• Several tribal settlements are spread across Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region, each with its own communally managed forest that residents can use.
• But the unchecked exploitation of the once-rich forests, a consequence of population growth, has led to local water holes drying up, forcing many residents to leave the villages.
• In one village, however, residents started an initiative with various programs aimed at conserving their forest and providing funding for alternative livelihoods to reduce members’ reliance on forest resources.

This is what it looks like when unregulated, illegal mining meets governance failure – a fire in a coal mine that has been burning for weeks, leaving nearby communities choking in the fumes. Perhaps most worryingly, nobody knows the extent to which fires may be burning underground.

What do noxious fumes, underserved communities, criminal coal mining rackets, governance failures and one of the largest corporate thermal coal producers and exporters in South Africa have in common? 

• The Democratic Republic of Congo is putting 16 oil exploration blocks up for auction, including nine in the peatlands of the Cuvette Centrale.
• Environmentalists warn that oil exploration and infrastructure for production could release huge amounts of carbon stored in the peatland and threaten the rights of local communities.
• The Congolese government says it needs to exploit its natural resources in order to generate income to develop the country, much as countries in other parts of the world have done before it.

Last month, the

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan will hold the constitutional referendum on June 5, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced on Thursday in his video address to the nation.

Main photo: President Tokayev announces the date of the referendum in the video address. Photo credit: Akorda