Seen from the outside, Antarctica is a desert, frozen and all but lifeless. Dig below the surface, however, and you will find deep secrets. Thousands of metres beneath Antarctica's forbidding facade, at the place where ice meets rock, lies a land that is exotic, dynamic and above all, wet.

More than 131 x 106 metric tons (MT) of inorganic sediments accumulated in coastal wetlands when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita crossed the Louisiana coast in 2005, plus another 281 x 106 MT when accumulation was prorated for open water area.

The present paper reviews recent developments in methodology for valuing the role of wetlands in supporting economic activity. The study brings out several issues related to conservation and management of the Pong Dam wetland. For the protection of aquatic biodiversity of the wetland, integrated management plans are required.

The Tanzanian government recently began evicting pastoralists from the Ihefu basin in the country's Mbeya city claiming they were causing environmental degradation. Ihefu, a catchment basin of