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 …
MORE than 100 years ago, Charles Darwin had concluded his book The Origin of Species by declaring that the stability of an ecosystem 'was related to the diversity of life forms present therein. According to him, a grassland would yield a higher quantity of grass if more varieties of grass …
AFTER Latin America was plundered 400 years ago -by Spanish, conquistadors guided by the triple goals of "Gold, Glory and God", today, reckless exploitation of another El Dorado on the continent - Venezuela's Bolivar province - is threatening to destroy the unique Amazonian flora and fauna, besides subjecting the inhabitants …
Ecologist N V C Polunin argues that protected areas are an extreme form of conservation, and that other forms of regulated area management may be more appropriate for the management needs of local development. In fact, future conservation could be based predominantly on those categories of proteced areas which accept …
There are several international systems for designating protected areas. The most widely used is that of International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) management categories. which include eight classes: (I) Scientific Reserve/Strict Nature Reserve; (II) National Park; (III) Natural Monument/Natural Landmark; (IV) Managed Nature Reserve/Wildlife Sanctuary; (V) Protected Landscape …
IT HAS to be done, but let others do it: that is the attitude of the wealthy, developed countries regarding conservation of global natural resources. The overall global balance has to be maintained, so they are pushing the Southern countries to adopt Otheir own model of policed conservation in "nature …
THE new buzz word in environment circles is biodiversity which is the diversity of life in all its ramifications - the different communities that make up an ecosystem, the different species that make up communities, the variable individual organisms that belong to each species, and the genetic variation that we …
Environment and business often make good partners. This has been amply demonstrated by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Madagascar. The Organisation there buys up commercial debts available at a discount in minor markets. It then pressurises the government to allocate funds to protect Madagascar's ecosystem. This arrangement has …
The great Pantanal--the world's largest wetlands, located in South America--is running a grave risk, warns the World Wildlife Fund (wwf). It would fall victim to a gradual process of desertification if the proposed Hidrovia Waterways project is allowed to come up. The US $1.3 billion project would join the Parana …
Environment 1995 Version describes succinctly and lucidly how the ecosystem work, how matter and energy move through the ecosystem, and how the population dynamics affects and is, in turn, affected by the ecosystems. This interdisciplinary approach is conducive to a clear understanding of the concepts that underlie the problems. Raven …
A TIME will soon come when the health and wealth of a nation will be measured in terms of its biodiversity. This will be the foundation of the development of future technologies. It is this wealth that is facing destruction today. Biodiversity is a part of the larger ecosystem in …
WHY has Shimla, once the summer capital of the British Raj and now the refuge of escapees from the plains' scorching heat, lost its picturesque serenity? Manish Bhardwaj, 15, a high school student, gives a rapid-fire answer: "Unchecked urbanisation -- garbage piles, choked nallahs, polluted streams, broken sewers, chopped trees, …
WE TEND to forget that Steven Spielberg's celluloid extravaganza Jurassic Park was inspired by a book of the same name by Michael Crichton. In the novel, when Dodgson of the Biosyn Corp learnt that the rival bioengineering concern, InGen Inc, were secretly developing a park packed with dinosaurs, brought into …
STARK mountainous desert areas need no longer wear dead white. The possibility of reclaiming areas like Ladakh and Lahaul and Spiti has materialised in the form of a tree called the seabuckthorn. Tenacious as a mountain goat, the shrub-tree is a blessing for the region: it checks soil erosion, yields …
WHAT could the consequences be of the rapid extinction of plant and animal species, as witnessed this century? A team of researchers at the Centre for Population Biology, of the UK's Imperial College at Silwood Park says that it has demonstrated experimentally, for the first time, that the loss of …
US PRESIDENT Bill Clinton has proposed a package of measures that would afford additional protection to Alaska's wetlands, but also ease some of the present restrictions on wetlands use. Environmentalists term the measures a tepid series of steps that will just open up opportunities for the abuse of a fragile …
ALLEGATIONS of illegal practices in the prawn trade in Chilika -- Asia's largest brackish water lake -- have been confirmed by a five-member 'fact-finding' committee set up by the Bhubaneswar High Court. The committee was set up in response to writ petitions filed by three primary fisherfolk cooperative societies challenging …
IN A CORNER of Gujarat lies the Gir national park, perhaps the last home in the wild for the Asiatic lion. The range of the park has shrunk progressively from vast stretches of Asia to its present, forest department-protected 1,200 sq km. For thousands of years, the Maldharis and their …
THE BOOK focuses on a new environmental agenda for cities, followed by details on environmental problems in the home, workplace and neighbourhood. The treatment of the subject makes interesting reading of a much debated topic. For a change, concrete suggestions emerge for tackling environmental problems, especially health problems. Despite the …
RESIDENTs of oil-rich Rivers State in Nigeria are protesting the environmental impact of years of oil exploration. "Oil spills and blowouts have made our farmlands infertile, polluted our streams and fishing lagoons and damaged ecosystems beyond repair,'. complains Ken Saro-Wiwa of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, which …
THE BRITISH blamed the improvidence of the Indian peasantry for the destruction of India's forest wealth. Even with Independence, the bureaucracy continued to toe this line and with such effect that in the 1950s, the new forest policy asserted local people should not enjoy special rights over forests in their …
