http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1844474,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom

By Bryan Walsh / Andasibe Thursday, Sep. 25, 2008

When you're on the lookout for lemurs — the unusually cute and endangered group of primates found only on the African island of Madagascar — it helps to have good eyes (lemurs are small), sharp ears (they rustle the trees) and a keen nose (they have an unmistakable smell).

...

It's hard to say how long the indri itself will stay with us. Madagascar's native plants and animals evolved in isolation for some 80 million years; as a result, the 587,000-sq-km country, which sits just off the coast of southeastern Africa, has perhaps the highest level of biodiversity per capita in the world. It's what conservationists call a "hotspot" — one of about 25 places on Earth that have suffered massive habitat loss and account for less than 2% of the planet's land surface, but are home to about half the world's plant species and a third of vertebrate animals. Because the vast majority of Madagascar's 2,300 species are found nowhere else on Earth, if a species is lost on Madagascar, it is lost forever. Yet rampant deforestation, a swelling human population and the early effects of climate change have already pushed countless species out of existence. Of the surviving 71 lemur species and subspecies on Madagascar, 63% are endangered. "Madagascar is the hottest of hotspots," says Russell Mittermeier, the president of Conservation International (CI) and a renowned primatologist. If we care about saving our wild cousins from extinction, Madagascar is the place to start.

...

Near Andasibe, CI and its partners are working on a project that will hire local villagers to plant new trees on land that had been cleared. The benefit is two-fold: The new forests will earn carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, since the trees will sequester carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the atmosphere, and eventually the forests will help rebuild the disappearing habitat for species like the indri. What's more, the project employs job-hungry villagers and gives them a financial stake in the new forests, which is key if conservation is going to work. To save the animals, you need to save the trees, and to save the trees, you need to save the people. "We're bringing back the shelter of the forests, and we don't have to cut trees for charcoal," says Herve Tahirimalala, 28, who is paid about $100 a month to work the plantation — a decent wage in one of the poorest nations on Earth. Poverty and habitat loss go hand in hand in Madagascar and in much of the developing world, and only win-win solutions will work for conservation.

Forced Migration Review 31:

http://www.fmreview.org/climatechange.htm

In response to growing pressures on landscapes and livelihoods, people are moving, communities are adapting. This issue of FMR debates the numbers, the definitions and the modalities - and the tension between the need for research and the need to act. Thirty-eight articles by UN, academic, international and local actors explore the extent of the potential displacement crisis, community adaptation and coping strategies, and the search for solutions.

For table of contents: http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR31/contents.pdf

Highlights:
Climate change and displacement
Foreword
Achim Steiner 4

The need for collaboration
John Holmes 4

Human security policy challenges
Andrew Morton, Philippe Boncour and Frank Laczko 5

The numbers game
Oli Brown 8

Defining 'environmental migration'
Olivia Dun and François Gemenne 10

Drowned in definitions?
Maria Stavropoulou 11

Field observations and empirical research
Koko Warner, Olivia Dun and Marc Stal 13

A new governmental report lists Brazil's land reform agency as the biggest culprit for illegal logging of Amazon rain forests.

By Andrew Downie| Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the October 3, 2008 edition

São Paulo, Brazil - Brazil's environment minister announced yet another series of measures to halt deforestation of the Amazon this week, but their impact was weakened not only by the fact that destruction had increased sharply once again but that the government itself was among the worst culprits.

A federal agency charged with implementing agrarian reform and giving land to the poor filled the top six spots on a list of the nation's 100 worst deforesters since 2005, according to the list, published by the environment ministry on Monday. The top 100 deforesters cut down the equivalent of 160,000 soccer fields, said Environment Minister Carlos Minc.

"The numbers are terrible," he admitted to reporters. The statistics were a surprise and an embarrassment to Mr. Minc, who took office in May after his predecessor resigned, complaining that her hands were tied by a government more interested in economic growth than environmental protection.

Minc said the ministry would investigate all 100 offenders and open criminal charges against those responsible. It slapped the Agency of Land Reform (INCRA) with a fine of 264 million reais (about $137 million).

