Climate change mitigation and nature conservation both require higher protected area targets

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - Opinion

January 27, 2020
Nations of the world have, to date, pursued nature protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation policies separately. Both efforts have failed to achieve the scale of action needed to halt biodiversity loss or mitigate climate change. […] A new target of 30% of the sea given high levels of protection from exploitation and harm by 2030 is under consideration and similar targets are being discussed for terrestrial habitats. We make the case here that these higher targets, if achieved, would make the transition to a warmer world slower and less damaging for nature and people.

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30x30, biodiversity loss, climate changeGuest User30x30, nature, climate change, biodiversity loss
Preserving ecological balance is crucial for us

The Times of India - Editorial

January 25, 2020
Our planet has suffered five mass extinctions, the last of which occurred about 66 million years ago, when a giant asteroid believed to have landed near the Yucatan Peninsula set off a chain reaction that wiped out the dinosaurs and roughly three-quarters of the other species on earth. A few years ago, in a book called The Sixth Extinction, the writer Elizabeth Kolbert warned of a devastating sequel, with plant and animal species on land and sea already disappearing at a ferocious clip, their habitats destroyed by human activities.

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The business of nature

National Geographic

January 24, 2020
Business as usual isn’t working for the planet. Human-driven activities, such as deforestation and overfishing, have put one million species at risk of extinction, according to a ground-breaking 2019 United Nations report. The report is a thunderous wake-up call for the world on the need to make protecting nature job No. 1.

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business, biodiversityGuest Userbusiness, biodiversity loss
Catastrophic Amazon tipping point less than 30 years away: study

Mongabay

January 23, 2020
One of the most important questions Amazon scientists are asking today is, how much deforestation and global climate change can this tropical biome tolerate before rainfall is drastically reduced — forcing a rainforest-to-savanna conversion, and releasing huge amounts of stored forest carbon into the atmosphere in the process?

A recent study tried to answer that question. The findings: the Amazon basin could be less than 30 years from a catastrophic collapse that would turn it into a dry savanna, according to a study published in the journal One Earth.

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climate changeGuest UserAmazon rainforest, climate change
Canada working towards new future for Indigenous-led conservation

Mongabay

January 23, 2020
Indigenous people currently manage or have tenure on 40% of the world’s protected areas and remaining intact ecosystems. The deep connection to land and water that characterizes Indigenous cultures around the world suggests a natural alliance with conservationists working to protect those places.

But, as the authors of a recent paper in Biological Conservation argue, realizing this potential requires rethinking past approaches to conservation and ensuring that Indigenous people have substantive decision-making roles regarding their territories.

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Big Business Says It Will Tackle Climate Change, but Not How or When

The New York Times

January 23, 2020
Business titans who for decades brushed off warnings about climate change arrived at the annual World Economic Forum this week ready to show their newfound enthusiasm for the cause.

Having previously played down the need for the reform that scientists had urged, finance leaders and company chiefs conspicuously rallied around a consensus that accelerating global temperatures pose a significant risk to society — and to business.

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business, climate changeGuest Userbusiness, climate change
Global resource consumption tops 100 billion tonnes for first time

Today

January 21, 2020
The world is using up more than 100 billion tonnes of natural resources per year for the first time ever while global recycling of raw materials has fallen, according to a report released Tuesday (Jan 21).

The share of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass feeding into the global economy that is reused declined in two years from an already paltry 9.1 per cent to 8.6 today, the Circularity Gap Report 2020 found.

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ecological services, sustainability, natural resourcesGuest Usernatural resources, sustainability, consumption
The 21st Sharjah International Conservation forum for Arabian biodiversity will begin on February 3rd

ZAWYA

January 21, 2020
Sharjah, UAE: Organised by Sharjah’s Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA), the 21st Sharjah International Conservation Forum for Arabian Biodiversity (SICFAB), which begins on February 3rd, will address several important topics over a period of four days at the Desert Park. SICFAB will include an introduction to marine and coastal management covering coral, turtles, sharks, marine mammals, mangroves and seaweed.

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