botswana is a character in this movie,” she says. “Not shooting it here would be ripping the heart out of the project.”

The government, keen to attract more tourists and kick-start a film industry to create jobs beyond mines and tourism, has invested about $5m in the film, about 40% of the total budget. The novels themselves have already done a lot to put Botswana, already a high-end safari destination, on a bigger tourist map. Foreigners who had never heard of the country are coming, charmed by the spirit of Ms Ramotswe's world. Africa Insight, a local tour operator, started literary tours in 2003, adding on to their usual safaris visits to the detective's village, her house in Gaborone and other real-life locations that are featured in the books. And bookings have been taken until October next year.

But as for building a film industry, Botswana will struggle to compete with neighbouring South Africa, where blockbusters such as “Blood Diamond” and “Hotel Rwanda” have been filmed in part, attracted by financial incentives and local talent. Even so, the future for this film at least looks rosy. On a trip to Botswana last year the producer consulted a local witch-doctor about the film. “This is going to be a long journey,” asserted the toothless elder, “but a successful journey.”

UNEP. 31 July 2007. The greenest day of the calendar in India and a tree planting record by 600,000 volunteers

10 million trees and a half planted in Uttar Pradesh in a single day

The Forest Department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous State of India, has succeeded in planting 10.5 million trees in a single day on 31 July 2007. This ambitious project, to which 600,000 people participated, was meant to raise the awareness of residents of the State towards the importance of tree-planting and the vital role of trees in correcting ecological imbalances, removing the environmental pollution and increasing tree cover. The decision to launch this unique operation was taken at the Governmental level.

The saplings were planted by school children, the local population, farmers, industrial units, government departments and the forest department. The object of the exercise was to make tree plantation a people's participatory activity with people from a vast cross-section of society participating in the planting of the saplings at 9,320 different sites across the seventy districts of the State. Of these 43.72 % are farmer's sites, 9.14% forest department's sites, 38.01% educational institution's sites, 6.33% other government department's sites and rest sites are of other institutions. The planting activity on all sites have been photographed and will be authenticated. For this 18640 independent authenticators have been mobilized.

The pits for planting were dug in advance and the plants to be planted were transported to the sites in order to be planted in one go on 31 July 2007. The entire activity was carefully sequenced and detailed guidelines were prepared in the form of booklet and widely circulated.

The whole effort of planting over ten million saplings on one day was coordinated centrally from the State capital at Lucknow. Detailed plans were prepared which included details of the sites along with GPS based locations, the species of saplings to be planted, the source of the seedlings, as well as the name of site coordinators, photographers and videographers.

In India, 31 July was an auspicious day as it represented the first day of Shrawan, according to the Hindu calendar. The exercise gave a boost to the Billion Tree Campaign. Organizers also recalled that the theme of World Environment Day 2007 was "Melting Ice - A Hot Topic" and the Forest Department of Uttar Pradesh will also help to address the issues of global warming, expansion of tree cover and carbon sequestration. There was large scale participation by many citizens and institutions by way of contributions in cash and kind for meeting the cost of plants, their transportation, payment of photographers etc. In many places the officers/staff of the forest department have voluntarily donated a day of salary for this purpose.

General News

IRIN. 2 August 2007. Rural living standards now apply in the capital. Harare, Zimbabwe

The lifestyle normally associated with an urban society is fast disappearing from Zimbabwe's once bustling capital, Harare. The city's 2.8 million residents are adopting a way of life more akin to the country's rural areas, where drinking water is drawn from shallow pits and electricity is all but unavailable, although the metropolitan area's population density has produced its own quirks, such as untreated sewage spilling onto the streets.

Nomusa Dube, a night shift nurse living in Chitungwiza, a dormitory town about 25km from Harare, told IRIN her daily routine started with the search for water. After queuing for three hours at a shallow well that is also a watering point for cows and donkeys, Dube finally fills her 20-litre container with muddy water at 2pm. She glances anxiously at her watch; she has an appointment at her home, 5km away, with a supplier who said he would deliver firewood at 3pm, about the same time a colleague promised to bring her some candles, which have become much harder to get.

She is in luck: by just after 4pm the firewood and the candles have been delivered, and she sets off on her two-hour walk to work, telling her colleagues on the way how successful her day has been. Dube is just one among millions of city dwellers adapting to the ruralisation of Zimbabwe's urban areas, brought on by the collapse of service delivery in an economy once described as one of the most promising in Africa.

No escape from the decay for the middle classes

In the capital's affluent areas of Chisipite, Borrowdale and Glen Lorne, erratic power supplies have turned electrical hobs and other appliances into little more than decorations, and dusk is greeted by clouds of smoke billowing from suburban homes as the well-heeled residents use wood-fired ovens for cooking their evening meal.

"With each passing day, we have forsaken and abandoned the basic comforts and lifestyles associated with living in an urban environment, particularly a capital city like Harare," said Dadirai Chimuko, who lives in Chisipite. "It is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish the difference between living in a rural area and an urban area, because the truth is that urban areas in Zimbabwe are fast becoming more and more like rural areas." She told IRIN that she had not had potable water for three months and had dug a shallow well on her property.

Electricity rationing has reduced availability to four hours a day, even for those with access to the power grid, since the national power utility, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), introduced daily 20-hour cuts. Sarudzai Muzenda, a resident of Glen View, a working-class suburb, told IRIN that having electricity for four hours a day did not mean they were better off than others, who received nothing. "The electricity comes in the middle of the night when we are asleep, and therefore is not of any benefit because we would have used firewood for cooking. In fact, the power cuts have come at a great inconvenience to many families whose household electrical goods have been destroyed as a result of power surges."

But it was the small comforts, taken for granted in the past, that Muzenda missed most, like an evening stroll or visiting friends in the neighbourhood. "Way before we started getting unreliable electricity supplies, the city authorities were not replacing expired street bulbs because of a lack of foreign currency," she told IRIN. "But now, at night, it is total darkness, and those who venture out have to travel in large groups for fear of being mugged."

ZESA's energy production relies mainly on thermal power stations, but its ability to do so is severely handicapped because it does not have the necessary finance to buy the coal from the Hwange Colliery Company, the sole supplier, or the foreign currency for spare parts to maintain its power stations. The power utility is producing less than half its normal output, and Zimbabwe relies on electricity imports from neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo, although shortages of foreign currency have led to wrangling over payments in a region where economic demands are outpacing energy supplies.

Price controls

Zimbabwe is facing severe shortages of just about everything from water to petrol, and four out of five people are without jobs. According to international donors, in the coming months more than a quarter of its 12 million people will be living on food handouts. The government introduced price controls six weeks ago, ordering retailers and wholesalers to slash their prices by 50 percent. Stock flew off the shelves, only for the goods to reappear on the parallel market at prices even more expensive than before the government introduced price controls: foods like beef and chicken are almost unobtainable on the formal market, and beer is a rarity.

The attempt to curb hyperinflation resulted only in empty shop shelves. Inflation is estimated at over 4,000 percent, although some independent economists put the rate at 40,000 percent; if current economic trends prevail, the International Monetary Fund expects inflation to reach 100,000 percent by the end of the year.

A Zimbabwean manufacturer, who declined to be identified, told IRIN of the prevailing mood in the business sector: "We were told to sell our commodities at near give-away prices, but now we cannot afford to restock, so we hope the government will come with a rescue package to help us remain in business ... many have closed shop and many are considering doing the same."

Waterborne diseases

Mabvuku, one of Harare's high-density suburbs, is pockmarked with shallow wells, a consequence of potable water not being available in the area for the past six months.

"It looks like the municipal authorities and the government have abandoned us. Recently there was an outbreak of diarrhoea and several people died after drinking unsafe water," Constance Chiminya, a resident, told IRIN.

"Because authorities cannot provide the community with any form of water, we are now resorting to digging shallow unprotected wells, which we share with some animals." She said the authorities had brought in water bowsers when there were incidents of waterborne diseases, but once the outbreak was contained the bowsers were withdrawn.

In Kadoma, a mining town of 80,000 people about 140km south of Harare, 20 people died during an outbreak of diarrhoea in July. The United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF) installed water tanks in the town's high-density suburbs and provided disinfectants to prevent further outbreaks. Precious Shumba, spokesperson for the Combined Harare Residents Association, told IRIN that service delivery had collapsed in the capital and the risk of the waterborne diseases was high.

"Many households have gone for months without water so, naturally, residents are not using their lavatories. They now use the bush to relieve themselves ... Unfortunately it is in the same bushes that shallow wells are dug to provide water for the residents. This creates a ticking health time-bomb because, in addition, refuse is not being collected, while burst sewer pipes are not being attended to on time."

The former elected executive mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, told IRIN: "You see, when I was the mayor, we had some twinning arrangements with some cities around the world. Harare was twined with Munich, in Germany." Mudzuri, from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, was replaced by commissioners appointed from the ranks of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government. "They [Munich] were ready to assist us with equipment for managing refuse collection, but they pulled out from the arrangement, saying they only dealt with elected city leaders," he said.

"It is scandalous that the capital of a country has raw sewage flowing in some streets, and that people go for weeks without water. How can the streets of the capital of the country be in total darkness because the commission managing the city abandons its role of lighting up the streets?"

New Vision. 31 July 2007 Uganda: 68,000 Treated Mosquito Nets Go Missing in Rakai. Ali Mambule, Kampala

SIXTY eight thousand treated mosquito nets worth sh102m have been stolen from Rakai district medical department stores. Malaria Consortium and Afford Health Marketing Initiative gave the mosquito nets to Rakai under the Malaria No More programmes funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Philemon Mubiru said the nets were recently found missing when they were being loaded onto trucks for delivery to centres at the sub-counties where they were to be distributed from. Business came to a standstill at the district headquarters when it was realised the nets were missing. The trucks that had already left for the distribution centres were called back, but later released.

The nets were meant for expectant mothers and children under the age of five in the sub-counties of Kasaali, Rakai town council, Kasasa, Kyebe, Kibanda, Nabigasa, Dwaniro and Kacheera.

The LC5 chairman Vincent Semakula; resident district commissioner George William Kagulire; the director for District Health Services, Robert Mayanja, Afford's Jacob Ochola and Mubiru, together with security personnel, called an abrupt meeting to trace the suspects. Mubiru confirmed that two people including a driver in the district medical department, Hamidu Sebaggala and a watchman, Dominic Kagaruki have been arrested pending investigation. Mayanja said the key suspect identified as Emmanuel Bwanika, the storekeeper, disappeared on learning that it had been discovered that the nets were missing. He said Bwanika, who received the nets in May, deceived his bosses that he was out for a workshop at Enro Hotel in Wabigalo Mityana district, but the Police failed to trace him.

Sebaggala told the Rakai district police chief, Juma Okungo, that he was instructed by Bwanika to carry ten bales of the nets to Zana in Kampala, saying Rakai had received excess nets which had to be returned to the supplier. Kagaruki told district officials that the nets were being loaded on private and district vehicles on Bwanika's directive and were being taken to Kampala. Afford insisted that Rakai district will have to either find the mosquito nets, or refund the sh102m which was used to purchase them. Usaid gave over 580,000 nets to Uganda to fight malaria. A total of 32,000 nets were for Rakai district.

The Economist. 2 August 2007. As you were: Peace, and now elections. But not much else to brag about. Freetown, Sierra Leone

AT LEAST the presidential and parliamentary elections on August 11th will be the first to be held without the help of international peacekeepers since the end of the civil war that lashed Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002. That is one welcome sign of progress. And since a British military intervention ended the conflict the country's 6m people no longer run the risk of sudden death at the hands of drugged-up child soldiers. But, five years of peace and hundreds of millions of dollars of aid money later, the issues that gave rise to the war in the first place are still as much in evidence as ever. And the elections, unfortunately, are not expected to change that.

Unemployment is close to 80%, poverty is widespread and corruption endemic. Any reform and improvement in daily life remain painfully slow. There are 300,000 more children in primary school than during the war, a few more paved roads and some electricity, but seven out of ten people still live on less than a dollar a day. The country has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.

Where reform has been successful it has been led by foreigners. Take the army. Ill-disciplined soldiers looking to get rich with “blood diamonds” contributed mightily to the mayhem of the civil war. But since 2002 the army has been re-trained by Britain, the former colonial power. The army has been shrinking, but as one officer notes, “Every soldier we chuck out of the army is one more man unemployed and on the streets.”

Now that President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) is standing down after two forgettable five-year terms, it would be reasonable to expect an injection of new faces and energy into the country's politics. But this will not be the case. Seven parties are contesting the elections, but only three count: the ruling SLPP, its traditional opponent, the All People's Congress, which ruled for 14 venal years under Siaka Stevens, and the new People's Movement for Democratic Change. This split from the SLPP and competes for the same ethnic heartland among the Mende people of the south and east. Since it is run by Charles Margai, nephew of the first prime minister and son of its second, there is little danger of new brooms sweeping through Freetown's shabby corridors of power.

The 69-year old presidential front-runner, Solomon Berewa, is the incumbent vice-president, renowned as a clever and cunning political operator. Some say he has been the real power behind the throne for years. He prefers to describe himself as a man with a proven track record. His critics say he is implicated in all of the current government's failures and shortcomings. “The problem”, says one, “is a small clique running corrupt patronage networks while providing zero services and Berewa will simply embed those networks.”

Stark evidence of what can be done with the right leader in charge comes from across the border in Liberia where Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is in her second year as president. She has tackled poor governance head-on, firing corrupt officials and removing ghost workers from the payroll. By contrast Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission is now a lame duck, having had its $2m annual funding suspended by exasperated British donors unhappy with the lack of progress. The replacement last year of an energetic former civil servant by the president's brother-in-law as head of the commission strengthened the perception that the government is not serious about tackling corruption. In fact, most agree, it is growing.