For the full article, please visit Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1003/p06s03-woam.html

Weekend Edition
October 3 - 5, 2008

Environmental Security and the Evolution of Military Green Think

By CINDY ELLEN HILL

Thousands of conservation leaders will convene in Barcelona Spain next week for the 2008 World Conservation Congress, an event which International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN) sponsors every four years. On October 6, a select few will meet with key military leaders at an invitation-only roundtable to spearhead a paradigm shift in thinking about the intersection of environmental issues and local, regional, and national security.

The IUCN Roundtable on Environment and Security will match representatives from the military (USA, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, Nepal, Mauretania), NATO, and other members of the world's security community with key environmental leaders to explore strategies for waging an environmentally sustainable peace. 

Among those security leaders is Sherri Goodman, General Counsel for the Arlington, Virginia think thank CNA, and former U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security. "Climate change is a national security threat. It is a threat multiplier for instability in fragile regions," says Goodman."We need to protect natural resources, food, water, forests, agriculture, as a matter of security."

From Suspicion to Alliances

In the past, discussion of the intersection of environmental and military concerns have focused on direct pollution and damage caused by armed conflict. For example, the U.S. media has recently turned its attention to the USEPA's failure to regulate perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel, which is found in groundwater near military bases and has potentially serious human health effects.

"War is the worst destructor of nature and the environment. Depleted uranium and other pollutants leave large tracts devastated," says Wouter Veening, director of the Institute for Environmental Security, one of the sponsors of the Environment and Security Workshop. "It uses tremendous amounts of fossil fuels, tremendous CO2 emissions from military operations. Seventy percent of what you bring to the battlefield is fuel."

For the full commentary, please visit CounterPunch at http://www.counterpunch.org/hill10032008.html

By David E. Mosher, Beth E. Lachman, Michael D. Greenberg, Tiffany Nichols, Brian Rosen, Henry H. WillisCopyright 2008 RAND Corporatio

To access the report visit: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG632.pdf

Excerpt:

"Since 1991, the United States has engaged in military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, Europe, the Pacific Basin, and
the Caribbean. In many instances, U.S. forces have remained in these areas far longer than was initially anticipated. As a result, U.S. forces have become closely involved in such activities as stability operations, reconstruction, and nation-building. Frequently, these activities are as important to accomplishing the long-term U.S. goals as the combat operations that may have preceded them.

The longer stays and involvement in post-conflict activities have elevated the importance of environmental considerations in U.S. military operations, for a variety of reasons. First, conflicts often occur in countries where the environment poses risks to U.S. forces. Disease, polluted air or water, or toxic substances may present a high risk when the troops remain in the country for only a short time, but a longterm presence greatly increases it. Second, the actions of U.S. forces with respect to the environment become more important because of their effect on the local populace and its support for U.S. goals, including return to local governance. Therefore, U.S. forces need to ensure that they do not contribute to environmental problems by disposing of waste improperly, failing to address environmental problems they create (e.g., fuel spills), or damaging important natural or cultural resources such as farmland and water supplies. Third, reconstruction projects and other activities that improve local environmental conditions can foster a positive attitude toward the United States and the host-nation government that it is supporting. This goodwill can have tangible benefits for U.S. national objectives: It can aid the economic and social developments necessary for long-term stability and improve cooperation with locals, which in turn can improve intelligence, lower security risks, and speed construction and transition to civilian government. Finally, environmental effects can easily transcend national borders, spilling over into neighboring or even distant countries. Given
the importance of other countries to U.S. global military activities, it is important to maintain good relations with them, and poor environmental practices can hinder that process."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80760

KABUL, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - Any increase in the flow of refugees from northwestern Pakistan into eastern parts of Afghanistan could lead to a humanitarian crisis unless international aid organisations deliver urgent assistance, a senior official at Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs (MoRRA) has said.

"We are deeply concerned about insecurity in the Tribal Areas [of Pakistan] and the influx of Pakistani refugees into Afghanistan," Abdul Qader Ahadi, deputy minister in the MoRRA, told IRIN in Kabul on 5 October.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said over 3,900 families (about 20,000 individuals) had abandoned their homes in the Bajaur Agency of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and sought refuge in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar over the past few weeks.

The Afghan government's warning echoes similar concerns raised by others.

