JOHANNESBURG, 30 June 2008 (IRIN) - International condemnation of Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election as president of Zimbabwe has now turned to criticism of foreign businesses operating in the country, which are seen as helping to prop up the regime.

Despite the meltdown of the economy, a number of multinational corporations have continued operations in the Southern African country and some have even proposed expansion. Last week mining giant Anglo American announced it would go ahead with a US$400 million plan to open a new platinum mine.

The move sparked international outrage and other large foreign businesses, like UK-based Barclays Bank, were questioned on their commitment to corporate social responsibility.

In response to the furore, Anglo released a statement saying: "Anglo American has been an investor in Zimbabwe for 60 years [and] is deeply concerned about the current political situation, and condemns the violence and human rights abuses that are taking place."

The company said the mining project had been in development since 2003, and "is a long-term investment in a mine which is yet to start production and will not generate revenues for some years."

For the full article, please see http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79019

DHAKA (Reuters) Jul 1, 2008- Bangladesh has proposed the creation of a fund to fight climate change in densely populated South Asia, which experts say is vulnerable to rising seas, melting glaciers and greater extremes of droughts and floods.

Regional experts on climate change began two days of talks in Dhaka on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting of environment ministers from countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

"We want to find a common stand among the South Asian countries and will raise our voice together against the perils of climate changes," said Raja Devasish Roy, head of the Environment and Forest Ministry of Bangladesh, after opening the experts' meeting.

SAARC, comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, will adopt a common strategy at the Dhaka meeting, officials said.

Devasish said industrialised countries were the most to blame for global warming and should compensate poorer nations by providing them grants -- not loans -- to fight the effects of climate change.

For the full article, please see http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSDHA23466320080701 \\

Wed Jul 2, 2008

MILAN (Reuters) - Rising land degradation reduces crop yields and may threaten food security of about a quarter of the world' population, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Wednesday.

Food security has been highlighted in recent months as soaring crop prices resulting from poor harvests, low stocks, high fuel prices and rising demand, risks causing starvation for millions of people in the developing world.

"An estimated 1.5 billion people, or a quarter of the world's population, depend directly on land that is being degraded," FAO said in a statement presenting a study based on data taken over a 20-year period.

Long-term land degradation has been increasing around the world and affects more than 20 percent of all cultivated areas, 30 percent of forests and 10 percent of grasslands, FAO said.

Land erosion leads to reduced productivity, migration, food insecurity, damage to basic resources and ecosystems, loss of biodiversity and also contributes to increasing emission of heat-trapping gases, the Rome-based agency said.

"The loss of biomass and soil organic matter releases carbon into the atmosphere and affects the quality of soil and its ability to hold water and nutrients," said Parviz Koohafkan, director of FAO's Land and Water Division.

According to the study, land degradation is being driven mainly by poor land management.

(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova, Editing by Peter Blackburn)

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL0223173420080702 \\

From gourds to politics: Lu Banglie uses the legal system to protect farmers' rights.

By Edward Cody| The Washington Postfrom the July 1, 2008 edition

BEIJING - - Back in 1998, Lu Banglie remembered, he was just another farmer trying to get compensation for the pumpkins and cabbages ruined by floods that engulfed his little field in central China.

But one thing led to another. In the decade since the flooding, Mr. Lu has been transformed into a man with a mission.

The wiry, plain-talking peasant from Hubei Province is now a thorn in the side of the Communist Party, a self-taught activist using the law to protect China's farmers from the pressures of development encroaching on their land.

"I have realized how much power you can get from knowledge of the rules and regulations," he said.

Although China's peasants have repeatedly resorted to violence in recent years, most confrontations have been spontaneous uprisings over local land seizures, unconnected to eruptions elsewhere. But under the guidance of Beijing-based democracy advocates, Lu sought to apply the experiences of his own village to the struggles of others.

His main weapon was Chinese law, the letter of which offers many guarantees that, in practice, are often set aside by party leaders. In a country where the party crushes any attempt at forming associations outside its control, Lu's goal of spreading the word on how to use lawbooks to oppose local leaders amounted to a relatively novel political challenge.

For the full article, please visit Christan Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0702/p04s01-woap.html \\

Source: The New Security Beat (Blog hosted by Woodrow Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program)

Posted: July 3, 2008 

Guest Contributor Alex Fischer on Increasing Human Security through Water and Sanitation Services in Rural Madagascar

For the past several months, I have been working with a team of other researchers in partnership with WaterAid and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs to find new techniques for measuring the benefits of improved water and sanitation in rural Madagascar. Studies of the impact of water and sanitation programs tend to focus on health treatment costs avoided and time saved obtaining water, but our field visits and analysis suggest that water and sanitation development projects can also improve food security, education, and local community governance, and may even introduce new forms of conflict resolution.

After our team's initial field visit to rural communities around Ambositra, a small commercial town several hours south of the capital, we decided to broaden our scope of analysis. We had noticed that livelihoods and community management were dramatically different in villages with clean water nearby and villages whose residents continued to walk long distances to sources of questionable quality.

 For the full article, please visit http://newsecuritybeat.blogspot.com/2008/07/guest-contributor-alex-fischer-on.html

Source: National Public Radio 

by Jon Hamilton

Weekend Edition Saturday, July 5, 2008 - One of the world's great wildlife sanctuaries is literally going up in smoke. The hardwood forests of Virunga National Park in Central Africa are being cut down to support a lucrative — and illegal — trade in charcoal. If the destruction continues at its present rate, most of the trees in southern Virunga will be gone in a decade.

Virunga, founded in 1925, includes the mountains where the late anthropologist Dian Fossey did her research for the book Gorillas in the Mist. But endangered mountain gorillas, several of which were recently found murdered execution-style, are just part of the story.

"There are more mammal, bird and reptile species in Virunga than in any other park in Africa, and possibly even the world," says Emmanuel de Merode, a conservationist who is working with rangers to save the park.

Virunga's problems stem from its location in what has become a war zone. Most of the nearly 2 million-acre park is situated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But portions sprawl into Rwanda and Uganda.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92233755&ft=1&f=1025 \\

Source: WWF
Published July 4, 2008 10:09 AM

Curitiba, Brazil — A "fragile" land tenure system and "a scarce presence" by the State were identified as key factors in rising Amazon deforestation last week.

The diagnosis was delivered to the 3rd International Congress on Bioenergy last week by WWF-Brazil forest engineer Ana Euler, who said there was a need to re-discuss the Brazilian development model.