The argument goes that the terrible violence of the conflict is so recent and memories so raw that a return to war is unthinkable. But many people in Sierra Leone know only violence as a way to vent their frustration at a government that fails them time and again. With the arrival of peace this is no longer a failed state. It may, however, be a failing one.

Other Environment News

Kenya: Japanese Minister Supports Ban On Plastics

East African Standard (Nairobi): Former Japan Environmental minister, Mr Wakako Hironaka, has supported Kenya's ban on plastic bags. Accompanying Nobel laureate Prof Wangari Maathai to the Dandora dumping site, Hironaka said Japan was encouraging Maathai's 3R (Reuse, reduce, recycle) campaign and many Japanese companies were now embracing the scheme. The 3R campaign was introduced in Japan three years ago and it has been a great success. It has been dubbed Mottainai. "In Japan, Mottainai is a traditional concept often told to children by the older generation. The concept encourages people not to waste resources, to be grateful and respectful," said Hironaka. Said Maathai: "Mottainai campaigns in Japan are doing very well; many Japanese companies have joined the initiative and are now producing many different Mottainai products for sale, including shopping bags, to replace plastics."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200708020950.html

Uganda: Delayed Funding Irks Forestry Donors

New Vision (Kampala): The biggest funders of the National Forestry Authority (NFA) have threatened to pull out if Government does not meet its funding obligation. The Government had promised sh1.65b but provided only sh230m for the years 2003 to 2008, according to the acting executive director, Hope Rwaguma. Addressing the parliamentary committee for natural resources, Rwaguma said the Government made this commitment to funders of NFA. These are the Norwegian government, the European Union, and the Department for International Development. NORAD, the Norwegian agency, provided sh8.7b and promised to increase the amount to sh10.9b if the Government honoured its obligation. "We are in a dilemma. If the donors pull out NFA may not operate," Rwaguma said. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708020030.html

Namibia: Wildlife And Vegetation Legislation to Integrate

The Namibian (Windhoek): Efforts are being made to harmonise laws relating to community forests and communal conservancies in Namibia. While the two follow similar approaches, they are based on different laws and legislations, are implemented by different Ministries and have specific technical requirements for resource management. This often emerges as an obstacle when communities want to implement both components in one specific area, to benefit from both wildlife and vegetation. A stakeholders' workshop was held at Rundu in early July to look at possible options for an integrated approach to conservancies and community forests. Rolf Sprung of the German-Namibia Community Forestry in North-Eastern Namibia (CFNEN) said the concepts of conservancies and community forests have evolved as core components of Namibia's Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) programme. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708020363.html

Zimbabwe: 'Mitigate Environmental Degradation'

The Herald (Harare): Councils in Mashonaland Central are letting down the Environmental Management Agency by failing to complement its efforts to mitigate environmental degradation, a senior official has said. EMA provincial officer Mr Benson Bhasera was speaking at a three-day workshop to educate councils on how to counter the effects of environmental degradation. Mr Bhasera said stakeholders in various sectors should play a pivotal role in mitigating the effects of environmental degradation and veld fires and not leave the responsibility to EMA alone. "EMA is there to remind people of the effects of tampering with the environment and act as a true custodian of nature.”Some of the problems which EMA is facing in its efforts to counter environmental degradation, are economic and social," he said.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200708020520.html

Mozambique: Uncontrolled Bush Fires Devastate Namaacha

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo): Uncontrolled bush fires are devastating thousands of hectares in the southern Mozambican district of Namaacha, on the border with Swaziland. The Namaacha district administrator, Artur Chindandala, told AIM that the fires have destroyed about 5,000 hectares so far this year and 10,000 hectares last year. He warned that the situation is set to worsen if strong measures are not taken to check the phenomenon. "Uncontrolled bush fires are a serious concern, not just for the government, but for the entire community", he said. Fire is used recklessly in much of rural Mozambique to clear land for planting, for producing charcoal, and for poaching - in the latter case; the fires are set to drive the terrified animals into the open where then can more easily be caught. Chandandala said that four people were arrested on Tuesday, accused of setting fires for purposes of poaching He said that whenever it is necessary to burn a certain area, for agricultural purposes, people should first isolate the area to be burnt, to prevent the spread of the fire. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708020808.html

South Africa: Pahad Blames 'Global Warming'

Business Day (Johannesburg): The acute food crisis affecting Lesotho, part of Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe was a reminder of the threat posed by global warming, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said yesterday. Swaziland was suffering its worst recorded harvest, which was endangering about 400000 people in a situation made worse by high HIV infection rates and the vulnerability of young orphans. Lesotho was in a similar predicament, with the worst drought the country has experienced in more than 30 years threatening 500000 rural people with famine. Pahad quoted from a United Nations (UN) flash appeal document, which said that in Lesotho the production of maize, the country's staple food, has dropped by more than half compared to last year. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708030252.html

South Africa: The Development and Delivery of Environmental Course

BuaNews (Tshwane): Several projects are presently in progress, including the development and delivery of environmental course modules, the collation of a library of environmental information resources and providing students with experiential training and academic opportunities in the environmental field. The ERC will also offer environmental research and consulting services. The Deputy Minister urged the newly launched ERC to establish closer working cooperation with key stakeholders such as Cape Nature and Marine Conservation Management to enrich the ERC with practical up to date information. "Nationally, cooperation with departmental institutions such as Indalo Yethu, Buyisa e Bag and SA Weather Service could further enrich the institution's research output," she said. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708030364.html

South Africa: Enviro Education Centre Opens in Polokwane

BuaNews (Tshwane): A R2.5 million conservation education centre was opened in Polokwane by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Thursday. The old SABC transmitting building at the Polokwane Game Reserve has been converted and equipped into an environmental centre as a result of a partnership between the Rotary Club and the Polokwane Municipality. Speaking at the official opening, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said: "For a long time in South Africa, conservation has kept people separated from our environment.”We saw fences and armed patrols as the key to protecting our natural heritage. We know now that people and communities are critical partners in the success of conservation especially in our parks." The programme aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of South Africa's national heritage, both natural and cultural, while also enhancing access for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to the parks. "What better way to ensure sustainability of our environment and our parks than by introducing and demonstrating their environmental value directly to South Africa's young citizens", asked Minister van Schalkwyk. Annually more than 12 000 children from mainly disadvantaged schools in the Limpopo Province visit the Polokwane Game Reserve. Until now there were no facilities for them to be given formal training on conservation and environmental issues. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708030366.html

South Africa: Empowering People Can Help Environment

BuaNews (Tshwane): The pace of finding lasting solutions to environmental problems could be increased by making information and knowledge readily accessible to a multitude of people. Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi said only when knowledge was much more freely available and generally embraced, could "our collective efforts drive us closer to achieving lasting solutions". Speaking at the official launch of the Environmental Resources Centre (ERC) at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), the Deputy Minister said: "It is open secret that our planet Earth faces unprecedented environmental challenges from unsustainable use of resources by mankind. "The threats that global climate change brings is on the news every day. Never before in our lifetimes, or over the last number of millennia, have we experienced the precarious situation that we are in now."

The minister explained that there are many ecological disasters looming such as land degradation, which is widespread in Africa and has lowered the carrying capacity of the land. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708030363.html

Kenya: Pollution Issue Still Haunts Flower Exporters

Business Daily (Nairobi): Kenya is riding out the media storm over its heavy use of highly polluting air freight with no impact to fresh produce sales so far. But as concerns about climate change keep rising, the industry is under pressure to do more to guarantee its future as a leading exporter. Awareness of climate change is at an all-time high in the UK, Kenya's major export market, and the devastation caused by unexpected floods this summer is only set to hammer home the need to take action. Choosing to buy foods or flowers based on their "food miles" is one action consumers could opt for. It has taken just two years for millions of Britons to become familiar with the term, which refers to the distance travelled from grower to consumer. The further a food is transported, the more pollution it causes. And even though scientists and governments now prefer to talk about "carbon footprints" or emissions generated throughout the production chain including the energy consumed during growing and the energy required for storage, the concept of food miles is still "grabbing the hearts and minds" of Britons, says Nigel Jenney, chief executive of UK industry association the Fresh Produce Consortium. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708050063.html

South Africa: Sasol Plant Named As Top Culprit in Emissions

Cape Argus (Cape Town): Sasol's Secunda plant - the largest synthetic fuels facility in the world - is often also cited as the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, Parliament's environment portfolio committee has been told. Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are the major cause of human-induced climate change. During a briefing yesterday by senior officials from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the SA Weather Bureau, committee members also heard that South Africa is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Africa, and ranks 25th in the world and 11th in the developing world.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200708080651.html

Nigeria: 23 Perish in Adamawa Flood

This Day (Lagos): At least 23 persons have been confirmed dead in Song Local government area of Adamawa State, as flash flood left at least three local government areas in devastation, following two days of torrential rainfall. The flood, which affected Yola North and South and Song local governments, left hundreds of buildings and hectares of farmland submerged, while the Song-Gadamayo Bridge was washed away. Over 500 households were submerged in Yolde-Pate, Shagari low-cost housing estate, angwan sabo and surrounding villages of Yola South Local government area, while property worth millions of naira were destroyed, with over 2000 persons displaced and are seeking refuge in primary schools. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708080385.html

Uganda: Rains Devastate Bududa

New Vision (Kampala): Torrential rains in Bududa district have washed away 11 bridges, damaged houses and forced more than 3,000 pupils out of school. The rains that battered the area on Monday night destroyed Nakwesha Bridge on River Sume, cutting off five parishes in Bubiita sub-county. The floods also carried away 10 temporary bridges on the river. A health centre that offers antenatal services was also cut off on the upper side of the river. Many pupils could not reach their schools on Tuesday for the end of the second term examinations that started on Monday. A total of 15 schools did not run normal classes as the pupils got stranded on the way. The schools included Bukibumbi, Bukhalatsi, Bunabumali, Busooto, Buwali, Lubili, Bukharera, Shitondoshi and Bundesi.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200708090012.html

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter - 2nd to 8th August 2007

2007-08-07T15:10:00.000+03:00

It never rains… and then it pours!

Just when you are happy to receive the much needed rain in Sudan, it turns disastrous. Just when I thought the earth tremors were over in Kenya, we got a few more shakes. Just when you almost had malaria under control in Nairobi, temperature increases unleash a plague of mosquitoes in areas they hadn’t been before. Just when you thought living in Kibera slum was bad, try having the little water you have available cut off.

Just when you imagined the situation in Zimbabwe couldn’t get worse, inflation flares up as a new $200,000 is released and the government grows more militant. And … just when you thought you had heard it all, South African filmmakers launch the first African female super hero – Supermama. Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator – Africa

IRIN. 26 July 2007. Flooding reaching unprecedented levels. Khartoum, Sudan

Floods that have already left thousands of families homeless in Sudan have reached a critical stage in several states, an official from the government’s emergency response committee said. "The river levels have exceeded those of previous years, especially in the Nile River state [northern Sudan]," said General Awad Widatallah Hussein, spokesman for the committee, on 26 July.

The government Humanitarian Aid Commission reported on 24 July that the level of the Blue Nile at Khartoum, the capital, was "far above" the record levels seen at this time of year in 1988. Readings from several monitoring stations show the Nile to be more than a metre higher than in 1988. At least 59 people have been killed and more than 35,000 families left homeless by rains and floods affecting 12 of the 26 states, he said.

Hussein told IRIN that 134 public buildings, including schools, health centres, police stations and other government facilities had collapsed. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the floods, expected to continue until the end of the wet season in September, could affect up to 2.4 million people across 16 states. Hussein said Khartoum state, where the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers meet, had suffered most, with more than 13,000 families affected, followed by North Kordofan state in central Sudan.

In Kassala state in the east, the Gash River, fed by waters from the Ethiopian plateau, burst its banks. "Weather reports indicate that rainfall will be very high and the White Nile and Blue Nile will reach unprecedented levels," Hussein said. He added: "We expect more floods as heavy rains in the Ethiopian highlands continue to feed the Blue Nile and its tributaries."

The government reported that floods have washed away roads and bridges across the country, making it more difficult to reach certain areas. In the Red Sea state in northeastern Sudan, the Port Sudan-Tokar road was damaged, isolating Tokar from the rest of the country. The main highway linking Khartoum and Southern Sudan was closed briefly, and the road from Kosti to Um Ruwaba in central Sudan was disabled for five days. Most roads connecting Sudan and Egypt have also been closed. The National Civil Defence Council has called on all relevant government agencies and civil society organisations to prepare for the floods. Warnings have also been issued to people living on flood plains and island dwellers to move to safer areas.

The UN resident coordinator's office is tracking response from UN agencies, NGOs, Sudanese Red Crescent and state institutions, and reported that thousands of tents, plastic sheets, jerry cans and blankets have been mobilised to respond to needs across northern Sudan. Medical supplies, insecticide, family survival kits, including household items and food, are also being supplied.

In Southern Sudan, nearly 10,000 people have been affected by floods in Unity and Upper Nile States, according to UN agencies. The floods have hit hardest in Renk county in Upper Nile, where the effect of heavy rains has been compounded by natural drainage systems being disrupted by road construction. A recent study by the UN Environment Programme stated that road construction (often connected to the oil industry) in Southern Sudan could have wide-ranging environmental effects, including flooding, erosion and watercourse siltation

IRIN. 27 July 2007. Earthquake scare highlights emergency response weaknesses. Nairobi, Kenya

A series of earth tremors that caused panic in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has raised concerns over the country's ability to respond to sudden major disasters.

