Combating Desertification and Drought

Opinion: A Major Push Forward for Gender and Environment

By Joni Seager, Deepa Joshi, and Rebecca Pearl-Martinez
Experts from around the world gathered in New York recently to launch work on the Global Gender Environment Outlook (GGEO), the first comprehensive, integrated and global assessment of gender issues in relation to the environment and sustainability.

Q&A: “Protect Your Biodiversity”

By Desmond Brown
Richard Huber is chief of the Sustainable Communities, Hazard Risk, and Climate Change Section of the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organisation of American States (OAS). Its objective? Foster resilient, more sustainable cities – reducing, for example, consumption of water and energy – while simultaneously improving the quality of life and the participation of the community.

Four Fast Facts to Debunk Myths About Rural Women

By Jacqui Ashby and Jennifer Twyman
We are lucky to live in a country that has long since abandoned the image of the damsel in distress. Even Disney princesses now save themselves and send unsuitable “saviours” packing. But despite the great strides being made in gender equality, we are still failing rural women, particularly women farmers.

Opinion: Sustainable Development Goals Could Be a Game-Changer for Water

By Betsy Otto and Kitty van der Heijden
Suppose money was being deposited and withdrawn from your bank account, but you didn’t know how much. And suppose you knew you had bills coming due, but you didn’t know when or what amount would be required to cover them.

In Thrall to the Mall Crawl and Urban Sprawl

By Kitty Stapp
There's little argument about the basic facts: It's ugly (think strip malls and big box stores). It's not very convenient (hours spent behind the wheel to get to work). And it wreaks havoc on the natural environment (lost farmland and compromised watersheds).

Key to Preventing Disasters Lies in Understanding Them

By Ramesh Jaura
The Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction concluded on Wednesday after a long drawn-out round of final negotiations, with representatives of 187 U.N. member states finally agreeing on what is being described as a far-reaching new framework for the next 15 years: 2015-2030.

Middle Income Nations Home to Half the World’s Hungry

By Thalif Deen
Nearly half of the world’s hungry, amounting to about 363 million people, live in some of the rising middle income countries, including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Mexico, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Sendai Conference to Move From Managing Disasters to Risk Prevention

By Jamshed Baruah and Katsuhiro Asagiri
As the world inched towards a crucial United Nations Conference in Sendai, Japan, Margareta Wahlström, head of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), assured that there was “general agreement” on the need to “move from managing disasters to managing disaster risk”. 

Feeding a Warmer, Riskier World

By José Graziano da Silva
Artificial meat. Indoor aquaculture. Vertical farms. Irrigation drones. Once the realm of science fiction, these things are now fact. Food production is going high tech – at least, in some places.

Brazil – from the Droughts of the Northeast to São Paulo’s Thirst

By Mario Osava
Six million people in Brazil’s biggest city, São Paulo, may at some point find themselves without water. The February rains did not ward off the risk and could even aggravate it by postponing rationing measures which hydrologists have been demanding for the last six months.

Opinion: Eco-efficient Crop and Livestock Production for Nicaraguan Farmers

By Kwesi Atta-Krah and Reynaldo Bismarck Mendoza
For Roberto Pineda, a smallholder farmer in the Somotillo municipality of Nicaragua, his traditional practice after each harvest was to cut down and burn all crop residues on his land, a practice known as “slash-and-burn” agriculture.

Opinion: Let’s Grant Women Land Rights and Power Our Future

By Monique Barbut
Women are not only the world’s primary food producers. They are hardworking and innovative and, they invest far more of their earnings in their families than men. But most lack the single most important asset for accessing investment resources – land rights.

Syrian Conflict Has Underlying Links to Climate Change, Says Study

By Thalif Deen
Was the four-year-old military conflict in Syria, which has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, mostly civilians, triggered at least in part by climate change?

Bamboo – An Answer to Deforestation or Not in Africa?

By Jeffrey Moyo
Deforestation is haunting the African continent as industrial growth paves over public commons and puts more hectares into private hands.

Opinion: Water and the World We Want

By Corinne Schuster-Wallace and Robert Sandford
We have entered a watershed year, a moment critical for humanity.

From Brown to Green Again, Trinidadians Reclaim a Forest

By Desmond Brown
Thanks to committed involvement by the local community, the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project has transformed this area of Trinidad from a bare, dusty hillside to one where tall trees flourish, fruit trees grow alongside flowering plants, and more wildlife returns each year.

Keeping Food Security on the Table at U.N. Climate Talks

By Denise M. Fontanilla and Chris Wright
Food security has become a key issue of the U.N. climate negotiations this week in Geneva as a number of countries and observers raised concerns that recent advances in Lima are in jeopardy.

Warming, Wildfires and Worries

By Joseph Chamie
World leaders from government, finance, business, science and civil society are attempting to negotiate a legally binding and universal agreement on climate change at the upcoming 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference being convened in Paris in December.

U.N. Touts 2015 as Milestone Year for World Body

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations, in a sustained political hype, is touting 2015 as a likely breakthrough year for several key issues on its agenda - primarily development financing, climate change, sustainable development, disaster risk-reduction and nuclear non-proliferation.

OPINION: People Power, the Solution to Climate Inaction

By Rob McCreath
Nothing is more important to farmers like me than the weather. It affects the growth and quality of our crops and livestock, and has a major impact on global food supply.

A New “Republic” to Save Chile’s Glaciers

By Marianela Jarroud
Chile’s more than 3,000 glaciers are one of the largest reserves of freshwater in South America. But they are under constant threat by the mining industry and major infrastructure projects, environmentalists and experts warn.
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