By Angus Wright, Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer OAKLAND, California, Feb 18 2020 (IPS) – When we were children, a long auto trip would require a stop every hour or so to clean the windshield of the insects that had…
Tag: Biodiversity
India’s unique water purifying wetland could soon be extinct
By Manipadma Jena KOLKATA, India, Jan 3, 2020 (IPS) – Ramkumar Mondal’s farm is awash in a brilliant yellow mustard bloom. A flock of grey cranes peck for food amidst the shallow watergrass. But Mondal’s fishpond digs in there like…
Nature losses threaten emerging economies
Jan 24 2020 (IPS) – More than half of worldwide GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature, putting biodiversity loss among the top five risks to the global economy, according to a report presented at the World Economic Forum…
Loss of biodiversity causes yield reduction
Over the past half-century, the need to feed a growing world population has led to markedly expanded and intensified agricultural production. This transformation has led to the degradation of the global environment. The loss of biodiversity can disrupt key ecosystem…
Robots deliver baby corals to help revive Great Barrier Reef
Sydney, Nov 27 – Millions of baby corals have been successfully transplanted onto damaged sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, utilizing a cutting edge technique involving robots and giant inflatable nurseries, researchers said on Wednesday.
22 people, orgs working to preserve Appalachia’s biodiversity
Danielle Nierenberg The region of Appalachia, which stretches through a dozen states in the eastern U.S., is home to unique agricultural products and food cultures. Food Tank recently joined The Crop Trust in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky to…
Wild fevervine herb discovered in N. China
A survey group has found a large cluster of wild Paederia scandens (Chinese fevervine) in north China’s Hebei Province during a field investigation for the fourth national survey on Chinese materia medica resources. The wild fevervine community, concentrating with a…
Prudence versus pressure at the Seed Treaty
Will the critical need to address digital sequence information break the Seed Treaty’s effort to fix its benefit sharing system? It probably should.
Crunch time for the Seed Treaty
A review of some outstanding issues in the negotiation. Will the effort to fix ITPGRFA’s broken benefit sharing system measure up to expectations?
Biodiversity-based agriculture to solve the climate crisis
By Vandana Shiva New Delhi, Sep 23 2019 (IPS) – The Earth is living, and also creates life. Over 4 billion years the Earth has evolved a rich biodiversity — an abundance of different living organisms and ecosystems — that…
BD biodiversity platform launched, coordinated work urged
Dhaka, July 29 – The need for coordination of biodiversity conservation activities was emphasised at the launch of the Bangladesh Platform on Biodiversity Conservation by the Bangladesh National Committee of IUCN in Dhaka on Monday.
Manifesto on Food for Health: Cultivating Biodiversity, Cultivating Health
A Manifesto on Food for Health has been produced by the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture. It states that it is possible to create good health through good nutrition. Health effects from the current industrial food…
Preserving biodiversity vital to reverse tide of climate change
The food people eat around the world is becoming “alarmingly homogenous” according to UN data, even though access to a wide variety of nutritious food has never been greater. That warning comes as the world marks the International Day for…
Conservation of Sikkim biodiversity needs re-strategising: study
by T. V. Padma on 6 May 2019 • Protected areas in the Himalayan region in India need to be expanded to conserve endemic Himalayan species and minimise the impact of climate change, a new study has shown. • Creating…
Google celebrates Earth Day 2019 with Doodle
Dhaka, Apr 22 – Google has created a Doodle featuring fun facts about six fascinating creatures to celebrate Earth Day 2019. On the Google search page, a series of animations introduce different unique and special birds and animals. The doodle…
At COP24, nations agree to bring Paris climate deal to life
COP24 closing plenary meeting in Katowice, Poland, 16 December 2018. Katowice, 15 December 2018 – After two weeks of crunch negotiations – with overtime – the almost 200 parties gathered in Katowice, Poland, for the United Nations COP24 two-week climate…
Biodiversity: Negotiating for nature
Wildlife is being wiped out in an unprecedented rate, and it’s our fault. But a new deal could provide a new pathway forward.
Earth’s biodiversity: A pivotal meeting at a pivotal time
The quality of the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink depend directly on the state of our biodiversity, which is now in severe jeopardy. We need a transformational change in our relationship with nature…
Finnish pilot develops new solution for sustainable forestry
The new unique mobile application puts forest Big Data to more efficient use The whole of Europe is feverishly looking for new ways to use farm, forest and fishery resources more responsibly and sustainably and to promote the production of…
Rwanda leverages GCF Options to fast-track sustainable growth
By Aimable Twahirwa Kigali, Oct 12 2018 (IPS) – In a move to achieve its green growth aspirations by 2050, Rwanda has placed a major focus on promoting project proposals that shift away from “business as usual” and have a…
Biodiversity, GMOs, Gene Drives and the Militarised Mind
A recent report from the National Academy of Science of The United States, titled Gene Drives on the Horizon : Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values”, warns:“One possible goal of release of a gene-drive modified organism…
Ban on fishing in Kaptai Lake from May 12
Rangamati Correspondent Rangamati district administration has imposed a ban on fishing for three months in the Kaptai Lake from May 12 midnight to ensure boosting fish population in the lake. The ban is enforced to protect mother fishes from the…
Enemy’ of wheat detected
A team of Bangladeshi and British scientists have detected the fungi responsible for the blast disease that afflicts wheat. The team, led by Prof Tofazzal Hossain of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, and Prof Sophien Kamoun of the UK,…
Monkey hunting could drive these species extinct
Hunting on Equatorial Guinea’s Bioko Island threatens red colobus monkeys, which hover on the brink of extinction. It’s hard to ignore a red colobus monkey in the forests of Equatorial Guinea’s Bioko Island, off the coast of Cameroon. The shaggy,…
Sustainable use of genetic diversity to protect livestock & wildlife
BAU CORRESPONDENT Indigenous livestock and wild relatives have been lost day by day in our country. Farmworkers are rearing livestock of developing varieties to get higher profits in a short period of time.
Chemical free vegetables preservation project has launched
A new research project at a cost of Tk20 lakh has been launched in the district recently to boost preservation of vegetables without using any kind of chemicals.
Agroecology in Africa addresses climate change, hunger, poverty
The Oakland Institute today released 33 case studies that shed light on the tremendous success of agroecological agriculture across the African continent in the face of climate change, hunger, and poverty. “Released just two weeks ahead of the COP21 Conference…
Vague results in harmonised plant variety protection questioned
Sangeeta Shashikant (London): A major issue at the upcoming meetings of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) will be whether there is a need for a centralized harmonized mechanism for the filing, examination and…
Sea Change: Bay of Bengal’s Biodiversity is in Danger
Ranjan K Panda In December 2014, when over 75,000 gallons of oil spilled out of a drowned tanker in the Sunderbans delta, pollution of the Bay of Bengal came under international limelight. The Bay of Bengal, occupying an area of…
A conservator Governor in Northeast India
By Nava Thakuria Assam finds a conservator of wildlife in its Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya, who has made it clear that unlike other Constitutional heads, he would not be a mute spectator in respect of protecting the great Indian one-horned…