Article
October, 2007 – Uganda: Local conservation groups were successful in halting the planned sale of a section of the country’s Mabira rainforest after collecting over 11,000 names on a petition. It was an effective campaign, but what was unique was the way in which the petition was collected: not with pen and paper, but rather, by collecting names through an online petition people could access through their mobile phones. It’s a small example, but one of many in Africa, a continent where mobile phone use continues to grow. In 2001, mobile phones overtook fixed telephone lines as the main form of telecommunication in Africa, and they now outnumber fixed lines by nearly seven to one, according to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union.