camels

Camels replace cows as Kenya battles drought

BY JULIE CAPELLE

  • "God, God, God, protect them," chanted two herders, their eyes following a dozen camels rushing toward acacia trees, oblivious to the dry riverbed in northern Kenya where it hasn't rained since April.
"God, God, God, protect them," chanted two herders, their eyes following a dozen camels rushing toward acacia trees, oblivious to the dry riverbed in northern Kenya where it hasn't rained since April.
Sitting on the edge of a nearby well, Chapan Lolpusike recounted how his cows and oxen "all died" following the worst drought in four decades, caused by a succession of poor rainfall in 2021 and 2022.
After that, the herder made a sweeping change.
"We no longer have cattle at home. We only raise camels," said Lolpusike, a member of the semi-nomadic Samburu community.
Camels can graze on dry grasses, go more than a week without water, and produce up to six times more milk than cattle -- making them an increasingly necessary option in northern Kenya, an area particularly vulnerable to climate change.
Samburu county officials launched a camel programme in 2015 following several droughts that killed off at least 70 percent of the cattle in Kenya's arid and semi-arid regions.
The die-off had a devastating impact on malnutrition among local pastoralists.
Around 5,000 Somali camels -- a larger and more productive breed than the native herd -- have since been distributed, including 1,000 in the last year.

Camels for every family

Lolpusike, who previously knew nothing about camels, received some in 2023.
In his manyatta -- a hamlet of rectangular huts nestled in a shrubby savannah -- a dozen camels lay peacefully chewing dry grass.
The goal is for every family in the county to have their own, said village administrator James Lolpusike (no relation).
"If the drought persists, the cattle will not be anywhere anymore," he said.
Camel herds are at high risk of disease that could lead to losses.
But there are clear, positive changes as they become a regular sight in the region, including healthier children, said the village administrator.
They are certainly popular in the community, for the fact they can be milked up to five times a day.
"Cows are only milked when the grass is green," said Naimalu Lentaka, 40.
"Camels... during the dry season, they are still milked, and that's the whole difference."
Families now "depend on camels, on those who own them," she added.

Racing stars

Camel milk and human breast milk have similar nutritional and therapeutic properties, according to a 2022 study by Meru University in Kenya.
Camel milk contributes up to half the total nutrient intake during droughts among pastoral communities in the north.
The animal is already a star in the region, thanks to a famous endurance race.
At the Maralal International Camel Derby in late September, around 40 camels frolicked before a cheering crowd.
The winner covered 21 kilometres (13 miles), the equivalent of a half-marathon, in one hour and 22 minutes.
But organisers said the event -- whose theme was "peaceful cultural interactions" -- was primarily about bringing together communities that used to fight over resources, since, among their many virtues, camels are also a symbol of peace.
Moving cattle herds to more fertile areas during the dry season can spark conflict between herders that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years.
Camels are happy to stay where they are.
Even this hardy animal needs some water, however, so locals still pray for rain.
"We only pray the situation doesn't get worse," said James Lolpusike.
jcp/er/jhb

animal

Endangered across west Africa, leopards thrive in I.Coast reserve

BY HERVE BAR

  • - Bleak wider picture - Q: What is the situation of leopards in west Africa, and of big cats more generally? 
  • Like other big cats, the leopard is endangered across west Africa.
  • - Bleak wider picture - Q: What is the situation of leopards in west Africa, and of big cats more generally? 
Like other big cats, the leopard is endangered across west Africa.
Yet in Ivory Coast's Comoe National Park, the famously spotted feline appears to be doing rather well -- surprisingly, given the reserve's conflict-riven recent history, according to researcher Robin Horion.
Panthera, the conservation organisation Horion works for, led an observation mission to the park in far northeast Ivory Coast in 2024, which found the feline to be in strong health.

Bleak wider picture

Q: What is the situation of leopards in west Africa, and of big cats more generally? 
Horion: If we consider leopards across the whole of Africa, the situation is not too bad, thanks to south and east Africa.
However, in west Africa, leopards are endangered. This means fewer than 500 mature individuals between Senegal and Nigeria.
As for lions and cheetahs, the situation is hardly any better.
There are only two lion populations left, one of which consists of 200 individuals spread across Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso, who are significantly hit by the jihadist crisis there.
The other population is in Senegal, in the Niokolo-Koba National Park, where unfortunately there are only about 30 lions.
The cheetah is critically endangered, with rather bleak prospects. It is possible that this species could become extinct (in west Africa?) within the next 10 to 20 years.
The situation in west Africa is actually more critical than elsewhere. Demographics, social context, political crises and instability are all weighing down conservation efforts.

'Pleasant surprise'

Q: What is the situation in the Comoe National Park?
Horion: A survey conducted in the 2000s concluded that lions were extinct there. They remain extinct today.
As for leopards, the situation was not promising at the time either, with only rare traces of them found in the middle of the park.
But in 2024, Panthera, in collaboration with the Ivorian Parks and Reserves Office (OIPR), conducted a survey across 400 to 500 square kilometres (155 to 195 square miles).
What we found was a population that is potentially the largest in west Africa, which was a very pleasant surprise. Although this needs to be confirmed by a more extensive study in the entire park.
The park is also home to another extremely interesting feline, the African golden cat, which is the least-studied forest feline in the world.
It is present in the southern part of the park, in the forested area.
The serval and caracal are also there, though they are somewhat less threatened, as well as the spotted hyena.

Security 'question mark'

Q: What are the prospects for leopards in Ivory Coast?
Horion: They are relatively positive compared to the rest of west Africa.
In Ivory Coast, two parks are very well-managed by the OIPR: Tai in the west and Comoe.
Both have solid leopard populations according to our research -- two distinct and separate populations, but both in good health.
Discussions are also under way on reintroducing lions into Comoe.
However, there is still a major question mark and latent threat hanging over everything: the security situation in northern Ivory Coast (where jihadist and militia fighters operate).
Things can change very quickly, directly hindering our conservation efforts in general.
hba/sbk/jhb

illegal-mining

Risky gold rush drives young into Ivory Coast nature park

BY HERVE BAR

  • After the rangers fled the fighting, prospectors rushed into the Comoe National Park, which, while protected in theory, had been left at the mercy of looters and poachers.
  • Emmanuel knows only too well the allure of illegal gold prospecting in the protected Comoe National Park for the many young without prospects in Ivory Coast's troubled northeast. 
  • After the rangers fled the fighting, prospectors rushed into the Comoe National Park, which, while protected in theory, had been left at the mercy of looters and poachers.
Emmanuel knows only too well the allure of illegal gold prospecting in the protected Comoe National Park for the many young without prospects in Ivory Coast's troubled northeast. 
"Young people come back from the park with enough money to buy themselves motorcycles, or even to build their own house," said the former key player in the illegal trade, who has since renounced the unlawful gold digger's life. 
"When the metal detector beeps, you dig, up to a metre into the ground," said Emmanuel, whose name AFP has changed to protect his identity.
"Sometimes you find iron, things of no interest. If you're lucky, it's gold! Then you dig some more, and you can earn a lot!"
Gold, seen as a safe haven investment, has hit record prices in recent months in a lucrative market that fuels different forms of trafficking, including for jihadists in the Sahel region neighbouring Ivory Coast.
Despite the personal perils and dangers to the wildlife of the Comoe nature reserve, one of west Africa's largest, illicit gold mining has become one of the main money-makers for young Ivorians in the impoverished Bounkani region.
"Here, everyone's into gold," said Angeline Som, who heads a women's rights group in the Bounkani town of Doropo. 
"The majority of young people are illegal prospectors. Otherwise, they're on the dole, and more and more of them are turning into thieves when night falls," the 50-year-old said. 
Hermann Dah Sie, a journalist in the regional capital Bouna, near the borders with Ghana and jihadist-hit Burkina Faso, agreed.
"Besides gold, there's nothing for young people here. Just civil service posts and the informal sector," Dah Sie said.

