Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Elephants, giraffes, rhinos and other magnificent mammals targeted in wildlife conservation areas of Central Africa are under threat of extinction, caught in the crosshairs of armed groups and highly-militarized poachers, the United Nations environment wing warned on Friday. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – The upward trend in global temperatures marked by record-shattering warmth in 2015 and 2016 kept pace last year, with the United Nations weather agency warning Thursday that continued pressure on the Arctic in 2017 will have “profound and long-lasting repercussions on sea levels, and on weather patterns in other parts of the world.” Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – Three independent experts appointed by the UN have expressed concerns about recent reports that indigenous Sengwer peoples in western Kenya have been attacked and forcibly evicted from their homes. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - A team of researchers at University of Rwanda’s College of Science and Technology (CST) has developed a new bottom–up modeling approach to climate change that will focus on improving the country's research capacity in Astrophysics, Space, an official source confirmed on Monday to PANA in Kigali. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – Two United Nations agencies are teaming up in a major new initiative taking on the herculean task of combatting environmental health risks, which claim an estimated 12.6 million lives a year. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - In a move to improve wildlife conservation programme while protecting the endangered mountain gorillas, Rwanda's volcanoes national park has been expanded to an additional 27.8 hectares, an official source confirmed Wednesday in Kigali. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwanda Meteorological Department on Friday warned of heavy rains across the country. Full text...

New York, USA (PANA) – La Niña is expected to impact weather around the world in 2018, a United Nations relief official has said, urging governments and the international community to act early to mitigate the impacts from this potentially destructive weather pattern and its counterpart, El Niño. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – A forest-dwelling community in Kenya's Rift Valley region, known as the Sengwer, has accused the government of using forestry guards to force out its members from the forests under the guise of saving forests to fight climate change. Full text...

Lilongwe, Malawi (PANA) - Half a million residents of Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, are set to benefit from improved water services and safely managed sanitation through a US$100 million project financed by the World Bank. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – The Arctic continued in 2017 to warm at double the rate of the global temperature increase, resulting in the second warmest air temperatures, above average ocean temperatures, loss of sea ice, and a range of human, ocean and ecosystem effects, according to the United Nations weather agency. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Three illegal miners were killed when a Cassiterite mine collapsed in Rwanda's northwestern district of Rubavu, according to a senior local administrative official in the region. Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana has denied reports alleging that the country will put pressure on Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) to allow the sale of ivory stockpiles. Full text...

New York, USA (PANA) – The growing volume of electronic waste, including discarded products with a battery or plug, such as mobile phones, laptops, televisions, refrigerators and electrical toys, poses a major threat to the environment and human health, the United Nations warned on Wednesday. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - France and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have renewed the blueprint for their collaboration, putting climate change, sustainable agriculture, the eradication of hunger, rural development and efficient use of natural resources at the center of their joint strategic actions in coming years. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – The clock is ticking on efforts to reform the buildings and construction sector's energy performance and keep the Paris Agreement on track, new United Nations-backed research revealed on Tuesday. Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) – Those who fail to bet on a green economy will be living in a grey future, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Tuesday, calling for greater ambition by governments, civil society, the private sector and finance partners to help tackle the global climate challenge. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will participate, alongside over 50 world leaders, in the One Planet Summit in Paris, France, taking place on Tuesday. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The world on Wednesday committed to a pollution-free planet at the close of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, with resolutions and pledges promising to improve the lives of billions across the globe by cleaning up air, land and water. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – Growing antimicrobial resistance linked to the discharge of drugs and some chemicals into the environment is one of the most worrying health threats today, according to new research from the United Nations that highlights emerging challenges and solutions in environment. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - The first Rwanda’s e-waste recycling initiatives has officially opened its facility located at Bugesera, a district in South Eastern Rwanda, with the purpose of extracting metals from e-waste, an official source confirmed Tuesday in Kigali. Full text...

Washington, D.C., USA (PANA) – Draft Guidance Notes that will accompany the World Bank’s new Environmental and Social Framework are inadequate to protect people in communities affected by the bank’s projects, 29 nongovernmental groups said on Monday in a letter to bank officials. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – Noting the severity of the threats posed by pollution to both people and the planet, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has highlighted the need for rapid, large-scale and coordinated action by all actors to make the world pollution-free. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Key among issues being discussed at the third UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, which started at the UNEP headquarters, Nairobi, on Monday is to tackle the global menace of pollution. Full text...

