Environment

Poland’s Shale Gas Bubble ‘Bursting’

By Claudia Ciobanu
Since Jun. 3, inhabitants of the village Zurawlow in Grabowiec district in southeastern Poland have been occupying a field in their locality where the U.S. company Chevron plans to drill for shale gas. The farmers’ resistance is just the latest blow to shale gas proponents in the country.

Q&A: Swiss Cooperation in Cuba Has Broad Focus

By Patricia Grogg
"The basic objective of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is people’s welfare, and I think that in this we have many affinities with what the Cuban government wants,” Regula Bäbler told IPS.

Indonesia Comes under Fire for Fires

By Baradan Kuppusamy
With a propensity to devour everything in their path and spiral quickly out of control, leaving behind swathes of scorched earth, forest fires are considered a hazard in most parts of the world. In Indonesia, however, fires are the preferred method for clearing large areas of land for massive plantations of commercial crops.

Civil Society Pushes for More Active Participation in Green Climate Fund

By Emilio Godoy
The Green Climate Fund (GCF), created under the auspices of the United Nations to finance the huge investments demanded by climate change, was opened up to participation by civil society and private sector representatives as observers in March.

First Steps to Save Burkina Faso’s Forests

By Brahima Ouédraogo
Burkina Faso has just received a grant of 30 million dollars from the Forest Investment Programme to help protect the country's forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with deforestation.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/River Diversion Project Spells Disaster

By Michelle Tolson
Tsetseghkorol, a Mongolian herder, stares out nostalgically at the Orkhon River, the longest in the country.

Japan’s Uneven Conservation Efforts

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
Efforts to protect the critically endangered Iriomote wildcat, a spotted, shy, feral creature native to the tiny Iriomote Island that forms part of the Okinawa Prefecture in southern Japan, are becoming a highly respected model of conservation here, where the government’s uneven track record in protecting imperiled species has frustrated wildlife activists for decades.

Q&A: Armed Groups Find a Payday in Wildlife Trafficking

By Sudeshna Chowdhury
In a recent report to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the possibility of poaching as a threat to not just wildlife or endangered species, but to the greater stability and peace in general.

Insuring Ghana’s Smallholder Farmers Against the Weather

By Albert Oppong-Ansah
Smallholder farmer Suleman Mustapha Simbia, 40, is pleased with the introduction of an insurance initiative called the Ghana Agriculture Insurance Programme. The programme is being implemented in this West African nation to help farmers who had been suffering from loss of income as a result of the bad weather conditions that affect their yields. 

WHO’s Iraq Birth Defect Study Omits Causation

By Sudeshna Chowdhury
A long-awaited study on congenital birth defects by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Iraq is expected to be very extensive in nature.

Promises to Gas Victims Only ‘Hot Air’

By Monde Kingsley Nfor
Ismaela Muhamadu was six years old when he lost his parents and siblings in a poisonous gas explosion at northern Cameroon’s Lake Nyos. The blast killed more than 1,800 people, and 3,000 cattle and wildlife over a 25-km radius.

Brazil Develops “Superfoods” to Fight Hidden Hunger

By Fabíola Ortiz
In less than 10 years, consumers throughout Brazil will have access to eight biofortified “superfoods” being developed by the country’s scientists. A pilot initiative is currently underway in 15 municipalities.

New EU Rules ‘Fail’ Against Shipbreaking Dangers

By Ida Karlsson
Hundreds of European vessels are scrapped under hazardous conditions in South Asia every year. European parliamentarians have approved a new regulation to tackle the problem - but critics say it will have very limited impact.

Measuring CO2 in Green Ecosystems of the Mexican Caribbean

By Emilio Godoy
Jungles, forests, mangroves, swamps and lagoons are natural carbon storehouses or “sinks” in the Caribbean regions of Mexico. But now studies are being conducted to measure their capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Caribbean Launches New Tool to Deal with Climate Change

By Peter Richards
If the studies conducted by the International Code Council (ICC) are true, then by 2025, Caribbean countries will witness a significant increase in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes from the present level of 1.4 annually to four.

Russia Contests U.S. Proposal for Major Antarctic Conservation Zone

By Carey L. Biron
International negotiations between more than two-dozen countries to set up conservation areas in the Antarctic seas were thrown into confusion Monday when the Russian and Ukrainian delegations questioned the body’s legal standing to make such designations, despite previous precedent.

Monitoring of GM Maize Falls Short in Mexico, Activists Say

By Emilio Godoy
Mexico lacks an effective system for monitoring genetically modified organisms, even though they have been regulated by law since the middle of last decade, experts say. In the case of maize, this situation has stood in the way of obtaining data that could help block commercial production, they say.

In Kenya, Small Is Vulnerable

By Miriam Gathigah
With the country's food security and farmers' livelihoods at risk from climate change, Kenya has divergent policy options. One is reliant on deploying new technologies as well as improving and expanding use of fertilisers and pesticides; while the other would turn to indigenous knowledge and the country's natural biodiversity.

Caribbean Bananas: Organic Production vs. Disease Control

By Julio Godoy
FAO is currently supporting two seemingly contradictory projects in Caribbean countries: while one seeks to promote organic production, the other involves the use of chemical fungicides to fight black sigatoka, the worst enemy of this key food crop.

REDD a ‘False Solution’ for Africa

By Isaiah Esipisu
REDD – reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation – would seem to be a mitigation strategy that perfectly matches Africa's needs.

EU Bank ‘Funding Polluters’

By Ida Karlsson
The European Investment Bank, the largest institutional bank in the world, is facing criticism for its funding of fossil fuel projects and for weaker standards for lending to coal plants than currently proposed in both the U.S. and Canada.
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