Rebel origins

Some locals have gone as far as to demand the government either legalise or tolerate the practice, as has long been the case in Burkina Faso.
According to Emmanuel, gold mining took off in Bounkani with the start of the first Ivorian civil war in 2002, when rebels took over the region.
"Before, no one talked about it. We didn't know about it. It was just something the Burkinabes did here and there," he said. 
After the rangers fled the fighting, prospectors rushed into the Comoe National Park, which, while protected in theory, had been left at the mercy of looters and poachers.
Prospectors quickly learnt how to use metal detectors, often provided by Burkinabe gold miners.
"The gold miners would take their machines and follow behind the poachers, spending time in the park together for days or even weeks at a time," Emmanuel said.
However, after Ivory Coast's decade-long crisis ended in 2011 and stability returned, the re-establishment of the state's authority in the region changed the situation on the ground.

'Disappear forever'

Today everyone agrees that the park is well-guarded, while artisanal gold mining is officially prohibited. 
Those caught by the park's rangers risk up to two years in jail and a hefty fine. 
Yet the long arm of the law is the least of a gold digger's worries.
"If you get lost in the park, you're dead," said Emmanuel.
"Without water, without food, with all the animals, you'll disappear forever," he added. 
"Many have found themselves trapped in ravines, killed by snakes or buffaloes... If you injure yourself, no one will carry you home."
Despite the ban, artisanal gold mining still takes place in Comoe on the sly, to the point where authorities consider the practice the biggest threat to the still-recovering park.
While guards mount regular patrols, corruption exists, with miners sometimes informed of what zones the rangers will stake out, according to Emmanuel. 
"The sponsors provide the logistics, food and metal detector. They earn a lot of money, up to 70 percent of the gold, leaving the remaining 30 percent for the digger," said Emmanuel. 
Sponsors then do deals in Bouna, at the crossroads between Burkina and Ghana, with demand coming from all over west Africa, he added.
"We have to tell young people that there are too many risks to gold-digging," Emmanuel warned. 
"It's not worth the trouble."
hba/sbk/kjm

unrest

Pillaged I.Coast nature reserve on the mend after crisis decade

BY HERVE BAR

  • The park's getting better," said Bamba, one of 160 rangers working for the Ivorian Parks and Reserves Office (OIPR) in Comoe.
  • Forest ranger Daouda Bamba is in no doubt about who the apex predator is in Ivory Coast's Comoe National Park, ravaged by war and unrest between 2002 and 2011.
  • The park's getting better," said Bamba, one of 160 rangers working for the Ivorian Parks and Reserves Office (OIPR) in Comoe.
Forest ranger Daouda Bamba is in no doubt about who the apex predator is in Ivory Coast's Comoe National Park, ravaged by war and unrest between 2002 and 2011.
"The most dangerous animal here is man," the lieutenant told AFP, while at the head of a 10-strong patrol on the lookout for hostile intruders.
Founded as a big game reserve in 1926, Comoe long ranked among Africa's most beautiful natural parks. 
Tourists flocked by the thousands to catch a glimpse of its elephants, lions, leopards and herds of antelope and hippopotamuses.
But that status came under threat during Comoe's lost decade, when the government abandoned the park during the west African country's two civil wars, leaving its rich fauna and flora at the mercy of looters and poachers. 
Yet while Bamba's militia still has to guard against the threat of unscrupulous humans, Comoe has made strides towards recovering from its close brush with destruction in the years since.
On a rare reporting mission to the reserve in Ivory Coast's far northeast, near the border with jihadist-riven Burkina Faso, an AFP team saw antelopes frolicking, clans of barking baboons and families of warthogs with snouts to the ground across its vast and nigh-on-pristine expanse.
- 'Vultures circling' - 
"We're seeing lots of animals. The park's getting better," said Bamba, one of 160 rangers working for the Ivorian Parks and Reserves Office (OIPR) in Comoe.
"Since we upped our game in 2016, the animals have been at peace. They don't run away all the time, which means they're not being hunted anymore."
However, the Kalashnikov slung over Bamba's shoulder, as well as the truncheons and tear gas grenades hanging from the rangers' belts, are hints that not all is well in paradise.
"When we catch intruders, it often leads to a brawl," the lieutenant said. 
"Three major threats hang over the park," Bamba said, namely "poaching, illegal gold mining and unlawful livestock herding". 
Nearby, one of his deputies tinkered with a drone, a useful tool when tasked with detecting human activity across the park's 11,500 square kilometres (4,440 square miles).
Often, however, the rangers have to resort to old-school means. 
"Our day-to-day is spent on foot. We're on the lookout for smoke from a fire, tracks from bicycles or motorcycles, or vultures circling overhead," said Bamba.
In 2024, 125 people were arrested in the park, including 105 gold diggers and 18 poachers, according to the OIPR.

'Nearly died'

Raynald Gilon's voice trembled as the old bushman remembered Comoe's glory days. 
"We had a fabulous era here. The wildlife was magnificent," said the grizzled Belgian, who has spent half a century guarding the park.
Hyenas and red hartebeest roamed its sun-baked savannahs, while Nile crocodiles and fishing eagles alike plunged into the waters of the Comoe River, which gave the park its name. 
Comoe welcomed "up to 6,000 to 7,000 tourists each season, most of them Europeans who arrived here by plane", he remembered. 
At the park's northwest point, the dusty Kafolo Safari Lodge's crumbling stone entrance and abandoned blue-bottomed swimming pool serve as a reminder of that bygone age, long left to rot. 
When the crisis began in 2002, the park found itself deep within territory controlled by the rebels who were fighting to overthrow then-president Laurent Gbagbo.
With the rangers forced to flee, the park was left exposed to the whims of the poachers, gold diggers and farmers. 
"It was a massacre, a real ransacking," lamented Raynald Gilon.
"Everyone was taking part in the looting, including the rebels who claimed to be protecting it!"
Within a year of the war's outbreak, UNESCO added the park to its list of endangered World Heritage sites. 
"The Comoe park nearly died," he said.

'Target of greed'

When Ivory Coast's crisis ended in 2011, the new government worked to fix the damage done, pouring funds into equipping and training up guards tasked with flushing out the poachers.
"All of this allows us to really monitor the park and restore peace and quiet for the wildlife," said Commander Henri Tra Bi Zah, one of the park's managers.
Those efforts bore fruit. In 2017, UNESCO removed Comoe from its endangered heritage site list, in a first for an African park. 
Three herds of elephants have been spotted, with a total of 200 individuals, while the chimpanzee has made a comeback.
Although the lion and the African wild dog are both believed to be locally extinct, leopards, spotted hyenas and even the caracal cat are a common sight in Comoe.
Antelopes and buffalo number by the thousands.
That said, those hoping to catch a glimpse of the park's rarer beasts have to venture deep into the savannah, often while braving thick swarms of biting tsetse flies, the AFP team observed. 
While insisting that the "biggest problem" of illegal gold mining has been "contained", Commander Tra Bi Zah warned that the park "is still the target of greed because it is brimming with resources".

Return of the tourist?