Major Stephen Sane, the acting head of Kenya's National Disaster Operations Centre, said Kenya has basic rescue capacity but lacks specialised equipment and emergency medical services needed in the event of a serious earthquake. His unit was created in 1998 after devastating floods, caused by the El Niño weather pattern, wreaked havoc on Kenya's infrastructure. "Our disaster preparedness appears to be ad hoc. It has not been taken seriously at the policy level," Sane told IRIN, adding that the country also lacked an emergency medical service and has to depend on the Red Cross.

According to Jeanine Cooper, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-Kenya), Kenya is “ill-prepared” to respond to sudden catastrophes such as earthquakes or a terrorist attack. She commended the country's preparedness and early warning systems for drought, but said flood readiness “left a lot to be desired” and could benefit from risk mapping initiatives.

Lessons from history
Sane said little has been learned from the experiences of the American embassy bombing in Nairobi in 1998. The explosion caused an adjacent four-storey building to collapse, burying hundreds of people. The Kenyan government had to ask for help from foreign rescue teams. Most impressive, Sane said, were an Israeli team who arrived in Nairobi 24 hours after the blast and managed to save a number of people. The death toll from the attack was 213. "The Israelis brought the realisation of the need for specialised training in search and rescue," said Sane. A Kenyan rescue unit has since been trained in Israel, but the government does not have the equipment to look for bodies and survivors buried under rubble.

When a building under construction in Nairobi collapsed in 2006, burying dozens of workers alive, Kenya had to once again seek Israeli help. Sane said a disaster management policy paper, which would pave the way for the formulation of legislation on the issue, has been awaiting Cabinet approval since 1999. "We should be more proactive," he said.

Building regulations
A series of earthquakes and tremors in July 2007 - whose epicentres were in Tanzania, but were felt strongly in Nairobi - prompted the Architectural Association of Kenya to express concerns over the lack of building law enforcement in the country.

The association's chairman Gideon Mulyungi estimated that 90 percent of buildings outside Nairobi's city centre were not constructed by professionals. "We could have a major disaster on our hands in the event of a powerful earthquake," he said. "We have been pushing the government to audit all buildings in Kenya to establish their safety." The ministries of Public Works and Local Government confirmed that the audit was under way. Despite the apparent slow progress in adopting national disaster response mechanisms, it has been recognised that a regional approach to the issue could strengthen the state's capacity.

An inter-governmental initiative, Golden Spear, supported in part by the US military, aims to strengthen regional capacity in disaster response and preparedness. Egypt, Djibouti and Rwanda have already ratified an agreement, establishing the Golden Spear initiative. Kenya and Uganda are expected to follow suit in late August, according to Frank Sabwa, finance officer at the Disaster Management Centre of Excellence in Nairobi.

Other Golden Spear member states are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles and Tanzania. Eritrea and Ethiopia initially expressed willingness to join the initiative, but have not yet signed the memorandum of agreement. Sabwa said the ratified Golden Spear agreement would be passed on to the UN and the African Union to raise funding. Member states would also be able to set aside funding from their own national budgets. "The initiative is expected to raise early warning capacities within acceptable levels and become an operational hub for information sharing and disaster response," said Sabwa.

IRIN. 31 July 2007. Climate change and malaria in Nairobi. Kenya

Malaria is the most common disease in Africa’s largest slum, Kibera, in Nairobi, say health workers, but at a cool altitude of about 1,700m, the capital city has long been considered a non-malarial zone. The incidence of malaria in Nairobi and the resurgence of ‘highland malaria’ in several African countries have become controversial issues in debates about health and climate change.

The third assessment report, published in 2001, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, paid special attention to highland malaria. The report states that due to the life-cycle of the mosquito and its role as host of the malaria parasite, "at low temperatures, a small increase in temperature can greatly increase the risk of malaria transmission" and "future climate change may increase transmission in some highland regions, such as in East Africa".

However, the IPCC report continues, "there are insufficient historical data on malaria distribution and activity to determine the role of warming, if any, in the recent resurgence of malaria in the highlands of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia". Furthermore, two subsequent studies drawing on weather records at several highland locations in Africa, including tea estates in Kenya's Kericho region, published in Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reach differing conclusions about whether temperatures were increasing and the occurrence of malaria.

The award-winning film by former US vice-president Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, says Nairobi used to be too cold for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, but now climate change is causing the disease to occur. Paul Reiter, a malaria expert now with the Pasteur Institute, has taken issue both with the film and some of the IPCC reporting. In the International Herald Tribune in January, he wrote, "Gore's claim is deceitful on four counts. Nairobi was dangerously infested when it was founded; it was founded for a railway, not for health reasons; it is now fairly clear of malaria; and it has not become warmer." And in a travel advisory, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, states there is "no [malaria] risk in Nairobi".

A ‘non-urban’ disease?
Whatever the causes, and the scientific wrangles, medical staff working in Kibera are having to tackle malaria. “Malaria is the leading disease we face,” says George Gecheo, clinical officer in Kibera’s Ushirika clinic. Nurse Dorah Nyanja, who works in Senye Medical Clinic in the slum’s Soweto Market, adds: “I am treating more people per day for malaria than any other condition.”

Malaria researcher Dr John Githure, head of the human health division of the African Insect Science for Food and Health research centre (ICIPE), told IRIN: "Malaria is traditionally considered a non-urban disease as its parasite is carried by mosquitoes that prefer hot, clean and sunny areas to cool and polluted cities." "It [malaria] is there," adds Githure, "but not everywhere and the increase is not always obvious. It depends where you live."

Githure says Nairobi was malaria-prone in the 1900s, when it had many swampy areas. "Over time, with colonial draining, stagnant water treatments, and the growth of the city, anopheles mosquitoes, those which carry the disease, left the area," he says. "In the 1970s, when public health authorities started to crumble and treatments stopped being properly done, mosquitoes came back. However, it was mainly the Culex mosquito, as it is adapted to polluted water. It is not a malaria vector."

He says anopheles mosquitoes have returned, but only in small umbers. "Furthermore, anopheles need high temperatures to live and develop from the eggs to adult age. If temperatures are low, like in Nairobi, their development will take longer - two to three weeks instead of seven to 10 days. Coolness in Nairobi also delays the development of the parasite in the anopheles mosquito, which only lives for about a month. "Moreover, the parasite is not transmitted through the eggs but through human blood. So anopheles need to grow up, bite a human who has contracted the disease and then bite another one for local transmission to take place in Nairobi."

Githure also says the adaptive nature of the mosquito is a factor. "There still is a danger as temperatures continue to rise and anopheles can adapt to new environments. A minority have already adapted to polluted water, for example," he adds.

A travelling disease
Gecheo estimates that 80 percent of the people he treats for malaria in Kibera have travelled out of Nairobi, been infected and returned, with symptoms only appearing once they are back in the slum.

ICIPE Director Christian Borgemeister says slum dwellers frequently travel upcountry to visit relatives. "This is why [ethnic] Luo people suffer more from malaria," he says. "Near Lake Victoria, where they live, the disease is widespread. By being less exposed to malaria, many have lost the semi-immunity they used to have. This is why they contract it easily when travelling." "Mosquitoes also move more," Githure says. "They can easily be stuck in a bus or a train and progress from one place to another. Malaria, more than ever, is a travelling disease."

Kibera has grown up next to the railway line, with trains from malaria-prone areas passing through daily. The socio-economic make-up of the slum is also a factor. Malaria tends to affect the more vulnerable - infants, pregnant women, the malnourished or those living with HIV. Infection rates in children are an important indicator, Githure says.

"Malaria is a child killer. As children travel less, we would be able to detect local transmission of the disease if the numbers of children with malaria began to increase," Githure says.

Preparation for a potential comeback
"Widespread local transmission in Nairobi would be a catastrophe as its inhabitants are not immunised [by natural exposure] at all," says Borgemeister. Outside Nairobi, many programmes are tackling the disease. Ayub Manya, an officer in the Ministry of Health’s Malaria Control Division, says: "The new treatments we have started to give for free, the mosquito nets we have distributed and the awareness campaigns we have carried with NGOs have given some results."

In 2006, the government also started to distribute new Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) free throughout Kenya. Manya says these programmes could be expanded to Nairobi if malaria transmission increased, but "with ACTs free of charge, and as it is still a low-risk area, advocating systematic mosquito net use would be excessive".

IRIN. 31 July 2007. Water cuts leave slum residents ‘at risk.’ Nairobi, Kenya

Residents took to the streets of Nairobi’s second largest slum, Mathare, on 31 July after five days without water left them facing serious disease outbreaks, they said. We are afraid that diseases will break out soon. We have not had drinking water for a couple of days, only dirty water is left," one resident said. "If we stay here without water for five days, we are just waiting for diseases to come," said another protester. "We don’t want our children to have cholera because they have to drink bad water."

Celline Achieng, of Umande Trust, a civil society organisation promoting water and sanitation initiatives in urban communities, told IRIN there were two major risks if water supplies are cut in slum areas: "First, insecurity could rise as people might fight over water. Second, lack of water can increase the risk of malaria, dysentery and even TB." Water seller Steven Gitau said: "The private Nairobi Water Company [NWC] says it is losing too much money in Mathare and accuses us of stealing the water."

He added: "They say most of us use illegal connections, but these have been connected by staff members of the company. For example, I have paid them KSh6,000 [US$90] for the connection – 2,000 for the meter and 4,000 for the connection." Another resident, Peter Karanja, said: "We now have to go to Eastleigh, 2km away, and pay KSh20 for 20l of water." The normal price is Ksh2 per jerry can of 20l in Mathare.

The NWC spokesman Mbaruku Vyakweli told IRIN that only 1 percent of water connections in the slum are legal. "If we are cutting the water, it is to decrease the number of illegal connections. We do this with the help of local CBOs [Community Based Organisations]," he said. "It is an advantage to Mathare residents, as legally connected water is much cheaper. We charge KSh0.5 for 20l." He said notices had been placed in the newspaper and local TV stations advertising the cuts.

The demonstration took place in the Bondeni area of the slum, but was contained by police, who fired teargas to scatter the crowd and made several arrests.

BBC. 31 July 2007. Zimbabwe launches $200,000 note. Harare

Zimbabwe is to start circulating a new 200,000 Zimbabwe dollar note, in a bid to tackle the country's inflation, the highest in the world. The new note, issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from Wednesday, can buy 1kg (2.2lb) of sugar. Food and fuel shortages have become common as the government relies more heavily on imports, pushing prices to new heights. The official annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe is nearing 5,000%. In practice, this means the price of a loaf of bread costs 50 times more in cash than it did a year ago.

Shortages
The new note is worth US$13 at the official exchange rate or $1 on the black market. Zimbabwe's government has created a commission to find a way to control soaring living costs. But correspondents say that as long as Zimbabwe has a shortage of staple foods, including maize, food shortages are likely to continue. Critics have blamed President Robert Mugabe's policies, especially the seizure of white-owned farms, for ordinary Zimbabweans' hardship. For his part, President Mugabe has accused foreign governments of trying to interfere in Zimbabwe's affairs.

The new banknote comes after International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that by the end of 2007, prices will be 1,000 times higher than they were a year earlier, Reuters news agency reports. "Price controls that are being enforced are likely to exacerbate shortages and ultimately fuel further inflation," said Bio Tchane, director of the IMF's Africa department, who described Zimbabwe's prospects as "bleak".

IRIN. 31 July 2007. Crossing the border to bring the groceries home. Musina, South Africa

Bulk traders have been flocking to South Africa for months to buy groceries for resale in Zimbabwe, but now a rapidly growing number of individual shoppers are arriving to stock up on essentials in Musina, about 13km from the border, in South Africa's Limpopo Province.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe launched "Operation Reduce Prices" in late June in an attempt to cap escalating prices as businesses tried to cushion themselves against the world's highest inflation rate by forcing retailers to slash their prices by 50 percent. This has resulted in empty shop shelves and widespread shortages of basic commodities, and the International Monetary Fund has warned that Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation rate could reach over 100,000 percent by the end of 2007. The biggest supermarket in Musina, Spar, has seen an increase in turnover of between 50 percent and 70 percent in July, manager Pieter Koekemoer told IRIN.

Mo, 30, said he had come to Musina to buy groceries for his family and friends in Zimbabwe. He wrote their names on the plastic bags as he packed them into his pick-up truck, saying that the cost of fuel, import duty and a South African visitor's visa were a small price to pay.

Bulk traders
Some bulk traders use a medium-size delivery vehicle and often supply formal shops, but now no longer want to supply them because price controls make it unprofitable. With more individual shoppers also crossing the border to buy food for themselves, bulk business is declining. "The bulk trade at my shop has gone down 40 percent in the past two weeks," said Jason Rana; 95 percent of his clientele are Zimbabwean traders buying large quantities.

Bulk trade is expected to slow even further after a new regulation comes into effect on 1 August. According to the Zimbabwean embassy in South Africa, there will not be a complete ban on cross-border trade, but a permit for importing bulk foodstuffs for resale will have to be obtained from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Industry, and will not be as easy to get as a visitor's permit.

Waiting for jobs
Besides the shoppers and traders, thousands of Zimbabweans who have crossed the border illegally wait around Musina in the hope of finding a job to pay their fare to bigger South African cities further south. According to Bertus Schutte, who manages the labour force on Maswiri Farm, about 20km north of Musina, more and more Zimbabweans come looking for work every day. He said they left as soon as they could, and about fifty labourers went to cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria each week.

Peter, 20, and Kudzai, 18, from a village in Masvingo Province in southern Zimbabwe, crossed into South Africa illegally near the Beitbridge border post two weeks ago and have since been waiting for jobs at Maswiri. They plan to seek work in Johannesburg, where friends of theirs already have jobs in construction. It is estimated that there are close to three million Zimbabweans in South Africa, mostly illegally.

