Biodiversity

NAIROBI

Growing Peas and Greens to Maximise Water Usage

Amid warnings that Kenya’s agricultural water use is surpassing sustainable levels and adversely affecting food security, biodiversity researchers say that agrobiodiversity should be considered as a vital tool to combat this.

Stressed Ecosystems Leaving Humanity High and Dry

By Stephen Leahy

Everyone knows water is life. Far too few understand the role of trees, plants and other living things in ensuring we have clean, fresh water.

Environmentalists See Seeds as Key to Agricultural Reform

By Silvia Giannelli

As the global agricultural sector is faced with ever-greater challenges, the question of how to reform and improve the sector is a controversial and difficult one. So Terra Futura, a three-day exhibition and conference on agricultural good practises held annually in Florence, brought the debate back to its roots: seeds.

How to Save a Fish … a Lake and a People

By Mabvuto Banda

Lloyd Phiri, a fisherman from Senga Bay on Lake Malawi’s shores in Malawi’s central region, knows that the lake’s water levels are dropping. He can see it in his catch, which has shrunk by more than 80 percent in recent years.

Migratory “Flyways” Decimated by Human Expansion

By Silvia Romanelli

Migratory birds, which play an important role in the complex web of life known as ecosystem services, are under threat as never before, with some species facing extinction within the next decade.

Profits vs. Disaster in Arctic Meltdown

By Stephen Leahy

Many eyes are turning north to the Arctic, some in horror at the rapid decline of a key component of our life support system, others in eager anticipation at the untapped resources beneath the vanishing snow and ice.

Indigenous Nicaraguans Fight to the Death for Their Last Forest

By José Adán Silva

Mayangna indigenous communities in northern Nicaragua are caught up in a life-and-death battle to defend their ancestral territory in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve from the destruction wrought by invading settlers and illegal logging.

In Vietnam, Rhino Horns Worth Their Weight in Gold

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

At first glance, the poster appears to be a typical advertisement for an African safari: a large rhinoceros set against a rugged, open terrain. Then you take a closer look and realise something is amiss.

U.S. Gov’t Accused of “Corporate Diplomacy” for Biotech Industry

By Carey L. Biron

A consumer protection group here is accusing U.S. diplomats of engaging in a concerted and at times forceful advocacy campaign on behalf of genetically modified seeds and even specific biotechnology companies, particularly aiming to influence governments in developing countries.

First Class Action Lawsuit Against BP in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy

A group of Mexican citizens are preparing the first civil lawsuit in the Mexican courts against British oil company BP for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Mexico – Ground Zero in the Fight for the Future of Maize

By Emilio Godoy

In the 2011 action-thriller "Unknown", scientists are persecuted by the biotech industry because they plan the open release of a drought- and pest-resistant strain of maize that could help eradicate world hunger.

U.S. Links Pesticides to Honey Bee Deaths, but Resists Ban

By Carey L. Biron

A major study by the U.S. government’s environment and agriculture agencies has suggested a strong link between the use of certain pesticides and the widespread deaths that have afflicted honey bee populations around the world in recent years.

The Clock Is Ticking on Koala Conservation

By Neena Bhandari

Australia’s iconic marsupial is under threat. Formerly hunted almost to extinction for their woolly coats, koalas are now struggling to survive as habitat destruction caused by droughts and bushfires, land clearing for agriculture and logging, and mining and urban development conspire against this cuddly creature.

U.N. Recognises Wildlife Trafficking as “Serious Crime”

By Carey L. Biron

Environment groups are applauding a new United Nations decision to officially characterise international wildlife and timber trafficking as a serious organised crime, in a move that advocates say will finally give international law enforcement officials the tools necessary to counter spiking rates of poaching.

Activists Fight U.S. Aid to Develop El Salvador’s Pacific Coastline

By Edgardo Ayala

Community leaders in El Salvador are opposed to the government's plans to use U.S. aid funds to develop the country’s Pacific coastline, on the grounds that it would threaten the environment in a vast area.