Nearby villagers seem to be respecting the park's boundaries.
"Hand on heart we can't enter. If they catch you in there, you'll go straight to jail," said a farmer from Bambela, whose hut lies just a few metres from the edge of the savannah.
The OIPR even has hopes to revive tourism to make the park "a driving force for socioeconomic development" in the Ivorian northeast.
Those hopes, however, are complicated by the park's proximity to Burkina Faso, which is locked in conflict with fighters linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group. Western governments have advised against all travel to the region as a result.
That said, no jihadist has been arrested or even spotted recently in the park, according to security sources questioned by AFP. 
A new hotel has sprung up in Kafolo to welcome humanitarian workers, civil engineers or even the odd foreigner passing through, its walls adorned with hunting trophies from the big game era of yore. 
"The park is struggling to recover from the disaster... The revival is fragile," said local deputy Abdoulaye Karim Diomande.
"But the OIPR is making great strides. The future looks bright."
hba/pid/sbk/giv

Jamaica

Nearly 50 dead after Hurricane Melissa thrashes Caribbean

BY RIGOBERTO DIAZ WITH AFP BUREAUS IN KINGSTON, JAMAICA AND PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

  • Tropical storm conditions were occurring on Bermuda late Thursday and the island was under a hurricane warning, with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles (155 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said.
  • The death toll from Hurricane Melissa rose Thursday to nearly 50 people, officials said, after the ferocious storm devastated Caribbean islands and was bearing down on Bermuda.
  • Tropical storm conditions were occurring on Bermuda late Thursday and the island was under a hurricane warning, with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles (155 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said.
The death toll from Hurricane Melissa rose Thursday to nearly 50 people, officials said, after the ferocious storm devastated Caribbean islands and was bearing down on Bermuda.
Flooding was expected to subside in the Bahamas although high water could persist in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The storm, one of the most powerful ever recorded, was made four times more likely because of human-caused climate change, according to a study by Imperial College London.
Tropical storm conditions were occurring on Bermuda late Thursday and the island was under a hurricane warning, with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles (155 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said.
The government urged residents to take precautionary measures against the still-powerful storm.
Melissa smashed into both Jamaica and Cuba with enormous force, and residents were assessing their losses and the long road to recovery.
"The confirmed death toll from Hurricane Melissa is now at 19," including nine in Westmoreland and eight in St. Elizabeth, both parishes in the Caribbean island's hard-hit west, Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon told local news outlets including the Jamaica Gleaner.
Communications and transportation access remains largely down in Jamaica and Cuba, and comprehensive assessment of the damage could take days.
In impoverished Haiti, the country's civil defense agency said Thursday that the death toll had risen to 30, with 20 people injured and another 20 missing.
It said more than 1,000 homes have been flooded, with some 16,000 people in shelters.
In the east of the communist island of Cuba, battling its worst economic crisis in decades, people struggled through inundated streets lined with flooded and collapsed homes.
The storm smashed windows, downed power cables and mobile communications, and tore off roofs and tree branches.
Melissa "killed us, because it left us destroyed," Felicia Correa, who lives in the La Trampa community near El Cobre, told AFP.
"We were already going through tremendous hardship. Now, of course, we are much worse off."
Cuban authorities said about 735,000 people had been evacuated -- mainly in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Guantanamo.

'Disaster area'

The United States meanwhile has mobilized disaster assistance response teams and urban search and rescue personnel, and the teams were currently on the ground in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Bahamas, according to a State Department official. 
Teams were en route to Haiti too.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also included ideological foe Havana, saying the United States is "prepared to offer immediate humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba affected by the Hurricane."
The UK government announced £2.5 million (about $3.3 million) in emergency funding for the region, and also said it was chartering "limited" flights to help British nationals leave.
In Jamaica, UN resident coordinator Dennis Zulu told reporters Melissa had brought "tremendous, unprecedented devastation of infrastructure, of property, roads, network connectivity."
Authorities there have said confirming reports of deaths was difficult as access to the hardest-hit areas was limited, and some people were still unable to reach family and loved ones.

'Everything is gone'  

Hurricane Melissa tied the 1935 record for the most intense storm ever to make landfall when it slammed Jamaica on Tuesday, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In Seaford Town, farmer and businessman Christopher Hacker saw his restaurant and nearby banana plantations flattened.
"Everything is gone," he told AFP. 
Such mega-storms "are a brutal reminder of the urgent need to step up climate action on all fronts," said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
bur-mdo/ia/mlm/sla

agriculture

Growing rice in the UK 'not so crazy' as climate warms

BY MARIE HEUCLIN

  • As rice grows in eastern England, lemons groves and chickpeas are also cropping up in the south.
  • Wearing large rubber boots, Nadine Mitschunas joyfully handled mature rice plants peeking through the water of her small plot growing in the fertile soil of eastern England.
  • As rice grows in eastern England, lemons groves and chickpeas are also cropping up in the south.
Wearing large rubber boots, Nadine Mitschunas joyfully handled mature rice plants peeking through the water of her small plot growing in the fertile soil of eastern England.
Growing rice "has not been done before in the UK", said Mitschunas, a field ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).
But as temperatures warm due to climate change, "it's not such a crazy idea because it seems to work", she added.
As rice grows in eastern England, lemons groves and chickpeas are also cropping up in the south.
A warmer climate and changing rainfall patterns have made planning ahead essential, and British researchers are embarking on a journey of agricultural transformation.
Mitschunas is leading research with a project that tests new crops in the flat Fens of Cambridgeshire by rewetting peatlands.
Its rich soil has facilitated high production levels, and the region now cultivates one third of England's vegetables and 20 percent of its potatoes and beetroots.
But soil drainage gradually impoverishes the land, posing a threat to local farmers and releasing the CO2 captured by the peatland which are important carbon sinks.

Farming for the future

Craig and Sarah-Jane Taylor, the landowners participating in the UKCEH scheme, are conscious of the issue.
"We recognise that our soils are depleting and that we need to change to secure the future," said Sarah-Jane Taylor, underlining the question of "water availability... and that's only going to get worse".
The United Kingdom, like the rest of the world, is affected by climate change. It now has to contend with more frequent extreme weather, rising temperatures, and drier soil in some areas.
A recent UKCEH study suggested that the growth of popular crops such as wheat and strawberries would become much more difficult over the coming decades if the climate warms by 2C. If temperatures rise by 4C, onion and oat crops would be hit.
On the other hand, crops such as sunflower, durum wheat, soybean, chickpeas, lemon and okra could become more viable, particularly in southwestern England or near the Scottish coast.
China and India are the world's leading producers of rice.
And in the Fens, Mitschunas has tested nine rice varieties regularly grown in the United States, the Philippines, Macedonia and Japan -- four of them show promise, particularly one that originates from Colombia.
Once the grains germinated in a laboratory, the seedlings were planted in water in June, and harvesting began in early October.
"I am not eating my own rice yet," the ecologist joked. But such a scenario could become a reality within 10 years.
"The suitable climate for rice is moving more northwards" in Europe, she said, pointing to successful initiatives in the Netherlands and Germany.
Mitschunas is also testing everything from lettuce and celery to pumpkins and strawberries -- and even aromatic plants.
Along with crop experimentation, her project aims to regenerate peatlands and improve the country's CO2-capturing capacities.

