Official IUCN publications

Is development with biodiversity conservation an option? As a leading economic and political power, a key development assistance donor and the custodian of 21 overseas Countries and Territories with outstanding biodiversity, the European Union has a responsibility, to lead by example.

Aquaculture currently faces a significant challenge: how to fulfill the expectation of alleviating the pressure that fishing fleets exercise on fish populations without leading to environmental problems. It is particularly expected to develop widely in the near future in the Mediterranean’s European, Southern and Eastern countries.

The Mediterranean-rim countries hold around 400 million people and 135 million of them live on the coast. A steady migration towards coastal areas, specifically in the south and east of the Mediterranean, is causing pressure on the coastal environment and, more importantly, on its biodiversity. In this second Mediterranean regional assessment, all the reptile and amphibian species existing within the region of study have been evaluated for their global conservation status.

Les chances de conserver ces grands singes en danger seront considérablement améliorées si les compagnies forestières sont prêtes à apporter quelques aménagements à leur politique de gestion des concessions forestières.

Fewer than 11% of CBD Parties have adopted substantive ABS law, and nearly all of these are developing countries, focusing almost entirely on the ‘access’ side of the equation. Most of the CBD’s specific ABS obligations, however, relate to the other side of the equation – benefit sharing. This book considers the full range of ABS obligations, and how existing tools in user countries’ national law can be used to achieve the CBD’s third objective.

This book provides a systematic analysis of the requirements of access law, both the CBD requirements and the basic requirements of enforceable legislation. Often key legal issues that have a significant impact on enforceability of ABS agreements are not addressed in national legislation, therefore, this book addresses these issues with the aim to recognize and understand the nature of the legal impediments that must be addressed for the drafting of functional ABS legislation.

Following the magnitude of the destruction that resulted from the December 2004 tsunami there was an urgent need to draw up emergency strategies and action plans, in order to contain, and wherever possible to reverse, the adverse impacts on the environment, while at the same time continuing reconstruction work to restore livelihoods and infrastructure. A situation analysis was undertaken and from this analysis the current strategy was formulated.

The implementation of Natura 2000 in the New EU Member States of Central Europe is a long process which began with the signing of Accession Treaties in the beginning of the 1990s and will continue for several years. Environmental NGOs have been lobbying for proper designation and implementation of Natura 2000 sites with the involvement of civil society. This publication, prepared by several experts from nature protection organisations, gives a picture of this process.

An environmental flow is the water regime provided within a river, wetland or coastal zone to maintain ecosystems and their benefits where there are competing water uses and where flows are regulated. Pioneering efforts in South Africa, Australia and the United States have shown that the process to establish them poses great challenges.