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Brian G. Dowling

About UNEP: The Organization - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) -- - 0 views

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    Mission: To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
Benno Hansen

Extinction Countdown: Bugs off: Habitat loss killing Europe's butterflies, beetles and ... - 0 views

  • The Red List update finds that 9 percent of Europe's butterflies, 11 percent of its saproxylic beetles and 14 percent of dragonflies are threatened with extinction, at least within the geographic confines of the European Union
  • Butterflies, for instance, play a hugely pivotal role as pollinators in the ecosystems in which they live.
  • 31 percent of Europe's 435 butterfly species suffer declining populations
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  • The habitat loss afflicting these species comes from many factors, including agriculture, climate change, logging and the depletion of freshwater resources.
Brian G. Dowling

United Nations Non-governmental Liaison Service - 0 views

  • The United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS) is an inter-agency programme of the United Nations mandated to promote and develop constructive relations between the United Nations and civil society organizations.
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    Objectives The United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) was created in 1975 by several agencies of the United Nations system to serve as a bridge between the UN and civil society organizations. It was established on the belief that meaningful civil society engagement in UN processes and deliberations is essential for the realization of the goals of the Organization and the pursuit of global democratic governance. The goal of NGLS is to strengthen the relations between the United Nations and civil society. Given its distinctive UN inter-agency nature, NGLS is uniquely placed to foster dialogue and greater coherence around the main issues on the UN agenda (development, human rights, environment, peace and security, and humanitarian affairs).
Benno Hansen

UN report urges greater green efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean - 3 views

  • in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the rate of deforestation in the region is double the global average
  • targets contained within “MDG 7” is to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes
  • from 1990 to 2005 the total surface of protected areas grew 120 per cent, consumption of ozone-depleting substances declined by 85 per cent and coverage of drinking water and basic sanitation rose by 10 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively
Benno Hansen

Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People -- Godfray et al. 327 (5967): ... - 2 views

  • more than one in seven people today still do not have access to sufficient protein and energy from their diet, and even more suffer from some form of micronutrient malnourishment
  • Increases in production will have an important part to play, but they will be constrained as never before by the finite resources provided by Earth’s lands, oceans, and atmosphere
  • a period of rising and more volatile food prices driven primarily by increased demand from rapidly developing countries, as well as by competition for resources from first-generation biofuels production
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  • agricultural land that was formerly productive has been lost to urbanization and other human uses, as well as to desertification, salinization, soil erosion, and other consequences of unsustainable land management
  • the world will need 70 to 100% more food by 2050
  • Low yields occur because of technical constraints that prevent local food producers from increasing productivity or for economic reasons arising from market conditions.
  • In the most extreme cases of failed states and nonfunctioning markets, the solution lies completely outside the food system.
  • Food production in developing countries can be severely affected by market interventions in the developed world, such as subsidies or price supports.
  • the environmental costs of food production might increase with globalization, for example, because of increased greenhouse gas emissions associated with increased production and food transport
  • Food production has important negative "externalities," namely effects on the environment or economy that are not reflected in the cost of food.
  • superior technologies may become available and that future generations may be wealthier
  • The introduction of measures to promote sustainability does not necessarily reduce yields or profits. One study of 286 agricultural sustainability projects in developing countries, involving 12.6 million chiefly small-holder farmers on 37 million hectares, found an average yield increase of 79% across a very wide variety of systems and crop types
  • Unexploited genetic material from land races, rare breeds, and wild relatives will be important in allowing breeders to respond to new challenges
  • Fair returns on investment are essential for the proper functioning of the private sector, but the extension of the protection of intellectual property rights to biotechnology has led to a growing public perception in some countries that biotech research purely benefits commercial interests and offers no long-term public good. Just as seriously, it also led to a virtual monopoly of GM traits in some parts of the world, by a restricted number of companies, which limits innovation and investment in the technology.
  • Roughly 30 to 40% of food in both the developed and developing worlds is lost to waste
  • unwanted food goes to a landfill instead of being used as animal feed or compost because of legislation to control prion diseases
  • retailers discard many edible, yet only slightly blemished products
  • In the developing world, losses are mainly attributable to the absence of food-chain infrastructure
  • About one-third of global cereal production is fed to animals
  • the argument that all meat consumption is bad is overly simplistic
  • There is no simple solution to sustainably feeding 9 billion people
Benno Hansen

EU postpones by a decade plans to stop extinctions : Nature Environment - 0 views

  • the EU will have to bring in much stricter rules on protecting rare species and habitats and enforce them much more efficiently, ministers agreed
  • the extinction of animals and plants and the destruction of their habitats costs around 50 billion euros (69 billion dollars) a year worldwide
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