Natural resources

Two massive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects to commercialise the gas resources of PNG’s Southern Highlands and Western provinces have opened the floodgates for an unprecedented economic boom seen in the rash of new hotels, supermarkets and entertainment centres in the capital, Port Moresby.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) could be described as a mini continent. It is a country of extraordinary diversity both on land and sea from its fauna and fauna to its economic potential:  oil, gas, minerals, forests and fish.

The NGO ActionAid has brought to light the potential negative effects on developing nations of the EU’s renewable energy policy.

Its report, ‘Fuelling Evictions: Community Cost of EU Biofuels,’ documents how 20,000 people in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodland are facing eviction from land where an EU company plans to grow jatropha to manufacture biofuels.

The NGO ActionAid has brought to light the potential negative effects on developing nations of the EU’s renewable energy policy.

Its report, ‘Fuelling Evictions: Community Cost of EU Biofuels,’ documents how 20,000 people in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodland are facing eviction from land where an EU company plans to grow jatropha to manufacture biofuels.

Following their Paris meeting on the 22 and 23 June 2011, the G20 agriculture ministers decided to improve the regulation of agriculture markets and prevent food crises. Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for Agriculture, said these measures were “entirely in line” with his proposed reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), due to be put forward in September 2011.

Without volcanoes Iceland would not exist. The Icelanders know it and have not only learned to live with the fact but to welcome it as a life source.  Despite - or perhaps due to - being always on the alert, they cultivate a gentle way of life and show genuine affection for their rumbling mountains.   

You mention Iceland? Images of the financial crash and the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull immediately come to mind.

The hot underground rocks in East Africa’s Rift Valley are thought to be a promising solution for energy production. The first results were recorded in Kenya, under the auspices of the United Nations and the expertise of the Icelanders.

Caribbean tourism has been showing signs of recovery in 2011, following two of the toughest years on record. But while international arrivals have been improving and returning to 2008 levels, visitors have been spending less in a market leading to worries about the sector’s diminishing profits in a still unpredictable global environment.