International organisations, movements, conferences, publications and resources related to the global environment

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Description: ENVIRONMENT... EVOLUTION... CLIMATE CHANGE... TECHNOLOGY
Source/publisher: "New Scientist"
Date of entry/update: 2012-06-26
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit. The Commission is responsible for reviewing progress in the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; as well as providing policy guidance to follow up the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) at the local, national, regional and international levels. The JPOI reaffirmed that the CSD is the high-level forum for sustainable development within the United Nations system. The CSD meets annually in New York, in two-year cycles, with each cycle focusing on clusters of specific thematic and cross-sectoral issues, outlined in its new multi-year programme of work (2003-2017) (E/CN.17/2003/6) . The CSD has opened its sessions to broad participation from both governmental and non-governmental actors, and it supports a number of innovative activities, such as the Partnerships Fair, the Learning Centre and a series of panels, roundtables and side events. The High-level segment features dialogue among Ministers, and Ministers also hold a special dialogue session with Major Groups. As a functional commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), CSD has 53 member States (about one third of the members are elected on a yearly basis). Each session of the CSD elects a Bureau, comprised of a Chair and four vice-Chairs..."
Source/publisher: Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD)
Date of entry/update: 2007-10-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: MAIN THEMES: Ethical and philosophical fundamentals: subjectivity, domination, and emancipation... Human rights, peoples, territories, and defense of Mother Earth... Political subjects, the architecture of power, and democracy... Production, distribution and consumption, access to wealth, common goods, and economies in transition.
Source/publisher: Rio+20 Portal
Date of entry/update: 2012-06-26
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English (French, Spanish, Portuguese also available)
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Individual Documents

Description: "Land governance has become attached to environmental agendas in a number of ways. The best recognised of these is the cordoning off of forest land for conservation in national parks and other protected areas. In many parts of the Mekong Region, this has become an issue where conservation zones have been declared in areas previously settled, criminalising the largely ethnic minority farmers who find themselves living in such areas. More recently, "green grabbing" has become an issue as environmentally-inspired programs such as REDD+ assign recoverable value in forest carbon and hence give new incentives to acquire rights to forest land that is part of the livelihood domain of smallholders. Other environment-related issues include the pressures places on lowlands - especially delta areas - by climate change, the damage done to soils by industrial agriculture, and the environmental externalities of modern practices that impact on nearby smallholders.....Key trends and dynamics: Environmental protections in the Mekong region are frequently threatened by commodity markets. Most directly, an interest in timber products can lead to illegal deforestation, such as in a multimillion dollar smuggling industry in luxury rosewood to China (Environmental Investigation Agency 2014; Global Witness 2015; Singh 2013), and wood from around Indochina that is processed in 2 Vietnam to feed demand for cheap furniture in Europe and the US (Environmental Investigation Agency 2011; Environmental Investigation Agency and Telepak 2008). Commodification and associated crop booms place more indirect pressure on forests, such as in the expansion of rubber in the 2000s due to high prices, and the rise of tissue-culture banana in northern Myanmar since 2015 (Hayward et al. 2020). For example, in Lao PDR an estimated 14.43% of natural forest was converted to plantation forest between 2010-2017 (Wang et al. 2019). In Cambodia, nearly half of the concessions given out from 2000-2012 were forested in 2000, and there have been higher rates of deforestation within concession areas than in other areas (Davis et al. 2015). Some ELCs encroach into protected forest areas and wildlife sanctuaries (Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association 2014). In Thailand, Zheng et al. (Zeng, Gower, and Wood 2018) identify forest loss in the northern province of Nan due to increases in maize production. There are other knock-on effects from timber extraction. The combination of deforestation and intensified agriculture, particularly monocropping, contributes to soil and landscape degradation (Lestrelin 2010). The shift to industrialised farming stresses freshwater ecosystems, threatening their ability to provide for agriculture and food security (Johnston et al. 2010; Thomas et al. 2012). A further linkage ties deforestation with concerns over the impacts of climate