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TIMOR-LESTE: Fragile environment in jeopardy

DILI Thursday, July 31, 2008 (IRIN) - Since it was built in 1983, residents of Dili have watched the retaining wall of the Pantai Kelapa road along Timor-Leste's coastline slowly erode. Some say it is because of the effects of climate change – increasing numbers of ferocious storms have caused waves to batter the edges of the road. But it is impossible to be certain because of a 25-year gap in environmental data. "There is data starting from the 1950s but it's not complete because of the...

Connecting the solutions while there's time

Guest Editorialist The world does not need to be reminded of the urgency of this historical moment. We sense it every day in the news. One day a major bank, insurance company, or automaker announces a record loss. The next brings word of the impact on nations and peoples least able to cope with these blows — the poorest of the world's poor. During the last two years, I have dealt with many crises, from Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo to such global challenges as the food crisis...

NEA on climate change forum

The National Environmental Agency on Tuesday began its two day forum on climate change at the Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.  The forum which brought together senior government officials, members of the parliament, the private sector, NGOs and members of the general public is aimed at creating awareness of climate change as it relates to The Gambia. In giving the opening remarks, the executive director of NEA,, Momodou B Sarr said the purpose of the forum is to sensitise policy makers and the mass...

LEBANON: Climate change, fuel prices cutting into forests

DUBAI Thursday, September 25, 2008 (IRIN) - Devastating fires caused by climate change are threatening forests in Lebanon, in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, an environmental activist has warned. “We are witnessing a rise in temperature which leads to the dryness of forest soil and pushes it towards desertification,” Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine, director-general of the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC), a local NGO, told IRIN from Beirut. The country is...

KYRGYZSTAN: Melting glaciers threaten livelihoods

BISHKEK Wednesday, September 17, 2008 (IRIN) - The number of glaciers in Kyrgyzstan has dropped by 15 percent over the past 30 years, according to Kyrgyz environmental experts, because of climate change. "The process of melting glaciers is a very serious problem for Kyrgyzstan because the main water resources are connected first of all with the glaciers," Anna Kirilenko, with the BIOM environmental NGO, told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek. Kirilenko believed the melting glaciers threatened...

BANGLADESH: When climate change gives you a sinking feeling

KUTUBDIA Thursday, October 23, 2008 (IRIN) - The sea has crept almost 15km into Kutubdia, an island off the coastal town of Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh, one of the world's most dangerous cyclone zones. "The sea has been coming closer and closer," said Abdul Mutalib, 75, whose mud hut was washed away 15 days ago. "Allah jane ke hobe [God only knows what will happen]" he added wearily in Bengali, or Bangla, the national language, wiping beads of sweat off his weather-beaten face with...

LESOTHO: A village tries new ideas to beat climate change

HA TSIU Monday, September 15, 2008 (IRIN) - Chief Paulosi Lebakeng is a troubled man. Food production has dipped in his village of Ha Tsiu, perched about 2,500m above sea level on the Thaba Putsoa mountains, about 100km east of Lesotho's capital, Maseru. Rainfall has become less frequent every year, as has snowfall; both important sources of water for food crops. There are more HIV/AIDS orphans in the village, and the pandemic has also left fewer people to work in the fields. Then, last year,...

Participants From 16 Commonwealth Countries On Five-day Journalism Workshop

A press release issue by The Gambia Press Union lastSaturday revealed that young journalists from 16 AfricanCommonwealthcountries will be put through their paces on critical problems facing theplanet and its people during a five-day development journalism workshopentitled: “Commonwealth Africa Workshop for Young Journalists on developmentjournalism and the MDGs”. The workshop will have a particular focus on climatechange in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,from Monday the 3rdto Friday the 7thof November...

WEST AFRICA: Taking on climate change as a region

Climate experts and ministers in West Africa have committed to coordinating national efforts to fight climate change, at the conclusion of an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in Benin’s economic capital, Cotonou, on 22 October. Benin’s UN Development Programme representative, Edith Gasana, told participants “no country will be able to handle the struggle alone.” Experts on the UN-convened independent climate panel, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),...

Food security, women & the environment

The heightened challenge posed by the increasing demand for world food security has a monumental bearing on the continued debate on climate change. Human activities, vis-à-vis the challenge to meet our demand in terms of food production, have some far-reaching implications on the very environment we live in. As the world’s population increases, the demand for space and depletable resources also increases at a parallel rate. This leaves us all with the burden of balancing our valued efforts and...