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1.	African nations agree to put a price on nature
	Author: Ola Al-Ghazawy & Aisling Irwin	Date Written: 8 June 2012
	Primary Category: Ecology	Document Origin: SciDev.net
	Secondary Category: Africa General	Source URL: http://www.scidev.net
	Key Words: Rio+20, valorization, resources, World Bank.
	Summary & Comment: Ten African nations have pledged, ahead of Rio+20, to include the economic value of natural resources in their national accounts. Currently a tree is worth more 'dead than alive', but it leaves an environmental `deficit’ in many ways. The declaration undertakes to add the full value of forests, coral reefs, grasslands and other natural . . . [expand]
2.	Selling ethanol stoves in Mozambique to generate carbon credits
	Author: Jinty Jackson	Date Written: 26 May 2012
	Primary Category: Ecology	Document Origin: Inter Press Service Africa
	Secondary Category: Southern Region	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/
	Key Words: charcoal, carbon trading, global warming
	Summary & Comment: A Swedish firm is banking on getting a slice of the domestic fuel market in Mozambique with an ethanol stove that's proven its worth in Ethiopian refugee camps. If properly audited, the stoves' use can generate carbon credits to be sold on the international carbon trading markets. The Bank of American Merrill Lynch has loaned millions to . . . [expand]
3.	Nothing to show for hard work but burnt fields of maize
	Author: Ignatius Banda	Date Written: 22 May 2012
	Primary Category: Ecology	Document Origin: Inter Press Service Africa
	Secondary Category: Food and Land	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/
	Key Words: Zimbabwe, drought, maize, climate change
	Summary & Comment: Farmers in Zimbabwe, most of them women, have lost their maize crops to on-going drought in the country. While meteorological departments know about the shifting agricultural seasons brought about by climate change, this information isn't getting the people who need to know - the farmers. Nor is the government trying to help them. All farmers . . . [expand]
4.	Zimbabwe: Dying rivers dry up livelihoods
	Author: IRIN	Date Written: 25 April 2012
	Primary Category: Ecology	Document Origin: IRIN
	Secondary Category: Southern Region	Source URL: http://www.irinnews.org/
	Key Words: drought, illegal gold mining, economy, siltation, climate change
	Summary & Comment: With rivers drying up in Zimbabwe, farmers are no longer able to raise livestock and vegetables to sustain their families. So, some are turning to panning for gold in nearby streams. The result is siltation, which leads to a further degradation of the river. Even worse is the mercury poisoning that comes with process of extraction. CJW
5.	Western Ghana’s fisherfolk starve amid algae infestation
	Author: Jessica McDiarmid	Date Written: 18 April 2012
	Primary Category: Ecology	Document Origin: Inter Press Service
	Secondary Category: Food and Land	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/
	Key Words: sargassum, tourism, DeepWater Horizon oilspill, ocean currents
	Summary & Comment: An unprecedented accumulation of brown seaweed in Western Ghana has kept fishing communities away from their fishing grounds. While this is being seen throughout the Atlantic, this becomes a food security issue in communities that depend on traditional fishing to feed their families. CJW
6.	Zimbabwe’s Mopani worms disappearing from rural diets
	Author: Ignatius Banda	Date Written: 23 March 2012
	Primary Category: Ecology	Document Origin: Inter Press Service Africa
	Secondary Category: Food and Land	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/
	Key Words: food security, drought, climate change, traditional diet
	Summary & Comment: The recent lack of rainfall in Zimbabwe has meant the protein-rich Mopani worm is becoming harder and harder to find. As a result, more people are depending on their grocery store purchases for their day-to-day dietary needs. There are worries there will be an increase in diseases associated with low-protein diets, as those that commonly eat the Mo . . . [expand]
7.	As the dust settles on the Limpopo River
	Author: Fidelis Zvomuya	Date Written: 15 March 2012
	Primary Category: Ecology	Document Origin: Inter Press Service
	Secondary Category: Food and Land	Source URL: http://www.ips.org/africa/
	Key Words: drought, agriculture, extreme weather, environment, food security
	Summary & Comment: Poor environmental management combined with changing weather patterns means the Limpopo River Basin, held within Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, is being reduced to a dust bowl. This has serious implications for those living in the area and an estimated one million people need food aid. Scientists have to examine new ways of living . . . [expand]