change. In particular, the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters impact upon farmer strategies. An example is found in the aftermath of the 2011 floods in Thailand, and the resulting shift in crop choices (Panichvejsunti et al. 2018). Environmental disasters can also create new precarities in land tenure. Following the 2004 tsunami, there has been significant dispossession of land for indigenous communities in the south of Thailand (Neef et al. 2018). The industrialised use of water in the region is having a profound impact upon supported ecosystems, including communities living in proximity to water sources or courses. Nowhere is this more apparent to see than in the plight of the Mekong, no longer a free-flowing but a humanmanaged river due to the extensive number of hydropower projects interrupting its route from China to Vietnam, with plans afoot for numerous further projects. Each venture has considerable environmental costs, both individually and cumulatively, with communities forcibly displaced to make way for new dams. A further threat to water provisions sees large-scale infrastructure projects on wetlands surrounding cities that provide a vital filtering service to waste-water. Contentious examples are the construction of Suvarnabhumi International Airport on the Cobra Swamp on the outskirts of Bangkok, and projects on That Luang Marsh in Vientiane. Meanwhile, a number of lakes in and around Phnom Penh have been filled in to create land for commercial developments. In the context of urbanisation processes, a lack of coordinated land use planning is creating a platform for precarity against environment disasters. Beringer and Kaewsuk (Beringer and Kaewsuk 2018) show how infrastructure development is increasing the risk of flooding risks in Khon Kaen city, northern Thailand. Climate-change mitigation policies in Myanmar, combined with resource investment through concessions and other large-scale land acquisitions, are creating overlapping disputes on land. In Myanmar, this exacerbates rather than alleviates tensions within the peace process (Woods 2015). Work and Thuon (Work and Thuon 2017) note how in Prey Lang, Cambodia, industrial tree plantations qualify as forest restoration, and local communities are unable to access areas of land around ELCs that have been mapped as protection zones. A key strategy to identify and address drivers of deforestation and degradation, and incorporate them into climate change mitigation, has been the UN-backed REDD program in its various iterations (Broadhead and Izquierdo 2010). There are concerns that REDD projects are re-centralising forest management as opposed to promoting decentralised governance that can more easily strengthen local resource tenure security (Baird 2014). Claims on forest carbon are reorienting power relations and property rights in forest areas, potentially creating new fields for dispute (Mahanty et al. 2013). Such programs are also seen to justify and help promote commercial farming. For example, the promotion of rubber plantations by the Vietnamese government is aligned with REDD+ and Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) programmes (To Xuan Phuc and Tran Huu Nghi 2014b). However, Work (Work 2015) shows how REDD carbon-capture programs in Cambodia are being restricted due to a monopoly on the timber trade by domestic elites. Rather than compound tenure issues, there is evidence that for REDD schemes to be successful, they first need to directly address potential areas of dispute, otherwise deforestation may continue. Bourgoin and Castella (Bourgoin and Castella 2011) provide an example of such a process in the use of participatory land use planning as part of a REDD project in northern Lao PDR. Approaching the topic from a different angle, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) recognise that strong support for the tenure of vulnerable and marginalised people can also help protect them from the impacts of climate change, including climate-induced displacement (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2012)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Mekong Land Research Forum
2021-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 349.28 KB (13 pages)
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Description: "Funding - the bulk of the initial groundwork for this book was carried out as part of botanical surveys of Doi Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary (1 995-1 996, funded by Office of Environmental Policy and Planning) and Doi Luang National Park (1 997-1 999, funded by the TRF/BIOTEC Special Program for Biodiversity Research and Training grant BRT 1 39029) The preparation and review of the manuscript in both English and Thai was supported by the East Asia Local Languages Field Guide project (funded by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and The World Bank). Toyota Thailand Foundation, Kopfai Publishing Project and Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. provided the funding for publ ication and distribution. The generous support of these organisations is gratefully acknowledged. We would particularly like to thank Asst.Prof. Paitoon Leksawad, Dr.Tony