"In many areas of the Amazon we come across a situation in which there are various 'landowners' for the same piece of land and proof of land ownership is extremely difficult," Euler said. "In such a scenario, the populations that are more vulnerable end up being penalized."

"Indigenous peoples, extractivists and small peasants generally lose the dispute to agribusiness and other groups that deploy greater political and economic strength."

The findings draw on studies of the states of Para and Rondônia where a high incidence of land conflict and associated violence were linked to forest degradation and destruction.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37574 \\

MANILA, 4 July 2008 (IRIN) - The Philippines government, international community, and local private sector all provided assistance in response to Fengshen, the first major typhoon to hit the Philippines this year.

"The Philippines' response collectively has been very good," said Andrew MacLeod of the UN Resident Coordinator's Office. "The government was able to handle it very well. It has a good mechanism through the National Disaster Coordinating Council [NDCC]."

Originally predicted not to strike land, Fengshen's irregular movement took the country by surprise. Wind gusts up to 195km per hour and heavy rains caused landslides, flashfloods, and several marine disasters on 21-23 June, killing 781 people, destroying more than 300,000 homes, and causing P11 billion (US$242 million) of damage to agriculture, according to the latest figures from the NDCC.

The typhoon also caused one of the worst marine disasters in the country's recent history. MV Princess of the Stars, carrying 866 people, sank off Romblon province in the Visayas.

The sea accounted for 173 deaths and only 56 survivors have been found. The rest remain unaccounted for, believed to be trapped inside the capsised ferry or carried by the current to nearby islands. The Philippine Coast Guard's recovery operations were aborted when 10 tonnes of Endosulfan, a restricted pesticide for use in pineapple plantations, was discovered in the sunken ferry, the NDCC reported.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79100 

Source: Xinhua News Agency

URL: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KHII-7GC9VA?OpenDocument 

Date: 07 Jul 2008

YANGON, Jul 07, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) -- Thailand is seeking to establish in Myanmar an early warning network system against cyclone and a delegation, led by Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Mun Patanotai, is currently on a visit in Yangon.

According to the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar Tuesday, talks on the move were held between the Thai delegation and its Myanmar counterpart, led by Minister of Transport Major- General Thein Swe, during the visit.

The Thai delegation also met with Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu, Chairman of the ASEAN-Myanmar-United Nations Tripartite Core Group representing Myanmar, Monday to seek cooperation on the move, the report said.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has set up an emergency telecommunication center (ETC) in Yangon to help for quick communication access in disaster relief and restoration works, the local Biweekly Eleven reported earlier.

Some Myanmar staff have been trained by the UN Emergency Communication Group operating the center, the report said, adding that the UN group has been rendering assistance for some social organizations based in Bangkok to bring in their relief aid supplies to cyclone-hit areas in Myanmar's Ayeyawaddy division and Yangon division.

Deadly cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructure damage.

Myanmar estimated the damages and losses caused by the storm at 10.67 billion U.S. dollars with 5.5 million people affected.

The storm has killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to the latest official death toll.

Final report by Katharina Welle, Manhiem Bol Malek and Tom Slaymaker

http://www.odi.org.uk/wpp/resources/project-reports/WRAPP%20evaluation%20report.pdfExecutive

Summary and Strategic Recommendations

The Water for Recovery and Peace Program (WRAPP) has been operating in Southern Sudan under PACT since 2005 with the aim to (1) increase access to protected water supply and enhance awareness about sanitation and hygiene; (2) enhance capacity for community management of water schemes; (3) contribute to the reduction of conflict and the promotion of stability and peace; and (4) be gender and environmentally sensitive. The main funding agency of WRAPP is USAID/OFDA.

By November 2007, WRAPP had implemented 707 (boreholes) rural water supply schemes, rehabilitated 505 (boreholes) schemes, 13 semi-urban water distribution

schemes, public toilet blocks in 10 towns and one hafir, a major rainwater harvesting facility. The total number of beneficiaries reached under WRAPP reach an estimated

1,4 million. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the WRAPP approach in terms of its appropriateness, effectiveness and sustainability. The evaluation team followed the log frame approach, assessing to what extent the programme is meeting its objectives and achieving outcomes and impact with a focus on qualitative methods to assess the soft aspects of the WRAPP approach.

By Amanda Griscom Little

July 8, 2008 (Grist)

Jeffrey Sachs -- the renowned economist who devised a grand plan in 2005 to rid the world of poverty -- is now focused on an even broader ambition: saving the planet and all of us who call it home.

His new book, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet??,??explores the crises of climate change and ecological degradation in a world squeezed by soaring population and industrial growth. But it's no doomsayer's lament. Sachs is a practical problem solver who's made his name advising big players in international politics and drawing up detailed plans for tackling the world's biggest challenges -- plus palling around with do-gooding celebs like Bono and Angelina Jolie. A professor of sustainable development and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Sachs is also a bigwig at the United Nations, where he advises Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He previously served as special adviser to Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 2002 to 2006, during which time he oversaw the U.N.'s Millennium Project.

In Common Wealth, Sachs argues that a new era of global cooperation will be needed to stabilize the world's population, spread sustainable technologies, eradicate disease, and lift billions of people from poverty. More pragmatist than eco-purist, Sachs advocates solutions ranging from solar power and ultra-efficient cars to advanced coal technologies, chemical fertilizers, and genetically modified seeds.

I called Sachs up at his office in New York City to suss out his vision for a sustainable future, and the political path that would make it a reality.

For the interview, please visit http://www.grist.org/feature/2008/07/08/sachs/index.html?source=rss 

 http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/455931

Toronto Star

 By Alec Crawford

 July 8, 2008

 On April 13, a patrol of Canadian Rangers arrived at Eureka, a remote
 weather station in the southwest part of Ellesmere Island.

 For more than two weeks the patrol had been trekking across Canada's
 northern archipelago as part of Operation Nunalivut ("this land is
 ours"), a now-yearly exercise carried out by the Canadian Forces to
 assert the country's sovereignty in the High Arctic.

 A month later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of National
 Defence Peter McKay unveiled the latest iteration of the Canada First
 Defence Strategy.

 The war in Afghanistan remains the focus. But the defence strategy also
 underlined a commitment to augmenting the Canadian Forces' capacity to
 "protect Canada's Arctic sovereignty and security."

 While this hearkens back to the country's more traditional security
 concerns, it has been brought about by a very new security threat: that
 of climate change.
...

