Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – The first class of five Rotary-sponsored scholars Thursday graduated with the Master of Science degrees in water education from the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, in Delft, Netherlands, Rotary International announced in a statement. Full text...

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria has received US$23 million in four years from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to implement climate change, biodiversity and land degradation projects. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN is urging greater efforts to promote sustainable development and use of renewable energy sources, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealing for worldwide changes in attitude and practice to curb the negative impact of human activity on the planet. Full text...

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - Heavy floods have swept to death a four-year-old girl and destroyed several houses and crop fields in Malawi's northern border district of Karonga. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - An international conference on the fight against poaching will be held in Brazzaville, the Congolese capital, in May, According to Henri Djombo, the Congolese Minister of Forest Economy and Sustainable Development. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has condemned the attack against the chief warden of Virunga National Park, and urged the international community to support the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in protecting not only its World Heritage sites but also those who safeguard them. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - The globe's biggest sporting event - the FIFA World Cup – is aiming to offset its greenhouse gas emissions this summer in a move that should inspire more event organizers to undertake high-profile climate action. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Despite the official recognition of the role of forests in Tanzania’s economic development, unplanned conversion of forests for agriculture, production of wood fuel and extraction of timber for commercial trade is impeding the realisation of development goals, with a quarter of forests predicted to disappear by 2018, according to a new study. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the findings of a UN report on the mitigation of climate change, released on Sunday in Berlin, Germany, and urged all countries "to act swiftly and boldly" to reach a "global, ambitious and legal climate agreement in 2015". Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Tanzanians were Monday assessing the damage caused by downpours over the weekend which have claimed at least five lives, four of them in the eastern Morogoro Region, and almost isolated Dar es Salaam city, the country’s seaside commercial capital. Full text...

Pretoria, South Africa (PANA) - The cargo ship Alma, which is carrying 2, 000 tons of endangered Fin Whale whale meat from Iceland, will not enter the South African port of Durban this week following an international outcry. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the group of the world’s leading climate change scientists, on Sunday released in Berlin, Germany, its 2014 assessment on measures to mitigate climate change. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Activists around the world have welcomed the latest UN climate science panel’s report, released Sunday, which lays out the solutions to the climate crisis, giving governments a clear case for urgent action. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) –The Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) management here Friday announced a week-long suspension of passenger and train services after torrential rain eroded part of the railroad embankment at Kurasini, eight kilometres from the terminus. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – The Nigerian government has contributed US$5million to the feasibility study aimed at restoring the Lake Chad Basin. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Heavy rainfall and gusty winds were set to hit coastal Tanzania for three days from Friday, the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) has warned. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) – The European Union (EU) will finance a programme to improve food security and nutrition for vulnerable communities in Sub-Saharan Africa with 33 million Euros, according to official sources here Thursday. Full text...

Praia, Cape Verde (PANA) – The Cape Verdean government is to set up a fund, called the social access fund (FAS), to make water and good sanitation available to some 2,000 vulnerable families, according to official sources. Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - The Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) is to take advantage of the experience of participants at a workshop on the conservation of great apes to establish a good policy to ensure the conservation of these species in DR Congo, Benoît Kisuki, director in charge of scientific and technical studies at ICCN, said on Wednesday. Full text...

Pretoria, South Africa (PANA) – South African President Jacob Zuma, on Sunday officially opened the US$2.5 billion Cornubia Integrated Human Settlements Development Project in Ottawa, north of Durban. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritian Local Government Minister, Herve Aimée, said Friday that the volume of e-waste generated in Mauritius ranges between 7,000 and 8,000 tonnes yearly, saying that a National e-waste collection campaign for households will be launched soon throughout the island. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – The executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Carlos Lopes, says time has come for Africa to make the switch to a green economy. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) – The Korean Environment Corporation (KECO) plans to help Congo find solutions to its drainage problems, according to a communique published here Thursday by the Congolese Energy and Hydraulic Ministry. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - UN’s top climate change official Christiana Figueres Thursday called on the oil and gas industry to undertake a radical transformation towards a new, sustainable energy mix in order to align itself with the physical and political realities of climate change. Full text...

