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