Hope in a Changing Climate

HOPE in a Changing Climate – the groundbreaking BBC documentary that shows how ecological damage can be reversed – may provide one of the key solutions to global warming and climate change, but only if it is adopted as a matter of urgency.
The 22-minute film shows how farming and over-grazing led to soil erosion on [...]

Palm oil body accused of ignoring greenhouse gas emissions

JAKARTA ~ The body set up to certify “sustainable” palm-oil production in Malaysia and Indonesia is completely ignoring greenhouse gas emissions in its certification procedure, according to a report issued today.
In a damning statement, Wetlands International says that palm oil shipped to Europe by members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is far [...]

World NGO Conference on Wetlands coming soon

LEADING members of non-government organisations (NGOs) from more than 40 countries are expected to gather in South Korea next month for the World NGO Conference on Wetlands.
The conference will be held in Changnyeong and Suncheon from October 25-27 immediately prior to COP10, the 10th Conference of the Contracting Parties of the Switzerland-based Ramsar Convention.
The event, [...]

Europeans slash biofuel requirement

IN A further setback for the biofuel industry, members of the Environmental Committee of the European Parliament have voted to abandon their previous target of 10 percent biofuel by 2020.

At a recent meeting they decided that 4 percent biofuel would be quite enough. They also voted for stronger sustainability criteria aimed at making it more [...]

New ban may stem rampant forest destruction in Indonesia

JAKARTA ~ The Indonesian province of Riau has pledged to halt the destruction of its forests and peatlands, a move that will prevent billions of tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere, Greenpeace said in a statement.
At a ceremony in the provincial capital Pekanbaru last week, Riau Governor Wan Abu Bakar announced the ban, which [...]

Environmentalists could “kill” Korean president’s grand canal plan

SEOUL ~ The Ramsar wetlands protection conference in Changwon, South Korea, will be “the biggest and the best ever”, Mr Anada Tiega, the secretary general of the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, told reporters in Seoul today.
But he declined to say anything about the controversial plan by the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak who wants to build [...]

WWF joins Thai government in major push for Ramsar status

BANGKOK ~ Thailand could more than triple the total area of its designated wetlands if a new proposal is accepted by the Switzerland-based Ramsar Convention.
The plan, which is still in preparation, will be submitted to the Ramsar meeting in Korea on October 28 by Thailand’s Office of Natural Resource and Environment Policy (ONEP) with the [...]

Thai environmentalist wins Ramsar award

ONE of Thailand’s best-known and most highly-respected environmentalists has been named as a winner in the 2008 awards of one of the most prestigious environmental organisations in the world, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (RCW).
Dr Sansanee Choowaew, associate professor at Mahidol University’s Faculty of Environment, is being recognized for her “exceptional contribution” to wetland management, [...]