ZimConservation

By Vimbai Komani

URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200903270058.html

Harare — Zanda Sirinde has lived at 25 Dominic Road, Rimuka, Kadoma, since 1961 while Cathy Gondo of 24 Mahaga Road has called the city home since 1998.

“There used to be a small road that passed through the spaces between houses. The lane was always clean but after sometime some residents started dumping waste behind their houses in this alley.

“Efforts by the former Minister of Information Dr Nathan Shamuyarira to have the rubbish dumps removed failed because of a depleted council refuse collection fleet. Continue Reading »

By Busani Bafana and Zahira Kharsany

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46259

BULAWAYO, Mar 25 (IPS) – Scientists at Bulawayo’s National University of Science and Technology (NUST) have embarked on research to develop simple and affordable water purification methods, as more than a billion people live without safe drinking water in developing countries.

Water and sanitation experts are currently investigating if a powder made from the seeds of the Moringa Oleifera, commonly known as the drumstick or horseradish tree, can be used as a filter to purify water. Continue Reading »

(TIMES, LONDON) – Wildlife experts are alarmed at a dramatic upsurge in rhino poaching in South Africa’s game reserves that may threaten the survival of the creature in one of its last redoubts.

Just 10 rhinos were poached in the whole of 2007, but last year the number reached 100. On Christmas Day alone, 13 rhinos were killed by poachers.

“We’ve always had subsistence poaching,” said George Hughes, a former head of the KwaZulu-Natal Parks Board. “But serious poaching for large game by professionals selling rhino horn or ivory to Far Eastern syndicates is far more alarming.” Continue Reading »

By Adam Welz

Mozambique has survived colonialism and civil war. But can it survive the ethanol industry? Massingir is an unremarkable town. The electricity supply here in rural Mozambique is erratic, clean water is hard to come by, and the hotels—well, calling them hotels is a little too polite. 

©2009 Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress

Go here for the full article on the Mother Jones website!

http://www.africa-union.org/

AFRICAN UNION
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA  P. O. Box 3243  Téléphone : 5517 700  Fax : 5511299
website :   www. africa-union.org
DIVISION OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION

PRESS RELEASE No.66/2009

Addis Ababa, 04 March 2009- The African Union Commission, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The Horn of Africa Regional Environment Center Network (HoAREC) and The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) of the FDRE celebrated the Seventh Africa Environment Day, on 03 March 2009, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Seventh Africa Environment Day was celebrated under the theme: “Greening Africa” in the presence of Dr. Abebe Haile- Gabriel, Ag Director, Department of Rural Economy & Agriculture, (AUC); Dr. Strike Mkandla, representative of UNEP to AU, UNECA & Ethiopia, and Dr. Araya Asfaw, representative of HoAREC. The day was marked by planting trees in the compound of the Graduate School of Ethiopian Telecommunication and Information Technology as well as music by Tena Kebena Youth Group on Greening Africa. Continue Reading »

Ron Thomson is at last writing his African big game hunting memoirs. The planned program comprises six volumes the first of which is nearing completion. Altogether these books record the history of the author’s remarkable life in a colonial Africa that is long gone and will never return. This is probably the best and it may be the last verbatim record of a white colonial game ranger’s life in Africa and what are probably the greatest ever free-range African big game hunting stories ever told. Many of the stories are as incredible and they may seem impossible.

The books are set, primarily, in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where, for 24 years (1959-1983), the author was employed as a game ranger/game warden in the country’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management. During those years he was embroiled in the most incredible big game hunting and black rhino capture work programs imaginable. The numbers boggle the mind. Animals Ron has hunted by conventional means, on foot, and with the aid of his faithful Bushman trackers, include some 5000 elephant; 800 buffalo; 50-60 lion (including six man-eaters); 30-40 leopards; and over 200 hippos. In addition, he led the culling team that killed 2 500 elephants, over a two year period, in the Gonarezhou National Park in the early 1970s. Continue Reading »