With climate change increasing access to the Bering, Chukchi and
 Beaufort Seas, lucrative fisheries will develop as the ice recedes and
 cold-water fish move north.

 The exploitation of the area's mineral deposits will become more
 cost-effective, and the region's vast oil and gas resources - which are
 believed to account for one-quarter of the world's undiscovered reserves
 -- will ironically become more accessible due to climate change

...

 Successive Canadian governments have argued that the Northwest Passage
 is Canadian territory, and in the interest of North American security
 (and the environment) Canada should control traffic in the passage, as opposed to allowing unfettered access.

 The government's position stands in contrast to that of other maritime
 countries. The United States, for example, believes the Northwest
 Passage should be open to international traffic, and that vessels need
 not obtain consent from Canada before travelling through the strait;
 acceptance of Canadian sovereignty over the strait could set a dangerous
 precedent for other, equally strategic waterways such as those in the
 South China Sea.

 To back up its stake, the Canadian government is investing heavily in
 equipment and staff to bolster its presence in the region. It has
 committed to building six to eight navy patrol ships to guard the
 Northwest Passage, and in August 2007 the Prime Minister announced plans
 to build two military bases in the region: an army training centre for
 100 troops in Resolute Bay, and a deep-water port at Nanisivik on Baffin
 Island.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/37605

From: , Organic Consumers Association, More from this Affiliate
Published July 9, 2008 09:21 AM

NOTE: Some people say Bush's "biofuel" boom constitutes a greater crime against humanity than even his Iraq debacle. The interaction of the Bush led ethanol boom with the crisis of speculation, characterized by a chronic bubble economy, has been utterly disastrous in terms of its impact on the poor and hungry, never mind its negative environmental impact and other knock on effects as governments go into panic mode. Here's the view of a stock analyst.

EXTRACTS: If you fill up with ethanol, every time you pull that SUV into the gas station and pump 22 gallons, you starve a poor person for six months.

World food shortage and the ethanol bubble
by Kevin Kersten
InvestorsObserver.com, July 7 2008 http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/07/07/world-food-short...

We had the internet bubble and the real estate bubble and now, there is the ethanol bubble. Recently, I ran some numbers on ethanol and to my amazement realized that it is - too use a catch phrase from the environmental world -- not sustainable. Turning food into fuel is just plain silly; and when oil prices come down the ethanol bubble could pop big.

I ran did a little research and found some numbers:

*47% of the Mexican diet is corn
*it takes 2.4 pounds of corn a day to feed a hungry person
*it takes 22 pounds of corn to make one gallon of ethanol
*there are 42 gallons of refined gas in one barrel of oil

Now, a little basic math can be very enlightening. To replace one barrel of oil, it takes 42 gallons of ethanol or (42x22)=924 pounds of corn. That is enough corn to feed one hungry person for (924/2.4) 385 days - a little more than one year.

If you fill up with ethanol, every time you pull that SUV into the gas station and pump 22 gallons, you starve a poor person for six months. Another way to look at a barrel of oil is that it has enough energy to feed a person for the entire year. Using that logic, the much debated Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- with at least 3.2 billion barrels of oil -- contains enough food to feed the entire world for six months. If you think my estimates are wrong, you're right; the real math is actually worse.

So what does that mean for investors? When the public and politicians own up to the fact that food for fuel causes world food prices to rise and starve the poor, all those companies currently flying high on ethanol could come crashing to earth. A few of the companies that have been running on the recent ethanol excitement include Monsanto (NYSE: MON), Potash (NYSE: POT), Mosaic (NYSE: MOS), John Deere (NYSE: DE), Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE: ADM) and Bunge (NYSE: BG).

Kevin Kersten is a Stock and Options Analyst with InvestorsObserver.com. Disclosure note: Mr. Kersten owns and/or controls a diversified portfolio of long and short positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about.

By David Axe

GORE, Jul 9 (IPS) - Clarisse Larlombaye was nearly ruined when a herd of cows got into her rice field one night. The tiny 900-square-meter plot, outside the U.N.-run Gondje refugee camp in lush southern Chad is the sole source of income for Larlombaye and the two other Central African refugees she shares it with.

In recent years, Larlombaye and her co-farmers each have gotten an average of 225 kilogrammes of rice per year from their small plot. Larlombaye said she and her family usually eat two-thirds; the other third she sells for around $.75 per kilo at local markets. But the marauding cows left her with just 70 kilos last year, barely enough to feed her and her family.

Larlombaye's brush with catastrophe is all too common in southern Chad, where 60,000 Central African refugees compete with local residents, and with each other, for land. The growing crisis parallels escalating tensions in eastern Chad between 250,000 Darfuri refugees and local residents over scarce water and firewood.

Ravenous cattle intruding on farmland is not a new problem in Chad. But incidents are becoming more frequent and contentious, especially in and around the southern refugee camps.

Despite the tension, the U.N. has heralded its four southern Chad camp complexes -- which house refugees fleeing unrest in northern Central African Republic -- as models of agricultural self-sufficiency, especially compared to camps in the east, which still rely heavily on food donations funneled through the U.N. World Food Program. 

By Peter Hirschberg

JERUSALEM, Jul 10 (IPS) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has laid it out in the starkest possible terms for his fellow Israelis. If they do not relinquish control of the occupied territories, he has warned them, Israel will ultimately cease to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.

If Israel does not extract itself from the West Bank and a Palestinian state is not established alongside the Jewish state, he said in an interview late last year, Israel will find itself trapped in an apartheid-like reality. "The day will come when the two-state solution collapses and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights," he said. "As soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."

Olmert's conviction is driven by what many Israelis call "the demographic threat" -- a scenario in which Arabs, due to their higher birth rates, outnumber Jews in the geographic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Once the demographic balance tilts against Israeli Jews, Olmert has warned, they will find themselves in a quandary in which a Jewish minority rules over an Arab majority. When that happens, he explained, Israel will be confronted by a battle it cannot win: Palestinians will abandon their demand for a separate, independent state in the West Bank and Gaza and instead will demand one-person, one-vote in a single state -- a demand that will become irresistible within the international community, as happened with South Africa.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43136

 by Ben Block on July 9, 2008

Worldwatch Institute  

Land degradation is becoming worse in severity and extent across many regions of the world, with croplands, in particular, declining in function and productivity, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a new report

Prior to the release of the report last Wednesday, U.N. Environment Program-funded researchhad estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of the world's 1.5 billion hectares of cropland suffered from some level of degradation. Now, using satellite imagery for the years between 1981 and 2003, the FAO researchers estimate that 24 percent of all land surface area is depleted.

