Archive for July 29th, 2016

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29/07/2016

Chronic Hunger Lingers in the Midst of Plenty

Human Wrongs Watch

By Neeta Lal*

NEW DELHI, 28 July 2016 (IPS) – In a fraught global economic environment, exacerbated by climate change and shrinking resources, ensuring food and nutrition security is a daunting challenge for many nations. India, Asia’s third largest economy and the world’s second most populous nation after China with 1.3 billion people, is no exception.

Despite being one of the biggest grain producers of the world, India lags behind on food security with nearly 25 percent of its population going to bed hungry. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

Despite being one of the biggest grain producers of the world, India lags behind on food security with nearly 25 percent of its population going to bed hungry. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

The World Health Organization defines food security as a situation when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life. The lack of a balanced diet minus essential nutrients results in chronic malnutrition.

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29/07/2016

Urgent Support Needed for 23 Million People in Drought-Hit Southern Africa 

Human Wrongs Watch

28 July 2016 – Some 23 million people in southern Africa are in need of urgent support to be able to produce enough food to feed themselves and avoid being dependent on humanitarian assistance until mid-2018, the United Nations agricultural agency has warned.

Widespread crop failure has exarcerbated chronic malnutrition in the Southern Africa region. Photo: FAO/Desmond Kwande

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), if farmers are not able to plant by October, the result will be another reduced harvest early next year, severely affecting food and nutrition security as well as livelihoods in the region.

“The main way people are able to access food is through what they themselves produce. Assisting them to do this will provide lifesaving support in a region where at least 70 percent of people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods,” David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa, said in a news release issued by the agency.

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29/07/2016

Despite Progress, Poaching of African Elephants Still ‘Unacceptably High’ 

Human Wrongs Watch

Many African elephants continued to face serious threats to their survival in 2015 from the illegal trade in ivory and unacceptably high levels of poaching, although the sharp upward trends in poaching since 2006 have started to level off, according to the Secretariat of the United Nations-backed treaty regulating wildlife trade.

05-25-2016Elephant

Between 2010 and 2012, 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory in Africa. Photo: UNEP GRID Arendal/Peter Prokosch

“There are some encouraging signs” but “much more remains to be done,” 28 July 2016  said John E. Scanlon, the Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in a press release.

“The momentum generated over the past five years is translating into deeper and stronger efforts to fight poaching and illicit trafficking on the front-lines, where it is needed most – from the rangers in the field, to police and customs at ports of entry and exit and across illicit markets,” he added.

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29/07/2016

More Heatwave Deaths to Come as Climate Change Pushes Up Temperatures

Human Wrongs Watch

Warning of a possible rise in heatwave deaths due to climate change, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on 28 July 2016 called for measures to reduce mortality from this natural hazard.

In Sindh province, Pakistan, a mother tries to shield her four-year-old daughter from scorching heat. Photo: UNDP/Hira Hashmey

The warning came days after the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that global temperatures for the first six months of this year reached new highs, setting 2016 on track to be the hottest-ever on record, and the temperature hit 54 degrees Celsius in Kuwait last week.

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