"The continued fighting in southern Afghanistan and the more recent conflict in northern Pakistan are creating a very dangerous situation in the region for civilians trying to find refuge. With the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, there is an expectation that even more civilians will leave their homes to avoid the fighting," Amnesty International said in a statement on 3 October.

Afghan refugees in FATA?

Armed clashes between Pakistani security forces and Islamist militants associated with the Taliban in FATA and elsewhere in Pakistan have affected local people and Afghan refugees living there, aid agencies said.

In a bid to clear the FATA of Islamist insurgents, the Pakistani government on 3 October reportedly called on Afghan refugees living in the Bajaur border region to vacate the area within three days.

Nader Farhad, a spokesman for the UNHCR in Kabul, said there were no confirmed reports of "registered Afghan refugees" living in the volatile Tribal Areas.

"UNHCR does not have access to the Tribal Areas and we are not aware of registered Afghan refugees there," Farhad told IRIN, adding that refugee camps in FATA were closed down in 2005 at the request of the Pakistani government.

"We have requested the Pakistani authorities to ensure that registered refugees who may still live in the FATA are not forced to return to Afghanistan," Farhad said, adding that the option to relocate elsewhere in Pakistan must be made available to refugees.

Both MoRRA and the UNHCR said any unregistered Afghans living in the FATA might be deemed eligible for forced deportation.

Humanitarian response

Afghan government bodies and several aid organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, have delivered food and non-food assistance to some Pakistani refugees in Kunar Province, the MoRRA said. No figures were available.

The UNHCR said it had distributed non-food items such as plastic sheets, blankets, jerry cans and lanterns to families and was coordinating aid activities for the Pakistani refugees.

"We know those refugees need more assistance but we don't have adequate resources to respond," MoRRA's Ahadi said.

There were also no preparations in hand to avert a humanitarian crisis if more people flee in future, Ahadi added.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/38361

From: Reuters
Published October 8, 2008 09:00 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Soldiers, weapons, food and fuel are important but the U.S. Army absolutely cannot operate for long without water, a top Pentagon official said on Tuesday.

This simple fact is just as true for domestic bases as it is in "austere" forward installations in Iraq, said Tad Davis, the Army's deputy assistant secretary for environment, safety and occupational health.

"Somebody recently said water's the new oil and there's a lot to be said for that," Davis said at the Reuters Global Environment Summit.

"You can get out there ... and deploy to an area for conducting operations, but if water's not there for drinking purposes and for cooking, showering, laundry, things like that, then you're not going to be able to sustain the force."

In Iraq, 80 percent of cargo in Army convoys headed into forward areas over the last several years consisted of fuel and water. To make the convoys shorter – and therefore less of a target – the Army worked on making bases more fuel-efficient and looked for ways to reuse or purify existing water supplies, Davis said.

Ultimately, they set up six water bottling facilities in Iraq to serve U.S. Army needs.

ARMY CONSTRUCTION BOOM

In the United States, the dimensions of the problem are more complex, because the Army is in the midst of a construction boom to accommodate an additional 75,000 soldiers over the next three or four years, Davis said.

Over that period, the Army expects to spend $56 billion on new construction and every new building must meet the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver standard set by the U.S. Green Building Council for environmental sustainability.

In addition to an absolute rise in the number of troops, some soldiers are returning to the United States from posts in Germany and South Korea, while others are transferred from domestic bases that are being closed, meaning the biggest bases are going to need more water in the future, Davis said.

The U.S. bases that will accommodate all this increased population are already under stress, Davis said. Many were built before the U.S. population migrated to the suburbs and now are hemmed in by suburban sprawl, with nowhere to expand to training facilities or other functions.

To determine how much water will be needed, Davis said the Army is conducting pilot studies at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Bliss in Texas to measure current water consumption, future consumption in five-year increments, the surrounding communities' water needs and the available sources of water.

"It all goes back to security," Davis said. "If we don't have water, then we don't have the ability to perform at those installations."

