ecological conservation Archives - Page 4 of 4

The White Rhino - one of many endangered large animals

Conserve/Resist

Report: World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020

2nd November 2016

The Guardian reports: The number of wild animals on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, which a new report attributes to an ongoing mass extinction. The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020….

ALTERNATIVES

Can we assess the value of ecosystems in monetary terms?

23rd October 2016

Gana Kedlaya writes: “With India trying to accelerate economic growth and relax forest laws, there is immense pressure to divert forests to non-forests uses. There is a pressing need to undertake an economic valuation of ecosystem services, especially intangible benefits, provided by Indian forests.” professor K.N. Ninan, author of a study on valuing ecosystem services….

The Bramble Cay melomys is the first mammal recorded extinct due to climate change.

Conserve/Resist

Ecologists are fiddling while our natural heritage burns, says Harvard scientist

21st October 2016

Aaron M. Ellison writes in Nature: Better data will not save elephants, rhinos or any other species. Countless individuals, institutions, governments, and multinational and non-governmental organizations have been collecting, assimilating and organizing such data for decades, essentially fiddling while our biological heritage burns… I suggest three crucial actions that scientists can take, beginning right now….

ALTERNATIVES

Video & Report: Four important lessons from Cuba’s urban food survival strategy

11th September 2016

Aurel Keller writes: The collapse of the Soviet Union, and resultant loss of imports crucial for the island nation’s industrial agriculture system left Cuba with a severe food crisis in the 1990s. Today, Cuba has become a regional leader in sustainable agriculture, and its practices and institutions a model for localized and small-scale urban agriculture….

ALTERNATIVES

Video: This ‘botanical explorer’ believes that plants are our future

3rd August 2016

Crystal Stevens writes: Joseph Simcox is an ethnobotanist who has an intrinsic fascination with nature’s wonders. This ‘botanical explorer’, travels the world finding rare and even new plants. He believes that plants are our future, and passionately teaches the importance of symbiotic relationships between us and plants for us to live well on this planet….

Shivaji Kagnekar (middle) with fellow Gandhian Sadashivarao Bhonsale (extreme left)

The Hindu

ALTERNATIVES

On a sustainable path

1st August 2016

Smoke-free kitchens, productive farmlands, abundant natural resources — these are some of the features that make over a dozen villages in Karnataka’s Belagavi district stand apart. The concept of enhancing rural livelihoods through active participation of people was introduced here by Shivaji Kagnekar, 67, a social reformer, who has successfully explored possibilities of rural development….

Representational pic

ALTERNATIVES

The Chizami model of development

24th July 2016

Ananda Banerjee reports: Chizami village, located in Phek district of eastern Nagaland, has 600 households with a population of 3,000. Chizami is considered a model village for the quiet revolution it has led in the past decade in terms of socioeconomic reforms and environment protection. The village council imposes strict fines on those violating norms….

Anupam Nath/Associated Press

Conflict/Dispossession

Adivasi boy shot at by guards of ‘shoot-first’ Kaziranga national park

22nd July 2016

The Ecologist magazine reports: A 7-year old boy has been injured after getting shot by park guards in Assam’s Kaziranga national park, which operates a strict ‘shoot first’ policy. In the last nine years, an estimated 62 people have been shot dead by Kaziranga guards, four of whom were ironically arrested for alleged rhino poaching recently….

ALTERNATIVES

Video: Interview with Open Source Ecology pioneer Marcin Jakubowski

14th July 2016

Marcin Jakubowski is one of those crazy people who has been trying to open source a civilization starter kit from the ground up. Here he talks of why he considers himself farmer-scientist and open source ecologist; scarcity; distribution and post-scarcity; the definition, goals of open source ecology; the civilization starter kit of 50 irreplaceable machines….

Representative pic

Conserve/Resist

Norway becomes world’s first country to ban deforestation

9th June 2016

EcoWatch reports: Norway has become the first country to ban deforestation. The Norwegian Parliament pledged May 26 that the government’s public procurement policy will be deforestation-free. Any product that contributes to deforestation won’t be used in the Scandinavian country. Norway’s action plan also includes a requires the government to exercise due care in biodiversity protection….

Education/Awareness

Ghagh: Why a 16th century farmer-poet is still relevant

24th May 2016

Mrinal Pande writes: For more than four centuries, Ghagh, literally “the sly one”, has been undoubtedly the most popular of poet philosophers for farming communities in the Indo-Gangetic plains. An astronomer and agricultural guru, Ghagh’s pithy couplets discuss crop cycles, seeds, tips for buying healthy cattle, and reflections on vagaries of both man and nature….

Pratham Books

ALTERNATIVES

Development is for the people: A talk by Madhav Gadgil

1st May 2016

The full text of a recent talk given by prominent ecologist Madhav Gadgil, a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010. It tries to explore the significant issue of when and why people turn against conservation….

Shanker Chakravarty/The Hindu

Development/Growth

Make (Or Break) In India: Down to Earth special issue ahead of the Union Budget

28th February 2016

The Union Budget 2015-2016 will be presented in amid dwindling fortunes of the NDA government. Agriculture is already on a downswing while the economic slowdown is perceptible – all this when nine states are going to polls in 2016-17. Down to Earth presents a series of analyses of the Union Budget from the environment and development perspectives….