Resources and Development Journal

INCREASING POLLUTION DEGRADING FRESHWATER & COASTAL AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
its clear that the world cannot run without water. Clean, safe & reliable water supplies are vital for consumption, industry, agriculture, and energy production. Every community and ecosystem on Earth depends on water for sanitation, hygiene, and daily survival. Yet the world’s water systems face enormous threats. Currently more than a billion people currently live in water-scarce regions. Experts warn that about 3.5 billion people could experience water scarcity by 2025. Increasing pollution degrades freshwater and coastal aquatic ecosystems. And climate change is poised to shift precipitation patterns and speed glacial melt, altering water supplies and intensifying floods and drought. There is need to identify the most cost-effective strategies to reduce water pollution but also identify solutions such as restoring ecosystem services to alleviate stresses on the world’s water supplies. Comment!!!!!!

SECURE LAND RIGHTS CONTRIBUTES TO BETTER NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Secure land rights and resource rights are key indicators of sustainable natural resource management. When land rights are poorly defined and/or poorly enforced, natural resources and ecosystems can easily be degraded. The incentives to protect resources are either weak or missing. It is this insecurity that lead to overgrazing, poaching of wildlife, deforestation, unsustainable watershed management, and poorly planned extractive industry investments, and so on. Comment!!!!

SOUTH AFRICA PROPOSES LAW BARRING FOREIGNERS FROM OWNING LAND
This is aimed at rectifying inequalities that have persisted since colonial days and apartheid, with white farmers still owning most of the land. The law on foreign ownership cannot be applied retroactively, but the government could exercise a right of first refusal... if the land is deemed strategic. This reform will also address "the need to secure the limited land for food security and address the land injustice of more than 300 years of colonialism and apartheid. In future, foreigners who currently own some five to seven percent of South Africa's land would be allowed only to lease property for between 30-50 years, and may be required to cede land considered "strategic". COMMENT!!!!!!!!!

WOMEN ARE CRUCIAL IN NATURAL RESOURCE UTILIZATION & DEVELOPMENT
In many developing countries to date, women are still persistently discriminated and compensated less in agricultural pursuits, land rights, and other natural resource management activities. This is problematic because the it results into food insecurity which not only threatens women but the dependent family members and young children too. In addition, food insecurity often contributes to the recurrence of violence in areas with weak institutions and vulnerable markets. Comment!

POOR URBAN LAND MANAGEMENT WORSENING URBAN POVERTY
Urban development in sub-Saharan Africa has posed more challenges in recent years. Though there is a shift in the focus from rural poverty to urbanized poverty, sub-Saharan Africa urbanization coupled with failures in urban management, urban economies have grown slower than correspondent population increase, slum growth has increased and poverty has urbanized. Among the urban challenges, housing still remains the a serous issue that needs attention in Africa. Its clear that the basis of urban housing is land. Urban land management is key to urban development due to its influences on the social, economic development and urban environmental management. Land and housing are important sectors as urbanization. Comment!

SMARTPHONE MAKING EXPLOITING MINERS IN D.R.C
Your smartphone is a phone, an Internet browser, a personal calendar, a memo pad, an MP3 player, a gaming console, a weather forecaster, and much more. Your smartphone is a symbol of affluence, style, comfort and convenience. However, during manufacturing, smartphone capacitors require tantalum, an element that is derived from a metal ore called coltan. And coltan is hard to come by. In fact, up to 30% of it is from the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC). The United Nations estimates that up to three-quarters of coltan sourced from the DRC is mined and sold illegally meaning outside the international regulatory framework intended to protect local miners from dangerous working conditions and general exploitation.

ILLEGAL LOGGING RESPONSIBLE FOR FOREST DEPLETION IN UGANDA
Illegal logging in western Uganda has worsened after communities abandoned monitoring the Budongo Central forest. Budongo Central Forest Reserve is the country’s only largest tropical forest known for its former abundance of East African mahogany trees and a home to a population of chimpanzees. The increasing illegal felling of trees has not only endangered the forest but also threatened tourism. Comment!!!

UGANDA BETTER THAN SPAIN IN AN ON-LINE TOURISM POLL
The poll was conducted by the on-line version of the Guardian newspaper, the second most popular UK newspaper website. Answering the poll question “where would you prefer to go on holiday?”, 79% of the respondents said they would rather visit Uganda than Spain.The 79% alluded to Uganda’s beauty, wildlife, scenery, culture, the hospitable people and the landscape from the snowcapped Mountain Rwenzori to the open savannah, as the lure to the diverse country sitting astride the Equator. Before we even get to the physical scenery. Recently, Uganda was said to be the most ethnically diverse country in the world, with each of its people having a rich culture. Contrary,those who backed Spain said it houses the world’s grandest, most powerful and incomparable architectural treasures, such as the Great Mosque of Cordoba. Some of them argued that Ugandans were homophobic. What should be done to tap Uganda's tourism potential optimally???