Bulletin 133 – August 2008

FOCUS OF THIS ISSUE

A great deal of attention is focused on Africa today, but hidden beneath all the talk about fighting poverty there are ambitious plans to exploit its enormous wealth. This widely heterogeneous continent, home to almost 900 million people, artificially divided into 53 states by European colonialism, is now under siege in the face of new advances by corporate globalization, while serving as the stage for the battle between the imperialists of old – the United States, European Union and Japan – and the economic and political expansion of China and India. It would seem that the future of the continent and its peoples is being decided in the distant seats of the world’s wealth and power.

Within this framework, WRM is also focusing its attention on Africa -not in order to talk about Africa, but rather to listen to what Africans themselves have to say. That is the whole purpose of this edition of the bulletin: to open up a space where Africa can speak about Africa.

We have created this blog where you can make comments on every article. We encourage and invite you to do so!

OUR VIEWPOINT

• Africa, my Africa!

AFRICA SPEAKS OUT!

• The rights of indigenous peoples in Africa
• Women’s Voices!
• African Friends of the Earth
• Central Africa: Management of protected areas and participatory approaches

CORPORATE INTERESTS vs. PEOPLES LIVELIHOODS

• Oil, Environment and Disaster Economics
• A Green Revolution for Africa: disaster in the making
• Tree Plantations in Africa: A co-ordinated onslaught to grab what remains of Africa’s natural capital?
• Logging in Liberia: reform process or business as usual
• The problems faced by Gabon’s forests and the communities that depend on them: a menu of logging, dams, oil, mining, parks, railways, roads, ports
• Uganda: Forests, communities and women
• An overview of the problems faced by Mozambique’s forests, forest-dependent peoples and forest workers
• Democratic Republic of the Congo: The search for consensus on the Itombwe forests
• Democratic Republic of the Congo: Deforestation of protected areas for mining operations in the province of Katanga – The case of the Basse Kando Reserve
• The impact of Forest Conservation policies on Forest dependent communities in SE Madagascar. Lessons for sustainability of Madagascar’s New Protected Areas
• Current status and conservation of mangroves in Africa: An overview
• Uganda: The price of living near Mount Elgon National Park