Read the full story

IPS – Swamps, marshes and other wetlands are beginning to be recognised as a country’s ‘green jewels’, even in a tropical paradise like Mahé Island here in the Seychelles, with its stunning beaches and dramatic granite outcrops.

“Wetlands are one of the world’s richest ecosystems on the planet,” said Joel Morgan, minister for environment, natural resources and transport, Republic of Seychelles.

“We islanders live closer to nature than many others and we have long understood the importance of wetlands and environmental services and resources they provide us with,” Morgan said at the first-ever World Wetlands Week.

Normally, World Wetlands Day is Feb. 2, but this year the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty on conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources, is celebrating wetlands around the world throughout the entire week.

The Seychelles were chosen for the global launch of World Wetlands Week because they exemplified the Ramsar principle of wise use successfully balancing tourism, development, food security and biodiversity, said Anada Tiega, secretary general of the Ramsar Convention.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50233

IRIN – Economic conditions in most southern African countries declined as a result of the global recession, pushing many more people towards greater food insecurity. According to a new food security update which focused on some southern African countries, food prices have risen and are still climbing in several countries.

The price of most fertilizers doubled in 2008 and continued to rise through 2009, affecting the quantity of crops planted throughout the region. High input costs prompted many governments to either extend their input subsidy programme or consider implementing one.

Here is a snapshot of food security in the region, based on an update compiled by the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88014

IRIN – Rival ethnic communities in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo have clashed many times over the years, but most recently over fish, observers say.

More than 200 people have died and another 150,000 have fled to the neighbouring Republic of Congo (ROC) since October 2009, when fighting erupted between the Lobala and Boba clans in Dongo, Equateur Province.

The clash was triggered by two attacks against Boba villages, including one in July 2009, in which 200 homes were burnt down.

“The clashes could have been prevented – or at least curbed – had there been more oversight of the distribution of resources at the Iwandi pool,” said local analyst Polycarpe Nyalua.

Iwandi is one of the most prolific fishing spots along the River Ubangi which runs along the border between the two countries.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87961

IRIN – A raft of fuel price hikes that will affect agricultural production costs as well as consumer pockets is expected to drive food price inflation in Zambia, where about two-thirds of the population live on US$1 or less a day.

The government has announced an immediate petrol price rise of 15 percent, soon after a 10 percent excise duty on diesel came into effect on 1 January 2010.

According to a World Bank study citing average prices when the oil crisis peaked in 2008, the landlocked country had the highest fuel prices in southern Africa.

With the new hike, petrol in the capital, Lusaka, will cost about US$1.53, an increase of US$0.50, while diesel – primarily used in the mining and agricultural sectors – will now cost about US$1.20 a litre.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87865

Disappointed by the “failure” of the Copenhagen talks to adequately help poor countries adapt to climate change, the Burkina Faso government and farmers are working to adjust farming techniques to changing weather patterns.

“Despite the failure of Copenhagen we must follow adaptation at our own cost because we have been experiencing the impacts of climate change in Burkina for several years, and they are getting worse,” Bassiaka Dao, confederation of farmers in Burkina Faso (CPF) president, told IRIN.

Dao said the US$10 billion that rich nations agreed to provide annually to developing countries to help mitigate climate change effects was insufficient. The UN said at the Copenhagen meetings that $25 billion to $50 billion per year would be required.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87806

IRIN – Swaziland’s government is planning to subsidize agricultural inputs to boost food production in the consistently food insecure country.

The proposal, however, has yet to be passed by Cabinet and would then require the establishment of a financing scheme for the agricultural inputs ahead of the main planting period that begins in October.

In the past decade, up to two thirds of the one million population have relied on donor food assistance and although the food shortages were largely blamed on erratic rainfall, the return of good rains in 2009, did little to improve the country’s food security.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87794

IRIN – In 2009 Zimbabwe withdrew the local dollar and allowed the use of foreign currency to bring down hyperinflation, but outside of urban centres this money is often scarce and also makes food expensive, so Godknows Chuma started growing his own and discovered that his green fingers could provide for his family.

“As is the case in many rural areas, the foreign currency was hard to come by and we were struggling to get money to buy basic commodities,” Chuma, 34, told IRIN.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87722

IPS – The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) has raised a red flag over the worsening food security situation in the Horn of Africa.

Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner in charge of development and humanitarian aid, attributes the disastrous situation to the terrible potential of climate change.

“Large parts of the Horn of Africa have had less than 75 percent of normal rainfall this year, having already endured a series of severe droughts. The population can no longer cope with such extreme and protracted hardship which often comes on top of conflict situation. As a result, more than 16 million people desperately need help,” he said in a statement released by ECHO.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49855

IPS – The hundreds of savings and loan cooperatives operating in South Kivu should be providing an opportunity to develop agriculture and fight food insecurity in the province, but few farmers have been able to take advantage.

Félicien Zozo Rukeratabaro, a human rights advocate for Social and Rural Action, an NGO based in the province’s main town of Bukavu, says “not one small-scale farmer is able to access financial support or credit from any of these cooperatives, which are primarily concerned with speculative transactions and activities only of immediate benefit to themselves.”

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49784