Forbes

March 30, 2020

Pictures of clean Venice canals, dolphins in Cagliari and swans in Milan were all around the internet last week and - many argued - were signs of nature healing itself when people are not around. While air is undoubtedly less polluted because of a drop in greenhouse gases’ emissions, the impact of self-isolation on the environment is less than thought.

In fact, nature has been healing long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced most people at home and it will continue to do so with the help of good policies.

“It’s a result of a longer trend, because, if those species were declining, they wouldn’t show up even during the coronavirus lockdown,” Frans Schepers, managing director of Rewilding Europe, explained to Forbes.com. “We have to be very careful when we make those connections, although it may be very attractive to draw a conclusion. But of course, animals will behave differently when everything is quiet and they will show up more easily close to cities and villages.”

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ACB

March 20, 2020

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) and the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) will conduct a three-day online training on the use of the Bioland tool, an online platform designed to help parties to the CBD in the curation and sharing of biodiversity data.

The webinar, which will run from 25 to 27 March 2020, serves as a preliminary activity to the Regional Workshop for the ASEAN on National Clearing-House Mechanisms, which was originally slated for 8 to 12 March 2020 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but was postponed due to growing concerns on the spread of the Coronavirus disease or COVID-19.

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ZME Science

March 19, 2020
Farmlands can act as havens for wildlife species in a world where climate change is eroding their habitats, a new study explains. However, for that to happen, a shift needs to be made towards mixed cultures. Such a change would also make the farms themselves more resilient against climate changes, which would also benefit us and help solidify the global food supply against environmental shocks.

Although the study focused on bird species in Costa Rica, the team explains that birds can serve as a “natural guideline” for the health of other animal families throughout the world, as well.

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Mongabay

March 13, 2020
The World Health Organization has categorized the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a pandemic in light of its spread around the world. Ever since the first cases emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, there’s been much speculation — and misinformation — about the origins of the virus. And while scientists suspect it may have come from a market in Wuhan when a diseased animal was consumed or butchered, spilling over into the human population from there, the issue is far from settled.

To give a better understanding of the origin of the coronavirus and what can be done to stop the future spread of disease from animals to humans, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Global Wildlife Conservation have partnered on a series of new infographics.

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Business Green

March 12, 2020
Corporate investment in carbon offsets is helping to fund a project in West Africa that is delivering on multiple Sustainable Development Goals through its protection of precious forest habitats and its services for local communities.

The Upper Guinean Forest of West Africa is one of only three forested biodiversity hotspots in Africa. Until the end of the 19th century it covered most of Sierra Leone, Liberia, South-East Guinea, Southern Ivory Coast and South-West Ghana, but less than a fifth of this rainforest remains today.

The Greater Gola Landscape, straddling the Sierra Leone-Liberia border comprises the largest remnant of this critical ecosystem - over 350,000 hectares in a mosaic of protected areas, community forests, and smallholders' agricultural lands.

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Climate Home News

March 11, 2020
Observers say additional time could help countries agree on rules to create marine protected areas in parts of the ocean that lie beyond national jurisdiction.

The UN has postponed deadlocked talks on a global treaty to protect marine biodiversity in the high seas because of the coronavirus, giving countries extra time to seek compromise.

Governments had been due to agree a global treaty in April to safeguard life in seas beyond the national jurisdiction of coastal states, a poorly regulated region accounting for two-thirds of the global ocean.

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Project Syndicate - OpEd

March 9, 2020
Natural systems are not just critical to the survival of the nine million plant and animal species with which we share this planet. They are also key to humanity's own future, which is increasingly being threatened by our failure to reduce carbon emissions and to protect the ecological foundations of life itself.

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The Nature Conservancy

March 1, 2020
In 2019, The Nature Conservancy successfully closed on innovative new projects and deals that cumulatively protect nearly 6.6 million acres of land—an area larger than the states of Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut combined. Each of these successes relied on distinct strategies, partnerships or financing models to succeed, but they were all connected by one common thread: major support from the billion-dollar Wyss Campaign for Nature, which is helping to spearhead an ambitious drive to protect 30% of the Earth by 2030.

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Lavanguardia

February 27, 2020
The Vice Minister of Environment of Costa Rica, Pamela Castillo, present in Rome on the occasion of the UN biodiversity summit, said there is a "general consensus" between the participating countries to advance their proposal to protect 30% of terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

In an interview with Efe, Castillo valued as "very positive" the atmosphere of consensus and "fluid conversation" in the first meetings of the signatory countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which this week in Rome prepare the framework document on biodiversity that will be ratified at the next October summit.

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Reuters

February 27, 2020
Governments are under pressure this year to agree on protecting at least 30% of the planet’s land and seas by 2030, not only to conserve endangered species and ensure food and water supplies, but also to help regulate an increasingly erratic climate.

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EU Commission News

February 28, 2020
The European Commission and the Oceanographic Institute, Prince Albert I of Monaco Foundation organise a high-level ceremony to celebrate the coalition of "World aquariums against plastic pollution" at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco on Tuesday 3 March, World Wildlife Day.

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, and Inger Andersen, United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director will attend and speak at the event.

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The CSR Journal

February 26, 2020
All species, including humans, depend for their survival on the delicate balance of life in nature. Yet biodiversity—the diversity within species, between species, and within ecosystems—is declining faster than it has at any other time in human history. Although the world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living creatures, humanity has already caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants. How we grow food, produce energy, dispose of waste and consume resources is destroying nature’s delicate balance of clean air, water and life that all species—including humans—depend on for survival.

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Phys.org

February 24, 2020
Nature experts and government delegates gather this week in Rome to hash out an international deal for endangered species, trying to avoid a mass extinction event caused by human activity.

Having been hastily relocated from Kunming in China following the coronavirus outbreak, negotiators from more than 140 countries have until February 29 to study a draft text.

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UN News

February 24, 2020
Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told negotiators on Monday that as agriculture and food systems are “at the heart of the concept of sustainable development”, they are central to deliberations regarding the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework, which is expected to be adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in October.

“Biodiversity is fundamental for ecosystems, for human beings, and is the basis of food diversity," said Mr. Qu, opening the second meeting of the Open-ended Working Group established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which FAO is hosting. 

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Forest Peoples Programme

February 23, 2020
In October 2020, the Convention on Biological Diversity will adopt a strategy — the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework — to replace the Aichi Targets. The Framework is intended as a step towards meeting the vision of a world ‘living in harmony with nature’ by 2050.

In order to reach that vision, there must be recognition of the interdependency of human rights and a healthy planet. As the Framework is negotiated, Forest Peoples Programme is therefore collaborating with a number of allies (including those listed below) to highlight the importance of human rights for biodiversity stewardship.

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