Environment | WPN World People News

As governments meet to discuss biodiversity, on December 7, Greenpeace announced a new global campaign to save the world’s largest terrestrial carbon store – the Great Northern Forest.

The world must ramp up its efforts to use natural resources more sustainably and conserve biological diversity and the ecosystems on which we depend for human life, on December 7, the OECD told participants at the COP13 Convention on Biological Diversity in Cancun, Mexico.

Sprouting fava beans at FAO Headquarters, Rome.

Fifteen national, regional, tribal and local public health and environmental groups representing millions of Americans took legal steps last Friday to defend new standards that will reduce natural gas waste on public and tribal lands, protect public health, and guard against climate change.

On December 5, Representative Kevin McCarthy (CA), with support from Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), is working to add a last-minute anti-environmental “rider” to the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) bill that would jeopardize funding aimed at helping Flint, Michigan, replace its lead-contaminated water system.

Tehuacán-Cuicatlán has one of Mexico’s highest rates of biodiversity and endemic species.

Spain’s Doñana wetland received a reprieve on 02 December when authorities committed not to allow dredging of a river essential to the World Heritage site’s health. In a report to UNESCO, the country stated that a plan to deepen the Guadalquivir River to allow larger commercial ships will not be authorized.

On 03 December, the government of Brazil committed to restoring 12 million hectares of deforested land under the Bonn Challenge, joining 38 other countries, associations and companies in the global restoration effort. The announcement was made by Brazil’s Minister of the Environment José Sarney Filho at the Thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cancun, Mexico, where the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is highlighting the role of forest landscape restoration (FLR) in achieving international biodiversity targets.

The Irish Government on 02 December announced a contribution of EUR 1.5 million to support emergency operations by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Mozambique, where 1.4 million people are unable to meet their food needs due to an El Niño-induced drought.