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Key Documents archive results 1-20 of 20 in Agriculture & Environment and Biodiversity
From REDD to PINC
This policy brief, published by the Global Canopy Programme, proposes a system called Proactive Investment in Natural Capital (PINC), to reward countries for conserving large areas of tropical forest that act as 'global utilities' providing ecosystem services essential for preserving global food...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: December 2008 | EN
Carbon and biodiversity: A demonstration atlas
This report, published by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, highlights areas where high carbon content and high biodiversity overlap. The authors argue that by identifying target areas, such spatial analyses can help tropical countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-use...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2008 | EN
Protected areas for achieving biodiversity targets
This special 2005 issue of CBD News, the newsletter of the UN biodiversity convention, focuses on the role of protected areas in meeting a global target to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss before 2010. Nearly 12 per cent of the Earth's land surface is now under protected status, though it is...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2005 | EN
Ecosystems and human well being
Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems faster and more extensively than in any period in human history. That is one of four main conclusions to emerge from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a comprehensive review of the impact of human activities on the state of the worldSs...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2004 | EN
Coral Reefs and Global Climate Change
Coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine ecosystems and they provide economic benefits to the growing number of people who live in low-lying coastal areas. Research has suggested that climate change poses a threat to these complex ecosystems. This report includes a thorough introduction to...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: February 2004 | EN
Branding Biodiversity
Conservation groups in developed countries have embarked on an initiative aimed at improving how biodiversity issues are communicated to the wider public in both developed and developing countries. The initiative is aimed both at making it easier for people to grasp what are often complex issues...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: May 2004 | EN
Background paper for UN task force on environmental sustainability
The UN Millennium Project was established by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to recommend ways of achieving the Millennium Developemnt Goals - reducing the number of people living in poverty before 2015. The project is divided into 10 task forces. Task force 6 is responsible for environmental...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: April 2003 | EN
Biodiversity, Science and Sustainable Development
This report reviews some of the main scientific achievements in discovering the extent of global biodiversity decline. It also reviews some of the major scientific initiatives to improve understanding of biodiversity issues that have been put in place since the 1992 Earth Summit. It is one of...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2002 | EN
International legal regime for protected areas
Conservation organisations are lobbying hard for a new international law on protected areas. Parks Canada commissioned the World Conservation Union to write this set of papers exploring the scope of such a law. The papers look at different possible legal arrangements for protected areas as well as...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: August 2003 | EN
Global Environmental Negotiations
Compiled from the archive of India's fornightly Down to Earth magazine, Global Environmental Negotiations is an impressive two-volume book that provides comprehensive information on the history and prospects of all UN multilateral environmental agreements, including the conventions on biodiversity,...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2001 | EN
Governing Global Biodiversity
Published on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the biodiversity convention in 2002, Governing Global Biodiversity is a compilation of researched essays on the history and evolution of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, and is aimed a decision-makers. Desiree McGraw's chapter on how...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2002 | EN
The Global Environment Facility - a guide for NGOs
This is an invaluable 52-page online guide to navigating the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the official UN funding mechanism for environmental projects. GEF has spent close to $2 billion in its first decade of operations and biodiversity is one of its five focal areas. GEF is also...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 1998 | EN
Living planet report
The Living Planet Report is a periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems produced by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). WWF have developed what they call the Living Planet Index. The index is based on trends over the past 30 years in populations of hundreds of species of birds,...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2002 | EN
Global biodiversity plan needs to convince local policymakers
This letter to Nature outlines argues against the idea that ecological criteria alone should be used to drive conservation strategies - a blueprint put forward by the non-governmental campaigning organisation, Conservation International. Paul Jepson, a geographer at the University of Oxford,...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: January 2001 | EN
Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities
This is one of several research articles that gives scientific weight to the idea that governments should prioritise the protection of 25 regions of the world - dubbed 'hotspots' - where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat. The authors argue that...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: February 2000 | EN
Clashes with corporate giants: 22 campaigns for biodiversity and community
Friends of the Earth International has Twenty-two brief case studies on the impact of corporate activity on biodiversity around the globe. Most of the examples focus on what happens when governments and businesses plan large development projects which take away the livelihoods of poor rural...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2002 | EN
Biodiversity and Climate Change: Key Issues and Opportunities Emerging from the Kyoto Protocol
This is a concise summary from the World Resources Institute of relevant articles in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change that highlight the relationship between biodiversity and climate change. The Kyoto Protocol formally recognises the dual nature of forests - they are both part of the problem...
KEY DOCUMENT | EN
Red List of Threatened Species
The world-famous annual Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union is now into its fifth decade. The list highlights species at risk of global extinction. It is based on the collective data-gathering of thousands of scientists. The...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2002 | EN
Global Biodiversity Outlook
Published by the United Nations biodiversity convention, the Global Biodiversity Outlook is a periodic assessment of the state of the worldSs biodiversity, which includes an analysis of the steps being taken to ensure that the convention is being adopted in its member countries. The report also...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: 2002 | EN
Trade, intellectual property, food and biodiversity
The author draws on various perspectives presented in the literature on intellectual property rights, food, farming, biodiversity, and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and related agreements. He highlights the policy questions for developing countries by TRIPS,...
KEY DOCUMENT | Publication date: February 1999 | EN