No time to waste

She is not the only British researcher testing new crops.
At the University of Southampton in southern England, professor of biological sciences Mark Chapman is leading a study on different crops, including chickpea cultivation.
"If we wait until 20 or 30 years, and then realise that we can't grow wheat... like we always have done, we've then got (a) problem," he said.
He emphasised the need to "smooth the transition" by prioritising which future crops to grow and ensuring consumers are ready to change their habits.
"I think we're at that point where we just need to try more things," he said. "We need to get farmers involved, who are actually going to plant the crops."
The pioneers in the Fens, Sarah-Jane and Craig Taylor, have noted other farmers' growing interest in the project following their initial surprise.
"Once upon a time potatoes and sugar beet weren't grown here and now they're one of the main crops in the area," said Sarah-Jane Taylor. 
"So why couldn't rice potentially be an option here? And why shouldn't we look at it?"
mhc/cc/jkb/jj

climate

100 US local leaders will attend COP30 in 'show of force'

  • But Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who was also on the call, said it appeared unlikely the administration would send an official delegation to COP, given it had not put in embassy support for the Americans attending.
  • More than a hundred American state and local leaders will attend next month's COP30 climate talks in Brazil, including governors, state officials and mayors, even as the Trump administration is expected to stay away.
  • But Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who was also on the call, said it appeared unlikely the administration would send an official delegation to COP, given it had not put in embassy support for the Americans attending.
More than a hundred American state and local leaders will attend next month's COP30 climate talks in Brazil, including governors, state officials and mayors, even as the Trump administration is expected to stay away.
"We are showing up in force," Gina McCarthy, co-chair of the "America Is All In" coalition told reporters on a call Thursday.
The group represents around "two-thirds of the US population and three quarters of the US GDP, and more than 50 percent of US emissions," said McCarthy, who served as a climate advisor to former president Joe Biden, and as ex-president Barack Obama's environment chief.
President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord for a second time on his return to office in January.
But McCarthy said that would not halt American participation in global climate efforts.
"We'll deliver on the promises we made to the American people and our international colleagues," she said. "Local leaders here have authority to act on their own behalf, to take climate action at home and abroad."
She pointed to the work of the 24-state "US Climate Alliance" that have slashed emissions by a quarter relative to 2005 while growing their economies. 
Because the Paris accord requires a one-year notice period for withdrawal, the United States remains a party for a few more months.
But Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who was also on the call, said it appeared unlikely the administration would send an official delegation to COP, given it had not put in embassy support for the Americans attending.
"But who knows?" added Whitehouse. "This is a very mercurial administration. They can decide at the last minute to send a plane to Belem, full of climate deniers and fossil fuel operatives."
While Trump also exited the Paris deal in his first term, his administration has gone further this time, exerting its clout to boost fossil fuels globally. 
This includes, for example, threatening countries with retaliatory measures if they agreed to a carbon pricing system by the UN's International Maritime Organization, effectively curtailing its implementation.
Climate advocates fear the administration could seek to withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change -- the treaty that underpins the Paris Agreement.
Doing so could prevent future administrations from re-entering the deal, but it is not clear if the executive branch has the legal authority to undo a Senate-ratified treaty.
ia/bgs

forests

Brazil boasts drop in deforestation ahead of UN climate talks

  • Brazil is home to the largest share of the vast rainforest, which spans nine countries and is considered crucial in the fight against climate change.
  • Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has fallen for the fourth straight year, the government said Thursday, a boost for the country just days before it hosts UN climate talks. 
  • Brazil is home to the largest share of the vast rainforest, which spans nine countries and is considered crucial in the fight against climate change.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has fallen for the fourth straight year, the government said Thursday, a boost for the country just days before it hosts UN climate talks. 
Brazil is home to the largest share of the vast rainforest, which spans nine countries and is considered crucial in the fight against climate change.
The National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which tracks forest cover by satellite, said that an area almost four times the size of Greater London had been destroyed between August 2024 and July 2025.
This was 11 percent less than the previous year and represented the lowest figures since 2014.
Claudio Almeida, a coordinator at INPE, said the loss of 5,796 square kilometers (2,238 square miles) of native vegetation represented "the fourth consecutive year of a reduction" in deforestation.
Forest loss also slowed 11 percent in the Cerrado, a vast region of tropical savannah in central Brazil.
The Amazon rainforest stores vast amounts of carbon, which becomes carbon dioxide -- a greenhouse gas that is a key driver of climate change -- when large quantities of trees and soil are burned.
"When we achieve a good result, we have to move on to the next challenge. We cannot rest on our laurels. Our challenge is to reduce deforestation to zero by 2030," Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva told a press conference.
Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva set zero deforestation as a goal for his government when he returned to power in 2023 for a third term.

Record fires worsened forest loss

Brazil has made forest protection a top priority for the COP30 climate talks, which will take place in the Amazon city of Belem in November.
The country is the world's sixth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. 
However, unlike most nations, it is not the burning of fossil fuels that is the worst culprit in releasing these gases, but the cutting down of forests.
Experts say the destruction of the Amazon and Cerrado is mainly driven by agriculture -- the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil, the world's largest exporter of beef.
Both of these sensitive biomes have been affected by severe drought in recent years that has been linked to climate change.
This has sent fires -- lit by farmers clearing pasture -- burning out of control.
In 2024, the record fires scorched almost 18 million hectares (44.5 million acres) of the Brazilian Amazon.
"If it weren't for the extremely severe weather conditions, with fires so far outside the historical norm ... we would probably have had the lowest (deforestation) rate in history this year," said Joao Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary in the environment ministry.
Deforestation soared in the Amazon under climate-skeptic former president Jair Bolsonaro, who weakened environmental protections and encouraged land clearing for economic growth.

Undermined by oil push

Lula has set about rebuilding Brazil's environmental agencies and positioning the country as a global leader on climate change.
However, he has come under fire for backing more oil exploration, which he argues will help finance the climate transition.
Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras this month started exploratory drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River, an area considered a promising new oil frontier.
The move -- backed by Lula -- enraged environmentalists who said it undermined Brazil's position as host of COP30.
rsr-fb/ksb

GCF

UN climate fund posts record year as chief defends loans

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • The new projects include $295 million for the Jordan Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project, described as "life or death" by the country, which is grappling with water scarcity. 
  • The head of the UN's flagship climate fund has announced a record-breaking year for approving projects in vulnerable countries, crediting red-tape-cutting reforms for the achievement that includes a major desalination project in Jordan.
  • The new projects include $295 million for the Jordan Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project, described as "life or death" by the country, which is grappling with water scarcity. 
The head of the UN's flagship climate fund has announced a record-breaking year for approving projects in vulnerable countries, crediting red-tape-cutting reforms for the achievement that includes a major desalination project in Jordan.
In an interview ahead of the COP30 talks in Brazil next month, Mafalda Duarte, executive director of the Green Climate Fund, also defended the use of loans -- a touchy topic given concerns about raising lower income nations' debt.
Headquartered in Songdo, South Korea and operational since 2015, the GCF is the world's largest multilateral climate fund and has now committed $19.3 billion -- with a goal of reaching $50 billion by 2030.
It announced a record $3.26 billion in greenlighted projects this year, significantly more than the $2.9 billion from its second-best year in 2021.
"In this current geopolitical environment, of course, you know having such a significant, record commitment from the largest multilateral Climate Fund is a positive signal among many less positive signals," Duarte told AFP.
The GCF was created to channel funds from the world's rich countries, historically most responsible for climate change, to developing nations, helping them adapt to a warming world and transition to low emissions economies. 
But US disengagement from the Paris climate process and infighting in Europe, where some countries have slashed foreign aid, have cast a pall over global funding efforts.
Even so, said Duarte, "with relatively small amounts of money, we can actually accomplish a lot in terms of private sector capital mobilization."
The new projects include $295 million for the Jordan Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project, described as "life or death" by the country, which is grappling with water scarcity. 
It is the GCF's largest single financing package to date and aims to catalyze a project valued at roughly $6 billion by offsetting risk for larger lenders.  

