SRI LANKA

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=79567

COLOMBO, 1 August 2008 (IRIN) - Resurgent clashes between Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers have hampered tsunami reconstruction in the north and east and affected the livelihoods of 2.5 million people, according to an assessment by the UN Economic and Social Council.

"The most significant challenge to the recovery process in Sri Lanka is ongoing civil conflict. Escalating violence over the past few years has set back reconstruction efforts in the north and east of the country, though it continues largely apace in the south," stated the reportof the Secretary-General, Strengthening emergency relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction, recovery and prevention in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. 

The assessment identified serious obstacles to reconstruction: "Security concerns have posed operational hurdles across a range of sectors, making it difficult or impossible for international aid partners to move or deliver assistance and supplies. Restrictions on transportation of certain construction materials, such as cement and steel, as well as difficulties in accessing certain areas have hampered recovery."

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More security fears

"Security has remained a problem, sometimes even after completion of projects and people have returned to their normal jobs," Thomingo George, assistant director for fisheries for the eastern Batticaloa District, told IRIN. The fisheries industry has faced serious challenges trying to recover from the tsunami given the security situation.

He said that in Batticaloa District 4,000 boats of varying sizes had been distributed among fishermen after the tsunami and most of the 22,000 fishermen affected had returned to work. But now they faced problems distributing their catch to other parts of the country due to security restrictions.

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Too far and too scared

Some of the fishermen who relocated inland after the tsunami following the government imposition of a no-build buffer zone along the coast told IRIN the distance to the coast and security fears prevented them from fishing as often as they wanted, cutting their incomes significantly.

"When there are incidents on the road, we are afraid to travel on them very early in the morning or late at night," Sinnathamby Arulananthan, a fishermen who relocated to the Thiraymadhu tsunami housing project in Batticaloa District, about 5km from the shore, told IRIN. "There is no transport on the road to the beach so we cycle or take a motorbike."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=79548

NAIROBI, 31 July 2008 (IRIN) - Recurrent droughts, in addition to rising food and kerosene prices, have exacerbated food insecurity in the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti, according to a senior UN official.

"The people have been struggling since 2003 because of drought, which has reduced pasture and increased population migration," Marcus Prior, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman for East and Central Africa, told IRIN on 31 July.

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The country has a high population of nomadic pastoralists. Food insecurity had, however, forced the nomadic people to cut the number of meals they ate per day and reduced the quality of the food, the spokesman added.

Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in the country averaged 17 percent, rising to 25 in the northwest. A rate of 15 percent is regarded as the threshold for emergency.

Successive droughts had also increased migration from rural to urban areas as the population moved in search of jobs. As a result, unemployment in Djibouti City stood at 60 percent, according to a July report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net).

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Djibouti imports most of its food requirements. In addition to increased obstacles to food access, Djibouti City was facing critical water shortages, with rationing being initiated by the government.

"In the worst case, a total of 341,000 people [54 percent of the population] are expected to need emergency food and water supplies by August," stated the FEWS Net report. 

Source: Nature

http://www.scidev.net/en/features/tibetan-plateau-melts-in-the-face-of-climate-chang.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_features 

30 July 2008 |

The Tibetan plateau

Flickr/logjaye
Climate change is affecting the Tibetan plateau, threatening regional water supplies and altering atmospheric circulation for half the planet.

The plateau is the world's third largest store of ice. But its temperature has risen by up to 0.3 degrees Celsius every ten years over the last fifty years — approximately three times the global warming rate.

As a result, 82 per cent of the plateau's glaciers have retreated while ten per cent of its permafrost has degraded.

Among the causes is dust blowing from regional deserts during summertime, which changes radiation levels reaching the plateau by both reflecting and absorbing sunlight.

Black carbon emissions, caused by burning biomass, are also causing the plateau's melting season to start early and last longer.

The changes could have major effects. Glacial lakes increase the risk of floods, the shrinkage of glaciers will affect water supplies in the surrounding area and the loss of permafrost will endanger local ecosystems and render structures of the Qinghai­-Tibet railway vulnerable.

And the effects may be felt further afield. Some climate models show that a rise in the plateau's surface temperature over the oceans can alter the intensity of the Indian monsoon, whilst convection over the plateau may also carry pollutants in water vapour globally.

DILI, 31 July 2008 (IRIN) - Since it was built in 1983, residents of Dili have watched the retaining wall of the Pantai Kelapa road along Timor-Leste's coastline slowly erode.

Some say it is because of the effects of climate change - increasing numbers of ferocious storms have caused waves to batter the edges of the road.

But it is impossible to be certain because of a 25-year gap in environmental data.

"There is data starting from the 1950s but it's not complete because of the Indonesian occupation," Adao Soares, Timor-Leste's national focal point for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told IRIN.

"So starting from 1975 there is no climate data for Timor-Leste until 2000."

A lack of data is not the only challenge. Limited human resources make it difficult to undertake impact, vulnerability and adaptation studies. The fledgling nation is seeking funding to tackle climate change from various places - including the Global Environment Facility, but it is unlikely to come through before 2010.

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Farmers and food security

Farmers too are noticing changes in the environment. Despite the lack of data, agricultural experts cite farmers who say traditional practices and planting cycles no longer fit with the changing weather patterns.
 

By Javier Blas in London

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/debdb184-5f3f-11dd-91c0-000077b07658.html 

Published: July 31 2008 23:31 | Last updated: July 31 2008 23:31

Russia plans to form a state grain trading company to control up to half of the country's cereal exports, intensifying fears that Moscow wants to use food exports as a diplomatic weapon in the same way as Gazprom has manipulated natural gas sales.

The move by Moscow, the world's fifth-biggest exporter of cereals, has been sharply criticised by US agriculture diplomats as a "giant step back" to the Soviet era.

The decision to control food exports is the latest sign of how soaring food prices are reshaping the agriculture industry. The recreation of Soviet-style state trading will aggravate anxieties of food-importing countries about their dependence on the international market, which has been severely disrupted this year after exporters, including Russia, imposed prohibitive foreign sales duties or export bans.