The National Biodiversity Authority has released a new set of rules to manage sharing of benefits generated through the use of biological resources. The Biological Diversity (Access to biological Resources and Knowledge Associated thereto and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits) Regulation 2025 was approved by the Central government and …
SEVERAL writers have made a name for themselves by publishing dire warnings to developing countries of the dangers posed by new technology from the West. Many wind up exaggerating and making predictions that are as uncertain as those of the neighbourhood astrologer. However, Henk Hobbelink's book is a rarity as …
ALMOST every industry that one can think of, which generates hazardous waste, is situated on the banks of the Hooghly: 96 factories, which include a pulp and paper mill; a pesticide plant; a distillery; yeast, rayon and cotton manufacturing units; a thermal power plant. But, a BOBP study shows the …
A SERIES of international meetings is attempting to sort out the confusion surrounding the implementation of the biodiversity convention, signed at the Rio Summit amidst much fanfare last June. Increasing scrutiny of the text, whose wording cannot be changed, is proving that the contents are dangerously vague. Key questions have …
IF THE terms of the implementation of the biodiversity convention are to be decided by more than a handful of influential governments, the participation of non-government organisations (NGOs) is vital. But barely a dozen NGOs have attended the biodiversity negotiations. It has been suggested that the African Centre for Technology …
SERIOUS differences over biodiversity management surfaced during an Indo-British workshop held recently in New Delhi to prepare a blueprint for conservation of biodiversity in different Indian ecosystems. With the British wanting easy access to information on genetic resources and the Indians doubting the ability of "those from other cultures" to …
THE SPLENDOUS of a tropical rain forest invariably make a profound impression at first sight. "Here I first saw a tropical forest in its sublime grandeur- nothing but the reality can give any idea how wonderful magnificent the scene is..." exulted Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution significantly shaped modern …
ALL OVER the country, there are tensions around national parks and sanctuaries. People living in and around these forests see them as the last remaining sources of biomass and depend on them heavily to meet their fuel and fodder needs. Grazing and other regulations imposed by wildlife managers have cut …
THE GLOBAL Environmental Facility of UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank, administered by the latter and designated as an interim fund under the climate and biodiversity conventions'. has become the most contentious issue in international environmental negotiations, pushing issues of climate change and biodiversity into the background. At a recent …
IN THE battle to save the environment, the nature of laws that govern people's rights to natural resources are crucial, as is the poor person's knowledge of these laws. Certain organisations are working towards reforming existing anomalies in the law and helping people become more aware of their legal rights. …
Environment minister David Maclean has delayed British Nuclear Fuel's (BNF) commissioning of the L1.8 billion Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) at Sellafield until a L50 million treatment plant is set up to neutralise emissions of Krypton 85, a radioactive gas. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have warned local residents …
SHANKAR CHOWDHURY Coordinator, NGO AIDS Cell Centre for Community Medicine All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi - 110029 MULTIPLE ACTION RESEARCH GROUP (MARG) 113-A Shahpur Jat Near Asiad Village New Delhi - 110016 YEE KHIM CHONG Coordinator, Pink Triangle P O Box 11859 50760 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia DR …
THE HOODED pitohui, a bird native to New Guinea, has a deadly surprise in store for predators. Its brilliant orange and black feathers and its skin are laced with a potent toxin called homobatrachotoxin, and researchers say it is the first known bird using poison in self-defence. The poison acts …
CHILDREN'S BOOK TRUST/CBT BOOK SHOP Nehru House 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg New Delhi 110 002 CBT BOOK SHOPS Nehru House New Delhi 110 002 18 C, Rayala Towers 781, Mount Road Madras 600 002 G-14, Kamalalaya Centre 156 A, Lenin Sarani Calcutta 700 013 NATIONAL BOOK TRUST, INDIA A-5 …
The cold war between the superpowers not only left the entire world cold in fear, but perhaps also cooled the Earth, say Russian researchers K Y Kondratyev and G A Nikolsky. Their theory is that the atmospheric nuclear tests of the early 1960s released into the stratosphere vast amounts of …
THE BILL Clinton-Al Gore team, as expected, put the Democrats back in power in the US after 12 years. Gore, the vice president-elect, has been widely acclaimed as a "sincere environmentalist" and his book, Earth in the Balance, is seen as one coming straight from the heart. But exactly how …
K P NYATI Director (Environment Cell) Confederation of Indian Industry 23 Lodi Road Institutional Area Now Delhi 110 003 P B DUGGAL Secretary Federation of Associations of Small Industries of India Laghu Udyog Kutee 2313/2 Guru G S Marg New Delhi 110 005 Chief of the Industrial and Technological Information …
US President George Bush's refusal to sign the biodiversity treaty has failed to please those whom he claims to be protecting: the biotech community. Although Genentech chief executive officer G Kirk Raab wrote to Bush praising him for his "courageous stand (in) rejecting an unwise convention", his employees think otherwise. …
THE MOST reliable guess that scientists have ventured about the origin of the universe is that it was the result of a cosmic explosion that took place about 25 billion years ago. Before the explosion, all matter in the universe is believed to have existed as a highly condensed cosmic …
GEORGE Monbiot's book, for which he risked his life, is a delightfully lucid piece of serious investigative journalism on the ecological destruction of the Amazon, which he describes as the world's "greatest environmental tragedy" and its "greatest ecological catastrophe". Monbiot maintains that the Amazon ecosystem, with its large tropical forests, …
KATHMANDU has more temples per square foot than any other place in the world, wrote Pico Iyer in his travelogue Video Night in Kathmandu. But that reality may soon fade as Nepal strives to deal with the growing pressures of urban life in its capital. Nowadays, only monuments which have …