News from Additional Sources

Pambazuka News :Environment

1. Mozambique: Africa’s largest coastal marine reserve created
   The Primeiras and Segundas have been approved as a marine protected area in Mozambique making this diverse ten-island archipelago Africa’s largest coastal marine reserve. Comprising ten islands off the coast of northern Mozambique, and featuring abundant coral and marine turtle species, the protected area will cover more than 1,040,926 hectares.
2. UN urges foreign fishing fleets to halt 'ocean grabbing'
   'Ocean grabbing' or aggressive industrial fishing by foreign fleets is a threat to food security in developing nations where governments should do more to promote local, small-scale fisheries, a study by a UN expert said. The report said emerging nations should tighten rules for access to their waters by an industrial fleet that is rapidly growing and includes vessels from China, Russia, the European Union, the United States and Japan.
3. East Africa: US study links climate change to violent conflict
   Hotter than normal temperatures raise the risk of violent conflict in East Africa, while increased rainfall makes such disturbances less likely, according to a new study conducted by the US National Academy of Sciences. For both climate variables, there is about a 30 per cent change in the likelihood of violence occurring in an affected area, the study finds. The results appear to reinforce warnings of climate change leading to more conflict in Africa, which is regarded as particularly vulnerable to the effects of sharp shifts in temperature and precipitation.
4. Nigeria: Nigeria could close oil fields to curb gas flaring
   Nigeria may shut down oil fields as it tries to clamp down on gas flaring, even if it means a loss of revenue, the petroleum industry's chief regulator said. Africa's top oil producer and holder of the world's seventh largest natural gas reserves is considered to be among the top two gas flarers in the world, burning off unwanted gas, after Russia.
5. Global: Developing countries firm up common Doha climate talks position
   Negotiators from 46 Least Developed Countries (LDC) met in Nairobi recently to develop a common position to be presented at the November climate talks in Doha. The technical experts said that developing nations will agree on shared goals which include establishment of a new climate treaty, financing and technologies required to accelerate green transition. 'We all have a responsibility in some way to address climate change in order to achieve sustainable development. Africa, small island developing states, and least developing countries, continue to suffer most from the effects of climate change,' Kenya's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, Ali Mohammed said.

Inter Press Service » Africa – IPS Inter Press Service News Agency Journalism and Communication for Global Change

1. Water Debt and Leaks Plague City Residents
   Nokuzola Bulana has a problem with leaks. The water that drips from the pipes of the toilet outside her home in Khayelitsha, a large semi-informal township on the fringes of Cape Town, South Africa goes to waste and drives up her water bill. Bulana, a water activist, says she fixed the leaks in January but [...]
2. New Effort Targets the Leading Killers of Children
   PATH, a Seattle-based global health development organisation, is aiming to save two million lives by 2015 by jointly tackling diarrhea and pneumonia, the leading killers of children globally. Steve Davis, president and CEO of PATH, delivered the message at the ninth annual PATH Breakfast for Global Health held in Seattle on Tuesday. “Today we placed [...]
3. Growing Peas and Greens to Maximise Water Usage
   Amid warnings that Kenya’s agricultural water use is surpassing sustainable levels and adversely affecting food security, biodiversity researchers say that agrobiodiversity should be considered as a vital tool to combat this. “In order to feed the nation, the country must explore agrobiodiversity, specifically (the growing of) vegetables and fruits, which have been neglected in favour [...]
4. Kariba Dispossessed Still Waiting for Promised Better Life
   Fifty seven thousand people were displaced on the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides of the Zambezi River to make way for the construction of the Kariba hydroelectric dam. Almost six decade later, they are still to be compensated for being moved from their homes.  
5. SA’s Africa Day Awareness Lagging Behind
   As the continent prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity on Africa Day, 25th of May, IPS Africa saw fit to speak to ordinary South Africans to hear how they plan to celebrate this important day. However the responses we received were rather disappointing. Africa Day is [...]