Forest, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity

Photo credit: United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards.

Agribusiness Interests Hijack 2021 UN Food Systems Summit

Viewpoint by Anuradha Mittal *

OAKLAND, USA (IDN) – This World Food Day (October 16) amidst the ongoing pandemic and the devastating impact of the climate crisis, a Food Systems Summit is being planned a year from now by the United Nations, to fulfil the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. As the Summit takes shape, it is obvious that it does not intend to trigger the deep systemic changes necessary to address the massive challenges that we face. The Summit will do more of the same – green and poor wash – to preserve and perpetuate interests of agribusiness and agro-chemical corporations at the expense of people and the planet.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 14 October 2020

Faith Leaders Criticise Bill Gates for A 'Highly Problematic' Agricultural Project

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – African faith leaders are calling on Bill Gates to reconsider his foundation’s “highly problematic” support of genetically engineered foods, crops and agrichemicals against the interests of non-corporate farmers in countries throughout Africa.

“We write out of grave concern that the Gates Foundation’s support for the expansion of intensive industrial scale agriculture is deepening the humanitarian crisis,” says the sign-on open letter coordinated by the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI).

SAFCEI, based in Cape Town, South Africa, is comprised of African traditional healers, members of the Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, and Quaker faiths, and a wide range of Christian denominations.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 October 2020

Photo: Allison et al. 2017. Trees, forests and water: Cool insights for a hot world. Global Environmental Change 43, 51-56.

Cool News in a Warming World: Why Invest in Future Forests

Viewpoint by Finn Grundmann *

GÖTTINGEN, Germany (IDN) – Forests capture more than carbon! While plants are experts at retrieving carbon dioxide from the air, they have also perfected strategies to retain water in their natural surroundings. When thinking of the benefits of future forests, it is crucial to think beyond the tree level.

Tree roots loosen the soil, and by creating macropores, they drastically increase infiltration rates and help recharge groundwater levels. The effect of just one tree on those soil properties can be measured within a radius of 25 meters around the tree crown. Therefore, by planting just a hundred trees, an area as big as 32 full-size football fields can be restored.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 01 October 2020

Actions Needed to Protect Wild Species and Natural Habitats

UN Summit on Biodiversity Provides an Opportunity

Viewpoint by Amy Fraenkel

The writer is Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

BONN (IDN) – The UN Summit on Biodiversity was meant to galvanize commitments to stop the impending biodiversity crisis, and to underscore the need for effective actions in a new Global Biodiversity Framework. Few could predict that it would take place in the middle of a deadly global pandemic -- which in all likelihood was brought about by human activities that exploit wild animals and nature.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 September 2020

Photo: Georges Rebelo Chikoti, an Angolan diploma, who served as Angola's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2017 before taking over on 1 March 2020 the post of the Secretary-General of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS). CC BY 2.0.

Call For “Another ‘Paris’ Moment to Mobilise Action on Biodiversity for Sustainable Development”

Viewpoint by Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti

The writer is Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)

BRUSSELS (IDN) – 2020 marks the end of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011 – 2020) and the 20 global biodiversity targets (Aichi targets). The mission of the Strategic Plan was to “take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020, ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life and contributing to human well-being and poverty eradication.”

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 28 September 2020

Photo: A community meeting. Credit: High Atlas Foundation

Mobilizing Decentralized, Participatory Energy Transition in Morocco

Viewpoint by Kerstin Opfer, Yossef Ben-Meir, Imane Akhezzane & Marine Pouget

Kerstin Opfer is a Policy Advisor with Germanwatch. Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is President of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) in Morocco. Imane Akhezzane is a Program Director at HAF. Marine Pouget is a Project Manager at the Climate Action Network in France.

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Humankind faces the unprecedented challenge of existing on the warmest earth we have known. A lack of political will and societal awareness has inhibited the necessary, vigorous change to meet this challenge.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 September 2020

Photo: Testing sheep for diseases in Bako, Ethiopia. Credit: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) | Barbara Wieland.

New UN Report Warns of Future Pandemics If 'Business as Usual' Continues

By J. Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new UN report has underlined the importance of biodiversity in addressing climate change, and long-term food security, and concluded that action to protect biodiversity is essential to prevent future pandemics.

The fifth edition of the UN's Global Biodiversity Outlook report, released on September 15, has warned: "The continued degradation of the environment is increasing the likelihood of diseases spreading from animals to humans."

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 17 September 2020

The Great Green Wall Is Paving the Way Ahead to 2030

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative has over the past 13 years restored close to 20 million hectares of land, according to a report released on September 7 at a virtual meeting of environmental ministers from Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti together with regional partners, international organizations and development agencies.

The GGW Initiative was launched in 2007 under the leadership of the African Union Commission and Pan-African Agency, and with the financial support from the government of Ireland.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 16 September 2020

Photo: Degraded – but not deforested. Credit: CIFOR/flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

Forest Degradation Is Outpacing Full Deforestation in the Amazon

Viewpoint by Tommaso Jucker*

BRISTOL, United Kingdom (IDN) – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased abruptly in the past two years, after having been on a downward trajectory for more than a decade. With the country’s president Jair Bolsonaro notoriously enthusiastic about expanding into the rainforest, new deforestation data regularly makes global headlines.

But what fewer people realise is that even forests that have not been cleared, or fully “deforested”, are rarely untouched. Indeed, just 20 percent of the world’s tropical forests are classified as intact. The rest have been impacted by logging, mining, fires, or by the expansion of roads or other human activities. And all this can happen undetected by the satellites that monitor deforestation.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 12 September 2020

Photo: Nairobi National Park is the only national park in the world that shares a fence with a city. It boasts of abundant wildlife, including the “big five” animals – the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo. Credit: Olga Lev-Ari Ercolano

Concerted Campaign to Protect Nairobi National Park

By Dominic Kirui*

This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

NAIROBI (IDN) – The Nairobi National Park is a rare gem that defines the Kenyan capital and it is the only national park in the world that shares a fence with a city. It boasts of abundant wildlife, including the “big five” animals – the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo – that can, in places, be viewed against a backdrop of city skyscrapers and planes coming in to land at the local airports.