Lusaka: More than 150 representatives of donor agencies, international non-governmental organisations and research institutes have joined forces to establish the Global Initiative on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change, to help the world's poorest communities adapt to climate change... Read more...
Warmer climate gives malaria new hunting grounds
27 February 2009, source: Inter Press Service URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45814
Chicago: Climate change is bringing malaria to regions of Africa where the disease was previously unknown, researchers report from the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago this week.Interestingly, the Arctic, where climate change is happening fastest, is the best place to study how warming temperatures are affecting infectious disease transmission... Read more...
London: Trees across the tropics are getting bigger and offering help in the fight against climate change, scientists have discovered. A laborious study of the girth of 70,000 trees across Africa has shown that tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution than originally thought... Read more...
Lake Victoria: Degradation has caused low water levels
27 February 2009, source: New Vision URL: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/672020
Kampala: While Uganda attributes the dropping level in Lake Victoria to several factors including climate change, Kenya and Tanzania blame the decline on the over-draining of the water for hydro-electric power production by Uganda. Between 2004 and 2006, the lake's water level dropped by 1... Read more...
Mau must be restored, Raila declares
27 February 2009, source: The Standard URL: http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144007173&cid;=4
Nairobi: Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said the Government is determined to reclaim the Mau Forest. Speaking at the closing of a roundtable meeting for African Parliamentarians on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change in Nairobi yesterday, Raila said he would not relent on an issue that affects the whole country and the region... Read more...
Zimbabwean farmers offered practical advice to cope with climate change
27 February 2009, source: Ekklesia URL: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8519
Harare: Development agency Progressio is preparing to offer practical advice to thousands of small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe in a bid to help them achieve long-term food security in a rapidly changing climate.A new information leaflet - ‘Coping with climate change' - outlines how farmers are likely to be affected by climate change and offers guidance on how to prepare land and crops to mitigate the effects of higher temperatures, reduced rainfall, more frequent droughts and cyclones... Read more...
Livestock in Ethiopian lowlands decimated by climate-change impacts
27 February 2009, source: ReliefWeb URL: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ASAZ-7PMGZR?OpenDocument
Addis Ababa: The numbers of livestock held by southern pastoralist families have fallen drastically over the past two decades as animals die from disease induced by climate change and the severe drought it brings, according to a new report by Ethiopian and Netherlands researchers. In one of three areas surveyed, Borena zone of Oromiya region, the average numbers of livestock owned by pastoralist households were found to have declined from 10 to 3 oxen, 35 to 7 cows, and 33 to 6 goats... Read more...
Ethiopia: Conference urges shift in disaster risk management
27 February 2009, source: Daily Monitor URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200902160989.html
Addis Abeba: It is imperative that the county must shift from traditional approaches of sustainable disaster risk management that hitherto proved inefficient, to modern ones, a regional conference held here said.Challenges of Ethiopian disaster management system was a core agenda at a national conference in which stakeholders deliberated on an immediate implementation of a paradigm shift from a traditionally reactive and relief oriented system to a proactive disaster risk reduction and management focused system... Read more...
UNEP takes decisions on climate, international environmental governance
26 February 2009, source: Climate-L.org
Nairobi: Delegates to the 25th Session of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC25/GMEF), which met from 16-20 February 2009, in Nairobi, Kenya, took 17 decisions including on international environmental governance, a significantly increased UNEP budget, support to Africa on climate change, and mercury... Read more...
Africa 'held hostage' by water shortages
26 February 2009, source: IOL URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art;_id=nw20090223171923982C147119&set;_id=
Port Elizabeth: African economies are especially vulnerable to water shortages, delegates to the Implementing Environmental Water Allocations (IEWA) conference heard on Monday. "Many African economies are held hostage to hydrology," World Bank senior water resources specialist Rafik Hirji said at the start of the four-day event in Port Elizabeth... Read more...
African forests are adding to their mass each year by an amount equivalent to a small car per hectare, researchers have found. The finding has surprised researchers and confirms the forests' status as one of the world's substantial carbon sinks.Researchers used data collected between 1968 and 2007 to calculate that 0... Read more...
Climate fears are driving 'ecomigration' across globe
Washington: Adam Fier recently sold his home, got rid of his car and pulled his twin 6-year-old girls out of elementary school in Montgomery County. He and his wife packed the family's belongings and moved to New Zealand -- a place they had never visited or seen before, and where they have no family or professional connections... Read more...
Johnnesburg: With the post-Kyoto climate change talks due to take place in Copenhagen in December, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel spoke to Mandy Rossouw about South Africa's key role in the negotiationsWhat is South Africa's importance in the Copenhagen process?South Africa is in a leading position in the Group 77 [of industrialising countries] plus China... Read more...
Johannesburg: Karamoja, a semi-arid region in northeast Uganda, is in crisis: a potent mix of the impact of climate change - 14 droughts in 25 years - border conflicts, armed cattle-raids, and difficult development and sustainability issues are the main features, delegates at a recent conference on Climate Change and Security in Africa learned... Read more...
Humanitarian costs of climate change unpredictable
Johannesburg: New projections of the impact of climate change make headlines every day, but a report by a leading research institution has underlined the need for "meaningful data" to help aid agencies prepare for the future.The report by a group of researchers at the Feinstein International Centre of the US-based Tufts University also uses various models to project the likely rise in humanitarian spending over the next 20 years as the frequency and intensity of natural disasters increases... Read more...
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