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko)

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5723

9 October 2008
Haitian Times

In December 2000, just before a newly elected George Bush took office, former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake and I went to see Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Port-au-Prince. Haiti was still in a state of confusion following flawed elections, tarnishing the mandate under which Aristide would return to the presidency. Already, Jesse Helms had publicly warned Bush that Aristide had surrounded himself with "narco-traffickers, criminals and other anti-democratic forces." Helms' aide, Roger Noriega, slated to become US ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), had a visceral hatred of Aristide, whom he frequently derided as a "defrocked psychopath."
...
At the same time, the new Haitian government under Pierre-Louis must demonstrate that it is a credible partner by vetting judges and police to get rid of corrupt officials and human rights abuses. It must expand support for police in counter-drug, anti-kidnapping and non-lethal crowd control sectors. And it must engage civil society as a full partner in these efforts.

It has been said that Haitian leaders never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The transition to new administrations in Port-au-Prince and Washington provides yet another chance for cooperation. Malign neglect or affirmative engagement? The choice is clear.

Donald Steinberg, deputy president of International Crisis Group, served as the State Department's Special Haiti Coordinator from 1999-2001.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=80760

KABUL, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - Any increase in the flow of refugees from northwestern Pakistan into eastern parts of Afghanistan could lead to a humanitarian crisis unless international aid organisations deliver urgent assistance, a senior official at Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs (MoRRA) has said.

"We are deeply concerned about insecurity in the Tribal Areas [of Pakistan] and the influx of Pakistani refugees into Afghanistan," Abdul Qader Ahadi, deputy minister in the MoRRA, told IRIN in Kabul on 5 October.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said over 3,900 families (about 20,000 individuals) had abandoned their homes in the Bajaur Agency of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and sought refuge in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar over the past few weeks.

...

Afghan refugees in FATA?

Armed clashes between Pakistani security forces and Islamist militants associated with the Taliban in FATA and elsewhere in Pakistan have affected local people and Afghan refugees living there, aid agencies said.

In a bid to clear the FATA of Islamist insurgents, the Pakistani government on 3 October reportedly called on Afghan refugees living in the Bajaur border region to vacate the area within three days.

...

Humanitarian response

Afghan government bodies and several aid organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, have delivered food and non-food assistance to some Pakistani refugees in Kunar Province, the MoRRA said. No figures were available.

The UNHCR said it had distributed non-food items such as plastic sheets, blankets, jerry cans and lanterns to families and was coordinating aid activities for the Pakistani refugees.

"We know those refugees need more assistance but we don't have adequate resources to respond," MoRRA's Ahadi said.

There were also no preparations in hand to avert a humanitarian crisis if more people flee in future, Ahadi added.

By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Oct 13 (IPS) - Faced with a deepening global financial meltdown, the Chinese communist party is contemplating far-reaching internal reforms capable of insulating the country from the worst effects of the crisis such as by loosening its grip over land ownership.

Chinese leaders plan to relinquish partial control of the country's most important asset -- the land, and allow peasants more freedom to lease or transfer their land use rights.

The idea is to stimulate domestic demand and expand China's underdeveloped internal market to counter the global economic slowdown that has dried up orders for Chinese exports. Freeing up rural productivity is also seen as the only way for China to guarantee long-term food sufficiency for its 1.3 billion people.

The leadership, led by president and party chief Hu Jintao, released a communiqué on Sunday at the end of a four-day, high-profile party meeting, which approved the reform plan.

"We must depend on ourselves ...add impetus to expanding domestic demand, especially consumer demand, and maintain a stable economy and stable financial and capital markets," it said.

The meeting acknowledged that the country faced greater challenges because of the global financial crisis, which would amplify the "contradictions and problems" of its own economy.

"We must solidify and strengthen the status of agriculture and place as top priorities the running of the nation and resolving once and for all the basic problem of food for hundreds of millions,'' the document said.

For a country which remains nominally committed to the pursuit of socialism, the idea of privatising the land sounds so radical that party ideologues have opposed even the use of the term "private land ownership".

The party plenum document speaks of "mind emancipation" in regard to rural reform without giving any details on the new land regulations. More specifics are expected to emerge in coming days but the plan would be implemented only after the National People's Congress -- China's parliament -- approves it at its annual session next March.

"It will not be easy to realise a full and genuine privatisation of rural land," Guo Shutian, a senior agricultural policy official told the 21st Century Economic Herald. "For one, it would take a revision of the Chinese constitution. The biggest obstacle though remains ideology. Private ownership of the land is still unacceptable to many party members".

