TerraViva Europe

Q&A: India to Make Food a Fundamental Right

By Walter García and Ranjit Devraj
As managing director of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), India’s apex agriculture marketing organisation, Sanjeev Chopra is in the thick of planned legislation to cover 800 million Indians under the world’s biggest food subsidy programme.

Greeting Whales, Not Eating Them

By Lowana Veal
After a two-year break, Iceland has resumed its hunting of fin whales. But environmental campaigners outside of Iceland are doing their best to stop it.

Mining Benefits Fail to ‘Trickle Down’

By Walter García and Neena Bhandari
With South-South trade on the rise and growth in emerging economies set to outstrip production in industrialised countries, the international mining sector has been quick to follow global trends.

‘Grand’ Corruption Grips East Europe

By Pavol Stracansky
A deeply-engrained culture of graft across Eastern Europe is destroying bonds between politicians and the people as populations lose faith in what they see as a self-serving elite “enriching” themselves at their expense, anti-corruption campaigners have said.

Q&A: “The Real Target Is Zero Hunger”

By Claudia Ciobanu

Under the leadership of Brazilian Director General (DG) José Graziano da Silva, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has been engaged in a process of deep reform meant to make the organisation leaner and more effective in the fight against hunger. 

Straightening Out Accounts on Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

By Walter García and Fabiana Frayssinet
The bold strategy implemented by the Brazilian government has achieved an 84 percent reduction in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in the last eight years. But when the natural resources and pesticides used in agricultural production are taken into account, the environmental progress made is not so impressive.

Swiss Doorways to Refugees Narrow

By Walter García and Ray Smith
Once more, Swiss voters have lashed out against asylum seekers, further tightening the country's already strict asylum law. The government has meanwhile announced a radical restructuring of the asylum procedure.

Highest Number of Refugees in Two Decades

By Walter García and Fabíola Ortiz
Yves Norodom, a 21-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Brazil, is one of 45.2 million displaced people around the world – the largest number in 20 years.

Estonia Not on the Refugee Way

By Walter García and Marian Männi
For asylum seekers, Estonia is the least attractive country in the European Union, so the numbers say. According to Eurostat only 75 people last year asked for protection in this country that borders Russia and Finland. Local human rights activists suspect that many of those in need for help are turned down at the border without getting a chance to ask for asylum.

Border Weakens Between Bombs and Cherries

By Walter García and Pierre Klochendler
It all happened within ten days – Syria’s civil war fought metres away from Israeli orchards abutting the ceasefire line; Austrian peacekeepers hastily evacuating the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates Israel from Syria; fears of a total collapse of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). All while the cherry-picking season is at its peak.

Job Creation Looming Challenge for Post-2015 World

By Walter García and Lucy Westcott
In the aftermath of the global economic crisis and with three years to go until the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, global leaders are struggling to formulate a post-2015 agenda that can address the widespread dilemmas of employment and inclusive growth.

Clean Ripples Spread Across East Europe

By Walter García and Zoltán Dujisin
Monday’s resignation of Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas over a massive corruption scandal may well mark a new era of judicial independence in the Czech Republic and possibly the whole post-communist region.

Entrepreneurs Seek Way Out of Crisis in Spain

By Walter García and Inés Benítez
The people in the textile factory where Lourdes Soler presented the design of her skirts had never seen such detailed “blueprints” of a garment. Spain’s depressed labour market forced the technical architect to reinvent herself and create her own job – a growing trend in this crisis-stricken country.

Diamond Mining Could Push Angola’s Antelope to Extinction

By Walter García and Louise Redvers
Environmental campaigners are urging the Angolan government to halt plans to mine diamonds inside a national reserve that is home to the world’s last wild population of a rare antelope, the Giant Sable.

No “Free Pass” for U.S. in Human Rights Film Festival

By Lucy Westcott
Stories of struggle can be found all over the world, from a law classroom in Oklahoma and the brutal borderlands between the United States and Mexico to a Bedouin village in Jordan and wedding parties in Morocco, as the 24th Human Rights Watch Film Festival is showcasing.

Corruption Eats Into India’s Food Distribution System

By Ranjit Devraj
As India’s Parliament prepares to pass a bill to provide heavily subsidised food to 810 million people, there are misgivings over its implementation through a notoriously corrupt public distribution system (PDS).

Fatwas Heighten Sectarian Tensions in Syria Conflict

By Emad Mekay
Saudi Arabian religious scholars are leading an increasingly vocal chorus of Islamic preachers who are urging Muslims and Arabs to support Syrian rebels against what they say are atrocities at the hands of Iran-backed Shiite forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Small Ponds Bring Bumper Harvests

By Naimul Haq
“I would never have believed it possible to get a bumper rice harvest during the drought season,” 43-year-old Mohammad Shajahan Ali, a farmer hailing from the village of Magtapur in Bangladesh’s northern Chapainawabganj district, told IPS.

Time for a Leap Forward for the European Union

By Pier Virgilio Dastoli
Three different models for regional unification have been proposed by the movement for European integration since its inception. One vision is a league of states that preserve national sovereignty while committing themselves to follow specific policies agreed by consensus.

Award Spotlights Indian Women Helping Women

By Stella Paul
Jassiben, a self-employed potter from Nana Shahpur village in western India, loves summer despite the heat waves and frequent power cuts, because summer days always mean great business.

Sowing a Healthier Future

By Claudia Ciobanu
“If there was enough political will to defeat hunger, we would defeat it right now - immediately,” says Enrique Yeves, chief of corporate communications at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
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