Neither Peter nor Kudzai has a passport, and they do not see the point of going to one of the refugee reception offices run by South Africa's Home Affairs Department, which deals with immigration, to ask for asylum. "They know they will be sent back immediately, because the authorities see all of them as economic refugees. So, coming in illegally or on a visitor's permit and staying, is the only option," Jacob Matakanye of the Musina Legal Advice Office, an organisation that helps immigrants in the region, told IRIN.

No tsunami
There are no official figures on the rate of influx of illegal Zimbabweans into South Africa, but in the past few weeks local media and the South African opposition party, Democratic Alliance, have been reporting a rising tide of Zimbabwean immigrants. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which runs a reception and support centre in Beitbridge providing assistance to migrants returning from South Africa, reported that 16,500 Zimbabweans were sent home in June, and the figures for July were expected to be the same.

"There is no sudden 'tsunami' of people being deported," said Nick van der Vijver of IOM. "These figures ... represent the number of Zimbabweans deported, and say nothing about the number of people leaving Zimbabwe."

He said the story of a wave of Zimbabweans coming [to South Africa] in the last few weeks seemed an exaggeration, considering the number of deportees had remained relatively stable. Gabriel Shumba, of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF), estimated that 5,000 people legally crossed the border every day, 3,000 of whom remained in South Africa. Illegally, he guessed, about 7,000 were crossing the border daily.

Shumba expected these numbers to increase as Zimbabwe's parliamentary and presidential elections, scheduled for March 2008, drew nearer. "Violence has always been stepped up before elections," he said. "Besides, hunger will also drive many people to South Africa."

Other News

Screenafrica. 31 July 2007. SA’s first female superhero hits cinemas. South Africa

“SUPERMAMA”, the first installment of three short films that will complete “The Adventures of SUPERMAMA” trilogy, will release at selected South African cinemas during August. The film, directed by Karen van Schalkwyk who co-wrote and co-produced with Damon Berry, plays as part of the supporting programme of specific main features. Ster-Kinekor Distribution previously released “The Storekeeper”, “And there in the Dust” and “The Sky in Her Eyes” as short presentations accompanying feature films in recent years.

Introducing Mavis Magayeyana as SUPERMAMA, the 10-minute short film centres on “Mama”, who works as a street vendor in downtown Johannesburg. Inspired by one of her favourite superheroes she decides to take matters into her own hands when her hawker stall is robbed. Mama teaches herself Kung-Fu in her garden in Alexandria, and over the course of three nights, to her husband’s initial dismay, she sews her own disguise and ends up making the evening news. “I have never been one for hero stories, so it is strange that for my first film I would choose this as my central theme. But, living in a world where so much brutality, corruption and disregard for human life is perpetuated, it seemed a natural choice,” says Karen Van Schalkwyk.

Damon Berry adds: “I liked the concept immediately when Karen initially brought it to me. The comic factor and the endless potential for adventure that SUPERMAMA held were obvious. We had to make it happen.” SUPERMAMA also stars Dambuza Mdledle, Themba Mongwe, Nkosinathi Ndlovu, Bongeziwe Mabandla, Tema Sebopedi, Doris Msibi and Philip Kgomo. The film was shot by Marius van Graan and features “Get Down”, a contemporary title track by written and performed by Dan Selsick and Hugh Davison. Additional music was supplied by The Opera House Orchestra. The screenplay for SUPERMAMA Episode 2 is currently in development.

SUPERMAMA is owned by Googelplex Productions and powered by The Gauteng Film Commission (GFC), Puma Video, Panasonic, Media Film Service, Video Lab, Film Lab, Screen Africa, Ster-Kinekor Distribution, Cinemark, Popcorn and both NuMetro and Ster-Kinekor Exhibition

More Environment News

Africa: Mapping Can Save Forests, Say Scientists

(London): Mapping and remote sensing technology can be used by developing countries to conserve forests and biodiversity, say experts. Such 'geospatial' technology is helping African countries to conserve forests and identify areas in need of intervention, said scientists at a meeting organised by the Society for Conservation GIS-Kenya in Nairobi, Kenya, last week (20 July). Geospatial technologies include global positioning systems (GPS) for capturing basic location data, remote sensing, which uses aerial photography, and geographic information systems (GIS), which analyse data to create maps. GIS expert Peter Ndunda, is currently running a mapping program with the nongovernmental Green Belt Movement in the Mount Kenya and Aberdares forests. He told SciDev.Net that his project has mapped these regions to determine loss in forest cover over time.

Zimbabwe: Agency Embarks on Veld Fire Prevention Project

(Harare): The Environment Management Agency has started burning and clearing road verges along the Harare-Chirundu to prevent veld fires. The pilot programme seeks to prevent and establish whether motorists who threw out cigarette stubs were causing veld fires. The process involves burning grass, which is likely to catch fire along the road. In an interview yesterday, EMA Mashonaland West spokesperson Mrs Vimbaishe Siziba said the programme that began on Monday, would run for a week. "We have so far covered some ground and hope to have cleared grass on road verges up to Harare from Chinhoyi in the first phase and then work on the Chinhoyi-Chirundu stretch," she said. She said the programme was being conducted in conjunction with the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

South Africa: 'No Carbon Trail of Ministers'

(Johannesburg): The government's strategy to address climate change did not provide for the offset of carbon emissions caused by the air travel of government officials, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said. Van Schalkwyk said in a written response to a parliamentary question by Democratic Alliance MP Rafeek Shah that the government had made no reference to any carbon offsets or given any commitments. However, a policy to be formulated next year would deal with carbon offsets. "The department and ministry are now connected via video conferencing facilities which provide the best form of carbon offsets reductions in flights." His department would initiate a process of developing a climate change policy for SA next January after it had analysed the initial results of its long term greenhouse gas mitigation scenario building process.

South Africa: Kruger Closes Dam After Algae Kills Animals

BuaNews (Tshwane): A key man-made dam in the Kruger National Park will be emptied and permanently closed this week after it was again infected with poisonous algae, which has been killing animals over the past two years. The algae, Microcystis spp, grow when there are high levels of urine and faeces or agricultural fertilizers in the water. The Nhlanganzwane Dam in the southern part of the park is believed to have been contaminated by the waste of a large pod of hippos that congregated in the dam this winter. "We didn't take the decision lightly, but our primary concern is to stop the spread and effect of this deadly algal poison," said the park's head of conservation services Dr Freek Venter on Wednesday. The closure of the dam, he explained, also tied in with the park's policy of closing artificial water points in order to return the area to its purest natural state. http://allafrica.com/stories/200708010568.html

Uganda: Akright Estate is Eco-Tourism

(Kampala): Akright's Kakungulu Housing Estate has been declared an eco-tourism centre. Located 18km along the Kampala-Entebbe road, split into 2,500 plots occupying two-and-half square km, the estate has a natural forest, man-made lake, golf course and amusement park. Eco-tourism is a form of tourism which appeals to the ecologically and socially conscious. It focuses on local culture, wilderness adventures, volunteering, personal growth and learning new ways to live; involving travel to destinations where flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. Officials from Nature Uganda recently visited the estate and identified 74 bird species. Serapio Rukundo, the tourism state minister, launched the centre. Anatoli Kamugisha, the Akright Projects managing director, said under the company's eco-tourism initiative, they have advised every property-owner in the estates to set aside a room for a visiting tourist.

Nigeria: Ship Pollution - Imo Embarks On Reduction Process

(Lagos): The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) made progress on a packed agenda at its 56th session recently in London. Among a series of important decisions, it agreed to commission a study into the impact of proposed measures to reduce air pollution from ships. The Committee also further developed the proposed Ship Recycling Convention, discussed issues relating to the implementation of the 2004 Ballast Water Management Convention and adopted a number of amendments to the MARPOL Convention. Mr. Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) addressed the opening session of the Committee, at the invitation of IMO Secretary-General Mr. Efthimios E. Mitropoulos. The MEPC endorsed a proposal by Secretary-General Mitropoulos to commission a comprehensive study, by an informal cross government/industry scientific group of experts, to review the impact on the environment, on human health and on the shipping and petroleum industries, of applying any of the proposed fuel options to reduce SOx and particulate matter generated by shipping and the consequential impact such fuel options could have on other emissions, including CO2 emissions from ships and refineries, taking into account the availability of CO2 abatement technologies.

Nigeria: Lagos Seals 15 Firms Over Environmental Offences

(Lagos): The Lagos State Government, yesterday, sealed off the premises of 15 companies for allegedly contravening the state sanitation laws along the Ijora Costain axis of the state metropolis. The state government also announced that the state monthly environmental sanitation exercise for this month, July, will hold on Saturday, July 28 between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire, ordered the sealing off of the companies following the flagrant degradation of their environment and violation of other sanitation laws like poor waste management, blockage of drainage channels; indiscriminate discharge of spent oil inside canals and vegetal nuisances around their premises. Banire vowed that the companies affected would not be re-opened until they comply with the state environmental laws by addressing all environment nuisances around their premises as well as beautify the frontages of their environment.

Nigeria: Flood Sacks Abeokuta -Cuts Off Govt. House

(Lagos): More than 1000 residents of Abeokuta were yesterday displaced while about 400 houses including a church headquarters were trapped in a heavy flood which cut off Government House and the ever busy Sokori road from the rest of the city. The flood which was caused by a prolonged downpour which began about 3 am and still continued at press time submerged two uncompleted buildings and destroyed properties running to several millions of naira. Besides, about 14 vehicles were trapped but later rescued from the flood which swept off about 20 domestic animals, just as it paralysed social activities with most schools closed, while students, civil servants, commercial cab and motorcycle (okada) operators being forced to stay indoors. But no life had been reportedly lost in the flood as at press time. Worst hit are residents of the densely populated Amolaso area where the ever surging flood displaced scores of residents and almost submerged about 60 buildings that were affected.

TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter - 26 July to 1 August 2007

2007-07-26T13:50:00.000+03:00

New things come and the old disappear

This week we invited Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) to join the APN representing Lesotho and you can look forward to meeting Miss. Matšeliso Ntsoelikane (Director, TRC) in Kampala where you can learn more about her organisation.

Last week I inserted an article that gave a glimmer of hope in Sudan as scientists had discovered an ancient lake. The lake is now also reported to have since dried up, but nevertheless there is still hope and a project to sink in 1,000 wells has already begun. In fact, for a million dollars you can save lives, reduce conflict, and have a well named after you for life. Whilst on Sudan, Professor Jeffrey Sachs also gave his supporting reasons as to why you should read the ‘Sudan: Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment’ report if you haven’t already.

The new Nigerian president Mr. Yar'Adua promises to be hard on pollution and corruption however a report from the Economist reveals that he may already be hamstrung.

Go-to-hell policy
Zimbabwean government launches a new stroke of genius ‘Operation Dzikisa Mitengo’ – reduce prices – that is worsening food shortages. President Robert Mugabe has in the past told the IMF and Christopher Dell (the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe), to, “… go to hell” and now South Africa has been invited to join them in the inferno. Bishop Pius Ncube was also once warned that 'Bishops can go to hell...' and Bishop Desmond Tutu told he was '...an angry, evil and embittered little bishop.' Is the go-to-hell policy growing senile? Will the rising inflation (nearing 5,000%) drive out the old for the new? Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator - Africa

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Transformation Resource Centre: http://www.trc.org.ls/

Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) is an ecumenical and non-governmental organization. TRC serves as a resource centre for all those committed to work for Peace, Justice and Participatory Development in Lesotho and through out the region. The TRC was formed in 1979 as a resource centre for apartheid exiles from South Africa to offer them information, education and moral support. It is based in Maseru at No1 Oak Tree Gardens, old Europa

Mission statement: Transformation Resource Centre is striving for the enhancement of the poor and the marginalized people’s participation for democracy, development and justice through information dissemination, education, advocacy and lobbying with other institutions in Lesotho, regionally and internationally.

In order to realize its mission, TRC operates the following four programmes: information and communication, democracy and human rights, resource centre, and the Lesotho Highlands water monitoring, advocacy and empowerment project.

BBC NEWS. 20 July 2007. Ancient Darfur lake 'is dried up'. Jeffrey D. Sachs

A vast underground lake that scientists hoped could help to end violence in Sudan's Darfur region probably dried up thousands of years ago, an expert says. Alain Gachet, who used satellite images and radar in his research, said the area received too little rain and had the wrong rock types for water storage. But the French geologist said there was enough water elsewhere in Darfur to end the fighting and rebuild the economy. Analysts say competition for resources such as water is behind the unrest. More than 200,000 Darfuris have died and two million fled their homes since 2003.

UN backing
On Wednesday, Boston University's Farouk El-Baz said he had received the backing of Sudan's government to begin drilling for water in the newly-discovered lake, in North Darfur. He said radar studies had revealed a depression the size of Lake Erie in North America - the 10th largest lake in the world. But Mr Gachet, who has worked on mineral and water exploration in Africa for 20 years, said the depression identified by the Boston researchers was probably full of water 5,000 to 25,000 years ago.
"This lake was at the bottom of a broad watershed feeding the Nile above Khartoum," he said. "This watershed is completely dry today on the southern border of Egypt, Libya and north-western border of Sudan - one of the worst areas in the world." He accepted that the Boston researchers had a slim chance of being right, but he said he was not optimistic.

'Root cause'
Further south, in the rebel-controlled Jebel Mara area of Darfur, Mr Gachet said he was helping a UN-backed project to drill for water. "There is enough water within these aquifers to bring peace in Darfur... and even more - enough to reconstruct the economy of Darfur." Earlier in the week Hafiz Muhamad, from the lobby group Justice Africa, told the BBC the "root cause" of the conflict was lack of resources.
He said "drought and desertification" in North Darfur had led the Arab nomads to move south, where they came into conflict with black African farmers. Last month, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said there was little prospect of peace in Darfur unless the issues of environmental destruction were addressed.

