Biodiversity

Hard Hit By Climate Change, Villagers Raise a Forest on Their Own

By Umar Manzoor Shah
Some ten years ago, Sheemanto Chatri, a 39-year-old farmer hailing from India's northeastern state of Meghalaya, was reeling with distress. The unseasonal rainfall had washed away all the crops he had cultivated after year-long labor in his far-off hamlet.

How to Make COP27 a Success

By Sohanur Rahman
Each year, low-emitting countries like Bangladesh are the greatest sufferers and, paradoxically, pay the biggest price in losses and damages resulting from climate change.

Chinese Fleet Threatens Latin America’s Fish Stocks

By Humberto Márquez
Illegal and excessive fishing, mainly attributed to Chinese fleets, remains a threat to marine resources in the eastern Pacific and southwest Atlantic, as well as to that sector of the economy in Latin American countries bathed by either ocean.

Doubts Raised Over Conditions of Mexico’s Mangroves

By Emilio Godoy
Two extremes of coastal development can be found side-by-side in the small community of San Crisanto, in the municipality of Sinanché in Mexico’s southeastern Yucatán state.

Slow food, Accelerating Biodiversity in the Field and On Our Plates

By Busani Bafana
Edward Mukiibi was forced to do agriculture at school as punishment for misbehaviour. Instead of hating the punishment, he loved it, especially when he realised farming was the future of good food, health and wealth.

Rising Sea Levels, Drought, Hurricanes and Deforestation Threaten Latin America and the Caribbean

By Alison Kentish
The highest deforestation rates since 2009. The third most active hurricane season on record. Extreme rainfall, floods, and landslides displaced tens of thousands of people. Rising sea levels. Glaciers in Peru lost more than half their size. Add the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to the mix, and 2021 was a challenging year for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Unleashing Mangrove Superpower Through Soft Coastal Engineering

By Joyce Chimbi
The swish of calm waters followed by unexpectedly high tides and violent waves is now too familiar for the fisher community along Kenya’s 1,420-kilometer Indian Ocean coastline.

East African Countries Seek Cross-border Cooperation to Combat Wildlife Trafficking

By Aimable Twahirwa
For many years, East African countries were considered wildlife trafficking hotspots. Now conservation organisations have started to mobilise all stakeholders to combat the illegal trade that targets animals – some to the edge of extinction.

Decisions Based on Narrow Set of Market Values of Nature Underpin the Global Biodiversity Crisis


 
The way nature is valued in political and economic decisions is both a key driver of the global biodiversity crisis and a vital opportunity to address it, according to a four-year methodological assessment by 82 top scientists and experts from every region of the world.

Narrow Valuation of Nature is Widening Biodiversity Loss

By Busani Bafana
Nature has diverse values for different people, but it is poorly evaluated, and this is driving the global biodiversity crisis, top scientists say in a new report.

Wild Species Central to Human Survival, New IPBES Report Offers Options for their Sustainable Use

By Joyce Chimbi
Fifty thousand wild species meet the needs of billions of people worldwide, providing food, cosmetics, shelter, clothing, medicine and inspiration. But now, a million species of plants and animals face extinction with far-reaching consequences, including endangering economies, food security and livelihoods.

Tap Into Indigenous Knowledge To Preserve Our Forests

By Sylvie Djacbou Deugoue
A few years ago, I found myself in the Baka indigenous sacred forest in Assok, in Cameroon in the course of my work in supporting them to preserve their forest against land grabbers. We were building a forest hut using only leaves and the knowledge of our indigenous partners.

Nature-Positive Ventures Crucial for Africa’s future, say experts at Africa Green Economy Conference

By Juliet Morrison
Africa’s unique natural capital assets were the center of conversation at the 2022 Africa Green Economy Conference. Held in a hybrid format from June 27 to 30, participants gathered to discuss the value of nature in Africa’s economy and call for more nature-positive ventures in development.

IPBES to Release New Assessments on the Values of Biodiversity and Sustainable Use of Wild Species

By Manipadma Jena
Speaking to IPS about the importance of biodiversity and nature's contributions to people, Dr Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), stressed the importance of moving from knowledge and policy silos to a more integrated approach to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially those related to food, water, health, climate change, and energy, which can only be achieved together with the two goals related to biodiversity.

IPBES Shoring up Private Sector Support for Biodiversity Science

By Alison Kentish
In the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, the changing climate often eclipses the loss of ecosystems and species in funding and awareness.

Addressing the Global Biodiversity Crisis Requires Understanding and Prioritizing the Many Values of Nature

By Patricia Balvanera, Brigitte Baptiste, Mike Christie and Unai Pascual
Nature has many values. A forest can be a cool and quiet place to retreat to when you need relaxation on a hot summer day. It is a habitat for many species. Trees also sequester and store carbon, reducing future impacts of climate change. But of course, the trees also have a monetary value if they are felled and turned into furniture or put to other uses. These are just four examples of the many values of nature, which are vital parts of our cultures, identities, economies and ways of life.

A Voice for African Wildlife: A Conversation with Kaddu Sebunya

By Guy Dinmore
The CEO of the Nairobi-based African Wildlife Foundation, Kaddu Sebunya – in London to mark AWF’s 60th anniversary while fundraising and lobbying – shares his thoughts with IPS on the climate and food crises, how Africans have their voice, why western countries need a ‘reset’ with Africa, what Prince Charles should say to the Commonwealth, how China is eating western ‘cake’, and what worries him more than anything else.

Global Biodiversity Agenda: Nairobi Just Added More to Montreal’s Plate

By Stella Paul
As the last working group meeting of the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Agenda concluded here on Sunday, the delegates’ job at COP15 Montreal just got tougher as delegates couldn’t finalize the text of the agenda. Texts involving finance, cost and benefit-sharing, and digital sequencing – described by many as ‘most contentious parts of the draft agenda barely made any progress as negotiators failed to reach any consensus.

Centering Gender in the Next Biodiversity Agenda: A Long Way to Montreal

By Stella Paul
“I often hear, ‘What do women have to do with biodiversity?' And I want to ask them back, 'What do men have to do (with biodiversity)?’,” says Mrinalini Rai, a prominent gender equality rights advocate at the 4th Meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group of the UN Biodiversity Convention, which started this week in Nairobi.

Indigenous Communities Want Stake in New Deal to Protect Nature

By Busani Bafana
In early June 2022, more than 30 people from the Maasai community in the Loliondo division in Tanzania’s northern Ngorongoro District were reportedly injured, and one person died following clashes with security forces over the demarcation of their ancestral lands for a new game reserve.

The Sustainable Use of Wild Species is Important for Everyone

By Marla R. Emery, Jean-Marc Fromentin and John Donaldson
You probably use wild species far more often than you realise. For many people, especially in more developed economies, the use of wild species sounds like something quite removed from their everyday lives – something perhaps more relevant to other people, in other countries.
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