CBD News Headlines

• Maharashtra Plastic Ban: 10 ways other countries have managed to reduce plastic consumption
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  While a single plastic bag may seem insignificant, it must be kept in mind that every single plastic counts when the health of our planet is hanging in the balance. It is important for us to be aware of the bans and regulations from across the world that have managed to lower plastic footprints by as much as 90 per cent in some cases.
• Greener, greater cities
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  What should a "green" city look like? Should it resemble Copenhagen, with its high rates of bicycle commuting and recycling? What about Curitiba, the capital of Brazil's Paraná state, with its pedestrian-centred planning? Or perhaps Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, which is powered entirely by renewable energy?
• Marine natural parks in Catalonia, affected by climate change
  [released on: 18/06/2018]
  Populations of gorgonian and other benthic organisms in the Natural Park of Cap de Creus and Natural Park in Montgrí experienced a high mortality rate during 2017 due the proliferation of filament algae in the Catalan coast during 2017. This phenomenon could be the result of the high temperatures in spring and summer and the high concentration of nutrients in the environment, according to a report on the monitoring of the marine environment in the Natural Park of Cap de Creus and the Natural Park in Montgrí, Medes Islands and Baix Ter in Catalonia (Spain).
• Here are the SA cities facing the biggest threat from climate change
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Major South African centres are at risk from the effects of climate change, says an international report.
• From Africa's Baobabs To America's Pines: Our Ancient Trees Are Dying.
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Old postcards show North American redwoods large enough for cars to drive through, thousand-year-old kauri trees in New Zealand with trunks the size of tanks, and European oaks older than the Roman empire with branches covering half a football field.
• New monitoring system for climate change impacts on Egypt's shores
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  As part of the Nile Delta protection project, currently implemented by Egypt in cooperation with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), an affiliate of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), a new detection system to monitor the impact of climate change along the Mediterranean shores is going to be established.
• The age of climate change begins
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Heat waves and droughts can be expected much more often as a result of future warming. On June 23, 1988, a top NASA scientist told Congress and the world that global warming had arrived. NASA scientist James Hansen predicted that 1988 would be the world's hottest year on record, thanks to the burning of fossil fuels that released heat-trapping gases.
• Coral oases that resist climate change offer 'glimmer of hope' for dying reefs
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Sections of coral in the Pacific and the Caribbean are fighting back against the global threats that have decimated reefs worldwide.
• Ja among 14 Caricom countries preparing projects to mobilise 'green funds'
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Jamaica is among 14 Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states which will design multiple projects to mobilise resources from international sources that will allow them to improve the resilience and adaptation of agriculture, food systems and rural communities to change climate.
• Sustainable Land Management, the Formula to Combat Desertification
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Sustainable land management (SLM) and conservation are the recipes that with different ingredients represent the basis for combating soil degradation, participants in the event to celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD)agreed on Jun. 17 in Ecuador.
• Save Tanjung Aru beach and the blue-naped parrot
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Aru beach is located on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu city, Sabah. It is very popular with the locals and visitors and a visit there will show you why it is much loved. It is an idyllic beach with tall old casuarina trees, lovely sand and magnificent sunsets; Kota Kinabalu sunsets are among the best in the world. Tanjung Aru beach is a great place to bring the family and just have a peaceful day out.
• Palm oil: The carbon cost of deforestation
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  A recent study by EPFL and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) shows that intensive farming of palm oil has a major impact on the environment. Both short- and long-term solutions exist, however. The article, which was published on June 19 in Nature Communications, analyzed the carbon costs and benefits of converting rainforests into oil palm plantations.
• Puan, oldest known Sumatran orangutan, dies in Australia
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  The world's oldest known Sumatran orangutan has died in an Australian zoo aged 62, leaving behind 54 descendants. Puan, described as the "grand old lady" of Perth Zoo, was euthanised on Monday due to age-related complications.
• Does nature conservation deserve a slice of the aid budget?
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  It's a good time to be revisiting the case for integrating poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. Growing economic inequality in fast-growing developing economies is exacerbating threats to biodiversity, as poor farmers are pushed further into frontier wilderness. A combination of climate change and conflict mean that global hunger levels are growing for the first time in many years.
• Mass death of herring on Sakhalin island: what is the cause?
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Shocking pictures show thousands of herring washed up around Piltun Bay in northeastern Sakhalin. Both state research bodies and ecological campaign groups are seeking to understand the reasons behind the mass death of the fish. Meanwhile, there are fears that herring could vanish from these waters. Activists from Ecowatch counted dead fish at 28 points along a 30 kilometre stretch of shore.
• Bolder targets needed to protect nature for people's sake
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  University of Queensland (UQ) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) researchers argue that the world needs more diverse, ambitious and area-specific targets for retaining important natural systems to safeguard humanity. The findings are published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
• Collecting bacterial communities from puddles helps solve ecosystem riddles
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Researchers have used puddle ecosystems to start to unravel the roles different bacteria play in complex communities. Bacteria coat every surface on Earth, living in soil and water, and even inside other creatures including ourselves. They often play critical roles, such as helping us digest food or providing 'ecosystem services' like decomposing dead plant matter and returning the nutrients to the soil.
• On the expansion threshold of a species' range
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  What stops a species adapting to an ever-wider range of conditions, continuously expanding its geographic range? The biomathematician Jitka Polechová, an Elise Richter Fellow at the University of Vienna, has published a paper in PLoS Biology which explains the formation of species' range margins. The theory shows that just two compound parameters, important for both ecology and evolution of species, are fundamental to the stability of their range: the environmental heterogeneity and the size of the local population.
• Sister species of birds reveal clues to how biodiversity evolves
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Extensive new datasets about the world's birds are helping to solve the riddle of how life on Earth diversified.By combining global datasets on bird characteristics, citizen-science species sightings and genetics, researchers have begun to answer some key questions in biodiversity. The results are published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution, in two parallel studies that include Imperial College London researchers.
• Exotic invasions can drive native species extinct
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Latest research from the University of Southampton has revealed the impact of exotic species upon native wildlife, which could potentially lead to native plant species extinctions within their natural habitats.
• Blue gene regulation helps plants respond properly to light
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) have discovered a process through which gene expression in plants is regulated by light. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, the study found that blue light triggers a shift in which portion of a gene is ultimately expressed.
• Researchers plunge into ocean 'twilight zone' to explore ecosystem carbon flow
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  A large multidisciplinary team of scientists, equipped with advanced underwater robotics and an array of analytical instrumentation, will set sail for the northeastern Pacific Ocean this August. The team's mission for NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) is to study the life and death of the small organisms that play a critical role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and in the ocean's carbon cycle.
• Time to protect biodiversity
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  The new state government must take on reforms in managing natural resources and strengthening biodiversity conservation. Towards this end, Sabah Environmental Trust chief executive officer and founder Dr Rahimatsah Amat spelt out five initiatives that it could take.
• CARICOM to Create Regional Biodiversity Strategy This Year
  [released on: 19/06/2018]
  The Caribbean Community Secretariat (CARICOM) announced today that this year it will present a regional Biodiversity Strategy, which will guide the sustainable use and protection of the natural resources of the member states.