Despite the world undergoing a crisis of food supply shortages, funding and research dedicated to global land degradation is sparse. In this report, the FAO called for individuals, communities, and governments to dedicate "renewed attention" to the state of the world's soil, citing food security and climate change mitigation as reasons for concern.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5820 \\

 By Bernarda Claure

Source: IPS 

LA PAZ, Jul 10 (Tierramérica) - Indigenous communities in Bolivia and Brazil have declared an emergency in response to the construction of the Madera River Hydroelectric Complex, which Brasilia is pursuing even as independent research efforts try to measure the impacts of what will be one of South America's largest energy projects.

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this year has proposed construction of the Jirau and San Antonio dams, the first part of the complex in Brazilian territory. But Bolivian residents of the northern Amazon fear it will unleash environmental harm and devastate their lands.

The organisations representing them met Jun. 29 in the northern city of Riberalta and declared an emergency. A declaration by seven labour groups and the Movement of People Affected by Dams of the western Brazilian state of Rondonia, seen by Tierramérica, called on the Bolivian government "not to negotiate or sign any type of agreement" with Brazil.

The Madera, the Spanish name of the river where it begins in Bolivia, or the Madeira, its Portuguese name in Brazil, originates in the Andes Mountains, formed by the Beni and Madre de Dios rivers, and ultimately flows into the Amazon River. 

For the full article, please see http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43137  

From: Science and Development Network
Published July 11, 2008 08:50 AM

by Catarina Chagas

Protected conservation areas, previously thought to negatively impact marginalised rural communities, actually attract human settlement — a situation that could risk the very biodiversity that protected areas (PAs) seek to protect.

These are the findings of a paper published in Science last week (4 July).

The researchers assessed population growth within ten kilometre 'buffers' at the edges of 306 PAs in 45 African and Latin American countries, and compared them with background rural rates in the same countries.

Average human population growth rates on PA edges were nearly double the average growth rate in rural areas with similar ecological conditions. The results were strongest in Latin America.

"In the vast majority of parks, human growth rates are faster on protected area edges than similar regions away from parks. We did not anticipate that we would find such a strong result," George Wittemyer, a researcher at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the authors of the paper, told SciDev.Net.

For the full article, please see: http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37626

GAO, 11 July 2008 (IRIN) - Despite high global food prices, conflict in the north and the onset of the lean season which lasts from July to September, the food security situation in the north and elsewhere, looks positive this year in Mali.

"[Food] prices are going up, but it's normal; stocks are good and the cereal is available. We think overall, the harvest will be good," said Alice Martin-Diahirou, director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Mali.

"There are pockets of concern for us around the towns of Bourem and Ansongo, near Gao, but the situation this year is not serious like in previous years," she said.

The positive outlook for food security in the north comes despite the insecurity that has recently gripped the region.  A number of violent raids and clashes have caused more than 50 deaths over the past few months as the Touareg  rebellion has escalated. 

For the full article, please visit: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=79197 

By SALLY BUZBEE Thu Jul 10, 2:15 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_drought_year;_ylt=AtGIE3_lkkC4y9ukkZ2hLiGs0NUE 
BAGHDAD - It's been a year of drought and sand storms across Iraq--- a dry spell that has devastated the country's crucial wheat crop and created new worries about the safety of drinking water.

U.S. officials warn that Iraq will need to increase wheat imports sharply this winter to make up for the lost crop — a sobering proposition with world food prices high and some internal refugees already struggling to afford basics.

"Planting ... is totally destroyed," said Daham Mohammed Salim, 40, who farms 120 acres in the al-Jazeera area near Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. "Even the ground water in wells is lower than before."

The Tikrit area, where Saddam Husseinwas born, normally is flush with green meadows in the spring and early summer — but this year has only thistles, said 30-year-old farmer Ziyad Sano. He's resorted to collecting bread scraps from homes to feed his 70 sheep, but 20 have died.

The dry weather has hurt areas from Kurdistan's wheat fields in northern Iraq to pomegranate orchards, orange groves and wheat fields just north of Baghdad.

In the capital, the Tigris riveris at its lowest level since 2001, with yards of reeds exposed on each bank. Some irrigation canals to the north in Diyala province — the country's most important bread basket — are bone dry.

Iraqi officials have won praise for providing small-scale relief, such as aid to farmers and the digging of new wells. But the relatively low-tech farming, coupled with chronic electrical power shortages, have hindered broader solutions.

The power outages have prevented farmers in Diyala from drawing water from wells or pumping it from rivers to flood-irrigate fields as usual.

The dry spell has its roots in a winter with only 30 to 40 percent of normal rain — both in Iraq and in Turkey, where the Tigris enters Iraq to the south.

Iraqi officials negotiated with Turkey to let more of that country's dwindling water supplies to flow south from dams, said Mahdi Thumad al-Qaisi, Iraq's deputy minister of agriculture.

But some Iraqis say the government should press harder to get more water from neighboring countries. A representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, urged the government this week to sell oil at preferential prices in return for more access to water.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, asked about the issue on his first-ever visit to Iraq on Thursday, insisted his country is supplying Iraq "with more water than what we had promised, regardless of the high need in our own country."

Besides Iraq and Turkey, the drought has spread across Syria, Cyprus, Iran and Afghanistan, where the wheat crop is also in trouble and could cause shortages.

... 

07/08/2008

From Sahra News

Palestinian Authority - The Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip has asked the local population to avoid swimming in Mediterranean coastal waters. The government's inability to treat sewage before it is released into the sea has led to a high rate of pollution. Palestinian authorities ascribe the problem to the Israeli blockade. It is believed that any use of coastal waters would lead to major health risks, especially skin diseases.

by Ben Block on July 14, 2008

Source: Worldwatch Institute  

The trend of more frequent global natural disasters continues, due to an onslaught of weather-related crises in the first half of 2008.

The total number of disasters as of June 30, 2008 already exceeds the average number of disasters recorded at mid-year over the past decade. Although 2008 is not on pace to eclipse 2007 as registering the most natural disasters ever, an especially active Atlantic hurricane season is expected.

During the first half of each year between 1998 and 2007, the average number of disasters recorded was 380. So far in 2008, 400 disasters have been reported, according to data released last week by Munich Re, a German reinsurance group.