Anyone interested in peacemaking, poverty reduction, and Africa's future should read the new United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report Sudan: Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment. This may sound like a technical report on Sudan's environment, but it is much more. It is a vivid study of how the natural environment, poverty, and population growth can interact to provoke terrible human-made disasters like the violence in Darfur.

When a war erupts, as in Darfur, most policymakers look for a political explanation and a political solution. This is understandable, but it misses a basic point. By understanding the role of geography, climate, and population growth in the conflict, we can find more realistic solutions than if we stick with politics alone.

Extreme poverty is a major cause, and predictor, of violence. The world's poorest places, like Darfur, are much more likely to go to war than richer places. This is not only common sense, but has been verified by studies and statistical analyses. In the UNEP's words, "There is a very strong link between land degradation, desertification, and conflict in Darfur."

Extreme poverty has several effects on conflict. First, it leads to desperation among parts of the population. Competing groups struggle to stay alive in the face of a shortage of food, water, pasture land, and other basic needs. Second, the government loses legitimacy and the support of its citizens. Third, the government may be captured by one faction or another, and then use violent means to suppress rivals.

Darfur, the poorest part of a very poor country, fits that dire pattern. Livelihoods are supported by semi-nomadic livestock-rearing in the north and subsistence farming in the south. It is far from ports and international trade, lacks basic infrastructure such as roads and electricity, and is extremely arid. It has become even drier in recent decades because of a decline in rainfall, which is probably the result, at least in part, of man-made climate change, caused mostly by energy use in rich countries.
Declining rainfall contributed directly or indirectly to crop failures, the encroachment of the desert into pasturelands, the decline of water and grassland for livestock, and massive deforestation. Rapid population growth - from around one million in 1920 to around seven million today - made all of this far more deadly by slashing living standards.

The result has been increasing conflict between pastoralists and farmers, and the migration of populations from the north to the south. After years of simmering conflicts, clashes broke out in 2003 between rival ethnic and political groups, and between Darfur rebels and the national government, which in turn has supported brutal militias in "scorched earth" policies, leading to massive death and displacement.

While international diplomacy focused on peacekeeping and on humanitarian efforts to save the lives of displaced and desperate people, peace in Darfur can be neither achieved nor sustained until the underlying crises of poverty, environmental degradation, declining access to water, and chronic hunger are addressed. Stationing soldiers will not pacify hungry, impoverished, and desperate people.

Only with improved access to food, water, health care, schools, and income-generating livelihoods can peace be achieved. The people of Darfur, Sudan's government, and international development institutions should urgently search for common ground to find a path out of desperate violence through Darfur's economic development, helped and supported by the outside world.

The UNEP report and experiences elsewhere in Africa suggest how to promote economic development in Darfur. Both people and livestock need assured water supplies. In some areas, this can be obtained through boreholes that tap underground aquifers. In other areas, rivers or seasonal surface runoff can be used for irrigation. In still other areas, longer-distance water pipelines might be needed. In all cases, the world community will have to help pay the tab, since Sudan is too poor to bear the burden on its own.

With outside help, Darfur could increase the productivity of its livestock through improved breeds, veterinary care, collection of fodder, and other strategies. A meat industry could be developed in which Darfur's pastoralists would multiply their incomes by selling whole animals, meat products, processed goods (such as leather), dairy products, and more. The Middle East is a potentially lucrative nearby market. To build this export market, Darfur will need help with transport and storage, cell phone coverage, power, veterinary care, and technical advice.

Social services, including health care and disease control, education, and adult literacy programs should also be promoted. Living standards could be improved significantly and rapidly through low-cost targeted investments in malaria control, school feeding programs, rainwater harvesting for drinking water, mobile health clinics, and boreholes for livestock and irrigation in appropriate locations. Cell phone coverage could revolutionize communications for sparse populations in Darfur's vast territory, with major benefits for livelihoods, physical survival, and the maintenance of family ties.

The only way to sustainable peace is through sustainable development. If we are to reduce the risk of war, we must help impoverished people everywhere, not only in Darfur, to meet their basic needs, protect their natural environments, and get onto the ladder of economic development.

Nigeria First. 19 July, 2007. Nigeria Oil Companies to Pay Heavily for Spills - President Yar'Adua. Abuja

President Umaru Musa Yar'adua has said that oil companies operating in Nigeria must be made to pay heavy fines for spills caused by them. He was responding to a presentation by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) at the State House, Abuja on July 18. In his comments, President Yar'adua pointed out that in view of the widespread negative impact of oil spills on the environment, the regulatory authorities must ensure that stiff penalties were imposed on companies that defaulted in cleaning up the spills.

He directed NOSDRA to liaise with other government and non-governmental agencies in order to effectively discharge its roles as a policing body of oil spills and get service providers to clean up the environment.

In the course of making the presentation, NOSDRA Director-General, Dr. Bamidele Ajakaiye, highlighted some effects of oil pollution on the environment as including contamination of ground and surface water sources, disruption of balance in the ecosystem, reduction in the economic potentiality of the affected communities, and the high cost of remediation of contaminated sites NOSDRA, a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, was established in 2006 by an Act of the National Assembly. Its purpose is to "create, nurture and sustain a zero-tolerance oil spill incident in the Nigerian environment." Its functions include "surveillance and ensuring compliance with all existing legislation and the detection of oil spills in the petroleum sector," and coordinating responses to such incidents throughout the country.

The Economist. 19 July, 2007. Shilly-shally: The new president is looking hamstrung even before he gets going. Lagos

WHEN Umaru Yar'Adua took his presidential oath on May 29th, he promised to be a “servant leader” and to move speedily towards solving Nigeria's most pressing problems: insurgency and gangsterism in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, an appallingly erratic supply of electricity, and massive endemic corruption. Almost two months later the former chemistry teacher, one of only three post-colonial Nigerian rulers not to have hailed from a military background, has yet to announce his full ministerial team to help him run one of Africa's most troubled and important countries.

EPA What's under Yar'Adua's hat?
The process is tortuously slow because the beleaguered Mr Yar'Adua is under pressure to serve the interests both of Nigeria's powerful political factions and of the allies of Olusegun Obasanjo, his predecessor and mentor, who is still pulling strings as the ruling party's chairman.

Choosing a government is even harder. Mr Yar'Adua lacks legitimacy in the eyes of many Nigerians because the elections in April were so patently rigged. He must pick good people to regain some legitimacy, but lacks a strong enough political network of his own to resist the pressure to pay off some of his more venal backers. Hence the prevarication and delay.

Mr Obasanjo has already compromised Mr Yar'Adua by foisting on his successor two of his well-known sycophants as Senate president and speaker of the House and, with days to go before stepping down, by naming as the army's new chief of staff a general considered divisive in military circles. Nor has Mr Yar'Adua helped himself by appointing a police chief with a poor reputation who previously headed the police contracts division.

The infighting over top jobs is taking its toll. The new president, who has a kidney ailment, has shown how fed up he has become with the demands being made on him by publicly asking political delegations to stop making congratulatory visits until a “more auspicious” time.

Since then, he has tried to bring opposition members into a national unity government, but this has divided the opposition parties and made some of their factions still more determined to challenge his election victory in court. Earlier this month the new president listed 35 people for ministries but would not say which ones they would get, forcing the Senate to screen the nominees without knowing their responsibilities.

While the horse-trading goes on, the servant leader cannot get to grips with Nigeria's most urgent problems. The Delta region's lawlessness is worsening. This month armed gangs stooped lower than ever by kidnapping toddlers for ransom, including a three-year-old Briton and the son of a prominent chief. Elsewhere a crime wave is spreading; armed robberies are getting more numerous, especially in Lagos, Nigeria's huge commercial capital.

Joseph Makoju, who advises the president on electricity, says he has already lowered the figure Mr Yar'Adua set for boosting power generation by the end of this year from 10,000MW to 8,000MW. That may drop again if the president fails to find a good minister for power soon.

Hurry up before things get worse
The delay in forming a government may also start to threaten Nigeria's macroeconomic stability. The state governors, many of whom also lack legitimacy following the election, want the central government to dish out oil-windfall savings. But without tough new legislation, the windfalls, worth more than $10 billion, may be used as political slush funds. Nonetheless, the government is advertising its success in charging three former state governors with embezzlement and money-laundering: a sign, perhaps, that Mr Yar'Adua is getting tough on corruption.

Yet many other former governors close to the former president seem to have got away with looting their state coffers for the past eight years. With their own protégés now in power in many places, it is hard to imagine Mr Yar'Adua taking them on, particularly since he has ruled out pushing for an amendment that could have stripped them of their constitutional impunity.

IRIN (UN). 25 July, 2007. Price controls devastating rural economy: Monitors are forcing farmers to sell meat products at low prices. Harare

Price controls are having a ruinous effect on Zimbabwe's rural economy, according to small-scale farmers and civil society. Since government launched "Operation Reduce Prices", compelling businesses to slash prices by fifty percent in a bid combat the rampant inflation of over 4,000 percent - and imprisoning businesspeople who did not comply - basic commodities have been fast disappearing from shop shelves and wholesale suppliers. The Cold Storage Commission (CSC), the almost dormant parastatal wholesale beef supplier and meat processing company, is being resuscitated and given the sole mandate to slaughter cattle and distribute meat directly to butchers. When the price control operation commenced, abattoirs argued that it would be unprofitable to sell meat at the government's new prices.

Price-control monitors are forcing farmers to sell meat products to the CSC at low prices; in a similar scenario, maize farmers are being forced to sell their harvests to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) at well below prevailing market prices. A kilogram of beef is now supposed to sell at Z$87,000 (US$0.58 at the parallel market rate of US$1 to Z$140,000), a sharp decrease from the Z$500,000 (US$3.57) retail price before President Robert Mugabe's government announced the price controls. Before the new prices were announced, cattle sold for about Z$40 million (US$285) per head, but are now selling for Z$8 million (US$57). Since the Zanu PF government launched its fast-track land-reform programme in 2000, resulting in the compulsory acquisition of more than 4,000 white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks, diseases and culling have drastically reduced the national herd from around 1.4 million head of cattle to about 250,000 at present.

In 2001 the European Union (EU) cancelled its 9,100 metric tonne (mt) beef quota, worth an annual US$38 million, or about four percent of foreign currency earnings, because of Zimbabwe's failure to control livestock diseases: for the past seven years the recurrence of foot-and-mouth disease has become an almost annual event. Cattle are valued as a symbol of wealth in rural communities, and are also used as draught power for tilling the land to grow crops. Samuel Shereni, a small-scale farmer in the Beatrice area of Mashonaland East Province, about 70km southwest of Harare, the capital, said he had lost more than Z$159 million (US$1,140) after having to sell cattle to the CSC instead of putting them on auction. "I was taking five cattle to an auction when a group of people, comprising police officers, some youths and men from the ministry of industry, stopped my truck and told me that I could only sell to a government abattoir, since private auctions had been outlawed," Shereni told IRIN.

"When they said that, I thought they were just joking, but when they took down my name and vehicle registration number, and told me to sell the cattle at Z$8 million (US$57) within four days, I could tell they meant business. I made a loss of Z$32 million (US$228) on each animal," he said. Shereni, who rears cattle and grows maize on a farm inherited from his father ten years ago, had intended to use the profit to buy dipping chemicals for his other livestock. "Rearing cattle is an expensive business, considering that stock-feed is scarce and I have to buy it from a person who imports it, using foreign currency obtained on the black market. Besides, it beats me why someone can just tell me how and when to sell my products," said Shereni, who is struggling to recover from the drought that slashed his crop yields last year. His fear is that with meat becoming increasingly scarce in butcheries, the price-monitoring team will compel him to sell his cattle to the CSC, "but that would certainly mean throwing me out of business".

In nearby Mhondoro, in Mashonaland West Province, Mairosi Madenga, 57, is in a quandary as to what he would do if he were ordered to sell his cattle. The cattle actually belong to his son, who is teaching in Namibia, and any sale would require his consent. The communal dip-tank supervisor maintains records of the number of cattle each villager owns. He recently called a meeting, at which he told the gathering that government officials had ordered him perform an audit of the herd in the village. "He [dip-tank supervisor] told us that government officials would be visiting the villages to buy cattle, and he hinted that those that owned more than seven animals would be forced to sell the excess," Madenga told IRIN. He felt that Zanu PF, which came to power in 1980 after the country gained independence from Britain, was using the price-control policy as an electioneering strategy ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections, scheduled for next year.

Villagers were being herded to evening meetings, where they were told that "we should vote for Zanu PF because it has shown that it cares for the people by reducing prices", Madenga claimed, but he and others had yet to benefit from the price-control blitz, because they had no money to buy the commodities, even at the reduced prices. "In any case, since the price teams started their operation, it is those in urban areas who have benefited from whatever could be found in rural shops because they are in the habit of following the monitoring officials and buying commodities in bulk," he commented. Pedzisai Ruhanya, of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping of civil society organisations, told IRIN that "the operation [Reduce Prices] itself was ill-advised - considering the ramifications it has had on commerce and industry - but that the government is failing to give a semblance of sanity calls for wholesome condemnation."

The country is in the throes of a hyperinflation environment, with unemployment levels of above 80 percent and constant shortages of power, fuel and other basic commodities. Shops in urban as well as rural areas have been left virtually empty by the operation, and most businesses have been adversely affected. In one village shop belonging to a local businessman, who preferred to remain anonymous, only packets of salt, bags of tea, sweets and cigarettes were left. "Ruling party youths and three policemen visited me and ordered me to sell to them, but said they would pay me later. They said without that [paying later] they would make sure that I never operated again, and I complied out of fear," he said. "What pained me even more was that the youths, who said they were part of the price-monitoring team, went and sold those commodities at even higher prices to those who were willing to buy, mostly local teachers, and I am yet to receive my money from them," the shop owner told IRIN. A number of government officials, among them police officers and an employee of the information ministry, have been arrested for abusing their powers during the nationwide operation. IRIN was unable to reach a government spokesperson for comment.