For the full article, please visit http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44233

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KKAA-7KB2CU?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P

(New York, 10 October 2008): The Lord's Resistance Army appears to have resumed its brutal activities in several countries. The number of those who have fled their homes due to attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan has now increased to 23,000, a total that continues to rise. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that up to 150 Congolese are still crossing daily from the DRC into the Yambio region of South Sudan, to the villages of Sakure, 15 kilometres south of Yambio, and Gangura, 30 kilometres south-west of Yambio. According to UNICEF, the LRA abducted at least 90 children in the course of raids on villages in the DRC on 17 and 25 September. Because the LRA also pillaged and burned families' homes, many of those who have fled have been deprived of everything.

...

The displaced include approximately 5,000 Congolese in Yambio, South Sudan, and 17,000 in the Dungu area of north eastern DRC. The United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are working to assist those displaced in DRC, and in South Sudan the UN, NGOs, and the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC) are together assisting the displaced. Attacks also took place in the south of the Central African Republic earlier in the summer.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-7K9SKS?OpenDocument&RSS20=18-P

Much more needs to be done and much greater funding made available to mitigate the devastating toll of natural disasters in an age when climate change threatens to increase both their frequency and severity, according to a United Nations report released today.
...
"A major scaling-up of efforts and resources is needed," he says, warning that despite increased commitment governments are still not on track to achieve the goals set in the Hyogo Framework for Action, the 10-year programme adopted in January 2005 which calls for investing heavily in disaster preparedness and strengthening the capacity of disaster-prone countries to address the risks.

Such measures range across the whole spectrum of natural disasters, from establishing early warning systems for those that can be anticipated, such as tsunamis and cyclones, to enforcing stringent building codes in earthquake-prone regions, especially for schools and hospitals. Hospital safety was the theme of this year's International Disaster Reduction Day, observed earlier this week.

http://www.wcs.org/deadly-dozen/wcs_deadly_dozen

From Wildlife Conservation Society

Health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society released a report on October 7 that lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change. All have potential impacts to both human and wildlife health as well as global economies.

Called The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, the new report provides examples of diseases that could spread as a result of changes in temperatures and precipitation levels. The best defense, according to the report's authors, is a good offense in the form of wildlife monitoring to detect how these diseases are moving so health professionals can learn and prepare to mitigate their impact.

...

The "Deadly Dozen" list—including such diseases as avian influenza, Ebola, cholera, and tuberculosis—is illustrative only of the broad range of infectious diseases that threaten humans and animals. It builds upon the recommendations included in a recently published paper titled "Wildlife Health as an Indicator of Climate Change," which appears in a newly released book, Global Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events: Understanding the Contributions to Infectious Disease Emergence, published by the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine. The study examines the nuts and bolts of deleterious impacts of climate change on the health of wild animals and the cascading effects on human populations.

In addition to the health threats that diseases pose to human and wildlife populations, the pathogens that originate from or move through wildlife populations have already destabilized trade to a large extent and caused significant economic damage. For instance, avian influenza and several other livestock diseases that have reemerged since the mid-1990s have caused an estimated $100 billion in losses to the global economy.

WCS's Global Health Programs currently lead an international consortium that helps to monitor the movements of avian influenza through wild bird populations around the world. The GAINS program (Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance) was created in 2006 with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and now involves dozens of private and public partners that monitor wild bird populations for avian influenza around the world.

October 16, 2008 12:00am

From the Daily Telegraph 

FOR years, African militias have used proceeds from precious natural resources to fund conflicts - a practice dramatised in the 2006 film Blood Diamond.

Now, there's a new twist: blood cows.

Warring rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo are stealing and selling livestock to finance a conflict sparked by spillover from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 were killed.

Vast and volatile, the Democratic Republic of Congo has long suffered from conflicts fought over its reserves of gold, copper, uranium, and coltan, a mineral needed in mobile phones and other electronics.

For years, armed groups have sought control over mines and forests, their acquisitions of wealth fuelling cycles of violence.

Cattle may sound less glamorous than precious metals, but they're accessible.

"It's just like the mining resources,'' says Alpha Sow, head of the local office of the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC). ``Part of this money goes to buy munitions.''

