Biodiversity

Fighting Loss of the Greater Mekong’s Prized Rosewood Forests

By Catherine Wilson
The famed Rosewood forests of the Greater Mekong region in Southeast Asia produce dark, richly grained timbers zealously sought after worldwide by manufacturers of luxury furniture, flooring and musical instruments, among other products. But their high value has also made them a major commodity in transnational organized crime.

Time Honoured Food Traditions, Pleasing for Palate and Planet

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Balance is the absolute key, says Alia Chughtai, a journalist who started a catering service with filmmaker Akhlaque Mahesar, by the name of Aur Chaawal (And Rice), two years ago.

Double Solution to Ongoing Food and Climate Crises

By Joyce Chimbi
For the last ten years, Angeline Wanjira’s food stall at Kirigiti Market in Kiambu County has featured the same foods, cabbages, potatoes and carrots, keeping with the community’s most preferred food types.

Finance Nature-based Solutions to Quiet Nature’s Wrath – Experts

By Joyce Chimbi
Climate change experts and leaders from the Commonwealth member states rallied behind calls to accelerate climate finance for nature-based solutions to arrest the pace of climate change, land degradation, and biodiversity loss.

COP26: The Many Links Between Food Systems & Climate Change: Message to Glasgow

By Ruth Richardson
Unless food systems transformation is put at the center of climate action, commitments governments have already made, and could make at COP26, will be jeopardized.

Risky business: Why Sustainability is now Central to Mitigating Risk

By Lany Harijanti
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly caused the largest economic and societal shock the world has experienced this century. Yet it was not unforeseen.

Any End to This Suicidal War? (I) The Destruction of the Web of Life

By Baher Kamal
Can yet another dispendious world gathering find a way to halt the ongoing suicidal war on Nature, which is leading to the destruction of all sources of life?

Green Gold: Billion Dollar Question for Congo Rainforest

By Remy Zahiga, Jennifer Morgan and Martin Kaiser
On the brink of an unprecedented environmental emergency, EU ambassadors to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) gathered earlier this month for a luxury river cruise hosted by the country’s Environment Minister, Eve Bazaiba.

COP26 Could Get Hot, but Southern African Region Needs it to be Cool and Committed

By Kevin Humphrey
COP26 is almost upon us, and dire warnings abound that it’s boom or bust for a greener future. Meanwhile, everybody boasts about what they will do to cool down our planet, but there is a disjuncture between talk and action. Even Queen Elizabeth II of the host country, the United Kingdom, has grumbled publicly that not enough action is taking place on climate change.

Forests & Climate: We Need to do Much, Much More

By Fran Price
Governments agree that saving the climate means saving forests – but ambition and action fall short of what’s required. First the good news: one of the forest goals agreed by governments, businesses and civil society organizations has been met.

Mangrove Blue Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation

By Joyce Chimbi
Smelly, boggy, and full of bugs, mangroves’ superpowers are well hidden. However, there is rising confidence that mangroves are the silver bullet to combat the effects of climate change.

IUCN World Conservation Congress Warns Humanity at ‘Tipping Point’

By Guy Dinmore
The world’s most influential conservation congress, meeting for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, has issued its starkest warning to date over the planet’s escalating climate and biodiversity emergencies.

Zero Hunger Campaign in Vietnam Targets Remote Areas and Cities

By Siri Jamieson
Amidst the verdant hills and remote corners of Vietnam’s rural regions, the growth that has transformed the economy in this part of Southeast Asia in recent decades can be hard to see. Undernourishment among children still results in stunting – even in cities too where overweight/obesity is also on the rise.

Rwanda’s Rainforest Conservation Wins Praise from Indigenous Community

By Aimable Twahirwa
Laurent Hategekimana, a villager from Nyabihu, a district from Western Rwanda, recalls the terrible condition of the Gishwati natural forest a few years ago when it was overrun by illegal loggers and invading farmers.

Transforming Global Food Systems Equitably & Sustainably Requires the Private Sector

By Hugh Welsh
In the days following the UN Food Systems Summit I have read a number or articles questioning whether there is a role for the private sector in transforming global food systems into something healthier, more sustainable and more equitable. Frankly, I don’t see how food systems transformation is possible without meaningful participation of the private sector.

Seizing the Post-Pandemic Opportunity to Transform Food Systems

By Danielle Nierenberg
The global food system needs a massive overhaul – this was clear before the Covid pandemic and it is even more true today. Feeding the world in a sustainable and healthy way is entirely possible but it is also inextricably linked to tackling the climate crisis by reaching net zero emissions, and to halting the dizzying decline in bio-diversity which is currently threatening the survival of one million plant and animal species.

Scientific Panel’s Scoping Report Instructive for Global Food Systems Transformation

By Alison Kentish
On September 10th, on a sweltering summer afternoon, three fishers drove a van around the residential community of Castle Comfort in Dominica, blowing forcefully into their conch shells – the traditional call that there is fresh fish for sale in the area.

Climate Finance Can Transform Food Systems

By Barbara Buchner
September 23, 2021 is the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit, convened to mobilize the highest-priority transformations needed to end hunger through the sustainable production and distribution of food. Transforming food systems to ensure food security for all has never been so urgent.

Nurturing a New Generation of Food Leaders

By Joyce Chimbi
Food security experts have raised an alarm that with as many as 811 million people the world over or 10 percent of the global population going hungry, the world is off-track to ending hunger and malnutrition.

How Jamaica got Youth Climate Action Engagement Right

By Alison Kentish
When the NDC Partnership, the alliance which helps governments to determine and achieve their climate goals, held its first-ever Global Youth Engagement Forum in July, several segments were underpinned by Jamaica’s model of engaging young people and sustaining youth interest in climate initiatives.

Food Experts’ Expectations for Global Food Systems Transformation

By Alison Kentish
Dubbed ‘the People’s Summit, the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) hopes to put the world back on a path to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, through food systems overhauling. From the tempered to the extremely optimistic, experts in various food system sectors share their expectations of transformation.
Next Page »