• Batsirai, a category 4 cyclone, struck Madagascar’s eastern coast on Feb. 5, leaving 10 people dead.
• The island nation is still recovering from another tropical storm, Ana, which made landfall on Jan. 22 and left dozens dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.
• Data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that 12 storms of category 4 or 5, the highest level, made landfall on Madagascar between 1911; of these 12, eight occurred since 2000.

Cyclone Batsirai rammed into Madagascar’s coast on Feb.

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Cyclone Batsirai's torrential winds and rain are hammering Madagascar, after landing on the island's east coast late Saturday.

An estimated 45,000 people have been displaced by the tropical storm, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management said on Sunday.

After gaining strength in the Indian Ocean with gale-force winds reaching peaks of 145 miles per hour, the cyclone made landfall near Mananjary, 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of the capital Antananarivo, according to the island's meteorology department.

Wetlands – land consisting of swamps or marshes – have, during the centuries, been demonised as places of pestilence, drained for agriculture or urban development, and polluted or paved over.

But today, they are emerging as crucial ecosystems in the fight against climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate, has warned of the need to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.

February 2, 2022 (GLOBAL) — Six years into the establishment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Land Portal is re-examining progress made on land-related SDG indicators. More than a dozen land-related indicators are housed over five SDG goals. The newly updated SDG Land Tracker features completely revised and updated narratives for 13 land-related indicators describing why the indicator is important and how the indicators are measured and monitored.

As Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique mop up after Cyclone Ana, scientists caution that South Africa’s east coast could be hit by intense tropical cyclones.

Over the past week, the first seasonal cyclone in the Southwest Indian Ocean killed at least 34 people in Madagascar and two in Mozambique, and left large swathes of Malawi without power. 

Nitidae, l’Observatoire National du Foncier Burkina Faso (ONF-BF), Oxfam Burkina Faso and the Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency (RVO) are excited to announce their partnership for a LAND-at-scale project in Burkina Faso. Starting this year, the project will run for three years focusing on strengthening land governance for women and youth for increased food security, focusing on the Liptako Gourma region.

Burkina Faso’s land challenges

The recovery of mangrove forests is key to climate change adaptation and to mitigating the effects of cyclones and floods, according to Maria Salazar of the Spanish International Cooperation and Development Agency (AECID).

According to a press release from AECID, a project repopulating and conserving the mangroves in Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo, is in its pilot phase under a programme run by the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA). The project is being co-financed by the European Union and AECID.

Life-threatening floods from bursting glacial lakes are just one of the many impacts of climate change that are leaving the people of Nepal unable to cope. Guest blogger Shreya K.C. calls on world leaders to replace fake handshakes with concrete action.

Environment department lays charges against state diamond miner over use of “coffer dams”

Alexkor in Port Nolloth is facing criminal charges for buiding coffer dams to hold back the ocean. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

The world’s first famine caused by climate change rather than conflict continues amid insufficient domestic and global attention.

KNP in perspective (Part One)

The Kruger National Park and its complex history of conservation and dispossession

 By the 1950s, Kruger Park had become a global ‘must-see’ destination for tourists. Photo: SANParks Archives

A landmark new resource guide and toolkit from the World Bank and the Global Wildlife Program (funded by The Global Environment Facility) features Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park as a successful case study and model of a “Collaborative Management Partnership” – a public-private agreement set up to manage conservation areas and support sustainable, inclusive development.