Accountability, not announcements

Duarte, a Portuguese national who worked in international development but shifted to climate after witnessing its impacts in Africa,  credited the stronger financing pace to bureaucratic reforms she has pursued since stepping in to lead the GCF in 2023.
"I came with a reform agenda to try to place GCF as a benchmark, an example of what it could look like: an institution that is efficient, agile and much more aligned with the speed and scale of investments that are needed," she said.
Her goals include cutting project review times from two years to nine months, and reducing the time to accredit partner institutions, like national agencies and banks, from three years to nine months.
The Jordan funding, like much of the work of the GCF, combines loans and grants.
Countries in the Global South and international nonprofits have long criticized loans, saying they deepen debt burdens and leave low-income countries repaying more than they receive.
But Duarte said that while grants were appropriate for the most vulnerable nations, they couldn't always be justified, for example when assisting private sector partners to turn a profit.
In Jordan's case, the project is expected to be eventually profitable, while the grant funding is for the initial stages so that households can access water affordably once the system is operational.
When it does give loans, the GCF prides itself on "concessionality," meaning very low interest rates -- far better deals than middle income countries with poor investment ratings could hope to get on the commercial market. 
It argues that grants, which account for around 45 percent of its outlay, cannot achieve the scale of financing required to deliver the Paris accord goal of limiting warming to 1.5C.
Duarte, who stopped eating meat to help align her personal life with her climate work, said that for her a successful COP would be one that centered on "accountability" -- not flashy new pledges, but delivering on existing promises.
Otherwise, she warned, future generations would look back unkindly. 
"They will look at us and really think, how could you guys be so slow to get it?"
ia/ksb

weather

Record Vietnam floods kill 10, turn streets into canals

BY NHAC NGUYEN

  • At least 10 people have been killed this week and eight others are missing, the environment ministry said.
  • Major flooding that killed 10 people in central Vietnam this week also turned streets in Hoi An into canals on Thursday after a major river reached a 60-year high, authorities said.
  • At least 10 people have been killed this week and eight others are missing, the environment ministry said.
Major flooding that killed 10 people in central Vietnam this week also turned streets in Hoi An into canals on Thursday after a major river reached a 60-year high, authorities said.
Heavy rain has pummelled Vietnam's coastal provinces, home to Hoi An's ancient town that is a UNESCO world heritage site, since the weekend, with a record of up to 1.7 metres (5 feet 7 inches) falling over 24 hours.
People steered wooden boats and waded through waist-deep water down Hoi An's flooded streets on Thursday, with the ground floors of houses and shops submerged, an AFP journalist said.
Resident Tran Thi Ky said her family had tried to raise their furniture off the ground using bricks over the past few days.
"Finally, we gave up," the 57-year-old told AFP.
Ky said the family's refrigerator, kitchenware and wooden furniture on the ground floor were almost completely underwater.
"I have never experienced this in my whole life living here," she said from the balcony of her two-storey house.
At least 10 people have been killed this week and eight others are missing, the environment ministry said.
More than 128,000 houses in five central provinces have been inundated, with water three metres (10 feet) deep in some areas.

'Alarming' flooding

Several kilometres of roads have been damaged or blocked by flooding and landslides, with more than 5,000 hectares of crops destroyed and over 16,000 cattle dead, the environment ministry said.
State media reported that a section of a mountain pass linking Danang and Quang Ngai provinces was reopened after it was blocked by a landslide on Sunday.
Rescuers using drones delivered water and instant noodles to around 50 people in dozens of trucks who had been isolated on the roadway with no food and water, the report said.
Flood levels at a measuring station on the Thu Bon river, which flows through Danang and empties into the sea at Hoi An, "surpassed the historic level in 1964 by four centimetres, reaching 5.62 metres" late on Wednesday, the national weather bureau said.
"Normally the flooding lasts only three days and then we can start cleaning up," said Danang resident Le Thi Thi, 58.
"I don't think I ever experienced this prolonged and terribly high flooding," she told AFP.
Forecasters said water levels had started to slowly recede in Danang and Hue city but would remain at "alarming" levels on Thursday.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme weather events such as storms and floods more deadly and destructive.
Natural disasters, mostly storms, floods and landslides, left 187 people dead or missing in Vietnam in the first nine months of this year.
Total economic losses were estimated at more than $610 million, according to government figures.
bur-tmh/sco/pbt

Jamaica

Caribbean reels from 'unprecedented' hurricane destruction

BY RIGOBERTO DIAZ WITH AFP BUREAUS IN KINGSTON, JAMAICA AND PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

  • Flooding is expected to subside in the Bahamas later on Thursday, although it could persist in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the US weather bureau added.
  • Hurricane Melissa was moving towards Bermuda on Thursday after ripping a path of destruction through the Caribbean that left at least 20 people dead in Haiti, and parts of Jamaica and Cuba in ruins.
  • Flooding is expected to subside in the Bahamas later on Thursday, although it could persist in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the US weather bureau added.
Hurricane Melissa was moving towards Bermuda on Thursday after ripping a path of destruction through the Caribbean that left at least 20 people dead in Haiti, and parts of Jamaica and Cuba in ruins.
The Bahamas government discontinued a hurricane warning for its central and southeastern regions, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory early Thursday. 
"Follow advice of local officials as you may need to remain sheltered after the storm due to downed power lines and flooding," the NHC warned.
Flooding is expected to subside in the Bahamas later on Thursday, although it could persist in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the US weather bureau added.
The storm was still 685 miles (1,105 kilometers) southwest of Bermuda as of 5:00 am US Eastern time (0900 GMT), according to the NHC.
"Hurricane Melissa is expected to pass Bermuda as a Category 1 Hurricane. While not a direct hit, the system will pass close enough to warrant precautionary safety measures," the Bermuda government posted on social media.
After Melissa left Cuban shores, residents started assessing their losses, with President Miguel Diaz-Canel describing the damage as "extensive." 
In the east of the communist island, which is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, people struggled through flooded and collapsed homes and inundated streets.
The storm smashed windows, downed power cables and mobile communications, and ripped off roofs and tree branches.
Cuban authorities said about 735,000 people had been evacuated -- mainly in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and Guantanamo.
In Santiago de Cuba, homemaker Mariela Reyes, 55, recounted how violent winds lifted the roof off her humble dwelling and dumped it a block away. 
She managed to save her TV set and a few small appliances from her flooded home.
"It's not easy to lose... the little you have," Reyes told AFP.

'Disaster area'

Pope Leo offered prayers from the Vatican, while the United States said it was in contact with the governments of Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.
"We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with critical lifesaving supplies," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X, without mentioning ideological foe Cuba.
The UK government announced £2.5 million (about $3.3 million) in emergency funding for the region.
In Jamaica, UN resident coordinator Dennis Zulu told reporters Melissa had brought "tremendous, unprecedented devastation of infrastructure, of property, roads, network connectivity."
Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the tropical island famed for tourism a "disaster area" -- many homes were destroyed and about 25,000 people sought refuge in shelters.
Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon told CNN that officials had been unable to confirm reports of deaths "because we have not been able to get to some of the hardest-hit areas."

'Everything is gone'  

At least 20 people in southern Haiti, including 10 children, were killed in floods caused as the hurricane shaved past earlier in the week, according to civil defense agency head Emmanuel Pierre. 
Ten more were missing.
"People have been killed, houses have been swept away by the water," resident Steeve Louissaint told AFP in the coastal town of Petit-Goave, where the Digue River burst its banks.
Hurricane Melissa tied the 1935 record for the most intense storm ever to make landfall when it battered Jamaica on Tuesday, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In Seaford Town, farmer and businessman Christopher Hacker saw his restaurant and nearby banana plantations flattened.
"Everything is gone," he told AFP. "It will take a lot to recover from this."
The full extent of Melissa's damage is not yet clear. A comprehensive assessment could take days with communications networks disrupted across the region.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said such mega-storms "are a brutal reminder of the urgent need to step up climate action on all fronts, as they bring massive human and economic costs in every part of the world, and those costs grow faster and bigger each year."
bur-mlr/md/ane/aha

