As we speak over 8000 delegates from over 150 countries are pouring onto a South Korean island in the East China Sea to discuss the future of conservation and development.
By Soledad Ghione and Eduardo Gudynas – June, 2012
Reports of environmental problems or biodiversity loss are not new. Since the 60s, there has been an increasing amount of information about the environmental impacts of conventional development strategies based on economic growth. The present environmental crisis indicates that those alerts have been ignored.
By Andrew Raingold - Aldersgate Group – December, 2011
With all eyes fixed on the latest global share prices and bond yields, there was relatively little interest in the most recent figures published in the annual red list.
This is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. It shows that 25% of all mammals and one in three of the world's amphibians are at risk of extinction.
As an investment banker with another life built over fifteen years around my passion for the economics of nature and, more recently, by leading TEEB, a study on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity, I am often asked how I reconcile my capitalist background with my commitments to nature and the environment.
Sustainable land use economics are vital to protect the ecosystem services upon which we all depend.
There have been many arguments about "peak oil" and the depletion of metals, but there is one resource that without doubt is limited in supply: land. Unlike most ordinary products, an increase in the price of land doesn't bring about an incentive to produce any more of it - because there can't be any more. The Dutch reclaimed land from the sea, but rising sea levels now mean we have less land.
The Waza Logone floodplain in Cameroon represents a critical area of biodiversity and high productivity in a dry area where rainfall is uncertain and livelihoods are insecure. Natural goods and services from the floodplain provide a basic income and subsistence for about 125,000 people (85% of the population).
