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The Soy Case

Soy production has been booming the past 25 years. Most of this protein and oil containing bean goes as animal feed to the meat industry in Europe and China. Protein from fish meal has become scarce, other animal sources have been forbidden because of BSE, but the demand for meat is rising rapidly world-wide. As a result of the focus on monoculture export crops, such as soy, millions of people in one of the world's biggest food exporting regions are now suffering from malnutrition. GM-soy is contaminating the countryside and the risen use of pesticides is polluting water and soil. This resource discusses the soy case in Latin America. (A SEED, 2006)

http://aseed.tuxic.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=108

(Added: Wed May 24 2006   Hits: 300)

Wheat Biopiracy The Real Issues the Government is Avoiding

Biopiracy refers to the use of intellectual property systems to legitimize the exclusive ownership and control over biological resource and biological products and processes that have been used over centuries in non-industrialized cultures. The epidemic of biopiracy is an assault on the living heritage of biodiversity and cumulative innovation embodied in the traditional knowledge of agriculture and medicine. (ZNet Commentary, November 2007)

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-11/16shiva.cfm

(Added: Mon Nov 19 2007   Modified: Thu Nov 29 2007   Hits: 78)

A Look at World Parks, by David Suzuki

The goals of the World Parks Congress are certainly laudable. Large parks protect species that are sensitive to human activities and provide a relative baseline with which to compare less intact ecosystems. And they provide a host of other natural services, from carbon sequestration to water filtration and soil protection...But if protecting one area merely shifts logging pressure to unprotected areas (the "waterbed effect"), then the overall value of the park is diminished. For example, China may have curtailed logging in some of its forests, but the Chinese demand for timber has not waned: It is now the world's second largest importer of wood, which is having a devastating effect on other parts of Asia.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/301/5638/1289

(Added: Thu Sep 18 2003   Modified: Thu Jun 09 2005   Hits: 277)

ARKive

ARKive is the Noah's Ark for the Internet era - a unique global initiative, gathering together into one centralised digital library, films, photographs and audio recordings of the world's species. ARKive is leading the 'virtual' conservation effort - finding, sorting, cataloguing and copying the key audio-visual records of the world's animals, plants and fungi, and building them into comprehensive and enduring multi-media digital profiles. Using film, photographs and audio recordings, ARKive is creating a unique record of the world's biodiversity - complementing other species information datasets, and making a key resource available for scientists, conservationists, educators and the general public.

http://www.arkive.org/

(Added: Thu Feb 09 2006   Hits: 205)

Barter Markets: Sustaining people and nature in the Andes

As regulative institutions, Andean barter markets help sustain local food systems and the ecosystems in which they are embedded. Action research with indigenous communities in Peru generated new evidence on the importance of barter markets for: - giving some of the poorest social groups in the Andes better food security and nutrition; - conserving agricultural biodiversity (genetic, species, ecosystem) through the growing and exchange of native food crops in barter markets; - maintaining ecosystem services and landscape features in different agro-ecological zones; and - enabling local, autonomous control of production and consumption - and more specifically control by women over key decisions that affect both local livelihoods and ecological processes. (IIED, July 2005)

http://www.iied.org/pubs/pdf/full/14518IIED.pdf

(Added: Thu Jul 27 2006   Hits: 246)

Biodiversity Conservation Program Design & Management: A Guide for USAID Staff

United States Agency for International Development (June 2002). The goal of this Guide is to provide USAID staff with basic information about designing, managing, and implementing biodiversity conservation programs or activities. What do you need to know, as a USAID manager, to design, implement, manage, and evaluate a biodiversity conservation program or activity? What are the critical elements of success for such programs and activities? The Guide provides information useful to program managers who have a strong background in biodiversity conservation and also to those who have little or no background. This is not a "lessons learned" document, nor does it document "success stories."

http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/PNACQ426.pdf

(Added: Mon Oct 21 2002   Modified: Thu Jun 09 2005   Hits: 281)

