Friday, April 19, 2024
News and Views from the Global South
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Curbing the Illegal Wildlife Trade Crucial to Preserving Biodiversity
For over five years, 33-year-old Maheshwar Basumatary, a member of the indigenous Bodo community, made a living by killing wild animals in the protected forests of the Manas National Park, a tiger reserve, elephant sanctuary and UNESCO World Heritage Site that lies on the India-Bhutan border.
Marine Litter: Plunging Deep, Spreading Wide
Imagine a black-footed albatross feeding its chick plastic pellets, a baby seal in the North Pole helplessly struggling with an open-ended plastic bag wrapped tight around its neck, or a fishing vessel stranded mid-sea, a length of discarded nylon net entangled in its propeller. Multiply these scenarios a thousand-fold, and you get a glimpse of the state of the world’s oceans.
Acid Oceans Could Deal Heavy Blow to Fishing-Dependant Nations
Scientists here are warning Caribbean countries, where the fisheries sector is an important source of livelihoods and sustenance, that they should pay close attention to a new international report released Wednesday on ocean acidification.
Synthetic Biology Could Open a Whole New Can of Worms
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is the world’s leading producer of vetiver. In the southwest of the country, vetiver production is hard to ignore.
Financing for Biodiversity: A Simple Matter of Keeping Promises
With governments, activists and scientists tearing their hair out over the world’s impending crisis in biodiversity, the outgoing president of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) delivered a simple message to participants at the 12th Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP12) currently underway in the Republic of Korea’s northern Pyeongchang county: honour the promises you made last year.
Humanity Failing the Earth’s Ecosystems
In pure numbers, the past few decades have been marked by destruction: over the last 40 years, Earth has lost 52 percent of its wild animals; nearly 17 percent of the world’s forests have been felled in the last half-century; freshwater ecosystems have witnessed a 75-percent decline in animal populations since 1970; and nearly 95 percent of coral reefs are today threatened by pollution, coastal development and overfishing.
OPINION: A Roadmap to Living – and Thriving – in Harmony with Nature
In Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, the international community made a commitment to future generations by adopting the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
If You Want to Conserve Biodiversity, Protect Latin America
A team of scientists who analysed the richness of plant species around the world concluded that the ecosystems in need of immediate protection in order to meet the 2020 conservation goals set by the Convention on Biological Diversity are largely concentrated in Latin America.
Q&A: “Developing Countries Are Doing Their Part for Biodiversity”
Developing countries are investing enormously in preserving biological diversity, and it is unimaginable that the wealthy nations will not fulfill their obligations to provide funding for these efforts, Brazilian environmental negotiator André Aranha Corrêa do Lago told Tierramérica*.
Q&A: ‘Mismatch Between Commitments and Action on Biodiversity’
The eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11 CBD) approaches amidst a hailstorm of public protest against the ‘tragedy of the commons’ – the rapid loss of biodiversity in forests, oceans and indigenous community farmlands.« Previous Page
The world's diverse flora and fauna are facing urgent threats due to pollution, climate change, commercialization of nature and other forms of harmful human intervention. For many years IPS has tapped into its own diverse networks of correspondents to report on continuing and emerging dangers to nature's riches - and the struggle to protect them. In 2014 IPS has provided in-depth coverage of the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 12) in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from Oct. 6-17, focusing especially on the newly released Global Biodiversity Outlook 4 (GBO-4), the latest progress report on efforts to achieve the 20 Aichi Targets, agreed upon in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, which form a blueprint for worldwide action on biodiversity in the decade ending in 2020. As the United Nations finalises its Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the MDGs at the end of this year, IPS explores the importance of biodiversity for the post-2015 development agenda.
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