The data covers geological events, such as earthquakes and volcanoes, as well as weather-related disasters like storms, floods, and heat waves.

Based on the mid-year report, 2008 is following the steady rise in natural disasters that Munich Re has tracked since 1980. The average number of disasters throughout the 1980s was 400. It increased to 630 in the 1990s and to 730 in the past ten years. The highest recorded number of natural disasters, 960, occurred in 2007, Munich Re reported.

For the full article, please see: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5825

From: Reuters
Source:  ENN
Published July 14, 2008 09:17 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - Booming demand for food, fuel and wood as the world's population surges from six to nine billion will put unprecedented and unsustainable demand on the world's remaining forests, two new reports said on Monday.

The reports from the U.S.-based Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) said this massive potential leap in deforestation could add toglobalwarming and put pressure on indigenous forest dwellers that could lead to conflict.

"Arguably we are on the verge of the last great global land grab," said Andy White, co-author of "Seeing People Through the Trees," one of the two reports.

"Unless steps are taken, traditional forest owners, and the forests themselves, will be the big losers. It will mean more deforestation, more conflict, more carbon emissions, more climate change and less prosperity for everyone."

For the full article, please visit: http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/3764

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79252

 Tuesday 15 July 2008

JERUSALEM, 15 July 2008 (IRIN) - Herders in the West Bank are facing an "acute water shortage" and are on the "brink of an emergency", the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has warned, saying it was stepping in to provide immediate assistance, although a long-term solution was needed to fix the problem.

The problem is both natural and man-made, stemming from three successive years of drought and a frost during the past winter, as well as Israeli restrictions on movement which prevent access to water, the ICRC said.

...

The Israeli perspective

Israel has said the restrictions on movement are needed to mitigate security threats. A senior defence official, who insisted on speaking off the record, said the problems the herders faced stem from the drought and population growth.

"A well that suited their needs in the past, is no longer enough for the larger family," he said.

Furthermore, Israeli officials said they were working on development plans for certain Palestinian villages and towns, which may help some with their water access issues. Other Palestinians, like those in al-Hadadiya, who are considered to have "illegally invaded" the land - and face eviction and demolition orders - will continue to have trouble.
...

ICRC distributes water

For now, the ICRC has distributed water to some affected shepherds, numbering some 50,000 people.

The first distribution took place in the drought-affected southern Hebron hills, one of the hardest hit areas, helping some 1,000 people and their 50,000 livestock.

By Simon Montlake| Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the July 14, 2008 edition

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0715/p07s01-wosc.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japanfish15-2008jul15,0,4233571.story
Fishermen say it's too expensive to take out their boats. They plan a strike Tuesday, sparking fears of a food crisis in a nation where seafood is a staple.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 15, 2008
OTARU, JAPAN -- Shigeru Honma had not been to Tokyo in more than 30 years. But on July 1, the 58-year-old fisherman from this port city in northern Japan dusted off an old suit and traveled to the capital to deliver a letter to the prime minister.

Soaring fuel prices are killing Japan's fishing industry, it said. Give us money, or oil.

There's been no response from the prime minister's office, so fishery cooperatives have organized a nationwide strike today with 200,000 vessels halting operations. About 3,600 fishermen and supporters are to protest in Tokyo.

"We are very gentle, but it's time to say something now," said Honma, a third-generation fisherman.

Spiraling fuel and food costs have sparked riots and protests in many countries. In Japan, where demonstrations are relatively rare, the rising prices are threatening a way of life in this seafood-loving nation.

"If we lose our fishing industry, we Japanese will face a food crisis," said Masahiko Ariji, a fishery specialist at the Amita Institute for Sustainable Economics in Kyoto. About two-thirds of the nation's fishing groups were in the red last year, he said. With fuel prices higher this year, some "are about to collapse."

The price of gas at Japan's pumps has jumped to about $6.40 a gallon from $4.35 in the spring. Taxi and transit companies have bumped up rates, as have airlines. Though prices of tuna, squid and other seafood have risen, fishing companies say they can't easily pass on costs to customers because of competition from imports.

Whether Japan's government will help is not known.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79295

KABUL, 17 July 2008 (IRIN) - At least 1.5 million people in 19 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces - mostly farming communities in the north - have been severely affected by drought and are in need of urgent humanitarian relief, an Afghan minister told IRIN.
...

The country has about 1.5 million hectares of rain-fed agricultural land which provided one third of domestic cereal production (including wheat, beans, rice and maize) in 2007.

The drought, which officials blame on global warming, has also affected irrigated agricultural land, with yields down 40 percent in many places compared to 2007.

Afghanistan's domestic cereal production is thus set to fall to about 2.3 million tonnes as against 4.6 million tonnes in 2007 - a 50 percent drop - the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock said.

Afghanistan produced close to 90 percent of its domestic cereal consumption needs in 2007, but has long been dependent on imports from Pakistan to make up the shortfall.

Afghan officials say the current shortfall will be made good by food aid deliveries and imports.

...

Shortage of drinking water

People in the north are also in dire need of drinking water as wells and springs have dried up, Minister Zia told IRIN in Kabul on 16 July.

Over 1.15 million people in 22 provinces, including Kabul, have been facing "serious drinking-water shortages", according to a joint UN-government appeal for aid to drought-affected communities, which was launched on 9 July.

Source: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)
Date: 18 Jul 2008

LONDON - The United Nations World Food Programme said today that attacks on aid workers on the ground and threats to ships delivering food aid to Somalia, are jeopardising the lives of millions who now need urgent food assistance.

"Somalia is at a dire crossroads," said Peter Goossens, WFP's Country Director for Somalia at a news conference today in London. "If sufficient food and other humanitarian assistance cannot be scaled up in the coming months, parts of the country could well be in the grips of disaster similar to the 1992-1993 famine, when hundreds of thousands of people perished."

Insecurity, drought, a succession of poor or failed harvests, are deepening the suffering of millions of people in the country, and pushing hundreds of thousands more into destitution. The situation is exacerbated by the weakness of the Somali shilling against the dollar, coupled with rising food and fuel prices.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASAZ-7GNFW5?OpenDocument 

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=79331

JOHANNESBURG, 18 July 2008 (IRIN) - In Madagascar, where community resilience and livelihoods are continuously eroded by cyclones, floods and drought, the gap between emergency humanitarian action and development assistance can become too wide to cross.