climate

'Nowhere to sleep': Melissa upends life for Jamaicans

BY ANDRE RICH

  • South of St. Ann, in the town of Bog Walk, bar owner Maureen Samuels breathed a sigh of relief after a large tree fell just inches away from her establishment. 
  • In the north coast parish of St. Ann, almost all residents are without power -- and many of them woke up without a roof over their heads after Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, downing trees, utility poles and anything in its path.
  • South of St. Ann, in the town of Bog Walk, bar owner Maureen Samuels breathed a sigh of relief after a large tree fell just inches away from her establishment. 
In the north coast parish of St. Ann, almost all residents are without power -- and many of them woke up without a roof over their heads after Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, downing trees, utility poles and anything in its path.
Fisherman George "Larry" Brown of the community of Priory said the morning was quiet on the day of the storm.
"Just a little rain," the 68-year-old recalled. 
But by 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) on Tuesday, the rain and wind gusts grew heavy and soon, he said, his roof peeled away.
"I just heard a sound, and it just started to tear off," Brown recalled.
He described Melissa as the worst he's ever experienced.
Hurricane Melissa smashed into Jamaica as a ferocious top-level storm, with sustained winds peaking at 185 miles (nearly 300 kilometers) per hour while drenching the nation with torrential rain.
"Gilbert is no match to this," Brown said, referring to the 1988 hurricane used by many Jamaicans as a benchmark for devastation.
In fact, Hurricane Melissa tied the 1935 record for the most intense storm ever to make landfall, according to an AFP analysis of meteorological data -- on par with the Labor Day Hurricane that devastated the Florida Keys 90 years ago.
Brown's neighbor Kayan Davis, a mother of three who said her roof lifted off sometime after 11:00 pm (0400 GMT), said she has been left temporarily homeless.
"I have no where to sleep... I am going to have to contact the authorities," Davis said.
Marvin Thomas, another resident of Priory, suffered the same fate when a tree fell on his home around 8:00 pm (0100 GMT).
"The tree dropped... and the housetop started to demolish," he said. "I had to run out and go to a friend's home."
Thomas, a 40 year-old janitorial services worker, said the challenge of finding money to begin picking up the pieces is daunting.
"You know money is not at one place, I have to go out there to hunt now, to try to rebuild up myself."

'Thanks be to God'

There were similar stories in the neighboring parish of Trelawny.
"What we had was high rising of water and then it started to take the membrane of my roof and it damaged my fence as well," Sandra Scott, a security supervisor, said of her home in the community of Salt Marsh.
"We had to use sandbags and sheets to prevent the water from coming in," she explained.
The hurricane also brought extensive damage to infrastructure across Trelawny, including William Knibb High School, the alma mater of legendary Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, according to parish police chief Velonique Campbell.
Campbell and a team of 30 officers were seen with machetes and chainsaws clearing blocked roadways across the parish.
"We noticed that quite a few trees have been displaced in the main road and we wanted to ensure that the main road is kept clear as there will be aid and other supplies coming in," she said.
South of St. Ann, in the town of Bog Walk, bar owner Maureen Samuels breathed a sigh of relief after a large tree fell just inches away from her establishment. 
"I came here this morning and saw what happened, thanks be to God the bar wasn't damaged," she said.
Others from the community weren't as lucky, she said, noting that the nearby Rio Cobre overflowed and damaged some properties, including her friend's hog farm.
"We have been affected badly," she said.
bur-des/sha/jgc

Nigeria

Personal tipping points: Four people share their climate journeys

BY SARA HUSSEIN IN BANGKOK

  • She was also the lead plaintiff in a federal case alleging that President Donald Trump's climate actions violated their rights.
  • From US President Donald Trump's all-out push for fossil fuels to political squabbles in Europe, governments are retreating on their climate promises.
  • She was also the lead plaintiff in a federal case alleging that President Donald Trump's climate actions violated their rights.
From US President Donald Trump's all-out push for fossil fuels to political squabbles in Europe, governments are retreating on their climate promises. But most people around the world still see global warming as a serious threat.
Even as political momentum fades, many ordinary people are demanding tougher action -- and instead of waiting around, they're starting to do things themselves.
AFP spoke with four people from different continents to find out what pushed them to act.
Their personal reasons weren't always about climate change -- one cared about air pollution, another about animal cruelty -- but their efforts are helping to bring down planet-warming emissions all the same, showing how environmental causes overlap.
This story is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now. The name comes from recent research showing 80 to 89 percent of people support stronger climate action, challenging the notion that climate denialism is widespread.

Breathing problems

Saviour Iwezue traces her environmental awakening to when she was nine years old.
The acrid smoke wafting from burning waste in her neighbourhood in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, made it hard to breathe.
Not all air pollutants are greenhouse gases, but cutting air pollution helps fight climate change, too.
Now 21 and studying political science, Iwezue leads Team Illuminate, a collective she founded in 2021 to raise environmental awareness among young Nigerians.
With more than 200 volunteers, the group runs conferences and workshops for students and staff in dozens of schools across Lagos state, where it partners with the local government, as well as in Abuja and Benue states.
"For example, we talk about recycling, but also floods in Nigeria, their dangers, and the actions to be taken, sometimes with the support of NGOs," she said.
The daughter of two pastors, Iwezue says she grew up in a close-knit community where people looked out for each other.
At 15, she organised her first neighbourhood cleanup, and she hasn't stopped since. Her goal now is to expand Team Illuminate's network regionally, and eventually internationally, by partnering with other climate-focused organisations.

A shocking documentary

Anne Chassaignon says it was a series of images that opened her eyes.
In rapid succession, she watched a documentary exposing the link between intensive pig farming and green algae blooms in France's Brittany region, plus shocking footage released by the animal-rights group L214 showing the inside of slaughterhouses.
It was "an electric shock, a wake-up call about what changing our diets can mean for intensive animal farming and for deforestation", said the 63-year-old retiree, who lives in Ermenonville, an hour from Paris.
Again, there's no direct connection between animal welfare and climate change, but the two causes overlap. Chassaignon, who had already begun cutting back on meat, went vegan overnight. "It happened all at once -- and I never went back," she said.
Giving up meat, especially beef, is one of the most effective ways to shrink one's carbon footprint: livestock production accounts for about 12 percent of global emissions, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
"At that time, in 2016, there were already some vegans, but far fewer than today. It was also much harder to find certain products," Chassaignon recalled.
"The health and well-being aspect is important," she added, but it's also her way of doing her part to fight climate change.
"It helps with eco-anxiety" and "lets you respond to environmental problems that you can't otherwise control", she said.
She no longer cooks her mother's old recipes -- rabbit in mustard sauce, pork chops -- for her grandchildren. But now, she said, "I'm at peace with what I want to pass on."

A 'thousand-year' flood

Two floods left an indelible mark on 19-year-old Eva Lighthiser, and convinced the young American to make fighting climate change her life's work.
In 2018, floodwaters destroyed the bridge connecting her family's home to the nearby town of Livingston, Montana, a loss that ultimately forced them to move.
Then in 2022, the Yellowstone River burst its banks catastrophically in what was dubbed a "thousand-year event". She remembers spending hours that day filling sandbags for neighbours to take home and protect their properties.
Raised against the backdrop of Montana's snow-capped mountain ranges, river valleys and vast forests, Lighthiser has felt nature's pull for as long as she can remember, but knew from an early age that something wasn't right, she said.
"I began to see more and more wildfires, smoke permeating the air every summer becoming a season of its own, an increase in flooding events and extreme weather and mild winters where snow was becoming sporadic."
Lighthiser joined a youth-led lawsuit organized by the nonprofit Our Children's Trust, which in 2023 sued Montana and won a landmark climate ruling.
She was also the lead plaintiff in a federal case alleging that President Donald Trump's climate actions violated their rights. The case was dismissed, but her lawyers are appealing.
Now in college and planning to major in environmental studies, she said the climate crisis "depresses me, it makes me really anxious, and above all, it makes me incredibly uncertain".
But rather than ruminating on the global picture, "It makes me hopeful when I see individual action happening on smaller local levels, people using their voices and speaking up or taking action."