For the full article, please visit: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24501277-5012895,00.html

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com

Published October 17, 2008 08:06 AM

Accessed via the Environmental News Network

The Indonesian ForestryMinistry's bold move to require forestry companies to have their wood stocks audited throughout the supply chain to ensure the wood is derived from sustainably managed forests could go a long way in reducing illegal logging in the country.

Hadi Pasaribu, the Forestry Ministry's director general for the management of forestry production, who revealed the new policy recently, did not elaborate as to when the audit -- internationally known as forest certification scheme -- would be mandatory for wood-based companies.

But surely the new measure needs thorough preparation because the audit or certification process requires independent certifiers who must be accredited according to the international standards as those applied by the Bonn-based Forest Stewardship Council.

It is international market forces (consumers and traders) united into a global green consumer campaign that have forced wood-based companies to have their wood certified as green by independent certifying companies.

Hence, whatever the system used by the Forestry Ministry for the wood audit, an inspection or certification scheme, it must be based on international standards to gain international recognition.

Wood audit for forest certification aims at verifying that a particular wood is derived from sustainably managed forests. This process requires companies in the whole wood supply chain to hold chain-of-custody certificates so that the label or bar-code can follow the word from the forests to the finished product.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/38433

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24501277-5012895,00.html

October 16, 2008 12:00am

FOR years, African militias have used proceeds from precious natural resources to fund conflicts - a practice dramatised in the 2006 film Blood Diamond.

Now, there's a new twist: blood cows.

Warring rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo are stealing and selling livestock to finance a conflict sparked by spillover from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 were killed.

Vast and volatile, the Democratic Republic of Congo has long suffered from conflicts fought over its reserves of gold, copper, uranium, and coltan, a mineral needed in mobile phones and other electronics.

For years, armed groups have sought control over mines and forests, their acquisitions of wealth fuelling cycles of violence.

Cattle may sound less glamorous than precious metals, but they're accessible.

...

For years, armed groups have sought control over mines and forests, their acquisitions of wealth fuelling cycles of violence.

Cattle may sound less glamorous than precious metals, but they're accessible.

"It's just like the mining resources,'' says Alpha Sow, head of the local office of the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC). ``Part of this money goes to buy munitions.''

By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: October 20, 2008

New York Times JOHANNESBURG — A foundation dedicated to celebrating and encouraging good government in Africa awarded its annual prize on Monday toBotswana's former president, Festus G. Mogae. He was honored for consolidating his nation's democracy, ensuring that its diamond wealth enriched its people and providing bold leadership during the AIDS pandemic.

Mr. Mogae, 69, a man with a modest style, will receive $5 million over the next 10 years and $200,000 per year thereafter for the rest of his life. Over the coming decade, the foundation may also grant another $200,000 a year to causes of Mr. Mogae's choice. The award, the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, is bestowed by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, named after its founder, a Sudanese billionaire. Mr. Mogae was selected by a six-member panel led by Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of theUnited Nations. The panel also included this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Martti Ahtisaari.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/world/africa/21africa.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

HARGEISA, 22 October 2008 (IRIN) - Conflict, drought and economic hardships have led to an unprecedented increase in the number of street children in Hargeisa, capital of Somalia's self-declared independent republic of Somaliland, with government and aid agencies calling for urgent steps to stem the increase.

"Many of children on the streets of Hargeisa are from Mogadishu and other parts of south-central Somalia," Sahardid Mohamed Osman, child protection and advocacy officer for Comprehensive Community-based Rehabilitation Services (CCBRS), a local NGO, told IRIN.

Saleebaan Ismail Bulale, chairman of Hornwatch, a local human rights group, estimated there were 3,000-5,000 children on the streets of Hargeisa.

"There are no exact figures but that is our estimate and numbers seem to be increasing," Bulale told IRIN on 21 October.

Osman said the children fell into three categories; those who work to help their families and go home at night; those who sleep on the streets; and, those who move from town to town.

The reasons for the children being on the street vary, Osman added. Many of those from south-central Somalia were separated from their families on their way to Somaliland, while others end up on the streets due to poverty and violence at home, he said.

Shoe-shining and car-washing are the jobs of choice for most of the street boys in Hargeisa, while the girls mostly clean or sweep business premises or clean people's homes. Most beg, Osman said.