Biodiversity Facts and Figures

In this section you will find the latest data on the extent and the distribution of the world's biodiversity. It also includes the most recent estimates of extinction threats for different groups of species, as well as facts and figures on the value of biodiversity and efforts to conserve it. The data is based mostly on the best available sources including Conservation International, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the World Conservation Union's 2004 Red List of Threatened Species, the World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Report, and the Earth Trends database of the World Resources Institute.

http://www.scidev.net/ms/biofacts/

(Added: Fri Jul 15 2005   Hits: 215)

Biodiversity Offsets: Views, experience and the business case [442 kb]

By Insight Investment and IUCN, November 2004. Biodiversity offsets are conservation activities intended to compensate for the residual, unavoidable harm to biodiversity caused by development projects. Recent experience with regulatory regimes, such as wetland and conservation banking in the USA, tradable forest conservation obligations in Brazil and habitat compensation requirements in Australia, Canada and the EU, has been supplemented by growing interest in the potential of voluntary biodiversity offsets. This report -- produced jointly by Insight Investment and IUCN-The World Conservation Union -- explores the potential of biodiversity offsets: it considers the concepts involved, such as 'net benefit' and 'no net loss', as well as why, where, when and by whom biodiversity offsets might be used. It contains a synthesis and interpretation of a series of semi-structured interviews about biodiversity offsets, conducted by the authors with 37 individuals from around the world between March and August, 2004. The authors have also drawn on shorter discussions with some 20 other people. The report discusses the results of the interviews and draws preliminary conclusions regarding the potential and limitations of biodiversity offsets, and what should be done to improve them.

http://www.iucn.org/themes/business/Biodiversity%20Offsets/ten%20kate%20et%20al%20paper.pdf#search=%22Biodiversity%20Offsets%3A%20Views%2C%20experience%20and%20the%20business%20case%20%22

(Added: Wed May 18 2005   Modified: Thu Sep 07 2006   Hits: 206)

Biodiversity Support Program

Promoting conservation of the world's biological diversity. We believe that a healthy and secure living resource base is essential to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations. The publications on this Web site represent the accumulated knowledge, lessons and tools from over a decade of work by the Biodiversity Support Program (BSP).

http://www.bsponline.org/

(Added: Thu Jul 25 2002   Modified: Thu Jun 09 2005   Hits: 285)

Biological Conservation Newsletter

Since 1981, the newsletter has been a monthly publication of the Department of Systematic Biology - Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Mailed free to over 1,600 subscribers in 94 countries, the newsletter contains items on biological conservation issues. Articles on conservation research and current news items are featured, as well as information on new publications, fellowships and grants, job announcements, educational materials, and meetings. In addition, an extensive searchable bibliography of current literature is provided, making the newsletter a valuable resource to the biological diversity/conservation community.

http://rathbun.si.edu/bcn/subscribe.cfm

(Added: Mon Oct 14 2002   Modified: Tue Jun 07 2005   Hits: 280)

BIOTHAI: Biodiversity and Community Rights Action, Thailand

Biodiversity Action Thailand or the former name Thai Network on Community Rights and Biodiversity emerged from the cooperation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local community organizations, academics, and government officials who realise the importance of biodiversity and its close connections to the livelihood systems of local communities. BIOTHAI began its activities to provide information and raise the awareness of policy-makers and the public in Thai society since 1995.

http://www.biothai.org

(Added: Fri Jul 09 2004   Modified: Thu Jun 09 2005   Hits: 238)

Biowatch South Africa

Biowatch South Africa is a national non-governmental organisation dedicated to publicising, monitoring and researching issues of biological diversity, genetic engineering and sustainable livelihoods. Our work includes: researching and monitoring the commercialisation of biological resources; promoting sustainable livelihoods, sustainable agriculture and food security; monitoring the impacts of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in South Africa; offering expertise and building capacity for the understanding and debate of these issues; building public awareness on biodiversity issues as a basis for informed participation in policy making.

http://www.biowatch.org.za/

(Added: Fri Jul 26 2002   Modified: Thu Jun 09 2005   Hits: 287)

Building on Hidden Opportunities to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals

Poverty reduction through conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Growing concern over the effects of biodiversity loss on progress towards sustainable development led to the establishment of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992. To date over 180 countries have ratified it demonstrating a significant global commitment to the cause. The CBD presents a comprehensive series of pragmatic and innovative principles for action, which have been further elaborated by six Conferences of the Parties. Yet there has been insufficient advancement in operational terms. This lack of progress should be taken very seriously as biodiversity loss, together with other forms of environmental degradation, has the potential to undermine progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals . It is also essential to acknowledge that the 'environment', including biodiversity, offers many interesting poverty reduction opportunities - yet these are often overlooked, and may function outside the prevailing policy environment.

http://www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/documents/pdf/poverty_reduction.pdf

(Added: Tue Sep 24 2002   Modified: Mon Jul 02 2007   Hits: 221)

Burmese Forests Vanishing

Jonathan Watts in Beijing Friday October 10, 2003 The Guardian Burma's virgin forests are disappearing at the rate of more than a million cubic metres per year to satisfy the voracious appetite for timber in neighbouring China.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,13369,1059861,00.html

(Added: Fri Oct 10 2003   Modified: Fri Dec 16 2005   Hits: 288)

Celebrating Pacific Islands Biodiversity: Case Studies of Island Life

In this publication, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) offers a snapshot of work undertaken in the Pacific region that will contribute to the implementation of the Island Biodiversity Programme of Work as accepted by the 8th Confence of the Parties (COP8) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). (SPRP, 15 November 2006)

http://www.sprep.org/att/publication/000497_IslandLife.pdf

(Added: Thu Nov 30 2006   Hits: 183)

Conservation and Society

'Conservation and Society' is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal that aims to promote work on the theory and practice of conservation. The journal is dedicated to publishing work from both natural and social sciences and covers basic and applied research. The journal is committed to disseminating information in the developing world. Free online access is available for all articles and hard copy subscriptions are highly subsidised for Asia, Africa and latin America. Please visit the website or contact editor@conservationandsociety.org for information

http://www.conservationandsociety.org

(Added: Sun Jan 16 2005   Modified: Mon Jun 13 2005   Hits: 486)

Conservation efforts must embrace local knowledge

SciDev.Net, Catherine Potvin, Jean-Pierre Réveret and Genevieve Patenaude, 5 December 2003. While rich countries develop most of the global strategies for the protection of species, it is vital to remember that the poorest countries harbour most of the world's biodiversity. This means, in essence, that the guardians of these plants and animals are millions of poor indigenous people and local communities.

http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readOpinions&itemid=216&language=1

(Added: Tue Dec 23 2003   Modified: Tue Jun 07 2005   Hits: 277)

Conservation International

CI applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the hotspots, major tropical wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems.

http://www.conservation.org

(Added: Fri Jul 05 2002   Modified: Thu Jun 09 2005   Hits: 317)

Corporate conquest, global geopolitics: Intellectual property rights and bilateral investment treaties

This article examines how bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements which contain specific investment provisions reflect geopolitical concerns and redefine rights and privileges for transnational corporations, including with respect to commercial control over biodiversity through intellectual property rights. (Aziz Choudry, Seedling, January 2005)

http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=1464

(Added: Wed Nov 15 2006   Hits: 210)

Ecosystems and Human Well-being: a framework for assessment (PDF)

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). 2003. A decline in global fish stocks by 90 per cent since the start of industrial fishing is one example that the Earth's species - their variety and numbers - are declining faster than ever according to this report. The report, the output of more than 1,300 scientists from more than 90 countries, adds that a third of all amphibians, over a fifth of mammals and a quarter of the world's coniferous trees are threatened with extinction. This loss of the world's biodiversity, if unchecked, constitutes a major threat to humankind, warns the report.

http://www.ecodes.org/pages/areas/salud_medioambiente/documentos/ecosystems_human_wellbeing.pdf

(Added: Tue Jul 26 2005   Hits: 193)

