Firewood vendors Moses Ginindza and Mphumuzi Magwagwa. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi

By Mantoe Phakathi

MBABANE, (IPS/TerraViva) – For close to three decades, Jeremiah Mkhonta has earned a living by selling firewood by the roadside. It’s not exactly lucrative: the father of 15 often goes for a fortnight without even selling a single four dollar bundle of firewood. But slow business is not what is bothering this ex-miner right now. He lives in fear that one day soon, he and his peers across the country could be arrested.

“I’ve learnt from the radio and from some of my customers that the Minister of Tourism and Environment said that we’ll get arrested for selling firewood,” Mkhonta told IPS. Continue Reading

Credit: Fabricio Vanden Broeck

Servaas van den Bosch

WINDHOEK (IPS/TerraViva) – As debate ratchets up ahead of working out a climate change deal, a Dutch study says emissions from deforestation and land degradation are far lower than has been assumed. Will this have an impact on a deal to protect forests in Africa?

Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation had been assumed by parties in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be around 20 percent of global CO2 output. But a team of Dutch researchers from the Vrije Universiteit (VU) calculate that the true total is closer to 12 percent. Continue Reading