Phys.org

March 3, 2020
A study published Tuesday in Scientific Reports shows that stony corals, which provide food and shelter for almost a quarter of all ocean species, are preparing for a major extinction event.

The research team—which includes scientists from The Graduate Center, CUNY; Baruch College; Scripps Institution of Oceanography; University of Haifa; University of Leeds; and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research—found that corals are currently exhibiting a suite of dynamic survival responses that correspond with their last major extinction 66 million years ago. 

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

 Agence France Presse

February 27, 2020
Protect biodiversity and manage natural resources sustainably at a time when people are devastating the planet: the Convention on Biological Biodiversity (CBD) began Monday to examine an action plan by 2050.

Originally scheduled in China, which will host the 15th meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in October, the February negotiations were moved to Rome due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Read More

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.

Read Full

Campaign for Nature

February 28, 2020
This week, delegates from more than 100 countries and territories gathered in Rome for the first round of negotiations on a Paris Agreement-style global treaty to address the extinction crisis threatening one million species worldwide and the ecosystems on which humanity relies to survive.

Read More

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.

Read More

IISD

February 27, 2020
In the paper titled, ‘How to Halt the Global Decline of Lands,’ the lead authors of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) ‘Assessment of Land Degradation and Restoration’ present five systemic policy barriers to land restoration and propose 10 solutions for overcoming them.

Read More

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.

Read More

Phys.org

February 26, 2020
Extinction risk could decrease by more than 50% if at least 30% of land were to be conserved across the tropics, a new study reveals.

Read More

Climate News Network

February 25, 2020
Within 50 years, a third of all plant and animal species could be caught up in a mass extinction, as a consequence of climate change driven by ever-rising temperatures. What is new about this warning is the method, the precision, the timetable and the identification of a cause.

And – entirely felicitously – support for the prediction is backed by a series of separate studies of individual species survival in a world rapidly warming because of human commitment to fossil fuels.

Read More

World Economic Forum

February 25, 2020
At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos in January this year, there was unprecedented interest in and commitment to fighting the climate and nature emergencies facing humanity. Although the world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things by weight, humanity has already caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of all plants. Supporting the concept of stakeholder capitalism, leading CEOs, government leaders and heads of civil society organizations came together in the Swiss Alps to galvanize support for an integrated nature action agenda across the issues of climate, biodiversity, forests, oceans and sustainable development.

Read More

USA Today

February 24, 2020
Climate change could turn into a "catastrophic" threat to national and global security in the coming decades, warns a report released Monday.

"Even at scenarios of low warming, each region of the world will face severe risks to national and global security in the next three decades," the report says. "Higher levels of warming will pose catastrophic, and likely irreversible, global security risks over the course of the 21st century."

Read More

GreenBiz

February 24, 2020
It’s 2020. We’ve officially entered the defining decade to tackle the climate crisis. As businesses ramp up climate action commitments through science-based targets and net-zero or carbon neutral goals, they are realizing there are untapped opportunities to work with nature instead of against it. Nature-based climate solutions will provide the lever of change to make faster progress toward those goals, and it just might help them go above and beyond.

Read More

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.

Read More