Ecosystems and human well-being: Health synthesis

Ecosystem services provide food, water, shelter and clean air. Human induced changes in ecosystem affect human health and wellbeing. Unlike the richer population, poor are more vulnerable to the adverse health and wellbeing effects arrising form such changes. This report focuses on complex relationship between ecosystem and human health and suggests reforms needed in governance, institutions,laws and policies. (Carlos Corvalan, Simon Hales and ANthony McMichael, WHO, 2005)

http://www.who.int/globalchange/ecosystems/ecosystems05/en/print.html

(Added: Thu Nov 09 2006   Modified: Mon Nov 13 2006   Hits: 223)

Fishing profits, farming disaster: the cost of liberalising Asia's fisheries

The tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean in December 2004 devastated coastal communities in 13 countries. The damage to lives, properties and livelihoods was staggering. Among the badly hit were Indonesia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka - countries where the liberalisation of the fishing sector has contributed to the intensification of more destructive and exploitative commercial fishing. Clearing natural coastal defences for industrial aquaculture production is a growing trend in these parts of Asia. Along with increased vulnerability of coastal and surrounding rural comunities, marine biodiversity is in serious decline, and there is an escalating dispossession of the small-scale and artisanal fishing sector. (GRAIN, July 2006)

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=431

(Added: Fri Aug 25 2006   Hits: 176)

From Ocean To Aquarium:The Global Trade in Marine Ornamental Species [PDF - 1.2MB]

Authors: Colette Wabnitz, Michelle Taylor, Edmund Green and Tries Razak UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre 2003 This report, From Ocean to Aquarium: The Global Trade in Marine Ornamental Species,takes a clear objective look at this international industry. A potential source of income for communities living close to coral reefs, the aquarium trade has been heavily criticised for the use of unsustainable collection techniques and poor husbandry practices. Policy makers have been faced with something of a dilemma in trying to control the environmentally undesirable aspects of the industry without risking the economic incentive which aquarium fishers have in caring for the coral reefs that provide their livelihoods. Where previously much controversy existed between opponents and supporters of the aquarium trade, most of it based on polarized opinion and poor information, this publication presents sound quantitative data on the species in trade. Through linking trade data to what is known about the life histories of the target organisms, conservation priorities and management recommendations are identified.

http://www.unep.org/PDF/From_Ocean_To_Aquarium_report.pdf

(Added: Mon Feb 28 2005   Modified: Mon Jun 13 2005   Hits: 240)

Gender, Local Knowledge, and Lessons Learnt in Documenting and Conserving Agrobiodiversity

This paper explores the linkages between gender, local knowledge systems and agrobiodiversity for food security by using the case study of LinKS, a regional FAO project in Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Tanzania over a period of eight years and now concluded. The project aimed to raise awareness on how rural men and women use and manage agrobiodiversity, and to promote the importance of local knowledge for food security and sustainable agrobiodiversity at local, institutional and policy levels by working with a diverse range of stakeholders to strengthen their ability to recognize and value farmers' knowledge and to use gender-sensitive and participatory approaches in their work. (Yianna Lambrou and Regina Laub, UNU-WIDER, 2006)

http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/rps/rps2006/rp2006-69.pdf

(Added: Mon Oct 30 2006   Hits: 256)

GEO 3: Global Environment Outlook 3 - Past, Present and Future Perspectives

The successor and companion to GEO-2000, GEO-3 comes 10 years after the Rio Earth Summit and 30 years after the first international environmental conference, in Stockholm in 1972. In a 30-year retrospective analysis, GEO-3 provides an integrated explanation of the conditions and trends, and associated policy responses, that have shaped our environmental inheritance. These are organized under the themes of LAND, FORESTS, BIODIVERSITY, FRESHWATER, COASTAL AND MARINE AREAS, ATMOSPHERE, URBAN AREAS, and DISASTERS. A special focus on HUMAN VULNERABILITY TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE highlights the increasing risks and impacts on people. Based on information supplied by a global network of collaborating research centres, GEO-3 has unrivalled accuracy and authority, setting an action-oriented agenda for the WSSD and beyond.

http://www.unep.org/GEO/geo3/index.htm

(Added: Fri May 24 2002   Modified: Thu Jun 09 2005   Hits: 267)

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