Dusty northern Kenya doesn’t look like a laboratory, but across its dry plains, cattle herders are pioneering a new way to fend off poverty and teaming up with unlikely partners – insurance agents. The two groups have been brought together by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), headquartered in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. A few years … Continue reading
“It’s so hot!” “Why can’t it stop raining?” “The lightning was terrible” I’m not sure about you but I keep finding myself complaining about the weather. Global warming, Copenhagen, recycling, climate change – it’s like we just keep hearing it over and over again. Remember last year when we turned off the lights for one … Continue reading
ILRI’s Research of 2009 is again reported on the ‘Dynamics of Mara-Serengeti ungulates to land use changes’. A former project member, Dickson Ole Kaelo, speaking on the importance of conservancies in sustaining the Mara’s wildlife, is quoted saying, “This land is critical to the survival of most resident and migratory wildlife species such as … Continue reading
A group called The Africa Group whose spokes person is Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi has made a demand for USD 30 billion to be granted African countries to tackle environmental damages caused by climate change. According to the plan, the start up funding will span three years from 2010 to 2012 with yearly release of … Continue reading
The needs of the poor are greater than the money available to help them, but that’s not enough to discourage Bill Gates in his work as co-chair of the world’s largest charitable foundation. In his second annual letter, issued Monday, Gates says investment in science and technology can leverage those dollars and make more of … Continue reading
The following is the sixth and final post in a series of reports from the Ethiopian village of Koraro, an important testing ground for the Millennium Village Project, an experiment in global development strategy spearheaded by economist Jeffrey Sachs. The reports, written by Jeff Marlow, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, consider … Continue reading
The world’s top authority in farm animal health announced on Thursday it would launch a study into the role of meat in climate change. The report, carried out by independent experts, is expected to be published “by the summer,” Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organisation for Animal Health, known by its French acronym of … Continue reading
Fast-food chain McDonalds is on the hunt for new methods to produce a climate-friendly beef burger. The burger giant, which sources 350,000 cows from over 16,000 British and Irish farms every year, has launched a three-year study to cut methane emissions from its livestock. The study will take place on 350 farms across Britain and … Continue reading
The traditional parks model of closing off areas and keeping people out simply may not work in Africa, where human demands on the land are great. Instead, what’s needed is an approach that finds ways to enable people and animals to co-exist. “Pastoralists had herded their cattle in harmony with wildlife for thousands of years,” … Continue reading
The water level of the river Nile – crucial to the economy in many parts of Uganda, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia – is dropping. Film-maker Andrew Johnstone follows the course of the Nile to discover how climate change is already affecting the river’s farming communities. View the video … (The Guardian) Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 