Forest, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity

Image credit: UN Convention on Biological Diversity

Conserving Biodiversity is Key to Mitigating Climate Change

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – An area almost the size of Australia – up to 724 million hectares in all – will be required by 2050 for cultivating bioenergy, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Climate Change (IPCC) on limiting climate warming to 1.5C.

Models foresee that demand for bioenergy to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuels could cause a 10- to 30-fold increase in green energy-related land use in years to come, adding crushing pressure on habitat for plants and animals and undermining the essential diversity of species on Earth.

: J C Suresh; UN INSIDER; 15 November 2018

Photo: Cheetah © Jim Zuckerman; African Wild Dog © John Birch; Leopard and Lion © Jacques-Andre Dupont. Source: CMS

African States Commit to Conserve Largest Carnivores

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN | BONN (IDN) – More than 30 countries hosting African Wild Dog, Cheetah, Leopard and Lion have agreed on establishing a work programme to guide their conservation actions over the next coming years. The move known as the African Carnivore Initiative, emerged from a meeting from November 5 to 8, 2018 in Bonn, the capital of former West Germany.

The initiative constitutes the first Africa-wide commitment towards saving African Wild Dog, Cheetah, Leopard and Lion, says a media release by the Bonn-based Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (also known as CMS or the “Bonn Convention”).

: Rita Joshi; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 November 2018

Africa Gets Ready for Biodiversity and Climate Change Summits

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (IDN) – African governments have been availing of two conferences at the UN Environment Headquarters in the Kenyan capital in September to gear up for the Biological Diversity Summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, and the Climate Summit in Katowice, Poland.

The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) from September 17 to 19 provided an opportunity to prepare for the 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD-COP14) from November 17 to 29, 2018 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

: Justus Wanzala; THE WORLD; Africa; 03 October 2018

Photo: Recovery and restoration of a watershed in Brazil’s Caatinga biome, as part of the URAD initiative. Source: UNCCD

Brazil Sets Up an Innovative Model to Reverse Land Degradation

Viewpoint by Prof. Dr. Valdemar Rodrigues

The writer is Director of Sustainable Rural Development of the Ministry of Environment of Brazil, National Director of the UNDP / GEF / MMA Program and National Director of the FAO / GEF / MMA Program. Prior to joining the Ministry, he was he was a Professor at the Federal University of Piauí. He is a specialist on desertification. This article first appeared in UNCCD Science to Policy Weblog on 13 September 2018. – The Editor

BRASILIA (IDN) – Brazil is synonymous with the Amazon for most people. But Brazil’s vast rainforest and wide rivers have not just captured the imagination of ordinary people. It has also captured donor finances due to the invaluable ecosystem services they provide, ranging from influencing global rainfall patterns, to stabilizing the global climate system to preserving a tremendous and unique biological diversity.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 22 September 2018

Photo: Nigerian refugees in Gagamari camp, Diffa region, Niger. Violence inflicted by the terrorist group Boko Haram from northern Nigeria has destabilised the entire region and caused large scale displacements of people. Photo: EU/ECHO/Anouk Delafortrie

UN, Member States, Funding Institutions Unite to Ensure Security and Development in the Lake Chad Region

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – More than 17 million people across north-eastern Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, comprising the Lake Chad region, are facing a complex crisis driven by extreme poverty, climate change and violent conflict compounded by the terrorist activities of Boko Haram, a jihadist militant organization. As a result, more than 2.4 million people are displaced and over 10 million people need assistance to meet their basic protection and humanitarian needs.

Against this backdrop, 70 delegations from governments, regional and international organizations and civil society representatives participating in the High Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region have agreed on an aid package of US$ 2.17 billion to support humanitarian and peacebuilding as well as development activities to ensure security in the area.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 04 September 2018

Photo: Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

The Indigenous Peoples, TRIPS & Biodiversity Convention

By Victoria Tauli-Corpuz

The writer is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a Member of the South Centre Board. She has served as chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2005-2010). Following are extensive extracts from her presentation at the International Conference on the TRIPS-CBD Linkage: Issues and Way Forward, held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva on 7-8 June 2018. South Views carried the full text. The conference was jointly organized by the South Centre, the Centre for WTO Studies, New Delhi and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa to the WTO. - The Editor

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 17 August 2018

Empower Indigenous Women, Strengthen Communities

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) - August 9 is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. On this occasion, UN Women calls on each of us to commit to making the voices of indigenous peoples, and indigenous women, louder and more impactful than ever before: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/8/statement-un-women-international-day-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples.

At a time of unprecedented human mobility, indigenous women are on the move too, often fleeing violence, environmental disasters and land encroachments that have eaten into their sources of food, water and way of life. The positive economic spin-offs of migration don’t always reach them. Theirs is a move also for justice, as they mobilize to make their voices heard, demand punishment for perpetrators and reparations to restore their dignity.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 09 August 2018

Climate Change Is Driving Up Forced Displacement By Disasters

By Mami Mizutori

The author is Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). The following appeared as blog on 'Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform' on 17 July 2018. – The Editor.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – If there was a SDG18 it might well coalesce around the concept of 'Resilience for All.' As it is, the concept of resilience is fundamental to achieving all of the SDGs, seeking as they do to strengthen people’s ability to survive, cope and thrive on this planet.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 18 July 2018

Photo: Martin Krause, Director of the Division of Programme Support and Coordination, IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation, attends the UN event on sustainable development in New York. Credit: D. Shropshire/IAEA.

UN Nuclear Watchdog Promotes Global Development Agenda

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – At the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, concluding on July 18 in New York, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has highlighted its contributions to promoting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Capacity building to 'ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all' as envisaged by SDG 7 was the focus of a training course organized by the IAEA, the world's central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the nuclear field.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 13 July 2018

Image: Amazon forest landscape. Credit: Ecuador Government

Forests Comprise Large Part of Climate Solution But Receive Meagre Investment

By Fabiola Ortiz

OSLO (IDN) – It has been a decade now that the mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation – known as REDD+ – has been included in climate negotiations, however investments have not been sufficient for bringing them down.

“Even though science tells us that forests represent thirty percent of the solution to climate change in terms of the mitigation potential of greenhouse gas emission, we are only spending less than two percent of climate finance on forest,” according to senior fellow Frances Seymour of the World Resources Institute (WRI).