Other Environment News

The Economist. 19^th July, 2007. Zimbabwe: Getting horny. Harare

Discouraging a trade that is still rife
ALTHOUGH an extension of the worldwide ban on ivory exports to discourage the illegal killing of African elephants was recently greeted with much fanfare, the rhinoceroses of southern and eastern Africa are still paying with their lives for their horns, which remain prized by the Chinese for their medicinal and aphrodisiac qualities, and by Yemenis for making dagger handles.

According to TRAFFIC, a group that monitors the wildlife trade, the illegal business is on the rise. Last month the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, better known as CITES, called for stronger co-operation along smuggling routes and a more secure management of legal horn stocks. Zimbabwe, which has a lot of poaching, has embarked on a more radical route: it says it will start dehorning its rhinos.

Only five species of rhino survive, in Africa and Asia. They were slaughtered on a large scale, mainly by white hunters, in the 19th and 20th centuries. By the 1960s fewer than 70,000 black rhinos were left in Africa, and over the next two decades poachers wiped out 96% of them. But since 1995, thanks to vigorous conservation efforts, the number of black rhinos has gone up again, to around 3,700. The number of white rhinos has nearly doubled over the same period, to over 14,500.

Yet poaching and illegal trading are rife in Zimbabwe and Congo. According to TRAFFIC, poachers have killed 60% of Congo's rhinos in the past three years. In Zimbabwe, poachers have been responsible for most rhino deaths in the same period. Nearly all the private ranches in Zimbabwe that harboured rhinos and deterred poachers have been confiscated. Both countries, with weak and corrupt governments, have a poor record in recovering horns destined for the illegal trade: Congo's government recovered 13% of them and Zimbabwe only 8%, compared with more than 40% across Africa. Dehorning should, in theory, help protect rhinos for a few years—until the horns grow back.

IPS: ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA. 23 July, 2007. Rich in Oil, Dependent on Firewood. Toye Olori, Lagos

It is a paradox of note: the fact that while Nigerians live in the world's sixth-largest oil producer, most of them still rely on wood for their fuel. Of the country's population of over 140 million, about 70 percent live in rural areas and are directly or indirectly dependent on forest resources -- especially wood -- to meet their domestic energy needs, says Musa Amiebinomo of the national Department of Forestry. This is leading to destruction of forest cover, a situation aggravated by illegal commercial logging. Figures from the 2005 ' State of the World's Forests' report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicate that between 1990 and 2005, Nigeria lost 35.7 percent of its forest cover.

Boniface Egboka, an environmentalist and dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies at Anambra State University in south-eastern Nigeria, blames the continued use of firewood on corruption. "Nigeria is still dependent of firewood when we have abundant oil and gas because our so-called leaders are fraudulent and corrupt. They care less about the welfare of the citizens and so they allow the forests to be mowed down," he told IPS. "We have no reason to be using firewood. We have the financial and human resources to pipe gas into homes for domestic use… We are deforesting the whole of the north through harvesting of wood for fire, and now we are shifting the savannah southwards into the rain forest through logging."

Nigeria's first forestry act was passed by the British colonial authorities in 1937. It established a forest reserve system under which certain areas could be exploited for timber by firms and individuals granted licenses to do so. Replanting was expected to prevent these areas from becoming depleted. The 1988 National Agricultural Policy further sought to ensure sustainable use of forests, and to expand wooded land to 20 percent of the country's territory. According to the FAO report, 12.2 percent of Nigeria's land is currently forested. While there is currently no law against the felling of trees for firewood except in protected areas, chopping of oil palms and of mango, cashew, cocoa and cola-nut trees is controlled through by-laws because of the economic value of such trees.

But, legislation alone has proved unable to protect Nigeria's forests. "There are forests called priority areas or nature conservation areas, which means logging is not permitted at all. But…even where you have these laws, people do not obey them -- and nothing happens to illegal loggers," said Peter Nwilo, co-ordinator of the Regional Centre for Environmental Information Management System at the University of Lagos. Even loggers who obtain felling licenses are known to act illegally, harvesting trees of all sizes, including those considered too young to be chopped down. However, certain officials in the state forestry departments, where permission to log is usually obtained, continue to renew the yearly licenses of these loggers, allegedly as a result of bribes from logging firms.

Notes Philip Asiodu, president of the Nigeria Conservation Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in the financial hub of Lagos: ''It is not the lack of good laws or policies and programmes (that is at issue), but simply the lack of will and discipline to observe and implement them by a compromised, corrupt bureaucracy." Illegal loggers mostly ship timber abroad, particularly to Asia. Some of the logs are also sold to local lumber mills, which produce planks for sale to Nigerian furniture companies, and builders. The depletion of forest cover has been especially severe in central and northern Nigeria, opening the door to soil erosion and desertification. It is widely reported that 350,000 hectares of land in the country are lost to desertification annually.

So, where does the solution to all these problems lie? A government blueprint for developing Nigeria in the period until 2010 -- 'Vision 2010' -- has suggested measures that include a ban on the export of logs, incentives for private investment in forests, greater community participation in forest management -- and the encouragement of reforestation with species yielding fruit, gum, and other crops that are of economic value to communities. 'Vision 2010' also calls for the development and promotion of other energy sources, such as solar and wind power, and the use of gas and coal, as alternatives to wood.

In 1999 authorities initiated plans to pipe Nigeria's abundant natural gas for commercial and domestic use. But to date, only a few industrial areas in Lagos have benefited from this project. ''We are presently trying to link industrial estates with gas…Domestic users will come on stream much later because we need to plan the network. Most residential areas in Lagos are not well planned, and this will make the piping of gas into residential houses for domestic use a bit difficult. But it will be done eventually,'' says an official from Gaslink, a subsidiary of the OANDO petroleum company, which is carrying out the gas piping project in Lagos.

This means that people who want to use gas in their homes are still obliged to buy cylinders at about 21 dollars each to use on portable gas stoves that sell for between 80 and about 165 dollars -- prices beyond the reach of many. "I cannot remember when last I used my gas stove. I still have the two gas cylinders in my store, hoping for a day when gas will be cheaper," Caroline Akande, a school teacher in Iwaya, a suburb of Lagos, told IPS. "Presently I use a kerosene stove, and an electric stove whenever there is electricity."

According to the 2006 Human Development Report, produced by the United Nations Development Programme, 70.8 percent of Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day -- and 92.4 percent on less than two dollars per day. In the absence of effective measures to safeguard Nigeria's forestry resources, an increasing number of areas are likely to go the way of Ogori village, in central Kogi state.

"When we were growing up in the sixties, we used to go into the dense forests that surrounded our village to collect snails or set traps for rodents and other animals," John Atere, another teacher, told IPS. "But today the forests are no longer there, and snails and wild animals have disappeared."

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Enock Chinyenze Regional Coordinator for Africa Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) United Nations Environment Programme Division of Communications and Public Information P. O. Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: +254 20 762 1551 Mobile: + 254 723 562900 Fax: + 254 20 762 3927 www.tve.org www.unep.org
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TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter - 19 July to 25 July 2007

2007-07-19T16:08:00.000+03:00

Shaking up things a little bit!

I left my new apartment at 7:10 am on Tuesday, only to find dozens of my neighbours standing outside, wrapped in blankets, and huddled together in little family groups. The earth tremors that had taken place the night before had scared most families, in particular the Indians, and I later found out that people had slept outside their homes in other parts of the country too. Whilst the tremors rocked me into a deeper and more comfortable sleep, it hasn’t been a pleasant occurrence this week for many in Nairobi. Rumours from the US Embassy ordering an immediate evacuation of all its citizens to ‘the world coming to an end’ have been on the radio waves.

It all started on Sunday when a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Tanzania and since then, in Kenya, we have felt more than 15 other aftershocks both day and night. Whilst there has not been a report over casualties or buildings collapsing, I must confess that it does get a little nauseating sleeping in swaying buildings.

Africa's Great Rift Valley is a 6,000-mile crack (fissure) in the earth's crust, stretching from Lebanon to Mozambique. One of its most dramatic sections slices through East Africa, dividing Kenya into two segments. Geologists know that violent subterranean forces that tore apart the earth’s crust formed the Rift Valley. These forces caused huge chunks of the crust to sink between parallel fault lines and force up molten rock in volcanic eruptions. [Wheeling Jesuit University]

The council of a Kenyan town ‘Limuru’ have ordered that donkeys wear nappies, and this has rumbled angered opinions from the community. If anyone cares for my opinion I will say that diaper manufacturers need to move quickly to support this new mass-soil-producing market. I find it strange too that no one has made mention of what is to become of all the collected manure.

Film Resource Unit (FRU), South Africa, rocked the boat last month when they publicly announced that they were insolvent and called on partners and stakeholders to come to their rescue. Several news media carried the report (including an official statement from Co-directors, Desmond Mthembu and Dorothy Brislin) and film enthusiasts rushed to buy films from FRU fearing its closure. This, to an extent, began to underwrite their debt and they also now have promising support from the District Arts Council (DAC).

The recently published ‘Sudan post-Conflict and Environmental Assessment’ report [http://www.unep.org/sudan/] linked the war to climate change and the environmental destruction, suggesting that the war would not end unless these issues were addressed. Now, an ancient underground lake has been discovered and jolted hope that this will actually end the war.

Finally, at the 2007 APN annual meeting in Kampala, November, we are going to be doing a little in-house throbbing ourselves. A top-of-the-agenda discussion I shall propose to all has to do with re-evaluating and re-committing ourselves as partners to the network. The stage we are at as partners requires a “…passion for TVE” - John, Kyamanywa, TFD. This phrase echoes the Windhoek meeting in which most suggested ‘Institutionalising TVE.’ The key idea behind the thoughts is that partners should have a good communications person from within their staff that will handle international liaison for TVE matters. In many cases partners have great enthusiasm and expectations for the network, but the ‘passion’ is not communicated and hence little a seeming disinterest. A good representative should already display interpersonal skills. Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator - Africa

AFP. Sunday, 15 July 2007. ‘Quakes rattle north-eastern Tanzania, tremors felt in Kenya’ - NAIROBI (AFP)

Earthquakes measuring up to 5.5 on the Richter scale have been rattling northeastern Tanzania in the past four days and tremors were also felt in neighbouring Kenya, officials said Sunday. Kenya Meteorological Department official Peter Ambenje said the tremors, which lasted about one minute, were last recorded in northeastern Tanzania's Lake Natron at around 2:24 pm (1124 GMT) on Sunday.

"More earthquakes will be felt in the area because it lies on East Africa's Great Rift Valley which runs along a geological fault line," he said. "Kenyans should not be worried because we are unlikely to be affected by the tremors," he added. Another quake was felt at about 11.43 pm, (2043 GMT), but there was no damage reported from the series of tremors that has sent panic across Nairobi, a department official said.

Ambenje played down fears that it could be a sign of volcanic activity from Mount Kilimanjaro, an inactive volcano in northeast Tanzania, near the border with Kenya.
In December 2005, a powerful earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East Africa. That quake, which French geologists said registered 7.5 on the Richter scale and US geologists said was a magnitude 6.8, shook buildings in cities throughout the east and central African region.

BBC News. Tuesday, 17 July 2007. ‘Anger at Kenya donkey nappy plan’ - Michael Kaloki, BBC News, Limuru

Donkey owners in the Kenyan town of Limuru are up in arms over an order from the municipal authorities that their animals must wear nappies. The council said the measure would come into effect on 16 July to ensure the town's streets are kept clean. But recent press coverage and outrage from the town's residents has led the authorities to put their plans on hold. "If we have to put nappies on our donkeys, soon they will say our cows need them too," one donkey owner said.

Limuru's mayor, James Kuria, says: "We must come up with a way to make sure that the droppings are not a nuisance." Another donkey owner, Kimani Gathugu, who lives in the town some 50km northwest of the capital, Nairobi, says the measure is not practical and the council would do better to employ more street sweepers.

Fatal kick

Noting the vital role played by donkeys in the community, he says: "Donkeys are very important. Not many people have cars in the area and the donkeys serve as a mode of transport." Another resident, John Kinyanjui, says: "The council itself has workers. They can do the sweeping. We are paying taxes."

Water trader Simon Kamau, who uses donkeys to transport water to his clients utters: "In all the three years I have been in this business, I have never tied a nappy on a donkey. "The problem is that the donkey can give you a fatal kick. I was once kicked by a donkey and it broke my leg. "What the council should do is come to us traders and show us how to tie the nappies on the donkeys," Mr Kamau says Mr Kuria though seems determined to push on with his plan.

"I have heard that in some areas where they keep donkeys, they also have nappies," he said. "We will go to these areas and see how they do it and come back and show our people how to do it. We want the people to earn a living but at the same time we must keep our town clean."

