17/05/2013
With dire warnings likely to match or exceed the worst fears about the effects of global warming, environment and development experts gathered on 16 May 2013 at United Nations Headquarters to debate the twin challenge of curbing climate change while sustaining economic growth*.
Sustainable water management brings economic, social and environmental benefits, say countries. Photo: UNEP
“The fundamental challenge of our time is to end extreme poverty in this generation and significantly narrow the global gap between rich and poor without ruing the environmental basis for our survival,” General Assembly President Vuk Jeremic said as he opened the Thematic Debate Sustainable Development and Climate Change: Practical Solutions in the Energy-Water Nexus.
The gathering featured UN officials, a host of environment and energy Ministers, as well as a diverse mix of experts that included Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Colombia University’s Earth Institute, and Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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16/05/2013
Rome - Globally, millions of people depend on forests for their livelihoods – directly through the consumption and sale of foods harvested in forests, and indirectly through forest-related employment and income generation, forest ecosystem services, and forest biodiversity, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 16 May 2013 said*.
Photo: UN Forum on Forests/Fendi Aspara | Source: UN
Forest foods, such as leaves, seeds, nuts, honey, fruits, mushrooms, insects and other forest animals, have been important components of rural diets for millennia. An estimated 2.6 billion people rely on fuelwood, including charcoal, for cooking their food, FAO added.
“Governments, civil society and the private sector should ensure and strengthen the contributions of forests, trees and agroforestry systems to food security and nutrition, participants in the first-ever International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition (13-15 May), organized by FAO,” said the organization.
The conference participants agreed that small-scale forest producers should be encouraged to strengthen their involvement in agroforestry, tree‐growing, small‐scale wood processing and the provision of ecosystem services.
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14/05/2013
Rome, 14 May 2013 – Forests, trees on farms and agroforestry are critical in the fight against hunger and should be better integrated into food security and land use policies, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said on 13 May 2013 at the International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition in Rome (13-15 May).*
 A woman selling dried caterpillars in Kinshasha, Democratic Republic of the Congo | FAO “Forests contribute to the livelihoods of more than a billion people, including many of the world’s neediest. Forests provide food, fuel for cooking, fodder for animals and income to buy food,” Graziano da Silva said.
“Wild animals and insects are often the main protein source for people in forest areas, while leaves, seeds, mushrooms, honey and fruits provide minerals and vitamins, thus ensuring a nutritious diet,” he added. “But forests and agroforestry systems are rarely considered in food security and land use policies.”
“Often, rural people do not have secure access rights to forests and trees, putting their food security in danger. The important contributions forests can make to the food security and nutrition of rural people should be better recognized,” Graziano da Silva said.
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12/05/2013
Nairobi – Populations of elephants in Africa continue to be under severe threat as the illegal trade in ivory grows – with double the numbers of elephants killed and triple the amounts of ivory seized, over the last decade, according to the United Nations*.
African elephants | Photo credit: Ikiwaner | Wikimedia Commons.
According to a new report entitled “Elephants in the Dust – The African Elephant Crisis”, increasing poaching levels, as well as loss of habitat are threatening the survival of African elephant populations in Central Africa as well as previously secure populations in West, Southern and Eastern Africa.
The report says that systematic monitoring of large-scale seizures of ivory destined for Asia is indicative of the involvement of criminal networks, which are increasingly active and entrenched in the trafficking of ivory between Africa and Asia.
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12/05/2013
By Nick Nuttal*, UNEP - In the 1950s and 1970s, the United Kingdom and Iceland were involved in the famous cod wars—a dispute over fishing rights. Today it is the tomato at the centre of attention—at least in Brazil—as prices last month soared 150 per cent in part due to food wastage of this essential and popular fruit.
Photo credit: Pluma | Wikimedia Common.
Clever cartoons and tongue-in-cheek photos on the “Tomatoes are very expensive” Facebook page cast them as a luxury, Brazil’s newest status symbol. ”Five star meal,” reads the caption above a photo of a simple everday lunch of meat, rice and salad, crowned by two skimpy tomato slices.
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12/05/2013
As an estimated 50 billion birds commence their annual migrations, the critical staging areas they need to complete these journeys continue to be degraded or are disappearing completely, the United Nations today warned on this year’s World Migratory Bird Day on 11 May 2013*.
White Pelican. Photo: UNEP/AEWA/Sergey Dereliev
In his message marking the Day, celebrated each year in over 65 countries on 11 and 12 May, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored the need for greater international action in protecting the winged fauna and saving their natural habitats.
With the stepping stones to their migration under increased pressure, some bird species could face extinction within a decade.
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11/05/2013
The theme of the 2013 World Day to Combat Desertification* is drought and water scarcity. Freshwater is valuable. Of all the water on Earth, only 2.5 per cent is freshwater. And of all this freshwater, the total usable supply for ecosystems and humans is less than 1 per cent.
UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
When demand for water exceeds available supply, it results in water scarcity. Drylands are particularly vulnerable to water scarcity. The projected intensification of freshwater scarcity will cause greater stresses in drylands. While each person needs at least 2,000 cubic meters of water for human well-being and sustainable development every year, on average, people in the drylands have access to only 1,300 cubic meters.
The goal of the 2013 World Day to Combat Desertification is to create awareness about the risks of drought and water scarcity in the drylands and beyond, calling attention to the importance of sustaining healthy soils as part of post Rio+20 agenda, as well as the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.
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11/05/2013
The crops, animals and trees found in forests can play a crucial role in improving food security and nutrition around the world, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)*, which is hosting a gathering on the issue in Rome next week.
Forests for improved nutrition and food security. Photo: FAO
Forests cover nearly a third of the globe and provide an invaluable variety of social, economic and environmental benefits. Around 1.6 billion people – including more than 2,000 indigenous cultures – depend on forests for their livelihood.
Forests are also the source of three-fourths of freshwater, help to regulate the impact of storms and floods and store carbon from the atmosphere. Also, more than three billion people depend on forests for wood for cooking and heating.
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09/05/2013
Geneva, 8 May 2013 - The long-term impact of the youth employment crisis could be felt for decades, creating a generation at risk of suffering decent work deficits throughout their lives, says the International Labour Organization (ILO) in its new report Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013.
An unemployed youth. Photo: ILO
Despite some regional differences, the global youth unemployment rate continues to rise and is projected to reach 12.8 per cent by 2018 – wiping out the gains made at the start of the economic recovery, adds ILO release.
Behind this worsening figure is an even more worrying picture, revealing persistent unemployment, a proliferation of temporary jobs and growing youth discouragement in advanced economies; and poor quality, informal, subsistence jobs in developing countries.
According to the ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013 report, an estimated 73.4 million young people – 12.6 per cent – are expected to be out of work in 2013, close to the levels reached at the peak of the economic crisis in 2009. This is an increase of 3.5 million between 2007 and 2013.
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09/05/2013
By Roberto Savio*
Rome, May 2013 — The European Union has asked its citizens to brace for further economic misery. In a report on European economic prospects released on May 3, the European Commission said that further deterioration is expected to last at least until 2015. But, as every such report says, things will then get better!
Roberto Savio | Photo: montsess/flickr
Unemployment in the euro area is expected to climb to 12.2 percent this year, up from 11.4 percent last year.
In Spain, unemployment will rise to 27 percent, up from the 25 percent of last year; in Portugal it will rise from 15.9 to 18.9 percent; and after three brutal years of suffering, in Greece it will climb by 2.7 percent to 27 percent.
The trend will become devastating for young people: in Spain alone, it is estimated that 52 percent of young people will be without a job. We are creating a generation that will probably never get back on track.
The same trend is happening also in the rich countries of northern Europe, which are being brought down by the reaction of imports from impoverished southern Europe.
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