Lomé, Togo (PANA) – Togo's anti-pollution non-governmental organization (NGO), the Social Action for Integral Development (ASDI), has said it will help improve the health and welfare of Togolese people by collecting and recycling electrical and electronic wastes, PANA learnt here Tuesday from sources close to the NGO. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN member states on Tuesday began a series of meetings at the UN headquarters in New York, to discuss the need for an international instrument that would regulate the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond countries’ national jurisdiction. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – The Bonn-based UN Climate Change secretariat on Monday opened applications for leading projects tackling climate change as part of wider efforts to mobilize action and ambition as national governments work toward a new universal climate agreement in 2015. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - The environmental organisation Greenpeace has urged world leaders to accelerate the transition to clean and safe energy, as the UN climate panel Monday issued a new warning on the looming climate chaos. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – A new report, released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has warned that climate change impacts are already widespread across all continents and oceans and rapidly worsening. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Cape Town in South Africa has won this year’s Earth Hour City Challenge, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Mauritanian Environment miAmedi Camara has met the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemarian Desalegn, to seek Addis Ababa’s support and implementation of the Pan African Green Wall Initiative, state media reported on Wednesday. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Climate change could put back the fight against hunger by decades but the global food system is woefully unprepared to cope with the challenge, said international agency Oxfam in a paper published Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN on Saturday marked the World Water Day, with officials highlighting the key role that water and energy play in economic development and the eradication of poverty worldwide. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged stakeholders to use the occasion of the 20th anniversary to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to "rediscover the commitment that brought the Convention to life". Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - The committee responsible for supervising the Kyoto Protocol’s Joint Implementation (JI) mechanism has adopted a plan to sustain the mechanism through 2014 and beyond, while contributing to its ongoing evolution as an effective tool for climate change mitigation. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisaton (FAO) has launched a new database which gathers under one roof previously scattered information about land cover, how much land is covered by croplands, trees, forests, or bare soils, which are crucial to establishing a good global understanding of the physical characteristics of the Earth’s surface. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Wildlife rangers in Kenya have arrested three suspected poachers who have been handed to the Police in Nanyuki, 160 kilometres outside the capital city of Nairobi, over the killing of rhinos in Ol Pejeta, a private game sanctuary, an official said Sunday. Full text...

Lomé, Togo (PANA) – The fifth meeting of the council of ministers from the Volta basin Authority (ABV) is due to open on Monday in the Togolese capital, Lomé, PANA learnt from official sources on Saturday. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Countries who were meeting in the German city, Bonn, this week have started fleshing out how a new universal agreement on climate change might look by the deadline of Paris 2015 as part of worldwide efforts to keep a global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius this century. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritius will implement an Early Warning System (EWS) for storm surges while the population at risks will be informed accordingly and safe evacuation ensured by public institutions, PANA reported from here. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Meteorological experts gathered this week in Entebbe, Uganda, have predicted heavy rainfall with flood risks for the equatorial parts of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA) between March and May 2014. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - This year's UN climate change negotiations kick off in the German city of Bonn next week, marking the beginning of an intense year of conferences and summits designed to lead to a meaningful, universal agreement in Paris in late 2015. Full text...

Maseru, Lesotho (PANA) - The African Union (AU) has marked this year's Africa Environment and Wangari Maathai Day in Maseru, Lesotho, the AU Commission said. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN on Monday marked the first ever World Wildlife Day, with a warning that nature is under threat, while stressing the need to protect biological diversity and halt environmental crimes. Full text...

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The International Development Association (IDA) has granted member states of the Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS) a loan, worth 27.2 billion francs CFA, to enable them develop the Senegal River basin, PANA learnt from official sources here. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has granted 17.5 billion CFA francs to the Senegalese government to enable the West African country to improve its waste management, PANA learnt here Thursday from official sources. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Mauritian Environment and Sustainable Development Minister, Deva Virahsawmy, Thursday launched a Climate Change Information, Education and Communication Strategy and Action Plan, which aims to enhance awareness and understanding necessary to create a climate conscious culture for achieving a sustainable future in the island. Full text...

Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - A French waste management company, Pizzorno, which collects waste in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, has abandoned its contract with the Nouakchott Town Hall following a court ruling in a dispute with workers. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Congolese environmentalists Tuesday urged the heads of oil companies operating in the country to further reduce gas flaring to deal with pollution-related risks facing people living in oil production areas, PANA learnt from here. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Zambia's Tourism and Arts Minister Sylvia Masebo has broken ranks with the government over the mining licence given to an Australian firm for a copper project in the lower Zambezi National Park. Full text...