Whitten, Dr. Scott Perkin, Preecha Photi and Sunee Wongwaisayawan for their support. Facilities- CMU Herbarium, Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University provided institutional support at all stages of the project. Secretarial & computer work - Rungtiwa Panyayot, Greuk Pakkad Specimen collection & fieldwork - Natii Morci, Bucha Orkha, all the Forestry Department and Watershed Office staff who helped us throughout the project especially in Poi Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary, Doi Luang and Doi Suthep-Pui National Parks. Specimen identification - J.F. Maxwell, Dr. Jamlong Pengklai, Dr. Piya Chalermglin Additional Photographs - Akom Manekul, Dr. Chavalit Vidthayanon, Cherdsak Kuarak, E.J. Haas, Dr.Oy Kanjanavanit, Richard Davies, M.R.Smansnid Svasti Illustrations - M.R.Smansnid Svasti (cover and forest profiles) Pranee Palee- (Ficus, Fagaceae) Taxonomic review - Dr. Chavalit Niyomtham (Leguminosae); Dr. Jam long Pengklai (Bombacaceae, Coniferae, Dipterocarpaceae, Elaeocarpaceae, Lauraceae, Lythraceae, Moraceae, Rubiaceae, Sterculiaceae, Tiliaceae); Dr. Kongkanda Chayamarit (Anacardiaceae, Capparaceae); Dr. Piya Chalermglin (Annonaceae, Magnoliaceae); Dr. Pranom Chantaranothai (Myrtaceae, Lecythidaceae) Preparation of use data - Tim Rayden, Kym Leggett, Kate Hardwick Editing & proof reading - Bandit Grivijitr, Kym Leggett, Dr Kobkiat Saengnil, Pranee P?lee, M.A. Smansnid Svasti, Tony Ball Translation of uses and Thai index Natenapit Jitlam Printing -Surasak lntanon & Amarin Printing & Publishing staffs. Herbariums, Libraries and Databases - CMU Herbarium, Biology Department, Chiang Mai University; Faculty of Pharmacy, Chiang Mai University; Royal Forest Department Herbarium, Bangkok; Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, Chiang Mai; Faculty of Pharmacy , Mahidol University; Kasetsart University. Finally, we would like to thank our friends and families who encouraged and supported us throughout the process of preparing this book.....Genesis of Water and Life: Amidst changes and development in many fields, Thailand faces an alarming environmental crisis. In the last decades, the forest areas have been exploited at a fast rate which is one of the important causes of flooding, droughts and unpredictable climate. Conflicts over the management of natural resources have been an unavoidable part of life for our generation. The "Genesis of Water and Life" project was formed as �knowledge-based response to these issues. In 1994, a project was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture to protect the watershed area by using more than 10 years of experience working at Kao Sammoen with the support of the UN. Our aim has been to promote harmony between humankind and nature by encouraging people to conserve natural resources through sustainable resource management and integrated agriculture. We are developing a variety of media in vernacular languages for com- munication amongst local peoples in the watershed areas. Additional equipment including motorcycles, televisions and portable video players have been provided for the convenience of Forestry Department officials. From 1997, we have cooperated with Chiang Mai University and "Gong Tun Chum Chon Rak Pa" (Forest Lovers' Community Fund) to support forest restoration by building firebreaks in the protected forests of the upper Ping and Wang watersheds which cover an area of more than 120,000 rai (19,200 hectares). By this means, we hope to save the watershed areas without changing the local people's lifestyle or faith. We also promote academic activities, arts and culture in the urban community to improve relationships in a joint effort to protect and conserve the natural environment . The book "A Field Guide to Forest Trees of Northern Thailand" is one of our recent project activities. We sincerely wish that this book will be a bridge that passes on knowledge, compassion and a sense of ecological awareness and conservation of trees in the forest area of Northern Thailand. His venerable Phra Dhamma Pitaka (P. Payutto) has admonished us that: "People in this generation have exploited a great amount of natural resources of the world.They have no awareness of our environment and have depleted the land, so it is necessary that they revolutionize themselves now together with creating an awareness of restoring the natural environment amongst new generations". His advice should be heeded by us all. Watersheds are the source of forests, water and life. We must all work together to conserve what is left of our natural heritage for future generations - Toyota Thailand Foundation..."
Source/publisher: Chiang Mai University, The World Bank, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Toyota Foundation Thailand, Kobfai
2007-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 29.76 MB (555 pages)
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Description: "Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings -- even grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth..."
Creator/author: Gary Snyder
Source/publisher: Gary Snyder
1969-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 45.79 KB
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