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) - The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) have announced a new three-year partnership agreement, on the heels of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (2014-2017) in which the two organizations committed to deliver major eco-conservation programmes for Africa. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - Southern Africa continues to recover from the disastrous 2015/2016 El Niño-induced drought, which by January 2017 affected about 41 million people across the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Experts in wildlife conservation from Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda on Wednesday in Musanze, a district located in northern Rwanda, have expressed concern over the limited anti-poaching efforts amid rising prices for illegal ivory across the continent, according to an official report obtained Thursday by PANA in Kigali. Full text...

Monrovia, Liberia (PANA) – A court in Liberia’s second port city, Buchanan, in Grand Bassa County, has handed down a one-year prison sentence to a local hunter for killing an endangered leatherback turtle. Full text...

New York, USA (PANA) – Even in wealthier countries, where people have access to toilets and faecal material is contained, treatment and final disposal of wastewater can be far from perfect, leading to polluted rivers and coastlines, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a World Toilet Day event on Monday. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) - The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) wrapped up on Friday in Bonn, Germany, with delegations expressing a renewed sense of urgency and a need for greater ambition to tackle climate change. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Everyone on earth is affected by pollution, according to a new report issued by UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on Thursday in Nairobi. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) – Addressing the United Nations Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday, Secretary-General António Guterres called for more ambition, more leadership and more partnerships to tackle climate change. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) - While USA climate policy has been rolled back under President Donald Trump, India and China have moved ahead, making significant progress in climate action over the past year, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an environmental NGO said on Wednesday. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) – On the heels of one of the worst – and most costly – Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, a global initiative was launched on Wednesday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23), in Bonn, Germany, with the aim of providing insurance to hundreds of millions of vulnerable people by 2020 and to increase the resilience of developing countries against the impacts of climate change. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Torrential rains that have continued to pound several remote regions in Rwanda since last week have destroyed at least 200 heactares of crops in Karongi, a district in western Rwanda. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) - The European Union and 79 countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group, together making up more than half of the signatories to the Paris Agreement on climate change, on Tuesday reaffirmed their shared commitment to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) – The urgent need to raise the funda to meet the funding goals of the Paris Agreement, especially to support action by developing countries, took centre stage Monday at the UN Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) – With the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 23) in Bonn, Germany, entering its final week of negotiations, the Fiji Presidency has announced the Gender Action Plan, highlighting the role of women in climate action. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) – Cities, the transport sector and ocean advocates have announced a number of new initiatives to push for further, faster climate action, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 23) in Bonn, Germany. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – As the impact of climate change worsens around the world, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on the global community to redouble efforts to help countries respond to climate shocks, especially the most vulnerable. Full text...

Bonn, Germany (PANA) - New commitments and initiatives in energy, water and agriculture sectors were announced on Friday at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, under the auspices of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action to help implement the Paris Agreement. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - The Rwanda Meteorology Agency on Thursday launched a household survey for an economic analysis of benefits of weather and climate information. Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) has assisted Botswana develop a national forest monitoring system (NFMS). Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - The Congolese minister of Forest Economy, Mrs Rosalie Matondo, on Wednesday urged Congolese forest to preserve wildlife reserves, recognised as catalysts for geo-ecological balances and socio-economic development. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – To tackle the double challenge of energy poverty and climate change – producing clean, affordable energy at a pace that will meet rising demand without environmental detriment – all stakeholders must step up efforts to transform the world’s energy systems for everyone’s benefit, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday. Full text...

New York, USA (PANA) – Marking World Cities Day, a senior United Nations official on Tuesday spotlighted the need to find innovate ways to govern cities, as more than half of the world's population live in urban areas. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – Pledges made under the Paris Agreement are only a third of what is required by 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, pointing to the urgent need to boost efforts by both government and non-government actors, the United Nations environment wing said on on Tuesday. Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - The Tunisian National Institute of Meteorology announced on Tuesday that a telluric quake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale, hit the country off the governorate from Nabeul, 75km south-east of Tunis. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere surged in 2016 to its highest level in 800,000 years, according to a report released Monday by the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Full text...

Manila, Philippines (PANA) – Unless the international community integrates wildlife conservation with sustainable development, it will not be able to protect the remaining animal species on Earth, the head of a United Nations-backed environmental treaty on Monday said at the opening of a wildlife conference in the Philippines. Full text...