Story | 16 Jul, 2018
Giving mangroves a voice: One man's mission to protect the future of Bahak Indah
Bahak Indah, a mangrove-lined beach running along the coast of Probolinggo, East Java, is a major attraction for visitors. But just fifteen years ago, the only vegetation found on the beach was a type of spinegrass with such sharp tips that residents of Curah Dringu and Dungan Villages avoided…
Story | 13 Jul, 2018
Evaluating indigenous and local peoples’ connections with nature: an ecosystem services framework
CEESP News - by Kamaljit K. Sangha; Research Fellow, Charles Darwin University, Australia
Indigenous and local peoples’ connections with nature are not only limited to the benefits or services people derive from ecosystems, as considered by international frameworks, but also entail…
Story | 11 Jul, 2018
Assessing Turtles in Ramsar Sites in Lao PDR
In June, IUCN Lao PDR assessed turtle populations in the Xe Champhone Ramsar site in southern Lao PDR. They studied several threatened turtle species, and plan to continue the work at the Beung Kiat Ngong Ramsar Site in the coming months.
Story | 06 Jul, 2018
Bangladesh shares World Heritage experience with Thailand in South-South knowledge transfer
From 2 to 6 April 2018, Mangroves for the Future (MFF), in collaboration with IUCN Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Embassy in Bangkok, brought nine delegates from the Thailand Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) to the Sundarbans Natural World Heritage Site (NWHS) in Bangladesh. The…
Story | 05 Jul, 2018
How to increase the value of Vietnam’s forestry sector?
On a visit to Quang Tri in 2016 we asked a forest ranger where the best forest was. He said it was in remote areas too inaccessible for illegal logging or land conversion. If an area has fertile soil and is easy to access, people will turn it into farmland. When we asked a young farmer in Yen…
Story | 03 Jul, 2018
Myanmar holds dialogue on UN Watercourses Convention cooperation opportunities
IUCN, together with the Myanmar National Water Resources Committee (NWRC), held a dialogue on ‘The UN Watercourses Convention: A window of opportunity for cooperation,’ in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on 11 April 2018. The dialogue aimed to provide a better understanding of the UN Watercourses…
Story | 29 Jun, 2018
A special Training Workshop on Geographic Information and Map Data Use was conducted at the University of Uva Wellassa in Badulla from 8-10 June 2018.
Story | 28 Jun, 2018
GEF Assembly beach clean-up yields nearly 1 kilo of trash per metre per minute
On Tuesday, 26 June, 300 volunteers trained by IUCN collected almost half a ton of trash – 82% of which was single-use plastics – in 30 minutes from a 500-metre stretch of beach in Da Nang, Viet Nam. The exercise coincided with the sixth Global Environment Facility (GEF) Assembly currently…
Story | 25 Jun, 2018
Regional Security: The Case of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
CEESP News - Arthur Westing, Westing Associates in Environment, Security, & Education
The possible treaty to finally bring a formal end to the Korean War could have at least one tragic drawback, namely the dissolution of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that was established by the…
Story | 22 Jun, 2018
Beloved no more: New study sheds light on human-elephant conflict in Thailand
A new study conducted by the Thai foundation Bring the Elephant Home (BTEH) shows that certain types of deterrence measures could reduce human-elephant conflict (HEC) in Thailand, and save lives on both sides. The study’s findings suggest that people’s interest in conserving elephants is more or…