SCREEN AFRICA. Sun, 24 June 2007. ‘FRU in discussion with DAC’

The alarming news that the Film Resource Unit (FRU) faced closure due to a financial crisis, elicited much support from producers, industry bodies and the press.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday 20 June by Desmond Tsakani Mthembu and Dorothy Brislin of FRU on behalf of the FRU Board of Directors, there may be some hope on the horizon for the beleaguered organisation. FRU has engaged in a strategic plan to revitalise the organisation and is also involved in discussion with the Dr Pallo Jordan, Minister of the Department of Arts and Culture, regarding the financial status and the way forward to ensure FRU’s longevity.
Here we quote directly from the FRU statement issued on behalf of the Board of Directors:

“Film Resource Unit has been at the forefront of representing African film makers across the continent through distribution of film and video for the last seventeen years. Its reputation as a pioneering audience development organization remains unsurpassed. To this day it continues to engage in successful audience development projects and has expanded its mandate to training in distribution. Over its twenty-one years of existence it has developed a rich archive of film and video resources. Two weeks ago FRU made an announcement about its financial status of commercial insolvency and, following legal advice, made the decision to go into voluntary liquidation. "

“Following this announcement letters of concern have expressed alarm about the state of the industry in losing a vital and important distribution channel and heritage institution. FRU would like to thank producers and the industry in general for their support in invigorating the urgency of a premier distribution company potentially shutting its doors. With the news of liquidation creating a climate of uncertainty in the industry there has been a rush on sales of FRU titles since buyers have recognized that it may be a long time before these titles will be easily available and accessible again."

“With letters of support from producers and the press, FRU has been able to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to revitalize the organization and create a model that would make audience development and distribution more economically viable. To this effect we are pleased to inform the industry that the Film Resource Unit is currently in discussion with the Department of Arts and Culture and directly to the Minister Dr. Pallo Jordan regarding its financial status and the way forward to ensure its longevity. FRU looks forward to keeping the industry and the press informed about the outcome. "

BBC. Thursday, 19 July 2007. ‘Water find may end Darfur war'

A huge underground lake has been found in Sudan's Darfur region, scientists say, which they believe could help end the conflict in the arid region. Some 1,000 wells will be drilled in the region, with the agreement of Sudan's government, the Boston University researchers say.

Analysts say competition for resources between Darfur's Arab nomads and black African farmers is behind the conflict. More than 200,000 Darfuris have died and 2m fled their homes since 2003. "Much of the unrest in Darfur and the misery is due to water shortages," said geologist Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing, according to the AP news agency. “Access to fresh water is essential for refugee survival, will help the peace process, and provides the necessary resources for the much needed economic development in Darfur," he said.
'Significant'

The team used radar data to find the ancient lake, which was 30,750 km2 - the size of Lake Erie in North America - the 10th largest lake in the world. A similar discovery was made in Sudan's neighbour Egypt, where wells have been used to irrigate 150,000 acres of farmland, the researchers say. The discovery is "very significant", Hafiz Muhamad from the lobby group Justice Africa told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "The root cause of the conflict is resources - drought and desertification in North Darfur." He says this led the Arab nomads to move into South Darfur, where they came into conflict with black African farmers. He also said that it has long been known there was water in the area but the government had not paid for it to be exploited.

French researcher Alain Gachet has also been using satellite images to look for new water resources in Darfur. Last month, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) said there was little prospect of peace in Darfur unless the issues of environmental destruction were addressed. It said deserts had increased by an average of 100 km in the last 40 years, while almost 12% of forest cover had been lost in 15 years.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said climate change was partly to blame for the conflict in Darfur in an editorial for US newspaper The Washington Post in June.

Group hug!

If you ever miss an edition of this newsletter, or want to refer back to any information posted, please note that these are also automatically posted onto our APN blog - http://tveafrica.blogspot.com/ You may also post your stories directly onto the blog.

I had also, previously, given out my Yahoo Messenger ID and with the good number of partners that were linked to me it had been an efficient way to communicate, without having to type out formal messages via email. The new servers I am now using, however, do not encourage Yahoo Messenger but thanks to a ‘Group Hug’ system I can connect to Yahoo from MSN; except that I have to kindly ask you to email your chat ID’s. I will take this opportunity to invite those that had not subscribed to the service as yet. Enock Chinyenze, TVE Regional Coordinator - Africa

SCREEN AFRICA. Wed, 18 July 2007. ‘SABC News International launches’.

South African public broadcaster SABC will launch Africa’s first news channel on 20 July at the new Montecasino Theatre just outside Johannesburg. The channel aims at providing an African perspective on domestic and international stories. SABC News International, a channel with a Pan-African focus and reach went on air for the first time at 6pm on June 7, 2007 as a soft launch to test the reception in the market.

The launch included live feeds from SABC’s six international bureaus in Kenya, DRC, Washington, Brussels, New York, Senegal and Nigeria. Initially, the channel will be broadcast via signal distributor Sentech’s Vivid Satellite Digital Decoder, which currently broadcasts to Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Europe. In addition to news bulletins, the channel will feature current affairs and investigative programmes, including news magazine shows, which will incorporate broader content like weather, sports, and economic news and studio interviews.

The channel will also include French news bulletins which are currently streamed live on the SABC News website. SABC News International will replace the SABC Africa overnight feed on SABC 2 and will initially broadcast weekdays only. As from April 2008 it will have a full 24-hour schedule.

Environment News

Africa: Kibaki Agrees to Host Annan's Organisation

East African Standard (Nairobi): President Kibaki has accepted a request by former United Nations Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan that the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) headquarters be hosted in Nairobi. The organisation, headed by Annan, aims at preventing poverty and hunger in Africa by increasing the productivity of small-scale farmers. Annan, who arrived in Nairobi on Saturday morning, called on Kibaki at State House. Kenya has received grants worth $5 million (about Sh330 million) from Agra. The organisation has also awarded about Sh19.8 million to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, to improve cassava and sorghum production in the semi-arid areas. Annan asked his team to focus on marketing. He said Agra emphasised on helping small-scale farmers to sell their surplus crop to earn from their sweat. "The alliance will design programmes to regularly communicate with farmers. This will be in regard to farming techniques, dietary preferences, desired crop traits, local water sources and weather patterns. "We will then design programmes that directly respond to their needs," Annan said. Dr Peter Matlon, Agra interim President Rockefeller Foundation Managing Director, and Dr Akinwumi Adesia, an Associate Director of the Rockefeller Foundation, accompanied the former UN boss. Agriculture PS, Dr Romano Kiome, was also present. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707150029.html

Namibia: Namibrand Strives for the Top

The Namibian (Windhoek): NAMIBRAND Nature Reserve (NRNR), a private nature reserve in southern Namibia, has set up a research and awareness centre in an effort to better manage its activities. Located in the former farm buildings at Toekoms (in the reserve) the NamibRand Desert Research and Awareness Centre (NRAC), provides support and guidance for local and international researchers, focusing on management issues. Danica Shaw, a Senior Control Warden at NamibRand told The Namibian on Friday that research being conducted at the centre is aimed at the better management of plant and animals species of the NRNR, viewed as the largest private nature reserve in southern Africa, extending over an area of 172 200 hectares. Shaw said the centre started operating in August last year and so far a group of four researchers have conducted their research here. She said the centre has also established partnership with renowned local and international research institutions, such as the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre and was working in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, feeding back into national research.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200707130447.html

South Africa: Decision to Put Down Baby Whale 'Was the Best Response'

Cape Argus (Cape Town): A newly born southern right whale calf that washed up on the rocks at Infanta at the mouth of the Breede River has been euthanased with an explosive charge for humanitarian reasons. A joint response team sent from Cape Town decided that the whale had been too badly injured while on the rocks and was too weak from its stranding to survive. But the team had been expecting to find an adult whale, and although they used only one of the two explosive charges they had with them to euthanase the whale, the explosion was still powerful enough to blow out some windows in nearby houses - despite the owners having been asked to open the windows. The team was apologetic and members said they were "still learning lessons" about the use of explosives in such situations. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707130624.html

Nigeria: Ubeji Inferno - WRPC to Start Damage Assessment Soon

Vanguard (Lagos): In compliance with the directive of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to the Warri Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (WRPC) to carry out a post spill impact and damage assessment on the Ubeji condensate spill that caused colossal damage to aquatic, economic lives and destruction of the vegetation of the area, a Joint Investigation Visit, JIV, by all the relevant groups and stakeholders was carried out with a promise to commence damage assessment soonest by the WRPC. But the chairman of the Ubeji committee set up to liaise with the company, Hon. Griftson Omatsuli yesterday called on WRPC to send a weekly relief material to the community and resist taking measures that would set the aggrieved youths of the community on rampage against the company, saying that if that happens he would be unable to hold them back. Mr. Griftson Omatsuli therefore called on the company to relax some of the restrictions imposed on community members coming to WRPC for business and other reasons, disclosing that over 12.56 cubic meters of condensate was lost in the spill that has devastated the neighbouring communities. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707130086.html

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Enock Chinyenze Regional Coordinator for Africa Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) United Nations Environment Programme Division of Communications and Public Information P. O. Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: +254 20 762 1551 Mobile: + 254 723 562900 Fax: + 254 20 762 3927 www.tve.org www.unep.org
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TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter - 12 July to 18 July 2007

2007-07-13T15:19:00.000+03:00

Smoking in public, plastic bags, and urinating on the street has been banned in Kenya. I must comment that I have seen men across Africa marking their territory in public, but not as much as they do in Nairobi. In any direction you drive you will spot at least two men claiming land that doesn’t belong to them. It probably explains why the vegetation around the city is so green; considering that the nitrogen content is quite high and is good for plants.

I’m being a little facetious, but what really grabbed my attention was when Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, graced us by officially opening the Slum Diaries workshop, she alluded to the fact that women in slums are reported to suffer bladder infections because they have to hold back for abnormally long periods due to a lack of sanitation facilities to relieve themselves.

The workshop itself was highly informative and productive, succeeding in bringing together experts from around the globe and in particular I will make mention of the UN-Habitat expert team and the TVE partners from India, China and Nigeria who were also present. It was a brainstorming workshop and recommendations were drawn out that are currently being compiled for action –

On both a sad note and, more congratulatory, happy note, Grace Madoka (Deputy General Manager) will be leaving ACE for a new position in the government - Enock Chinyenze, Regional Coordinator for Africa - TVE

Kenya: Now Nairobi Bans Smoking in Public

The Nation (Nairobi), 11 July 2007, Posted to the web 11 July 2007, Mike Mwaniki

Nairobi has now banned smoking in public places. In a raft of new by-laws approved by Local Government minister Musikari Kombo, the City Council of Nairobi now provides for the arrest and prosecution of any person found smoking in public in contravention of World Health Organisation guidelines.

Nairobi now joins Nakuru and Mombasa in imposing total ban on smoking. Yesterday, the city council's director of legal services, Ms Mary Ng'ethe, said those found smoking in public will be liable to a fine not exceeding Sh2,000 or six months imprisonment for first offenders. "For second or subsequent offenders, the fine will not exceed Sh3,000 or nine months imprisonment or both," she added. According to experts, exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke is harmful and has become a global epidemic that kills over five million people worldwide every year.

Health assistant minister Enock Kibugunchy says research had shown that "for every smoker who dies, another life of a passive smoker is also lost." According to the revised by-laws contained in the Kenya Gazette dated July 6, customers found buying goods from hawkers in "non-designated" areas within the central business district will be arrested and prosecuted.

On polythene carry bags (plastic papers), the by-laws require vendors to wrap goods in papers of a thickness not less than 30 microns. According to the by-laws, any person handling food should refrain from smoking or spitting.
Touting for passengers, prostitution, hooting (except in the case of emergency), spitting or blowing nose on any footpath, defecating or urinating on the street or any open space is also illegal.

The Kenya Gazette

Gazette Notice no. 5826

The Constitution of Kenya Public Complaints Standing Committee: Appointment

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 23 (1) of the Constitution of Kenya, I, Mwai Kibaki, President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya, appoint … Grace Madoka… to be members of the Public Complaints Standing Committee, for a period of three (3) years. – Date: 21 June 2007

General Environment News

Legal brief Environmental: Garbage a problem for Monrovia - Date: Tue 10 July 2007

The UN Environment Programme has called on the government and private sector to repair Liberia’s inefficient system for collecting trash, according to a report on the IRIN site.

‘Solid waste management is arguably the greatest public health threat in Monrovia,’ UNEP’s Michael Cowing said. Cowing, who has studied the environment and sanitation challenges in Liberia, recently met hundreds of members of the public and private sectors, urging them to collaborate to tackle the problem of waste. While some laws are on the books, there is currently no enforcement or monitoring, Cowing added. ‘Environmental legislation and enforcement must be strengthened,’ he said.

Moving to Uganda, where the Kampala City Council intends to implement the Waste Management Ordinance law in order to keep the city clean ahead of the Chogm summit in November, according to New Vision. The ordinance, which requires everyone to properly store solid waste until it is collected by a licensed disposal firm, came into effect in 2000 but has hitherto not been implemented. Another New Vision report notes that the country's National Environment Management Authority (Nema) has approved the construction of garbage recycling plants in nine towns. The $3m project has been funded by the World Bank's solid waste management component. Gerald Musoke, the NEMA deputy executive director, said this was a major step in managing garbage, adding that it would boost Uganda's quest for engaging in the carbon trade.

Bio-diesel production begins in Ghana

Accra, Ghana (PANA) – A community-based organization in the eastern region of Ghana has announced that it has started the production of bio- diesel in Ghana from palm kernel oil. The Dumpong Pineapple Growers Cooperatives said it was doing this in collaboration with its US partners, Dumpong Biofuels. According to the producers, the product has a better performance quality compared to petroleum diesel. They have started using the bio-diesel to power a generator and to fuel their official vehicles and it worked efficiently just like the petroleum diesel, officials told PANA Tuesday. Jerry Robock, Head of the US Dumpong Biofuels team, said that a simple processor to convert locally produced palm kernel oil into bio-diesel was assembled and a process known as "transesterification", which removes glycerine molecule from the oil, was used to extract the fuel. Robock said bio-diesel was more environmentally friendly than petroleum diesel and significantly reduced exhaust emissions and could be a major substitute for imported petroleum diesel fuel. He explained that the project, which cost about US$1,000 and was currently on a pilot basis, could be adopted in other communities to help cut down cost of fuel. He added that Dumpong Biofuel had come up with a strategy to take advantage of locally available oilseed crops to include atrophy and sunflower seed as well, to be converted into environmentally renewable and sustainable fuel to be used locally to replace imported diesel fuel.