"When the question is not, 'if disaster will strike; but where, how long and how often?", there is little time to help communities back on their feet, Christophe Legrand, Early Recovery and Disaster Risk Management Advisor at the UN Development programme in Madagascar, told IRIN.

Over 100 people died when the Indian Ocean island was hit by cyclones Fame, Jokwe and Ivan earlier in 2008. The powerful winds, heavy rains and flooding affected over 340,000 people, of whom 190,000 lost their homes. There were six cyclones in 2007 - the worst year on record - while drought in the parched south has persisted for several years.
...

Real recovery

Legrand said Early Recovery (ER) was key to helping communities bounce back while they braced for the next crisis. "ER shortens the transition phase," he said. The emergency response focuses on essential life-saving activities, while ER starts the restoration of essential elements that can "kick-start normal development".

ER focuses on basic services, livelihoods, shelter, governance, security and the rule of law, environment and social dimensions, including the reintegration of displaced populations; it helps stabilise human security and addresses the underlying risks that contribute to a crisis. "ER helps ensure that [the millions of dollars] injected into a humanitarian response turn into long-term assets," Legrand noted. 

From: Science and Development Network
Published July 21, 2008 09:08 AM

by Katherine Nightingale

Human rights can be a "compass" to guide research and policy development for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, according to a report.

The International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) says climate change will threaten — directly or indirectly — almost all human rights, including the right to food, health and a livelihood. But they have received little attention on the policy stage so far.

Human rights can be used as thresholds or minimum standards that climate change, or policies to deal with it, must not breach, says their report, released last month (24 June).

"Human rights are a helpful tool for asking who'll be affected by climate change or climate change policies in a particular way, based on a set of well-defined, internationally recognised criteria," says Robert Archer, executive director of ICHRP.

Local level data about the human costs of climate change are lacking in many countries, particularly those where the effects will be greatest, he says.

"On the science side we have a baseline level of data even in poor countries, but on the social side we're starting from zero."

For the full article, please visit http://www.enn.com/climate/article/37706&nbsp

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79229

QALA-I-NAW, 14 July 2008 (IRIN) - Hundreds of people in northwestern Afghanistan are annoyed with the authorities for allegedly failing to give them promised wheat aid in return for dead locusts.

After locusts swarmed into Badghis Province in early April damaging crops, people were told that for each kilogram of dead locusts they delivered to a specified government department they would receive 7kg of wheat.

According to provincial government officials, within 15 days of the launch of the programme - announced by the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) - people had handed over thousands of kilos of dead locusts.

"We have issued receipts to the people indicating the amount of received locusts and the wheat aid to be given... We have received 9,680 kilograms of dead locusts," Abdullah Mishkawani, secretary of the provincial emergency response commission, told IRIN.

"We have to give these people about 67,760 kilograms of wheat for their contributions," he said.

Those who had captured and killed the locusts said they had had to work very hard and also been exposed to various diseases such as diarrhoea. Officials conceded that the anti-locust drive had helped eradicate the seasonal pest quickly and effectively.

Let down by aid agencies?

It is now two months since people began to bring in piles of dead locusts but no wheat aid has been delivered, locals and provincial officials said.

July 22, 2008

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Source: New York Times

The World Bank and its partners need to do a far better job of considering the environmental effects of projects they finance in poor countries, its internal review group concludes in a new report.

The review, released Tuesday, examined some of the $400 billion in investments in nearly 7,000 projects from 1990 to 2007. It found that recent pledges for environmental sustainability by the bank and sister institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, were often not put into practice when dollars were turned into dams, pipelines, palm plantations and the like.

The report is available at http://www.worldbank.org/oed

The authors of the 181-page environmental report, the first by the bank's Independent Evaluation Group since 2002, said it was crucial for the bank and its partners to intensify their focus on measurable environmental protection, given rising vulnerability to environmental risks and the increasing flow of financing for projects related to climate change.

"They need to begin to see the inextricable link between sustaining environment and reducing poverty," Vinod Thomas, the director general of the evaluation group, said in an interview. "It is clear now from the Amazon to India that if environmental sustainability is not raised as a priority, then all bets are off."

For the full article, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/23enviro.html?_r=1&oref=slogin  

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 23 Jul 2008

KABUL, 23 July 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 100,000 people have been deprived of access to basic health services in different parts of Afghanistan over the past four months, due largely to worsening insecurity, with attacks on health workers and health centres, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said.

The new figure is in addition to the over 300,000 people who last year lost access to primary health facilities, mostly in the volatile south and southeast.

"Currently some 400,000 people in the country do not have access to basic health services because of attacks on health personnel and health centres, and also due to lack of security for health workers," Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the MoPH, told IRIN in Kabul on 23 July.

About 32 health centres were torched, destroyed and/or closed down due to insecurity in 2007. Over the past four months 19 health facilities have been shut down or attacked, MoPH said. 

For the full article, please visit:  http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/PANA-7GTGNY?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P

Environment News Service

24 jul. 08 - 09.13h

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 24, 2008 (ENS) - The Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe area in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the world's largest Wetland of International Importance, officially recognized by the Ramsar Convention, a treaty protecting designated wetlands.

A ceremony to announce the recognition of Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe as a Ramsar wetland is set for today at the Cercle de Kinshasa in the DRC capital. The announcement is to be made in the presence of high-level government politicians as well as representatives of Ramsar, the global conservation organization WWF and other partners.

More than twice the size of Belgium, the 65,696 square kilometer site is situated around the Lake Tumba region in the Central Western Basin of the DRC and contains the largest freshwater body in Africa.

Its rivers and lakes constitute a major sink for the most prevalent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

Until now the world's largest Ramsar site was Queen Maud Gulf in Canada at 62,782 square kilometers, designated in 1982.

Support for the DRC government in its effort to win recognition for the Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe site began in 2004 and was provided jointly by the Central African Regional Program for the Environment, a USAID initiative, as well as the Ramsar Convention, and WWF, which was responsible for the technical aspects of the project.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=17808

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79436

JOHANNESBURG, 24 July 2008 (IRIN) - In an effort to mitigate the negative impact of climate change, new funding by European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) will help bolster disaster risk reduction and community resilience in Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi and the Comoros.

A statement released on 23 July said the EC had extended the scope of its disaster preparedness programme (DIPECHO) with a new allocation of €5 million (US$7.8 million) for the four southern African countries.

