Mexico: Call to reverse the world's degraded forests

06.12.10

Huge international meetings seem to come along at a frightening rate these days. But frustratingly for environment campaigners they rarely seem to deliver anything of note (the acceptance of a strengthened GSPC in the recent Nagoya talks a notable exception).

So yet again diplomats from all over the world have descended on a somewhat obscure city - this time Cancún in Mexico - in the hope of striking a deal to save the planet from runaway climate change.

But although the abject failure of Copenhagen may stalk all future climate talks not everyone has given up hope. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) today put some of its eggs in the restoration of degraded forests basket. In the press release they suggest there are 1.5 billion hectares, or a gigantic piece of land the size of Russia, of lost and degraded forest that could be restored.

"Until recently scant attention has been paid to the world's degraded forests," said Stewart Maginnis, Director of Environment and Development at IUCN.

"Now is the time to recognise the potential of restored forests to deliver the double benefit of removing CO2 from the atmosphere and helping lift people out of poverty," Maginnis continued. Of course he would have been quite within his rights to have said triple benefits (biodiversity) or perhaps even more (water and so on) but the sentiment was good.

IUCN report their analysis shows that Africa and Asia seem to have the greatest promise for restoration - as each has about 600 million hectares of landscape for restoration.

04.11.10

Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and many other organisations, have been cautiously celebrating since the COP10 negotiations closed in Nagoya five days ago.

Japan: COP10 ends on a relative high

01.11.10

After seeming to stall half way through the negotiations the finale of Nagoya ended on a high note as firm commitments have been made by the 195 participating countries and, importantly, the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) has been strengthened.

The Sampled Red List IN PICTURES

01.10.10

The ground-breaking report - the Sampled Red List Index for Plants - created in partnership between Kew, the Natural History Museum and IUCN was released this week. The report's finding suggests 20 per cent of all known plant species are under threat.

Switzerland: IUCN report on IPBES released

25.06.10

The International Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was backed by more than 230 delegates from 85 countries at the meeting in Busan, South Korea and IUCN have now released a report for all our conservation colleagues to digest and circulate.