Group items tagged

Protection of the natural world has been an integral part of Indian culture and heritage. The Constitution of India places responsibilities on the State as well as citizens for protection of nature and the living beings therein. The following two Articles of the Indian Constitution are noteworthy: Article 48A: The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country; and Article 51A (g): Fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures. In the face of rapid industrial development, the environmental effects were not given much importance. However, with environmental impacts becoming detrimental for wildlife, biodiversity and people, the Indian Parliament has passed legislation to keep pace with changing demands. The British had passed the Indian Forest Act, 1927, mainly to regulate timber extraction for construction purposes. From production forestry, protection forestry principles were also considered. Later, wildlife (both flora and fauna) were considered essential for sustainable forest management. The Wildlife Act was passed in 1972. The Environment Protection Act was passed in 1986 as an umbrella act to consider environment in its totality. Since then, biological wealth started to be considered as an asset of the country just as other productive assets.

The World Wildlife Fund will help protect 100,000 acres of former logging forest in Indonesia's Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, in partnership with Frankfurt Zoological Society, The Orangutan Project, and local communities. The World Wildlife Fund has established a commercial company to generate revenue within the project area to help finance forest protection initiatives.

In a creative attempt to protect California's waning water supply, Los Angeles released 20,000 "shade balls" into the LA Reservoir. According to researchers, shade balls could reduce surface evaporation by 85 to 90 percent, protect water quality by preventing chemical reactions triggered by sunlight, deter birds and other wildlife, and protect the water from rain and wind-blown dust. 

Collaboration on rainforest protection can improve transparency, empower communities and boost regulation standards

Socially conscious fashion brand Eileen Fisher and Canadian environmental NGO Canopy - with the help of Quiksilver, prAna, Patagonia and lululemon athletica and 14 progressive designers - have announced a joint campaign designed to bolster protection of ancient forest ecosystems and raise awareness about the fashion industry's role in endangering them.

Through an ambitious project model combining innovative financing approaches with traditional conservation, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) and The Orangutan Project (TOP) will join forces with local communities to actively manage the 100,000 acres of former logging forest, known as Bukit Tigapuluh (known as Thirty Hills), to protect rather than exploit the land's natural resources.

Thirteen nature conservation organizations are urging world leaders to back a plan to protect 30 percent of the world's surface and oceans by 2030.

Nine of the world's biggest fishing companies have signed up to protect the world's oceans, pledging to help stamp out illegal activities, including the use of slave labour, and prevent overfishing.

Bordering Myanmar on the southeast and the Indian states of Tripura on the north and Mizoram on the east, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is one of these areas. Characterized by semi-evergreen forest that is considered part of the highly endangered Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot, CHT is a refuge for at least 26 globally threatened species, making it a critical conservation priority. But conservation efforts in the region have historically been challenged by the very remoteness and political instability that have helped protect it from deforestation seen in other parts of Bangladesh. That protection is now disappearing with the influx of settlers from other regions who are increasingly clearing forests for agriculture, logging trees for timber and firewood, and hunting wildlife. In other words, time is running out for Bangladesh's last rainforest and its traditional tribes.

What's the best way to protect elephants? One way is refusing to buy ivory-demand for the material stokes poaching, which has demolished elephant populations in Africa. Now, the United States is taking an even stronger stance on ivory in a bid to protect the majestic creatures. As Jada F. Smith reports for The New York Times, the United States will now almost totally ban the sale of African elephant ivory.

Forests are massive carbon sinks, and the U.S., alongside other developed countries, are donating large sums of money to protect these carbon-rich landscapes from deforestation.

British Columbia will protect around 85% of the Great Bear Rainforest, which is "one of the world's largest temperate rainforests." The additional 15% will be available for logging under the "most stringent" standards in North America.

Colombia's supreme court granted protections, filed by 25 children and other young people, that affirm that deforestation in the Colombian Amazon violates their rights to health and life. In the ruling, the supreme court ordered the president of Colombia and environmental authorities to create an action plan to protect this important natural area.

Unhappy with how regional authorities have failed to protect fish stocks in the Western Pacific, Palau has launched its own bold initiatives - creating a vast marine sanctuary and conducting an experiment designed to reduce bycatch in its once-thriving tuna fishery.

WWF and Unilever have announced a one-year, international partnership to engage consumers in the fight against deforestation - one of the key drivers of climate change - with the goal of protecting a million trees. The partnership between the world's leading conservation organization and the consumer goods giant aims to raise awareness of the importance of forests to life on earth as well as the threats our forests face.

President Barack Obama moved Saturday to tighten U.S. rules on sales of ivory from African elephants, aiming to show progress on conservation as he began a trip to the region.

Nestlé announced a pledge to improve the welfare of the farm animals in its supply chain, following the signature of a partnership agreement with NGO World Animal Protection.The agreement means that the hundreds of thousands of farms that supply Nestlé with their dairy, meat, poultry and eggs will have to comply with tighter animal welfare standards. Nestlé, with its global purchasing footprint, also becomes the first major food company to form an international partnership with an animal welfare NGO.

Chile has created a vast marine park around the Desventuradas Islands, a few hundred miles off its coast, to protect many species that can be found nowhere else in the world. "For many years, Chile has been one of the most important fishing countries in the world," said campaigner Alex Munoz. With the marine park's creation, he added, "we're also becoming a leader in marine conservation." 

On Thursday, Asia Pulp & Paper Group announced it is committing to retire roughly 7,000 hectares (~17,300 acres) of commercial plantation areas to protect threatened carbon-rich peatlands - the first time that plantations on tropical peatland have been retired for conservation purposes worldwide.

As the Arctic melts, oil companies are moving in to drill for more oil. Next year, the Norwegian owned oil company Statoil will drill further north than ever - unless we stop them. An unprecedented case was filed this morning that could do just that. This case is about holding back the oil industry at this final frontier, it is about protecting the beautiful Arctic, and it is about people stepping up to hold governments to account. If we win, millions of barrels of oil could be kept in the ground. We will argue in court that we must take action to keep the Paris climate agreement on track, and we will invoke Norway's constitutional right to a healthy and safe environment for future generations.