Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve is a nature reserve which has a unique geography, preserved mangrove forests, and wild bird and lemur populations.

The reserve is located in the Western part of the island nation of Madagascar. The Reserve offers a wide variety of geo-morphological structures.

It is a veritable cathedral of limestone and offers one of the most spectacular natural landscapes of the Grand Island and even of the world.

The western part of the plateau presents a very dissected or ‘lapiezée’ relief, most of which is covered by a dense, dry and deciduous forest. In its eastern part, the forest is interspersed by savannas.

It covers around 666 square kilometres (257 sq mi) which is the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, however the strict nature reserve is covering 853 square kilometres (329 sq mi).

The whole area is characterised by needle-shaped limestone formations, above cliffs over the Manambolo river, which are difficult to go through because of their sharpness which can cut through equipment and flesh very easy.

The Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve area was first established as a strict nature reserve on 31 December 1927.

Both seasonal and permanent rivers flow on the plateau (draining to the west), and numerous permanent springs arise at the base of the Tsingy on both sides. The Tsingy is an important water catchment for surrounding lands, particularly those to the west.

Accessible for tourists by road from Morondava, a town 150 km south of the park, it can also be accessed from the town of Antsalova, which can be reached by plane from Antananarivo or Mahajanga.

So, getting there is not easy, but once you reach them, you have to be careful but do not forget to enjoy in this special place carved out throughout the years.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) says the reported oil spill from its flow station at Diebu was from residual spill traced to old, sabotaged facility.

The Peremabiri Community had on Aug. 24, 2022, reported that the leakhead polluted the environment, causing untold hardship to the fishing settlements.

The Media Relations Manager of SPDC, Mrs Bola Essien-Nelson, however, said on Tuesday, September 20, that the reported leak was from an old incident.

According to Essien-Nelson, SPDC on May 4 received a report of a theft on a section of its Diebu Creek Oil Well 6 flow line, resulting in an oil leak.

“The well and Diebu Creek flow station (facility) has not been in operation since February 26, when the facility was shut due to the unavailability of the Trans Niger Pipeline.

“A Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the site revealed that the incident was caused by third party interference and theft of SPDCJV property.

“A cleanup of the free phase oil was immediately carried out, while assessment of the residual impact is scheduled to happen in November, when water levels are expected to be low enough to allow for the impact assessment.

“This will be followed by remediation of the site after due approval of the Remediation Action Plan by The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

“On August 26, SPDC received a report of an oil sheen sighted at the same site of the May 4 incident.

“The community believes that this oil sheen is the result of a new spill. This is not the case.

“A follow up JIV conducted on Sept. 6 revealed that the sheen was the residual impact from the same sabotage/vandalism of May 4,” Essien-Nelson said.

It was, however, learnt that an operational mishap from the flow station discharged crude into the company’s right of way.

A field report of the JIV by National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency indicated that the leak was due to operational mishap, which discharged crude oil within SPDC’s operational area with no impact on third party area.

JIV is a statutory step that follows every oil spill by oil firms, host community and regulators to ascertain the cause, volume and area impacted by the spill.

Mr Return Koma, who represented the Peremabiri community in the JIV, said that SPDC officials and the regulators, were unanimous that the incident being investigated was as a result of equipment failure.

He said that an operational mishap on Aug. 24 at Diebu Creek Flow Station, operated by SPDC, discharged a yet-to-be ascertained volume of crude into the environment.

Koma, who is the Peremabiri Community Development Committee Chairman, however, said that the JIV could not arrive at the quantity of spilled crude and so did not sign the JIV report.

“We have conducted the JIV, they accepted responsibility for the leak at the flow station and another one at nearby Well 6, both were due to equipment failure.

“We were unable to agree on the volume of spilled crude and so did not sign the report,” Koma said.

It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilisation itself. But today the Tigris is dying.

Human activity have choked its once mighty flow through Iraq, where — with its twin river the Euphrates — it made Mesopotamia a cradle of civilisation thousands of years ago.

Iraq may be oil-rich but the country is plagued by poverty after decades of war and by droughts and desertification.

Battered by one natural disaster after another, it is one of the five countries most exposed to climate change, according to the UN.

From April on, temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and intense sandstorms often turn the sky orange, covering the country in a film of dust.

Hot summers see the mercury top a blistering 50 degrees Celsius — near the limit of human endurance — with frequent power cuts shutting down air-conditioning for millions.

The Tigris, the lifeline connecting the storied cities of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, has been choked by dams, most of them upstream in Turkey, and falling rainfall.

The Tigris’ journey through Iraq begins in the mountains of autonomous Kurdistan, near the borders of Turkey and Syria, where local people raise sheep and grow potatoes.

According to Iraqi official statistics, the level of the Tigris entering Iraq has dropped to just 35 percent of its average over the past century.

China’s government issued draft rules aimed at making it easier for some foreigners to enter China for visits to tourism sites along the Chinese border.

Travel groups organised by tour agencies in border areas in China can choose their port of entry and exit “flexibly”, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement on Monday, without giving specifics on locations and dates.

China has shut its borders to foreign tourists since the outbreak of the new coronavirus in 2020, with only specific groups of foreign nationals allowed to enter the country, such as those holding certain work visas.

In recent months, rules have gradually been relaxed, from resuming more direct flights between China and some countries to allowing foreign students with valid residence permits to enter China. Quarantine for foreign arrivals has also been reduced.

China shares a border with more than 10 countries, including Pakistan, Russia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.