More than a fifth of the world's migrating species are at risk of going extinct as a result of climate change and human encroachment, according to this report by the United Nations. Migratory species globally are facing critical challenges, with nearly half in decline and over 20 per cent threatened …
Hurricane Hannah hit Hiati and Ike struck the Texas Gulf coast, as the Atlantic Ocean continues to churn more storms, leaving people dead and displaced. Back home, it was the overflowing Kosi river that had displaced 25 lakh people in Bihar and 12 lakh in Assam.
This document aims to provide a general framework to partners under UNEP's project on "Vulnerability Assessment of Freshwater Resources to Environmental Change". The framework is developed on the basis of available knowledge of the field, with full consideration of data availability and other constraints, and is intended to be a …
The purpose of the new edition is to introduce the basic concepts of water quality and how it is related to ecosystem and human health; and to present an overview and assessments of current and upcoming global water quality issues with examples from around the world. It also includes a …
This report reviews threshold changes in North American ecosystems that are potentially induced by climatic change and addresses the significant challenges these threshold crossings impose on resource and land managers. Sudden changes to ecosystems and the goods and services they provide are not well understood, but they are extremely important …
The greater Himalayan region and its water resources play an important role in global atmospheric circulation, biodiversity, etc while serving more than 1.3 billion people in the basin areas of ten large Asian rivers. This paper discusses these issues, the need to close the knowledge gap, the need for adaptation …
The survey was conducted during the past four weeks by researchers at GlobeScan with the support of the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), along with other contributing …
Betel nut farmers at the foothills of the Western Ghats have something new and important to teach India and the rest of the world, says Jai Ranganathan, lead author of a recent scientific study that was published recently in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the …
This study, conducted with the appreciated and committed participation of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Mr Jean Ziegler, illustrates, in the context of the 16th and 17th session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, how human rights can and must be mainstreamed in sustainable …
The modern story of the Iraqi Marshlands begins tragically - with intentional environmental destruction used as a political weapon - but today is one of miraculous renewal, international cooperation and hope. Once at the brink of total collapse, the area has been restored to a point where it will soon …
Under natural resource ecosystems shared across communities and nations, the distribution among stakeholders of risks and vulnerability to climate change is likely to be uneven on account of the nature of their stakes in the ecosystems, the degree of their dependence and the extent of degradation of the natural resources. …
There is a seamless link between research and assessments. The development of a science agenda should stimulate the science community to conduct additional research to address key issues in linking ecosystem services and human well-being. This is still a new area of research. The new research programme proposed in this …
Global climate change is a reality. In Europe the most vulnerable regions are the Arctic, mountain areas, coastal zones and the Mediterranean. Key economic sectors, which will need to adapt include energy supply, health, water management, agriculture, forestry, tourism and transport.
This atlas demonstrates the potential for spatial analyses to identify areas that are high in both carbon and biodiversity. Such areas will be of interest to countries that wish to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land use change and simultaneously conserve biodiversity.
The document begins with a short overview on the impacts of degrading eco-systems on human well-being. How current energy consumption is contributing to this degradation is also addressed. The affect of climate change on ecosystem services and the energy services they provide is then briefly examined. The document concludes with …
The following guidelines are offered to help in application of the IUCN protected area management categories, which classify protected areas according to their management objectives. The categories are recognised by international bodies such as the United Nations and by many national governments as the global standard for defining and recording …
This paper is a compilation of example principles, frameworks and tools already in use in the conservation community which may be applied to bioenergy production to identify and reduce environmental as well as socio-economic risks and promote opportunties. The aim is to provide the range of stakeholders who are engaged …
The mangrove ecosystem of the Indus delta is gravely threatened by the reduced flow of fresh water and its destruction is quite evident in near future if the situation continued to persist. This would mean loss of all fishery resources of the country and livelihood of local people, who would …
The population cycles of rodents at northern latitudes have puzzled people for centuries, and their impact is manifest throughout the alpine ecosystem. Climate change is known to be able to drive animal population dynamics between stable and cyclic phases and has been suggested to cause the recent changes in cyclic …