Embracing country living

Khomchalat Thongting says his tipping point came during the Covid pandemic.
After decades in tech, he decided to spend time on his family land in Thailand's countryside.
It wasn't until he started chatting with local farmers that he began thinking about climate change for the first time.
"I had no idea about climate things," the 50-year-old told AFP. "I watched the news, but I felt that the problem was far away from me."
He heard bamboo farmers say they could no longer rely on seasonal rhythms that once guided their crops, and started to read up.
During his research, he came across biochar, a way to turn organic waste into a soil-enriching product similar to charcoal that locks away carbon, and saw an opportunity to address "root causes".
Khomchalat founded biochar company Wongphai and now works across Thailand, helping farmers convert crop residues into "something that restores the soil, helps plants to grow more, reduces water usage and keeps the carbon".
It also prevents seasonal burning that causes annual air pollution.
"This work helps me address climate anxiety," he said.
"For me, quality of life is not just money in our pocket, it's about the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.
"We are building a system that regenerates the environment. That gives me hope."
jum-ks-jul-ia-sah/ico-ia/jhb

climate

'Never been this bad': Jamaica surveys ruins in hurricane's wake

BY IVAN SHAW WITH AFP BUREAUS

  • "It's gonna be a long road back."
  • A demolished church, roofs blown off homes, shattered windows and debris-strewn, impassable roads: Hurricane Melissa dealt a direct hit to Jamaica's southwestern coastal communities that face a long haul picking up the pieces.
  • "It's gonna be a long road back."
A demolished church, roofs blown off homes, shattered windows and debris-strewn, impassable roads: Hurricane Melissa dealt a direct hit to Jamaica's southwestern coastal communities that face a long haul picking up the pieces.
"It has been devastating," officer Warrell Nicholson told AFP by phone from the Black River police station, a building that was damaged but has still become something of a refuge for people seeking shelter.
Footage of the area shows felled trees, smashed cars, downed power lines and ruined homes -- a portrait of wreckage that is only starting to come clear as assessment is hampered by a lack of power and communications across the Caribbean island.
Hurricane Melissa smashed into Jamaica as a ferocious top-level storm, whose sustained winds peaked at 185 miles (295 kilometers) per hour while drenching the nation with torrential, life-threatening rain.
A little up the coast from Black River, Andrew Houston Moncure took shelter at home with his wife and 20-month-old son, at one point taking pillows and blankets into the shower to put as many walls between themselves and the brutal weather as possible.
It's far from his first hurricane -- but "it's never been this bad," he told AFP.
"It was the most terrifying experience, especially with my son. The pressure is so low you struggle to breathe, and it just sounds like a freight train going over you," Houston Moncure said, his voice trembling with emotion.
The roof blew off the hotel's kitchen, he said, but the hotel owners are trying their best to prepare and distribute food to locals before it goes bad.
"We are the lucky ones," he said. "When you look up into the hill, you just see boarded houses that are collapsed."
"It's gonna be a long road back."

'Everything is gone'

In Seaford Town, Christopher Hacker's restaurant high in the hills of western Jamaica stands in ruins: "Everything is gone," he told AFP.
He is also a farmer, and shared images of his banana fields that were flattened.
"It will take a lot to recover from this," he said.
"Catastrophic is a mild term," said Coleridge Minto, head of the Saint Elizabeth Division of Jamaica's police, in a press update from the area.
"The situation here is devastating. We need all the help that we can."
Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared the tropical island famed for tourism a "disaster area" in the wake of Hurricane Melissa, which tied the 1935 record for the most intense storm to ever make landfall.
Some 70 percent of the country was without power: in Bluefields, Houston Moncure said they were using a pick-up truck to charge battery packs and a mini portable internet kit from Starlink.
"Our generator got hit by a tree. There's no communication. I have the only Starlink in the area," he said, calling the situation "catastrophic."
"Today we're just trying to care for the people who are here, take care of ourselves and take care of each other."
Melissa left Jamaica late Tuesday, though remnant rains persisted as the storm continued its destructive trek into Cuba.
Residents there were also suffering flooded homes, blocked streets and extensive infrastructure damage.
Desmond McKenzie, a Jamaican minister who has been coordinating emergency response, described extensive destruction including to hospitals.
Recovery, he said, would be arduous.
But amid the devastation, a glimmer of light: three babies were delivered during the storm, McKenzie told a briefing.
"We are a great country," he said. "Despite our challenges, we rise to the occasion."
bur-mdo/md

UN

Funds for climate adaptation 'lifeline' far off track: UN

BY KELLY MACNAMARA

  • But the promised international funding is far off track, according to the latest Adaptation Gap report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
  • Wealthy countries are failing to meet their promised targets to provide a funding "lifeline" to help poorer nations prepare for worsening climate calamities, the UN warned Wednesday.
  • But the promised international funding is far off track, according to the latest Adaptation Gap report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Wealthy countries are failing to meet their promised targets to provide a funding "lifeline" to help poorer nations prepare for worsening climate calamities, the UN warned Wednesday.
Efforts to adapt to the increasingly dangerous and costly impacts of climate change -- from building defensive sea walls, to planting drought-resistant crops -- are set to be a major focus of United Nations climate negotiations in Brazil from November 10. 
Storms supercharged by hotter seas, devastating floods, heatwaves and wildfires are intensifying across the planet as a result of warming driven by humanity's burning of oil, gas and coal.
But the promised international funding is far off track, according to the latest Adaptation Gap report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
"Climate impacts are accelerating. Yet adaptation finance is not keeping pace, leaving the  world's most vulnerable exposed to rising seas, deadly storms, and searing heat," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his message on the report. 
"Adaptation is not a cost -- it is a lifeline."
Richer countries pledged in 2021 to double annual public adaptation finance for developing countries to around $40 billion by 2025.
Instead, funding actually fell from $28 billion in 2022 to $26 billion in 2023, according to the latest figures in this report. Data from 2024 and 2025 is not yet available. 
In her foreword to the report, UNEP chief Inger Andersen said that it now "seems unlikely" that this trend will turn around, imperilling long-term climate finance goals and meaning "many more people will suffer needlessly". 
The report projected that the adaptation finance needs of developing countries would be over $310 billion by 2035 -- 12 times more than the 2023 levels. 
"As action to cut greenhouse gas emissions continues to lag, these impacts will only get worse, harming more people and causing significant economic damage," Andersen said in a statement.

'Escalating costs'

Many developing countries are already grappling with the increasing costs of climate disasters today, as well as crushing debt levels, making investments in future resilience even harder. 
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has gutted the country's main foreign development organisation, while other major donors have also squeezed their aid budgets.  
Andersen called for a global effort to increase the money available, but cautioned against approaches that pile debt onto developing countries. 
"Even amid tight budgets and competing priorities, the reality is simple: if we do not invest in adaptation now, we will face escalating costs every year," said Andersen.
The report estimated the potential for private sector investment in adaptation measures at $50 billion a year, compared to the current level of around $5 billion. 
But it stressed this would require policy and funding support from governments, cautioning that there are limits to how much private investment was realistic. 
"Climate change is here, tearing lives apart and destroying the ecosystems that all living things so delicately depend on," Annamaria Lehoczky of Fauna & Flora told AFP. 
"Developed countries cannot keep making promises on international climate finance without delivery. We do not have time."
COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago on Wednesday said adaptation has "always been somewhat relegated to the background" but the issue would take centre stage at the upcoming climate talks.
klm-dep/np/jxb

