By Cam McGrath
CAIRO, Feb 4 (IPS) – The illegal trade in ivory continues in Egypt, with ivory products sold openly in local tourist markets by traders who operate with impunity, a new study by the conservation group Traffic has found.

The report, published in the group’s journal, suggests that while the volume of elephant ivory seen [...]

By Brahima Ouédraogo

Low rainfall is having disastrous effects on wildlife in W Regional Park, which stretches across Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger. / Nicolas Barbier/Wikicommons

OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 2 (IPS) – The story of a pair of buffalo aggressively prowling the edges of a village in eastern Burkina Faso is a warning sign of severe water [...]

By Kristin Palitza

A Moringa tree in fruit, near Sprokieswoud in Namiba. Moringa leaves are dubbed a "super food". / Hans Hillewaert/Wikkicommons

CAPE TOWN, Jan 25 (IPS) – When a food crisis hits the continent, African countries tend to look to the international donor community to mobilise aid. But a fast-growing, drought- resistant tree with [...]

By Peter Kahare

A crocodile carcass on Lake Kamnarok. In the distance cows graze on the lake bed. / Peter Kahare

RIFT VALLEY, Kenya,, Jan 17 (IPS) – Several years ago, Lakes Kamnarok and Ol Bollosat in Kenya were vibrant water bodies that supported and shaped the ecosystems around them. But today they are shells of [...]

By Busani Bafana
VICTORIA FALLS, Jan 10 (IPS) – Picking spots for cattle to graze could reverse desertification and even do its bit to retard climate change, new experiments in Zimbabwe have shown. It’s what is coming to be called the Brown Revolution.

Planned grazing of livestock is helping restore formally degraded lands close to Zimbabwe's Victoria [...]

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

BPA-free baby bottle. / Photostock

YAOUNDÉ, Jan 6 (IPS) – Maya Stella, a restaurant manager in the capital of Cameroon, no longer uses plastic to wrap the corn-fufu that she sells to her customers. She now uses banana or plantain leaves instead, because these are "natural and it is our African [...]

By Reem Abbas

Thirty villages of the Manasir people were flooded during construction of the Merowe Dam. / David Haberlah/CC BY 2.0

KHARTOUM, Jan 2 (IPS) – The multi-billion dollar Merowe Dam on the Nile River more than doubled Sudan's electricity supply, but its environmental impacts still remain unknown to the public and to the communities [...]

By David Njagi

Many waste collectors at the Dandora dump on the outskirts of Nairobi are unaware of the dangers posed by medical waste. / David Njagi/IPS

NAIROBI, Dec 28 (IPS) – For Collins Otieno, the onset of a new day ushers in mixed fortunes that can either earn him some money or expose him [...]

By Mantoe Phakathi

A multi-million dollar iron-ore reprocessing plant in northern Swaziland is threatening water security. / Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MBABANE, Dec 26 (IPS) – A multi-million dollar iron-ore reprocessing plant in the northern part of Swaziland, owned by Indian mining company Salgaocar, is threatening the water security of local communities and even the country’s capital city, [...]

By Meena Bhandari
 

The Gola Forest is bisected by several of Sierra Leone's major rivers. / Courtesy of David Zeller/Gola Programme

FREETOWN, Dec 22 (IPS) – Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest remains a centre of contention as the local community here plan to take their chief to court next week over a controversial 50-year land lease to [...]

By Ignatius Banda

More than 70 percent of Africans – the majority of whom are women –rely on farming for survival. / Ignatius Banda/IPS

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Dec 20 (IPS) – Duduzile Sibanda takes a break from preparing her long stretch of land for her maize crop in rural Mberengwa, in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province. She wipes [...]

By Sam Olukoya

In Ajegunle, a low-lying slum in Lagos, flooding is also disrupting the economic activities of women / Sam Olukoya/IPS

LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec 15 (IPS) – The women of Makoko, a low-lying slum close to the Lagos Lagoon along Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, always sleep with one eye open. Many live in fear that when [...]

By Lee Middleton

South Africa's first eco-friendly and energy efficient low-income housing development in Atlantis. / Lee Middleton/IPS

ATLANTIS, South Africa, Dec 14 (IPS) – Something unusual is happening in Atlantis. Created in the 1970s to fulfill the apartheid government's agenda to evict "coloured" South Africans from Cape Town, Atlantis has always been best known [...]

By Lee Middleton
 
OCEAN VIEW, South Africa, Dec 13 (IPS) – Having observed changes in the sea and the life cycles of the rock lobsters that their livelihoods depend on, a group of fisherwomen from the Western Cape, South Africa are calling on government to adjust fishing seasons to adapt to what they claim are climate [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu*

Peter Nyaga surveys his four-year-old eucalyptus woodlot. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Dec 12 (IPS) – On a steep slope of land in Thangathi village in Central Province, Kenya, Peter Nyaga surveys his four-year-old eucalyptus woodlot. He calculates the value of every tree on his two-hectare piece of land at maturity in three years.

At [...]