"This is an important step in supporting communities that are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. Experience shows that many lives can be saved if people know what precautions to take and how to react when the disaster strikes," Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said in the statement.
...

More storms on the horizon

"The number of extreme weather events has increased sharply in recent years. Climate change already seems to be having a serious humanitarian impact," John Clancy, spokesman for Commissioner Michel, told IRIN.

"The decision to extend it [DIPECHO] to the southwest Indian Ocean reflects an unfortunate reality: more cyclones are occurring in that area, causing ever more structural damage and serious flooding," Clancy said.

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Donors Can Choose to Support the Causes They Care About while Minimizing Carbon Footprint
 
GlobalGiving, the leading online marketplace for philanthropy, today launched GlobalGiving Green(TM), http://www.globalgiving.com/green, a one of a kind scoring system that measures the climate impact of social entrepreneurs and other development projects in communities around the world, from Nepal and Tanzania, to Honduras and the United States.

The developing world faces a double burden: Climate change threatens poor communities with economic devastation in the form of floods, droughts, and ruined harvests. But every developed country in the world today has come to its wealth and well-being through a carbon-intensive path, that if repeated across the developing world today would cancel out any efforts we have made to combat global warming to date or in the future.
 
"Through GlobalGiving Green we are taking an unprecedented approach to supporting development through a climate change lens," said Dennis Whittle, co-founder and CEO of GlobalGiving. "The goal is to set the standard for evaluating grassroots, on-the-ground projects against criteria that take into account both environmental and other development-related 'co-benefits.' With this additional layer of screening, people who want to 'give green' have the information and tools to do so quickly and easily."
 
GlobalGiving worked with EcoSecurities, a world leader in emissions reduction markets, to develop a framework to score the climate change impact of grassroots development projects. Each project is evaluated not only according to how well it helps reduce harmful emissions, but also how it stacks up in areas such as providing sustainable, positive economic growth, aiding the culture and environment of a community, educating future generations on green techniques, and more.
 
For the full article, please visit: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/globalgiving-launches-first-ever-green-scoring/story.aspx?guid=%7B90E06445-AF6B-4672-8188-F568DFAE0E6C%7D&dist=hppr  

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/world/asia/27cambodia.html?ref=world

By SETH MYDANS
Published: July 27, 2008ANDONG, Cambodia--- When the monsoon rain pours through Mao Sein's torn thatch roof, she pulls a straw sleeping mat over herself and her three small children and waits until it stops.

She and her children sit on a low table as floodwater rises, bringing with it the sewage that runs along the mud paths outside their shack.

Ms. Mao Sein, 34, was resettled by the government here in an empty field two years ago, when the police raided the squatters' colony where she lived in Phnom Penh, the capital, 12 miles away.

She is a widow and a scavenger. The area where she lives has no clean water or electricity, no paved roads or permanent buildings. But there is land to live on, and that has drawn scores of new homeless families to settle here, squatting among the squatters.

With its shacks and its sewage, Andong looks very much like the refugee camps that were home to those who were forced from their homes by the brutal Communist Khmer Rouge three decades ago.

Like tens of thousands of people around the country, those living here are victims of what experts say has become the most serious human rights abuse in the country: land seizures that lead to evictions and homelessness.

...

With the economy on the rise, land is being seized for logging, agriculture, mining, tourism and fisheries, and in Phnom Penh, soaring land prices have touched off what one official called a frenzy of land grabs by the rich and powerful. The seizures can be violent, including late-night raids by the police and military. Sometimes, shanty neighborhoods burn down, apparently victims of arson.

...

The brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which 1.7 million people are estimated to have died, began in 1975 with an evacuation of Phnom Penh, forcing millions of people into the countryside and emptying the city. It ended in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge was driven from power by a Vietnamese invasion, sending hundreds of thousands of refugees into Thailand.

Many of the refugees returned in the 1990s, joining arootless population displaced by the Khmer Rouge and the decade of civil war that followed in the 1980s. Many ended their journeys in Phnom Penh, creating huge colonies of squatters.

http://www.heldref.org/env-dabelko.php

By Geoffrey D. Dabelko

In 1988, nuclear war was "undoubtedly the gravest" threat facing the environment, according to Our Common Future, commonly known as the Brundtland report. The possible environmental consequences of thermonuclear war radioactive contamination, nuclear winter, and genetic mutations were widely feared during the Cold War, especially by citizens of the United States and Soviet Union, which the report called "prisoners of their own arms race."

Thankfully, these nightmare scenarios did not come to pass, and, aside from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, our environment has largely escaped the impact of radioactive fallout. However, in the 20 years since the report's publication, the specter of nuclear destruction has not yet been "removed from the face of the Earth," as the report called for, but has merely changed scale: the threat of the mushroom cloud has been replaced by the threat of the the dirty bomb a crude device that a terrorist cell could fashion out of pilfered nuclear material. Setting off such a bomb in a world city-a major hub in the global economy could create more disruption than the paradigm-shifting attacks of September 11, 2001, although the radioactivity would impact far fewer people than the feared global nuclear winter of old.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/23/eaclimate123.xml
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 23/04/2008

Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars but lasting for centuries unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned.

However the group said the world's response to the threats posed by climate change, such as rising sea levels and migration, had so far been "slow and inadequate," because nations had failed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

"We're preparing for a car bomb, not for 9/11," said Nick Mabey, author of the report which comes after Lord Stern, who compiled an economic assessment of climate change for the Government, said last week that he had underestimated the possible economic consequences.

...

Even if climate change was more benign than the worst-case scenario, the research would not be wasted as technological advances in nuclear power, biofuels, carbon capture and storage and renewables were urgently needed anyway, he added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/magazine/27wwln-phenom-t.html?ref=science

By STEPHAN FARIS
Published: July 27, 2008
 
Stephan Faris is author of "Forecast: The Consequences of Climate Change, From the Amazon to the Artic, From Darfur to Napa Valley", to be published inJanuary.
Greenland's ice sheet represents one of global warming's most disturbing threats. The vast expanses of glaciers — massed, on average, 1.6 miles deep — contain enough water to raise sea levels worldwide by 23 feet. Should they melt or otherwise slip into the ocean, they would flood coastal capitals, submerge tropical islands and generally redraw the world's atlases. The infusion of fresh water could slow or shut down the ocean's currents, plunging Europe into bitter winter.

