Paul Ikpe's Blog ❤

Fourteen people have died as a result of days of torrential rains and flooding in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s economic capital, police said Tuesday. “The balance sheet has worsened. This morning, we have reached 14 killed,” city police chief Lazaro Mambosasa told reporters. The number killed has been slowly rising as heavy rains have continued to hit the East African nation since the weekend. On Monday, Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Paul Makonda ordered primary schools closed for two days and advised families to leave inundated areas in a bid to limit the loss of life.

​ For years, Valdomiro Facchi has made a living ranching on land carved from the Amazon rainforest. He’s a small player in one of the world’s biggest environmental disasters. But now that his cattle have trampled the pastures to dust – and new laws prevent him from clearing fresh land – he has to find new income. “I want to diversify,” said the 68-year old rancher, outlining plans to plant cocoa trees on his 300 hectare plot in Brazil’s Para State. “I want to have the cocoa income when profit from cattle ranching fails.” Facchi illustrates a trend that is turning damaged parts of the Amazon basin green again and creating an usual alliance between the agriculture industry and conservationists. Brazil’s cattle ranchers are planting cocoa on their used-up pasture, with financial support from international environmental groups. That’s a big change. For decades, ranchers have been the engine of clear-cutting in the Amazon rainforest that has rendered an area nearly the size of Spain