Environment | WPN World People News

A Central African protected area that straddles three countries and teems with gorillas, elephants, and chimpanzees has been named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) hailed the decision as a major step forward in protecting and promoting the area’s world-renowned biodiversity.

Tomato is the most economically important crop in the Near East region.

Drought in the United States may make delivering food aid more expensive, according to experts and aid groups, and it could mean less will be given at a time when more people might need it.

Desert locusts eating vegetation.

Record high temperatures and a lack of rainfall are creating the worst drought conditions for U.S. farmers in a generation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared more than 1000 counties in 26 states natural disaster areas as crops there deteriorate.

Soldiers from the California Army National Guard drop water from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on a portion of the Robbers Fire in Placer County, Calif. The California Army National Guard has been working with the California Department of Forest and Fire Protection to control the fire by dropping thousands of gallons of water, in addition to providing medical evacuation support.

A new report out by U.S. Chamber of Commerce today attacks important clean air rules to clean up dirty air pollution in our national parks and wilderness areas, according to conservation groups. Decades after Congress required the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states to take necessary steps to cut haze pollution in national parks and wilderness areas, “EPA’s New Regulatory Front: Regional Haze and the Takeover of State Programs,” contends an effort to clean up antiquated coal-fired power plants imposes unreasonable cleanup costs on coal-fired power plants.

As part of a joint initiative with national food safety agencies, EFSA is publishing new risk communications guidelines: “When Food Is Cooking Up a Storm – Proven Recipes for Risk Communications”. A recognised need for practical guidance coupled with a desire from all participating countries to share learning and experience to strengthen risk communications within the European food safety system has resulted in these guidelines.