Improving management practices in grasslands used especially for animal grazing can enhance the capacity of soils as carbon sinks, and help countries reach their climate goals, according to this new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Soils contribute to the achievement of the UN …
Despite repeated tragedies that clearly illustrate the dangers of haphazard urban development at the cost of the environment -the Chennai floods being the most recent example -the authorities never seem to learn. The Gurgaon administration has asked the state government to leave the Aravali foothills and grasslands in the district …
It is over three decades since a large terrestrial carbon sink (ST)was first reported. The magnitude of the net sink is now relatively well known, and its importance for dampening atmospheric CO2 accumulation, and hence climate change, widely recognised. But the contributions of underlying processes are not well defined, particularly …
This volume deals with land degradation, which is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries and is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. However, the impact of land degradation …
An arm of State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) claims that the organisation’s afforestation efforts have more than made up for the deforestation caused by its mining activities. For the sceptical, a recent satellite survey by the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre, an arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, offers …
Several groups in the region have raised objections saying the diversion of these lands will spell doom for the Bustard as well as the entire ecosystem of the region. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has pulled up Environment Ministry for withholding information related to construction work in the ecologically- sensitive …
DHARAMSALA: The Tibetan plateau, home to the third largest store of ice that feeds Asia's six great rivers, is highly vulnerable to climate change, researchers say, warning that over two-thirds of the glaciers could disappear by 2050. Tibet is increasingly experiencing the effects of climate change. The Tibetan plateau has …
The first ever comprehensive butterfly survey held in the Munnar wildlife division has spotted as many as 206 new species. The three-day survey, conducted by the Kerala Forest Department in association with the Travancore Natural History Society (TNHS) and the Kottayam Nature Society (KNS), came to a close on Sunday. …
There is a proposal for a blackbuck conservation reserve at Ummathur and Bagli villages in Chamarajanagar district to sustain their numbers in the wild. Though a final decision on the issue is pending, it was decided at the recent Karnataka Wildlife Board meeting to send a delegation of experts to …
The global extent and distribution of forest trees is central to our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere. We provide the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale. This map reveals that the global number of trees is approximately 3.04 trillion, an order of magnitude higher …
The researchers combined Landsat and MODIS data in a land model to assess the impact of urbanization on US surface climate. For cities built within forests, daytime urban land surface temperature (LST) is much higher than that of vegetated lands. For example, in Washington DC and Atlanta, daytime mean temperature …
China faces a serious threat of deteriorating land and the extinction of rare animals and plants, though it has formed a basic network of protection zones, the national environmental protection authority said. Ninety percent of the grassland in China has seen varying degrees of degradation or desertification, and 40 percent …
A plan to save Australia’s most critically endangered bird has been outlined in the nation’s first threatened species strategy. The plains wanderer, which is only found in small pockets of Victoria’s northern plains, the Riverina district of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, requires “emergency action”. The ground-dwelling bird’s …
JAISALMER: A hatchling of the Great Indian Bustard (Godawan), a near-extinct species and the state bird of Rajasthan, was born at the Desert National Park here, as part of the Union environment ministry's 2012 'species recovery program'. In attempts to save the endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB), two birds laid …
Ecologists have warned that Melbourne is at risk of losing more than half its native plant species over the next century, with grasslands in Melbourne's west most vulnerable to the city's urban sprawl. A study comparing 22 cities around the world found Melbourne had the largest "extinction debt" in terms …
'Project benefits minimal, but harm to eco-sensitive zones substantial' green zone: The Yettinahole stream and the immediate catchment area fall under the Ecologically Sensitive Zone-1, which are strictly no-development zones. The Yettinahole drinking water project may be a much touted one, aimed at quenching the thirst of millions in Bengaluru …
Judgement of the National Green Tribunal (Southern Zone, Chennai) in the matter of D.V. Girish Kalleshwara Estate Kaimara P.O.,Chikmagalur Karnataka Vs. The Secretary to Government (Environment and Ecology) Department of Forest Environment and Ecology dated 09/04/2015 regarding encroachment and illegal constructions being made in Bababudangiri and Mullayanagiri hill areas in …
Latin America has the planet's largest land reserves for agriculture and had the most rapid agricultural expansion during the twenty-first century. A large portion of the expansion replaced forests, as shown by many local and regional studies. However, expansion varied regionally and also replaced other land covers. Further, it is …
Birds in the city no longer live on trees or in nests made of twigs and leaves. Plastic threads from cement bags and carry bag strings now line their nests, which they build on electric poles, skyscrapers and mobile towers. Experts trailing bird nesting patterns in Pune have found that …
A research team from SNM College, Maliankara, has reported the discovery of three new plant species from the Pooyamkutty-Edamalayar region, highlighting the rich biodiversity of the Western Ghats. The investigations were part of a University Grants Commission-sponsored project on flowering plants of Ernakulam district headed by Associate Professor C.N. Sunil. …
This study focuses on pastoralism's current and future potential for securing sustainable managment and green economy outcomes from the world's rangelands. It synthesises existing evidence and uses practical examples from mobile pastoralism in Europe, Latin America, North America, Central, Western and Southern Asia, Australia and throughout Africa to both demonstrate …
