Environmental groups have for several years accused mining companies in Ghana of destroying the environment. In a strange twist of events, it now seems that farmers have turned to illegal mining as a result of the devastation of the pollution caused by mining activities. Ghana’s ranking among gold-producing countries by volume improved from 11th in 2005 to 10th in 2006. Production from new mines such as Chirano Gold Mines and Newmont Ghana Bold have offset the effects of the declining output from established mines, according to Jurgen Eijgendaal, president of the Ghana Chamber of Mines.

The Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights, Okechukwu Ibeanu, made the following statement at the end of his mission to the United Republic of Tanzania from 21-30 January 2008

Apart from a few promises from the EASSy consortium not much seems to be happening with the submarine cable project. The East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) has long been punted as the solution to East Africa’s international bandwidth woes – promising to bring affordable fiber connectivity to one of most bandwidth starved areas in the world. The project last year gained support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank.

This study focuses on the social protection aspects of children’s property and inheritance rights in southern and eastern Africa. It discusses the relationship between HIV and AIDS and agriculture, food security, and rural livelihoods (including children’s property and inheritance rights). It also considers factors that render children’s property rights more vulnerable than adults’ property rights. The paper reviews literature on social protection of children, emphasizing historical developments, types of child social protection, and recipients and providers of child social protection.

Representatives from the consultancy firm Marsh Environmental Services have begun a whirlwind twelve-day consultation programme in and around the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), in Botswana. The move is part of plans to develop a $2.2 billion diamond mine within the reserve. In what has since been ruled an unlawful and unconstitutional act, in 2002 the Botswana government removed more than 600 Bushmen from the CKGR without their consent.

Climate change will have potentially devastating consequences for human health, outweighing global economic impacts, researchers said on Friday, calling for urgent action to protect the world's population. "While we embark on more rapid reduction of emissions to avert future climate change, we must also manage the now unavoidable health risks from current and pending climate change," said Australian researcher Tony McMichael, who co-authored a study in the British Medical Journal.

According to the World Bank, climate change effects will impact on the world’s poor countries and Africa composes the majority of this category. It is therefore critical that African leaders are at the fore front in addressing these issues. The Western world by far has an upper hand in looking into climate change because they also not only have developed high-tech climate and weather systems but they have the necessary technical expertise to address climate change issues also.

Zambia's mines are coming under increasing and sustained criticism for repeatedly polluting drinking water sources in the Copperbelt mining region, the country's economic heartland. Last week the country's second largest copper producer, Mopani Copper Mine, which has mining operations in Mufulira town, near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo, accidentally discharged polluted water, after a pump malfunction failed to purify it, into the reticulated water system of a private water utility company.

After six years of drought, the forecast was that Zimbabwe was set for good rains and a decent harvest this season - and then came the deluge. The country has been pounded by torrential rains, with December 2007 the wettest month in 127 years, according to the metrological department. Localised flooding has claimed 21 lives, affecting around 5,000 people along the southeastern border with Mozambique, and a further 3,000 in Muzarabani district in the northeast of the country.

The conflict between Western Sahara´s independence movement Polisario and Morocco has reached its most critical point since the ceasefire in 1991, writes Tom Varghese, right, former leader of the Rafto Foundation´s student group. Rising tensions, a deteriorating humanitarian situation and a diplomatic deadlock are nurturing a steadily growing fraction within Polisario, pressuring the current leadership to return to arms.

The European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE), the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and the Venice International University (VIU) are pleased to announce their annual European Summer School in Resource and Environmental Economics for postgraduate students. The 2008 Summer School will take place from the 6th to the 12th of July, at the VIU campus on the Island of San Servolo, in Venice, located just in front of St. Mark’s Square. The theme of this Summer School is Space in Unified Models of Economy and Ecology.

About 75 shackdwellers and one family living in a house in a section of Hangberg in Hout Bay, Cape Town are facing eviction from their land by South African Sea Products. The community will appear in the Cape High Court on Tuesday 29th January 2008 to oppose the eviction order. They will be assisted by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in opposing their forced removal.

Mozambican officials have now confirmed what people living in the Zambezi valley and along other rivers have suspected for at least a week: that in terms of water levels, the 2008 seasonal floods are worse than those of nearly a decade ago. However the authorities and the Mozambique Red Cross (MRC) have been working flat-out in a so-far successful operation to move people away from immediate danger – especially along the Zambezi.

City Water Services, a subsidiary of British-based water company Biwater, has lost an international legal case for breaching its contract to deliver water and sanitation services in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between 2003 and 2005. The contract with City Water was issued following a controversial water privatisation, supported by the UK government.

Four more people have drowned in Zimbabwe, bringing to 31 the numbers killed in flooding caused by a month of heavy rains, which have also claimed two lives in neighbouring Mozambique, according to various reports on Friday. In Zimbabwe, three people travelling in an ox-drawn cart were swept away by floodwaters in an area in northern Mashonaland West province, the state-run Herald reported.

"The Federal Government policy to stop gas flaring commences on Jan. 1, 2008, and any company which flares gas after that time would be shut down." This was the strong warning from the Nigerian government in October last year to multinational oil companies operating in the country. Gas flaring continued in 2008 in defiance of the Nigerian government’s warning that the act would not be tolerated in the new year.

Mursi tribal people living in and around the Omo National Park in Ethiopia are celebrating the withdrawal of conservation organisation African Parks from their land. The decision by African Parks (formerly Africa Parks Foundation) to terminate their agreement with the Ethiopian government to manage the Omo Park was announced in December, and was greeted with joy and relief by many Mursi.

The latest round of United Nations-led discussions on Western Sahara wrapped up today, with Morocco and the Frente Polisario agreeing on the need to move into a more intensive and substantive phase of negotiations. The two-day talks, which took place in Manhasset, just outside of New York City, were also attended by the neighbouring countries, Algeria and Mauritania, which were present at the opening and closing sessions and consulted separately during the discussions.

An international network organisation working in solidarity with the Sahrawi people, Western Sahara Resource Watch, has swiftly reacted to reports that a subsidiary of the Libyan state oil company [Tamoil] is on the verge of investing between US $100 and $150 million in the occupied Western Sahara. "If this is true, it would mean a serious betrayal of the Sahrawi people's legitimate struggle against occupation," Western Sahara Resource Watch protested.

A new energy and development model that proposes leaving oil underground is presented as the only sensible way to confront the today´s challenges and oppose the emissions market scheme as a way to confront climate change. It is an ecological model to replace the “eco-illogical” model, imposed under the free market paradigm of unlimited growth.