Sinai Peninsula, known for its rich coral reef, Mount Sinai, and the deadly October war, is a bridge between Asia and Africa. It is situated between Mediterranean Sea in the north and Red sea in the south. In the southern tip of this beautiful peninsula lies the city of Sharm El Sheikh where The UN […]
In the last blog posts about palm oil, we gave you some insights about the huge impact of this material in our daily lives and told you about the problems. It is crucial to overthink our consumption and to try to use products with no palm oil – or plant-based oils in general, as the […]
It is quite sunny on this day in the beginning of April. Severin Irl and Dagmar Hanz are sitting in their office at the department of Biogeography of the University of Bayreuth, good-humoured and well-tanned. No wonder – they just came back from their trip to the Canary Island La Palma, situated in the Atlantic […]
We live on the soil she gives us, We breath the air she provides, We eat the fruits from the fields and trees around us. And yet, we take her for granted. She satisfies our thirst for water, She eases us with a light rustling of green leaves when we are out of balance, […]
It requires a little luck and steadiness to reach Benjamin Von Wong. And it also requires a lot of organizational talent regarding the time difference between Germany and the US west coast. But when we finally “meet” via Skype, the 31-year-old photographer is a very interesting and dedicated interview partner and not really what one […]
In my last article, I wrote about palm oil and the problems with this substance found almost everywhere. Instead of only writing about the problems I decided to take action and have a closer look at how palm oil is influencing my daily life. So, let’s begin with the facts. To find out when I […]
Smoke swells from the thick, green canopy of Indonesian rainforests. Orphaned orangutans cry for their mothers who were killed in the bush fires. Local inhabitants, children, women, men are inhaling the yellow swaths, only protected by dirty, once white masks; the air is filled with almost invisible particles of ashes coming from the burning forests. […]
As International Women’s Day is celebrated, we would like to draw special attention and gratitude toward the many brilliant female leaders, participants, and volunteers at IPBES5–especially our own Global Change Ecology students who have contributed so much to this conference. IPBES Chair Sir Robert Walton released the following statement: “The issue of gender is of […]
The plenary has broken up into the various contact groups. Group 1 has discussed issues of local and indigenous knowledge and the review of IPBES. Issues discussed include the scope of the review, who will conduct the review, budget considerations, and how the results of the review will be used. Group 2, meanwhile, has discussed […]
In addition to the IPBES assessments currently underway, three assessments from the first Work Programme are still pending: A values assessment An assessment of invasive species An assessment of sustainable use of wild species. Each of these assessments would cost approximately $1 million USD and take three years to complete. Numerous countries, including Mexico, Colombia, […]
