The reopening of the Lake St Lucia estuary to the sea has met with mixed reaction, as locals hope for improved economic prospects and ecologists anticipate environmental harms, writes Legalbrief. Work began last week in an attempt to reinstate functionality ... Read More

Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy has shot down a volley of appeals against a controversial oil and gas exploration project along the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal. A Mail & Guardian Online report notes that on 17 December ... Read More

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit Nambiti game reserve in KZN like a dark cloud, and there is little sign of a silver lining. A report in The Guardian quotes Njabulo Hodla, the assistant manager of the reserve, who said: ‘It’s ... Read More

The validity of the coveted Blue Flag status, which has been awarded to 48 beaches this summer season, has been brought into question as three of Cape Town’s 10 Blue Flag beaches suffer from chronic water pollution. According to a ... Read More

Amendments to the regulations on phasing-out and managing ozone-depleting substances were gazetted this week – making an import quota allocation mandatory when hydrochlorofluorocarbons or methyl bromide are brought into SA for critical use. According to a Policy Watch report, they ... Read More

As the climate crisis affects us all and will become an increasingly urgent topic in future, we need to make education on the crisis a central subject at schools and universities. Writing in a Daily Maverick analysis, Bongani Mahlangu, an ... Read More

Namibia saw a continued downward trend in rhino and elephant poaching last year after stepping up patrols and sharply increasing fines, the government said last week. According to a TimesLIVE report, citing intensified intelligence operations by authorities and collaboration between ... Read More

Negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, in a long-running dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, have reached a new impasse, the three countries have confirmed. ‘We cannot continue this vicious cycle of circular talks indefinitely ... Read More

A campaign aimed at reforesting some of the most eroded mountainous areas of Seychelles' second-most populated island is on target to plant 250 000 trees in the next five years. According to a report on the allAfrica site, the campaign ... Read More

Amid a year of devastating events linked to the climate crisis, momentum has been building to make ecocide – the widespread, severe or systematic destruction of our planet – an international crime on a par with war crimes, genocide and ... Read More

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court, last month upheld Belgium’s ban on slaughtering animals without stunning them first, rejecting legal challenges from Muslim and Jewish groups. According to a Jurist report, this ban expands the restrictions ... Read More

In October 2020, a healthy 150-year-old plane tree in Hackney facing removal was voted the Woodland Trust’s tree of the year by the public, but two months later the tree is now due to be felled as part of local ... Read More

* Two white rhino were killed and dehorned in a Limpopo game reserve last month. Lephalale police spokesperson Colonel Mamphaswa Seabi said game rangers had discovered the dehorned carcasses of the male and female rhinos, plus a cartridge and a projectile ... Read More

* Ten people were arrested in Upington, Northern Cape for possession of endangered plants valued at R400 000 last week. They were arrested by members of the Springbok Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit for being in contravention of the Endangered ... Read More

* Police are probing the deaths of two maintenance workers whose bodies were brought out of a sewage pit at East Pier Road at the V&A Waterfront last week. V&A Waterfront spokesperson Donald Kau said the men were working as contractors ... Read More

Toxic spaces regreenedFor 20 years, the members of the Khuthala Environmental Care Group in Wesselton, Ermelo, have tried to address the persistent environmental damage left by the coal mines as well as residents who dump their garbage irresponsibly. In doing ... Read More

V&A trials rainwater harvestingAquatecture rain harvesting panels, the brainchild of South African-born designer Shaakira Jassat, collects water by diverting raindrops flowing over the perforations on the surface to the inside of the system. From there the water trickles down into ... Read More