Posts in biodiversity
For Forest Survival, Corporations Are Accountable To Uphold Indigenous Land Rights

International Business Times - OpEd

February 22, 2020
As climate change deepens, forests –– those lush, abundant, mysterious stands of trees that for millennia have quietly produced the air we breathe and the water we drink –– have never been more critical to our survival. It’s become clear that,  as leading scientists have said, “Our planet’s future climate is inextricably tied to the future of its forests.” For a climate stable future, we must keep forests standing, as they are one of the most effective tools we have to combat climate change. Thankfully, the basic prescription for saving much of the world’s forests is refreshingly simple: hold corporations accountable for their role in driving deforestation and uphold Indigenous rights to their ancestral lands. 

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Set a global target for ecosystems

Nature

February 18, 2020
The conservation community must be able to track countries’ progress in protecting wetlands, reefs, forests and more, argue James Watson and colleagues.

[…]

Since 2010, targets for conserving species have shaped policy and galvanized efforts to halt species loss worldwide, as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Yet no such targets exist for ecosystems — despite the wealth of evidence showing that their health and functions are essential to the processes that maintain all life.

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These three challenges will make or break the Kunming biodiversity talks

China Dialogue - OpEd

February 18, 2020
The Convention on Biological Diversity needs a legacy that can stand the test of time, not a cosmetic victory, argues Li Shuo.

There are just eight months left to make progress on a framework to protect biodiversity for the next ten years. It is of global importance that the October meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the Chinese city of Kunming helps the world to stop biodiversity loss.

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23 Former Foreign Ministers from Six Continents Issue Call to Protect 30% of the Earth’s Land and Oceans by 2030

National Geographic

February 18, 2020
Today, 23 former foreign ministers from North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific released a statement calling for stronger conservation protections of land and oceans for the sake of –as well as national security.

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India to host key meet on conservation of migratory species of wild animals

Economic Times

February 17, 2020
This week representatives from 129 countries and the European Union will be meeting in Gandhinagar in the western state of Gujarat, India for the UN-sponsored meet to conserve migratory species of wild animals. The thirteenth meeting of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP13) being hosted by India is the first international meet focusing on biodiversity in what has been slated as the “super year for biodiversity”.

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Salvation or Pipe Dream? A Movement Grows to Protect Up to Half the Planet

Yale Environment 360

February 13, 2020
Leading scientists and conservationists are proposing that up to 50 percent of the earth’s land and oceans be protected in the coming decades. While some view the goal as unrealistic, proponents say it is essential for preserving the natural systems on which life itself depends.

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Why we must save endangered wetlands

The Japan Times - OpEd

February 8, 2020
It’s called the Extinction Wing. Located in a dark corner of the Paris Museum of Natural History, it houses a haunting collection of species that have long vanished from the natural world. With biodiversity declining faster than at any time in human history, what size museum will future generations need?

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Five takeaways from the UN’s proposals to protect biodiversity

China Dialogue

February 2, 2020
Negotiations are ramping up on a new framework for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Can they deliver a new deal for nature?

Dubbed by some “the other COP”, UN negotiations over biodiversity targets and a new international framework for nature restoration and conservation have not had the same media or political profile as those on climate change. 

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Tom Udall: It’s past time we confront the climate and nature crises

High Country News - OpED

January 31, 2020
In his 1963 book The Quiet Crisis, my father, former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, sounded the alarm about the creeping destruction of nature. “Each generation has its own rendezvous with the land, for despite our fee titles and claims of ownership, we are all brief tenants on this planet,” he wrote. “By choice, or by default, we will carve out a land legacy for our heirs.”

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