For the full article, please visit: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=81052

http://www.tacticaltech.org/mapsforadvocacy

Smog, fast-vanishing forest space, protest marches, human rights abuses and myriad such events and activities need constant attention and backing. Highlighting such issues is no more a herculean task for advocacy groups. Information, communication and digital technologies have smoothened out processes and systems and contain techniques and tools which, if appropriately used, can easily bring about phenomenal change.

Geographical maps are the latest transformation tools that the technological revolution has enabled.

The Darfur project (http://www.ushmm.org/maps/) undertaken by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) where mapping was used to expose a humanitarian crisis in Sudan is a prime example. Combining mapping and rich content, witness testimonies, satellite imagery, data and other information placed on a Google Earth map, the USHMM raised awareness of the reality of incidents in the Sudanese region.

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=bca&s=b&o=347254&apc_state=henh

17-Oct-08

Increasing demand for water is making it more likely that Uzbekistan will accept a regional arrangement where all the Central Asian states share in the costs of using the rivers that run through their territories, NBCentralAsia observers say.

At the October 10 meeting of heads of state of the Eurasian Economic Community, EurAsEC, leaders of the Central Asian states reached agreement that Uzbekistan should increase its supply of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan, while Kazakstan will ensure the Kyrgyz receive regular deliveries of oil.

The arrangement will start operating in the first quarter of 2009, and is designed to reduce Kyrgyzstan's need to generate hydroelectricity. This will allow it to store up more water in its reservoirs, which can then be let out over the spring and summer into the rivers which are crucial to Uzbek and Kazak agricultural irrigation schemes.

About 80 per cent of Central Asia's water resources come from mountainous parts of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The timing of their use of hydroelectricity has consistently placed them at odds with Kazakstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which need the water to be released later in the year.

...

In 2007, for example, farmers from eight of the 13 administrative regions of Uzbekistan were banned from sowing rice because of a shortage of water for this thirsty crop. This resulted in a smaller rice harvest, an unannounced ban on rice exports this year, and measures to create an "untouchable" reserve of wheat.

Water shortages also affect cotton, a key export item for Uzbekistan.

One economist in Tashkent predicts that the situation is bound to get more difficult over the next few years as climate change leads to increased demand for water and Uzbekistan's population continues to grow.

Other commentators agree, saying that under these changing circumstances, Tashkent is going to have to compromise and accept proposals by other Central Asian states to pay its share for water.

According to Eduard Poletaev, the editor-in-chief of the Mir Yevrazii political magazine in Kazakstan, "Uzbekistan will certainly behave emotionally and ambitiously towards its neighbours, but it is going to have to face the fact that the water only transits its territory, and the sources of that water are mainly outside its borders."

Source: United Nations (UN); The World Bank Group

Date: 22 Oct 2008

Accessed the full article at: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7KP5DR?OpenDocument

Prepared for the Donors' Conference of October 22, 2008 in Brussels

SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS OF THE JOINT NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Prior to the conflict of August 2008, the Georgian economy was on a strong growth track, with GDP rising by 10½ per cent annually. Rising public expenditures, financed by a substantial increase in the tax to GDP ratio, were being directed at improvements in education and health services and in targeted social assistance for the poor as well as infrastructure. Economic policies were guided by reliance on the private sector for growth in a highly liberal trade, investment and business environment. Also central to government policies were a belief in a small, effective government that formulated policies and financed services with delivery being delegated to the private sector, and an emphasis on high governance standards. The country attracted large volumes of foreign direct investment to sustain growth. Despite high growth, job creation was weak, but poverty had begun to fall.

The conflict dealt a shock to the key pillars of economic growth. There occurred a weakening of investor, lender and consumer confidence, a contraction of liquidity in the banking system, stress on public finances, damage to physical infrastructure, and increased numbers of internally displaced persons.

NAIROBI, 23 October 2008 (IRIN) - Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are forced to flee their homes to escape war or natural disasters. Displaced within their own country and having lost loved ones, livelihoods and belongings, they face terrible hardships.

Around the world there are as many as 70 million of them and their plight is largely forgotten.