South Africa: Green Scorpions Target Gauteng Polluters

Business Day (Johannesburg): The Gauteng conservation, agriculture and environment department issued a warning yesterday to wayward developers, the iron, steel and ferroalloy industry, and traders in endangered species, saying they were willing to take infringements to the courts. The comments were made by MEC Khabisi Mosunkutu during a press conference yesterday to launch a three-day blitz by the Gauteng's Environmental Management Inspectors (EMIs) or Green Scorpions as they are better known, on the eve of the unit's first birthday. EMI director Thabo Ndlovu said the blitz, which started on Sunday, would focus on the illegal trade in endangered species and on ensuring compliance with the law by developers and industry. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707100134.html

Kenya: Nobel Laureate to Address Vatican Conference

Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi): Renowned Kenyan environmentalist and 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Professor Wangari Maathai, will address an international conference on the pastoral care of elderly sick people, being organized by the Vatican. Prof Maathai accepted an invitation by the Holy See last week during a meeting with the apostolic nuncio to Kenya, Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin, who paid her a courtesy call in her office. Archbishop Lebeaupin explained that the 21st international conference will be held November 15-17, and will attract various distinguished scientists and religious figures from all over the world. Participants will treat various topics related to health and Catholic teaching. Prof Maathai is scheduled to address the conference on the theme, Ecological Change and Old Age: Pollution of the Water: Pollution of the Environment. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707101011.html

Nigeria: Chlorine Gas From Water Plant Kills Three in Southeast

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks: A man walks past polluted farmland in Rukpokwu, Nigeria, January 2004. On 3 December 2003, part of an oil pipeline in Rukpokwu in Rivers State burst, devastating the once fertile land around it At least three people were killed when chlorine gas being used at a water treatment plant in Nigeria's southeastern Cross River state escaped into nearby homes, residents and state officials said.

New Netim, a small community in the Odukpani district of the state, adjoining the water treatment plant belonging to the Cross River State Water Board, was enveloped by clouds of chlorine gas on 5 July, leading to the death of three people, said resident Ufot James. "The dead included a woman and two men while several others were hospitalised," James said. Uma Echeghe, an official of the water board, said the gas escaped from one of 24 chlorine cylinders being used to treat water at the water-pumping station following a sudden power failure. But the official said only one death had been reported to the water board. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707100965.html

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Enock Chinyenze Regional Coordinator for Africa Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) United Nations Environment Programme Division of Communications and Public Information P. O. Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: +254 20 762 1551 Mobile: + 254 723 562900 Fax: + 254 20 762 3927 www.tve.org www.unep.org
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TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter - 5 July to 11 July 2007

2007-07-06T14:05:00.000+03:00

Welcome back to the weekly update on the APN and other related activities. Next week, the UN-HABITAT in Nairobi is hosting a Slum Diaries workshop initiated by Brenda Kelly (Executive Producer – TVE). Our partner Communicating for Change will be participating in this brainstorming and strategic planning session. The workshop will also include a visit to Kibera – assumed to be the largest informal settlement (or slum) in Africa.

I visited Mathari slum (second largest in Kenya) two weeks ago, where the Chinese ambassador officially opened a school they had helped to build. The conditions of living there are so appalling with no electricity, clean water or sanitary facilities. I am therefore keen to see the output of the 'Slum Diaries' as I have no doubt the films will remind people of the needs of slum dwellers, but more importantly provide inside solutions to the problems and highlight the urgency for development – Enock Chinyenze, Regional Coordinator for Africa - TVE

Slum Diaries – 9 to 13^th July

At the third session of the World Urban Forum, held in Vancouver in 2006, UN-HABITAT collaborated with TVE and the National Film Board of Canada to organize the parallel event Slum Diaries.

In a world where there are over one billion slum dwellers, the aim of the networking session was to bring together media practitioners and filmmakers - working with slum communities and grass roots organisations, and disadvantaged individuals. In particular the idea was to look at how film and visual media can be used for advocacy and to document slum problems and possibilities from the perspectives of the slum dwellers themselves. This is considered an urgent priority, especially as the UN predicts that, if business continues as usual, the slum population could double by 2030.

Therefore, the aim was to share practices, methodologies and experiences about creating community focussed, democratic, ‘participatory’ media that had social change as a key output. The organisers wanted to forge a productive ongoing relationship between filmmakers and slum dwellers in order to make local and global audiences understand the situation of slum dwellers.

At the same time, during the World Urban Forum, UN-HABITAT and the National Film Board of Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding that includes the collaboration of the two agencies and TVE on the long-term production of the video series Slum Diaries.

The conclusion of the networking event in Vancouver was a call by the participating filmmakers and media practitioners to organize further meetings with a view to establishing a network of filmmakers working with slum dwellers.

The meeting being held in Nairobi intends to chart out the full scope of the proposed Slum Diaries video and networking project before embarking on a strategy to seek funding for production and dissemination. – UN-HABITAT

Running on Empty

The ‘Running on Empty’ debate was aired in Malawi and Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) also ran a media campaign in the papers resulting in a few people requesting for a copy of the documentary, especially those in rural areas who do not get TV signals. MEJN have also just finished filming the ‘Failing the Farmer’ debate and will be editing this week – Austin Madinga, MEJN

Why Women Count

Ace Communications, Kenya, have also had success in airing the new ‘Why Women Count’ (Africa series) through KBC TV on Saturday 30^th June and will also be showing this Saturday between 10a.m. -12 noon. STV may also agree to air and Lulu Kaingu is working on hosting and official launch for the series to gain more publicity, including radio debates and distribution of the DVD series to Civil Society Organisations that support the cause – Lulu Kaingu, ACE

General Environment News:

British official counsels Africa on climate change

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) – British special delegate for climate change in Africa, George Edgar has urged African countries to develop national integrated programmes to fight climate change in a bid to mitigate the impact of global warming, a reliable source said Tuesday in Kigali. "There is an urgent need for African countries to address the impact of climate change and devise other solutions to prevent the devastating effects linked to global warming," the British official averred, Edgar said. "These changes mainly occur through torrential rains, rise in water levels as well as floods in most countries in the African continent," he explained. According to him, the only inclusive solution to mitigate the impact of global warming would be for the governments of African countries to adopt a long-term strategy for massive planting of trees to better protect the environment. His advice comes after Kenyan Green campaigner and 2004 Nobel Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai initiated in October 2006 an ambitious project to plant one billion trees to fight global warming and poverty. Speaking on the fringes of the UN summit on climate change in Nairobi, Wangari Maathai urged populations from across the world mainly Africans, to plant trees and fight against rising temperatures. "Everybody can dig a hole, plant a tree and water it. And everybody can do in such a way that the tree he or she planted survives", said Wangari Maathai who is the first African woman and first Green campaigner honoured by the Peace Nobel. http://www.panapress.com/newslat.asp?code=eng021254&dte=03/07/2007

South Africa: SA to be Re-educated on Using Essential Resources

BuaNews (Tshwane): South Africans need to be re-educated on how to utilize essential resources such as water and energy, decreasing pollution, and managing waste, says Indalo Yethu, South Africa's environmental campaign Chief Executive Officer JP Louw. "The mammoth task is to reach South Africans, and their peers across the globe, who may be working as government officials responsible for developing legislation, company executives developing business policies, teachers responsible for educating learners, and individuals making their own lifestyle choices," said Mr Louw at the World Environmental Education Congress currently underway in Durban. The theme for the congress is "Learning in a changing world". http://allafrica.com/stories/200707040608.html

Nigeria: Adoption of SAP Tops Environment Agenda

This Day (Lagos): Environment ministers from the 16-nation Guinea Current Region (GCR) are billed to meet in Gabon, August, with focus on the adoption and implementation of the Strategic Action Programme (SAP) coming to the fore. The Action Programme, which is a business plan to operationalise the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) project, is expected to be presented to the Ministers for deliberation, adoption and signature. Professor Chidi Ibe, Executive Secretary of the newly created Interim Guinea Current Commission (IGCC), the body responsible for implementation of the GCLME project, has expressed optimism about the Gabon meeting. In a recent interview in Accra, Ghanaian capital, Ibe claimed that the adoption of the Strategic Action Plan (SAP) will be another major landmark towards the achievement of set goals and objectives of the (Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem) GCLME project QUOTE. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707040660.html

Uganda: NEMA Approves Construction of Garbage Recycling Plants

New Vision (Kampala): The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has approved the construction of garbage recycling plants in nine towns. Gerald Musoke, the NEMA deputy executive director, said the $3m (about sh5.2b) projects were funded by the World Bank's solid waste management component. "We have identified nine towns with at least 60-70 tonnes of garbage emitted daily," he said. The towns are Jinja, Lira, Soroti, Fort Portal, Kabale, Kasese, Mbarara, Mbale and Mukono. Musoke said this was a major step in managing garbage, adding that it would boost Uganda's quest for engaging in the carbon trade. http://allafrica.com/stories/200707040662.html

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Enock Chinyenze Regional Coordinator for Africa Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) United Nations Environment Programme Division of Communications and Public Information P. O. Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya Phone: +254 20 762 1551 Mobile: + 254 723 562900 Fax: + 254 20 762 3927 www.tve.org www.unep.org
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TVE-APN Weekly Newsletter - 28 June to 4 July, 2007

2007-06-28T16:07:00.000+03:00

Welcome to the first newsletter of what we hope to make a weekly event. Some of you may already know that I have now relocated to Nairobi where the TVE Africa Regional Office is situated within United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) office at the UN Gigiri complex. Being positioned here is very strategic as we have access to innumerable resources at fingertips. I hope to extend these opportunities to all of you in the coming months and through this newsletter I will spell out the prospects as they arise.

This newsletter is not only about the TVE Africa office, but I would like to include news from everyone of the African partners; whether it is news of activities that you are engaged in, socio-political changes in your area or anything you feel is important to share, I now invite you to email me directly and I will edit the information to feed a summary back to you.

Congratulations for achieving this milestone and let us now all participate in strengthening the network – Enock Chinyenze, TVE - Regional Coordinator for Africa

Partner Visits
In the past months, while waiting to move to Nairobi, I visited a number of the partners in their countries; namely, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, South Africa and, of course, Zimbabwe and Kenya where I have been based. A full report of the visits, which I have constructed in research form, will follow shortly after receipt of this newsletter. The findings in this report will serve as the strategic plan framework for TVE Africa in addition to the key functions for the Regional Coordinator identified at the Windhoek meeting – Harnessing the Power of Film, 2005. For those that attended the meeting you may also recall that you requested a strategic plan from the Coordinator and this exercise has ensured that the process was a participatory event (apart from learning the inner works of the different organisations).

We will get an opportunity to learn about the remaining organisations in due course and, in effect, this makes the research a continuous project that will redefine who we are and what we do.

Gigiri Office Complex
The UN Gigiri offices are home to International headquarters for UNEP and UN-HABITAT, UN Regional offices, and dozens of other UN offices are located in or around the centre. Visit: http://www.unon.org/

TVE has inside access to explore the many opportunities for the African partnership. To begin with, this week, I would like to alert you over the Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) project. The OARE project, in partnership with UNEP and Yale University is, an international public-private consortium that enables developing countries to gain free access to one of the world's largest collections of environmental science literature. Over 1,300 scientific journal titles owned and published by over 300 prestigious publishing houses, scholarly societies, and scientific associations are now available at no cost to you. Visit: http://www.oaresciences.org/

Why is this an important resource? Well… to access these scientific documents on commercial grounds would cost you an arm and a leg (currently valued at over US$100 million). Secondly it bridges the scientific gap between the north and the south. You therefore can now write reports, or make films, using current scientific research data.
On the OARE homepage you will also find links to HINARI and AGORA that offer a similar service for health and agricultural research respectively. For you, as the APN, I can also send to you introductory packs about this project at your request, but go on and subscribe your organisation on their website right away for no cost.

Special Events
Irene Zikusoka, an independent filmmaker in Uganda and partner to the Women Broadcasting for Change (another one of TVE’s networks), together with Television for Development successfully launched the new ‘Why Women Count’ series at the 8^th Commonwealth Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting (8WAMM) in Kampala this last June. To view the immediate response to the films from the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, visit: http://commonwealth.live.poptech.coop/speech/34293/35178/165311/8wamm.htm

I viewed the new series this week and would like to congratulate the Women Broadcasting for Change network for an exceptional job well done. Following the last ‘Snapshots of Change’ series, the films have turned up a notch on relevance and I expect them to impact communities highly.

Still on the commonwealth, as you know, our annual meeting is this year will coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Kampala. Just as important as our closed meeting is that we will be running one of the workshops of the Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF) where civil society will discuss, through workshops, and agree on a communiqué to send to CHOGM prior to their meeting. We will be inviting many of you to facilitate and make presentations in your area of expertise, so as you participate in this high level decision making process. Please start reading up on the commonwealth by logging onto: http://www.thecommonwealth.org/

Question of the week
The new ‘Earth Report’ series has of course been on air. Have you been watching the series?

Feedback
I welcome any feedback from you over TVE, your organisation or your country’s activities.

Editor: Enock Chinyenze. Nairobi, Kenya.

Africa's top film festival opens

2007-02-26T15:54:00.000+03:00

Africa's biggest film festival has opened in Ouagadougou, the capital of
Burkina Faso, showcasing some of the best films from across the
continent.

The Pan-African Film and Television Festival, Fespaco, is a biennial
event that has been running since 1969.

Full story on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6394133.stm
Festival Website http://www.fespaco.bf/index_en.html