Combating Desertification and Drought

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Keeping the Sahara in Check

By Kaci Racelma
Two hundred kilometres. A long distance to some, perhaps, but in the context of desertification in Algeria, alarmingly short.

BRAZIL: Rainwater Tanks a Weapon Against Drought

By Mario Osava
The impoverished population of the Brazilian Northeast, one of regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, is preparing for long-term coexistence with drought, through various projects such as the construction of one million tanks to collect rainwater.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: The Past a Warning for the Future

By Stephen Leahy
A prolonged drought in East Africa in the 1890s not only killed tens of thousands of the native Maasai people, it also reshaped the ecological and political landscape - this according to new research published in the current issue of the 'African Journal of Ecology'.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Will Forests Adapt to a Warmer World?

By Stephen Leahy
Deforestation remains the greatest current threat to the world's forests, claiming 10 to 15 million hectares of tree-covered areas every year, but climate change may represent a bigger challenge in the long term, scientists say.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: If You Can’t Escape Climate Change, Adapt to It

By IPS Correspondents
A conference on climate change, about to wrap up in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, has heard that adaptation to the effects of shifting weather patterns can play a key role in efforts to address climate change - alongside the bid to lessen greenhouse gas emissions.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Changing Climate, Changing Lives

By IPS Correspondents
Marginalised communities attending a United Nations conference on climate change being held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have given accounts of how their lives are being altered for the worse - something they blame on climate change.

ENVIRONMENT-COLOMBIA: The Rain Harvester

By IPS Correspondents
Colombian lawyer and activist Rodrigo Vivas won the 2006 Sasakawa Prize, awarded annually by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and The Nippon Foundation, for his "rainwater harvest" project, aimed at combating desertification.

CHINA: Taklamakan – Desert With No Ocean Underground

By IPS Correspondents
When the city of Korla rose from the Taklamakan desert in mid-1950s, it was marvelled as a triumph of human willpower over adverse nature. Thousands of soldiers dispatched by the Chinese communist party put this place on the map in China's far west Xinjiang, by digging 600 km of channels to coax underground water to large collective farms.

ENVIRONMENT: Billions Needed to Climate-Proof Africa

By Stephen Leahy
Climate change will devastate Africa without substantial help from the world community, according to a new report released at the opening of a major U.N. climate change conference in Nairobi, Kenya Monday.

KAZAKHSTAN: Balkhash Lake Turning Into Another Aral?

By IPS Correspondents
Lake Balkhash, one of the largest inland bodies of water on Earth, is in danger of turning into an environmental death zone whose impact would be felt throughout Central Asia.

ENVIRONMENT: Women’s Expertise Key to Rolling Back Deserts

By IPS Correspondents
Empowering and investing in women is the key to combating the effects of desertification and paving the way for rural poverty alleviation in many of the world's least developed countries (LDCs), according to researchers, government policy-makers and United Nations experts.

ENVIRONMENT: Advancing Deserts Forcing People to Move

By IPS Correspondents
Creeping desertification affects every fifth inhabitant in the world, and it might force some 60 million to migrate from sub-Saharan Africa to northern Africa and Europe by 2020, according to experts.
« Previous Page
*#*