To highlight this ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, IRIN Films has produced two short documentaries focusing on two very different communities, one in Africa and one in Asia.

To read the full article and view the videos, please visit: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=81072

"Will Climate Change Lead to More Conflict?"

Halvard Buhaug, Senior Researcher, Centre for the Study of Civil War, The
International Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO)

Tuesday, October 28, 1-2pm

Seismology Seminar Room, 2nd Floor

For background and publications see Halvard's web page: http://www.prio.no/CSCW/People/Person/?oid=66168

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=81141

NAIROBI, 27 October 2008 (IRIN) - More than half of the families returning to Southern Sudan are headed by single women while 59 percent of all returnees are aged 5 to 17, a new report said.

"Spontaneous return movements show a tendency for women to return without [the] male head of household or males to leave women with the children in the place of return to either return back to the place of displacement or to a secondary place of displacement," the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a 24 October report.

This situation, the IOM noted, had resulted from lack or limited access to basic services in the villages of final destination, as well as for employment and educational reasons.

"Female headed households represent 60 percent of the total tracked households in Southern Sudan," the IOM tracking of spontaneous returns report noted.

Some 1.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned to the south since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005.

...

The tracking programme gathers detailed information on numbers, demographics (sex, age) and special needs or vulnerabilities of the returnees.

According to the IOM, most returnees went to Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Southern Kordofan - 401,763 and 298,098 persons respectively. The lowest numbers were in Eastern Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal States - 53,395 and 62,304 returnees, respectively.

The main return route, the IOM report noted, was from Northern to Southern Sudan, but South to South movements are also monitored.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=81136

NAIROBI, 27 October 2008 (IRIN) - A devastating conflict could erupt in the central Sudanese state of southern Kordofan unless long-standing grievances are urgently addressed, a think-tank has warned.

"The Khartoum government must rapidly address the worsening situation or face the prospect of a devastating new conflict," Fouad Hikmat, Horn of Africa project director the International Crisis Group (ICG), said.

Southern Kordofan lies in the critical border area between the North and South and is occupied by Arab (mainly Misseriya and Hawazma) and African (mainly Nuba) groups that are deeply polarised along political and ethnic lines.

"There is animosity over resources, representation and interests," Hikmat said. "Local communities are frustrated with the NCP [National Congress Party] and the SPLM [Sudan People's Liberation Movement] government." He was speaking at the launch of a report, Sudan's Southern Kordofan Problem: The Next Darfur?

The NCP and the SPLM make up the Government of National Unity, formed after the 2005 signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). But the Nuba have no representation at the SPLM in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan.

...

The predominantly pastoralist Misseriya also feel their livelihoods are under threat, according to Hikmat.

During the war, militias comprising local Arab pastoralists fought for the government and were rewarded with arms, land and support for their livestock. "This support has reduced after the war," he said.

The region suffers a lack of basic services, acute underdevelopment, economic marginalisation and rampant poverty. Development projects have also stalled.

Hundreds of people have died in disputes over land and grazing rights - a situation exacerbated by the thousands of returnees. A land commission, proposed by the CPA, to investigate the problem of land ownership has still not been established.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=81090

HARARE, 23 October 2008 (IRIN) - The distribution of agricultural inputs such as maize seed and fertiliser for the 2008/09 season has become the domain of Zimbabwe's military and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.

As the first rains fell in October, farmers flocked to traditional input retailers, only to be told that the government, through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, had bought all the seed from producers and had centralised the distribution of agricultural inputs.

"We received an instruction that the government had purchased all the seed and would be responsible for distribution to the farmers," an official who declined to be identified told IRIN.

"I have been in this business for more than 20 years and I know the government does not have the capacity to distribute seed. The best method is the traditional way of allowing retailers to sell to farmers."

The absence of maize seed came as the Southern Africa Region Climate Outlook Forum, based in neighbouring South Africa, predicted that Zimbabwe would record normal rainfall between October and December, a crucial stage in the growth of the country's staple food.

...

"Known or suspected Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] supporters did not receive any maize seed or fertiliser from the soldiers, who are responsible for distribution," he said.

MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told IRIN the military should not be involved in the distribution of agricultural inputs, as they did not have the capacity, and there was a possibility that they would be biased in favour of ZANU-PF supporters.