weather

Record Vietnam rains kill seven and flood 100,000 homes

  • Many of the more than 21,000 people who were evacuated from the flood zone began to return home as water receded in the central coastal city of Hue on Wednesday morning.
  • Flooding triggered by record heavy rains in central Vietnam this week killed at least seven people and inundated more than 100,000 homes, the environment ministry said on Wednesday.
  • Many of the more than 21,000 people who were evacuated from the flood zone began to return home as water receded in the central coastal city of Hue on Wednesday morning.
Flooding triggered by record heavy rains in central Vietnam this week killed at least seven people and inundated more than 100,000 homes, the environment ministry said on Wednesday.
Vietnam's coastal provinces have been lashed by heavy rains since Sunday, with a record of up to 1.7 metres (five feet seven inches) falling over 24 hours.
Seven people have been killed and another five are missing, the ministry said in a report. 
More than 150 landslides had been reported, 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres) of crops destroyed and a total of 103,525 houses flooded, it said. 
Many of the more than 21,000 people who were evacuated from the flood zone began to return home as water receded in the central coastal city of Hue on Wednesday morning.
However, more rain was reported by midday, forcing the local hydropower plant to discharge its reservoirs.
Central Danang province was also forecast to experience more flooding in the next two days, with Danang city's rivers swollen to alarming levels, the environment ministry said.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme weather events such as storms and floods more deadly and destructive.
Natural disasters, mostly storms, floods and landslides, left 187 people dead or missing in Vietnam in the first nine months of this year.
More than 240,000 hectares of crops were destroyed and 38,000 houses collapsed or were damaged, the General Statistics Office said.
Total economic losses were estimated at more than $610 million. 
tmh-jts/rsc

chemicals

Chemicals firm BASF urges EU to cut red tape as profit dips

  • BASF reported only a small fall in third-quarter core profit, down 78 million euros on the previous year at 1.5 billion euros ($1.74 billion), slightly ahead of analyst expectations in a poll by financial data firm FactSet.
  • The boss of German chemicals giant BASF on Wednesday called for the European Union to relax carbon trading rules, as the firm reported a drop in core profit with the industry in crisis.
  • BASF reported only a small fall in third-quarter core profit, down 78 million euros on the previous year at 1.5 billion euros ($1.74 billion), slightly ahead of analyst expectations in a poll by financial data firm FactSet.
The boss of German chemicals giant BASF on Wednesday called for the European Union to relax carbon trading rules, as the firm reported a drop in core profit with the industry in crisis.
Speaking to reporters on a call, Markus Kamieth said EU plans to put a tax on carbon-intensive imports were a "good idea" in principle, but it was becoming "very, very difficult in practice" for industry to deal with Europe's market for carbon permits and attendant taxes.
"Industry in Europe has to deal with the rigidness of this system and the incredibly increasing CO2 costs that we might have in the next decade," he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said earlier this month that he would try to delay planned EU taxes on carbon-intensive imports and also fight for wider deregulation of the chemicals industry. 
Kamieth said a "high level of regulation" was styming European industry, adding that "a high degree of bureaucracy" had emerged that was "toxic" for investment.
Buffeted by high energy costs and increasing Asian competition, German chemical companies have struggled in recent years.
Chemical plants in the country are working at their lowest capacity since 1991, according to figures from the German chemicals industry lobby group VCI, and agrichemical group Bayer said in May that it would close a Frankfurt site that employs about 500 people by the end of 2028.
BASF reported only a small fall in third-quarter core profit, down 78 million euros on the previous year at 1.5 billion euros ($1.74 billion), slightly ahead of analyst expectations in a poll by financial data firm FactSet.
BASF shares were up 2.79 percent at 0915 GMT.
Chemical companies such as BASF are often seen as a bellweather for the health of the global economy, and are key suppliers to an enormous variety of sectors including construction, the automotive industry and agriculture.
BASF cut its outlook for the year in mid-July, citing customer nervousness in the face of US President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught and the resulting weaker-than-expected global economic growth.
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hurricane

Hurricane Melissa takes aim at Cuba after roaring across Jamaica

BY ANDRE RICH

  • "Melissa is expected to remain a powerful hurricane when it moves across Cuba, the Bahamas, and near Bermuda," the NHC said, adding Melissa is expected to make landfall in Cuba "as an extremely dangerous major hurricane in the next few hours."
  • Hurricane Melissa picked up strength as it bore down on Cuba, where it is expected to make landfall Wednesday after ripping a path of destruction through Jamaica as one of the most powerful hurricanes on record there, lashing the island nation with brutal winds and torrential rain.
  • "Melissa is expected to remain a powerful hurricane when it moves across Cuba, the Bahamas, and near Bermuda," the NHC said, adding Melissa is expected to make landfall in Cuba "as an extremely dangerous major hurricane in the next few hours."
Hurricane Melissa picked up strength as it bore down on Cuba, where it is expected to make landfall Wednesday after ripping a path of destruction through Jamaica as one of the most powerful hurricanes on record there, lashing the island nation with brutal winds and torrential rain.
The monster storm was still 110 miles (175 kilometers) away from Guantanamo late Tuesday, but "re-strengthening" to a Category 4 hurricane "as it approaches eastern Cuba," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory.
The storm took hours to cross over Jamaica, a passage over land that diminished its winds, dropping down to a Category 3 -- from the maximum level 5 -- before ramping back up.
"Melissa is expected to remain a powerful hurricane when it moves across Cuba, the Bahamas, and near Bermuda," the NHC said, adding Melissa is expected to make landfall in Cuba "as an extremely dangerous major hurricane in the next few hours."
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a "disaster area" and authorities warned residents to remain sheltered over continued flooding and landslide risk, as dangerous weather persisted even as the hurricane's worst moved on. 
Lisa Sangster, a 30-year-old communications specialist in Kingston, said her home was devastated by the storm. 
"My sister... explained that parts of our roof was blown off and other parts caved in and the entire house was flooded," she told AFP.
"Outside structures like our outdoor kitchen, dog kennel and farm animal pens were also gone, destroyed."
The scale of Melissa's damage in Jamaica was not yet clear: a comprehensive assessment could take days and much of the island was still without power, with communications networks badly disrupted.
At its peak, the storm packed ferocious sustained winds of 185 miles per hour. Immediate details regarding casualty figures were not available.
Government minister Desmond McKenzie said several hospitals had been damaged, including in Saint Elizabeth, a coastal district he said was "underwater."
"The damage to Saint Elizabeth is extensive, based on what we have seen," he told a briefing.
"Saint Elizabeth is the breadbasket of the country, and that has taken a beating. The entire Jamaica has felt the brunt of Melissa."
The hurricane was the worst to ever strike Jamaica, hitting land with maximum wind speeds even more potent than most of recent history's most brutal storms, including 2005's Katrina, which ravaged the US city of New Orleans.

'Severely damaged infrastructure'

Even before Melissa slammed into Jamaica, seven deaths -- three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic -- had been blamed on the deteriorating conditions.
Jamaica's climate change minister told CNN that Melissa's effect was "catastrophic," citing flooded homes and "severely damaged public infrastructure" and hospitals.
Mathue Tapper, 31, told AFP from Kingston that those in the capital were "lucky" but feared for fellow Jamaicans in the island's more rural areas.
"My heart goes out to the folks living on the Western end of the island," he said.

Climate change impact

Broad scientific consensus says human-driven climate change is responsible for intensified storms like Melissa, that are increasly frequent and bring higher potential for destruction and deadly flooding.
Melissa lingered over Jamaica long enough that the rains were particularly dire.
"Human-caused climate change is making all of the worst aspects of Hurricane Melissa even worse," said climate scientist Daniel Gilford.
The Jamaican Red Cross, which was distributing drinking water and hygiene kits ahead of infrastructure disruptions, said Melissa's "slow nature" exacerbated the anxiety.
The UN is planning an airlift of some 2,000 relief kits to Jamaica from a relief supply station in Barbados once air travel is possible. 
Assistance is also planned to other impacted countries including Cuba and Haiti, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told journalits.
Jamaican officials said around 25,000 tourists were in the country famed for its normally crystalline waters.
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