Yet for the residents of the frozen island, the early stages of climate change promise more good, in at least one important sense, than bad. A Danish protectorate since 1721, Greenland has long sought to cut its ties with its colonizer. But while proponents of complete independence face little opposition at home or in Copenhagen, they haven't been able to overcome one crucial calculation: the country depends on Danish assistance for more than 40 percent of its gross domestic product. "The independence wish has always been there," says Aleqa Hammond, Greenland's minister for finance and foreign affairs. "The reason we have never realized it is because of the economics."

Climate change has the power to unsettle boundaries and shake up geopolitics, usually for the worse. In June, the tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati announced that rising sea levels were making its lands uninhabitable and asked for help in evacuating its population. Bangladesh, low-lying, crowded and desperately impoverished, is watching the waves as well; a one-yard rise would flood a seventh of its territory. But while most of the world sees only peril in the island's meltwater, Greenland's independence movement has explicitly tied its fortunes to the warming of the globe.

...

But the real promise lies in what may be found under the ice. Near the town of Uummannaq, about halfway up Greenland's coast, retreating glaciers have uncovered pockets of lead and zinc. Gold and diamond prospectors have flooded the island's south. Alcoais preparing to build a large aluminum smelter. The island's minerals are becoming more accessible even as global commodity prices are soaring. And with more than 80 percent of the land currently iced over, the hope is that the island has just begun to reveal its riches.

From: , Science and Development Network
Published July 28, 2008 10:05 AM

URL: http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/37778

South African researchers are working on a genetically engineered tobacco plant that turns red near land mines — offering a potentially cheap way to clear post-conflict zones.

The usual methods used to clear land mines are costly and dangerous, relying on random checks in a small area. But the GM tobacco would be able to assess an entire field.

The RedDetect GM technology was first developed by Danish firm Aresa, using a weed called Thales cress, with the leaves turning to red from green if nitrogen dioxide from mines in is present in the soil.

But Stellenbosch researcher Estelle Kempen says the weed is too small to spot from a distance. Tobacco, growing easily in most parts of the world is a better choice.

Aresa are conducting field trials in Serbia. The Stellenbosch researchers have applied for permission to conduct trials at the Welgevallen experimental farm, outside Stellenbosch.

Kempen says they want to assess how the plants respond to drought and extreme temperatures.

BANGKOK, 29 July 2008 (IRIN) - A sense of urgency after several natural disasters has propelled Asia-Pacific nations into drawing up "concrete, practical" plans for cooperation in disaster management, a senior regional official has said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) concluded its annual meeting on 24 July in Singapore with disaster management high on the agenda after Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and the earthquake in Sichuan, China.

"Knowing that this region is very prone to natural disaster, I think there was a sense of urgency within the ARF to move expeditiously ... and to be ready in the event the next disaster happens," Pratap Parameswaran, head of the ARF Unit at the ASEAN secretariat, told IRIN.

At the end of the meeting, the ARF announced it would hold its first region-wide disaster relief exercise and consider deploying military assets as part of plans to deepen cooperation on disaster management.

The exercise is tentatively scheduled for 2009 in the Philippines, said Parameswaran, who hailed the initiative as a concrete step forward for the 27-member security forum often criticised as just a "talking shop". 

For the full article, please visit: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79491

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49580/story.htm

From: EurasiaNet
Published July 31, 2008 07:56 AM.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/37812

Azerbaijan may have the mega-energy revenues needed to build roads and to refashion its military, but when it comes to regional healthcare, the country's attention appears to be focused elsewhere.

Like many rural Azerbaijanis, Intigam Mammadov, a resident of Imamgulubayli village in southern Azerbaijan's Agdam district, feels shortchanged by the situation. The lack of a well-quipped local hospital cost his father his life in 2006, Mammadov believes, adding that his father was a long-time sufferer from bronchial asthma. "The closest hospital is situated . . . four to five kilometers away from our village," he recounted to EurasiaNet. "But this hospital has neither suitable conditions nor educated doctors. Since the quality of medicalservice is not satisfactory, there are very few people who go there," he said.

...

"The geography of healthcare services is very limited," noted the head of one humanitarian organization. Himayat Rizvangizi, director of Himayadar, estimates that some 29 villages in the southern region of Lenkoran, bordering Iran, have no medical facilities. That number climbs to 44 for the northern region of Tovuz and 123 for Guba in northeastern Azerbaijan. The findings are based on research done for Oxfam on child mortality rates in those three regions.

The health ministry's Gadirli puts the number of such villages in "the hundreds."

Given living conditions in Azerbaijan's regions, the situation comes as no surprise to some experts.

...

Himayadar's Rizvangizi contended that the ministry could get past that problem by selectively placing clinics in areas with limited public transportation, such as in the mountains. "In the winter, mountainous villages become isolated and cut-off, and people don't know what to do when there is a need for urgent medical aid. For instance, during the winter, patients who live in the mountainous villages of Guba have to walk up to 15 kilometers to reach the nearest medical facility."

Meanwhile, the health ministry has come up with a program with Baku's Medical University to prompt young doctors to head to the regions. Under the initiative, some 70 to 80 percent of the school's graduates will be sent in 2008 to work outside of Baku. Particular emphasis would be placed on sending gynecologists and those with midwifery skills.

From: Reuters
Published July 31, 2008 08:43 AM

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/37819 

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo, home to the world's second largest tropical forest, launched a review of all timber contracts on Wednesday in an effort to clean up a business rife with corruption and to recoup millions of dollars in lost taxes.
The World Bank-sponsored initiative will look at 156 deals. Most were signed during a 1998-2003 war and subsequent interim government accused of awarding numerous dubious logging and mining contracts.

In 2002, with the country partially under the control of rebels, the Democratic Republic of Congo issued a five-year moratorium on new logging contracts as part of efforts to stem rampant deforestation aggravated by the conflict.
The measure went largely unheeded and companies continued to sign newdeals.
Logging and land clearance for farming are eating away the Congo Basin, home to more than a quarter of the world's tropical forest, at the rate of more than 800,000 hectares a year.

Amongst the biggest timber firms operating in Congo are Siforco, which is a subsidiary of Germany's Danzer Group, and Portuguese-owned Sodefor, a unit of holding company NST.
Together with a third company, Safbois, they account for more than 66 percent of the timber exported from Congo, researchers say.

... 
PROFIT LAUNDERING
Conservation campaigner Greenpeace accused the Danzer Group on Wednesday of employing a system of price fixing and off-shore accounts to avoid paying taxes on timber harvested from Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo.