Category Archives: Biodiversity
Invasion of Antarctica?
Invasive alien species are considered one of the most significant threats to the unique biodiversity of Antarctica and these aliens are hitching a ride on us! Steven Chown, from the Centre for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University and his research … Continue reading
Materials from WWF ‘Navigating the Perfect Storm’ event available
Presentation slides, audio and video recordings, photos and links from the joint WWF-UK and Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) event ‘Navigating the Perfect Storm’ last month have been made available online. The evening was chaired by Professor John Beddington, Chief … Continue reading
12 New Nature Improvement Areas Announced
The Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, today announced the creation of 12 new Nature Improvement Areas (NIA) across England. NIAs were a flagship policy contained in last year’s Natural Environment White Paper “The Natural Choice”, which set out aims to improve … Continue reading
Draft review of Scottish Biodiversity Strategy published
The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, ‘Scotland’s Biodiversity: It’s in Your Hands‘ is currently undergoing a review and a pre-consultation draft of the new strategy was published on the 15th February. The Scottish Government published the first Biodiversity Strategy in 2004 with … Continue reading
The Shrimp Price Tag
Kennedy Warne, author of “Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea”, answered a few questions, posed by The Ecologist, about the importance of mangroves, the devastation caused by shrimp farming and his experiences researching … Continue reading
The Future of EU Environmental Policy
Over the past 40 years the EU has set up a relatively comprehensive and dense body of environmental legislation which, although far from perfect, is certainly a success story. Times are changing and increasing complexity of inter-linkages between policies on … Continue reading
IPBES workshops set the agenda to tackle biodiversity crisis
A conference of more than 100 scientists and decision makers at the University of Copenhagen last week concluded that “the biodiversity crisis…is probably a greater threat than climate change to the stability and prosperous future of mankind on Earth”. However, … Continue reading
Ocean acidification: a policy gap to address at Rio+20?
A study due to be published in Nature Climate Change journal (released to press) suggests that the current rate of ocean acidification, caused by increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, could be up to two orders of magnitude greater than … Continue reading
The Future of EU Environmental Policy
Earlier today the All Party Parliamentary Environment Group (APPEG) launched a report, produced by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), entitled “The future for EU Environmental Policy: Challenges and Opportunities”. The independent report considers environmental challenges facing the EU … Continue reading
The economic invisibility of nature
A fusion of economics and ecology is required to properly measure and capture the value of biodiversity. That was the message of an event at Parliament earlier today organised by Biodiversity, the UK all party parliamentary group, chaired by Barry … Continue reading