Case studies

Microplastics are the minute quantities of plastic that result from industrial processes, household release and the breakdown of larger plastic items. As these plastics emerge as a potential threat to the environment and to public health, it has never been more critical to understand their distribution and environmental impact. Microplastics in the Ecosphere aims to cultivate that understanding with a comprehensive overview of microplastics in terrestrial ecosystems.

In 2016, the term UUU (unselective, unsustainable and unmonitored) fishing was developed and a Resolution of the World Conservation Congress, adopted by Members, tasked IUCN’s Species Survival Commission with reporting on the concept. The resulting situation analysis utilises the trawl fisheries of China, Thailand and Vietnam to explore how some of the issues associated with UUU fishing can be linked back to these three elements.

Light pollution is the human-caused alteration of outdoor light levels from those occurring naturally. It threatens ecological and commemorative integrity, interferes with amateur and research astronomy, degrades the appreciation of mythologies and cultural practices related to the night sky, mars wilderness experience and landscape beauty, carries risks to human health and wastes energy. Counterintuitively, excess outdoor lighting reduces safety and security.