IUCN

This paper addresses the environmental and developmental impacts of patent protection by specifically focusing on the global agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). While the TRIPS agreement serves as an important step in harmonizing international intellectual property systems, the author contends that it currently fails to properly balance public and private interests, especially in the gap between rich and poor.

The eastern African coastal strip contains a tiny chain of patches of lowland tropical dry forest. They were previously considered to be of low conservation priority in terms of endemism and species diverstiy, but research since the mid-1980s has shown that their biological richness is comparable to other important tropical forest types in Africa.

Environmental accounting---the modification of the national income accounts to take into consideration the economic role of the environment---has grown in importance over the past ten years. However, many countries have not yet implemented such accounts, and there is much controversy about whether and how to do so.

While the issue of invasive alien species (IAS) has important biological components, the human dimensions deserve much greater attention. Humans, with all their diversity of quirks, strengths, and weaknesses, are at the heart of the problem of IAS and, paradoxically, also at the heart of the solution.