REDD: Protecting forests or shirking responsibilities?
One of the main hopes for the Cancún summit held earlier this month was to find an answer to deforestation. Advances on the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) mechanism, which aims to compensate developing countries for protecting their forests, are seen as a triumph by many, but others argue that the scheme…
Counting the cost of invasive species
Invasive non-native species (INNS) cost the British economy at least £1.7 billion per annum. This is the headline finding of new research conducted by CABI on behalf of Defra, the Scottish government and the Welsh Assembly Government. And even this is likely to be significantly less than the full economic cost, since many indirect costs…
New: CABI Working Papers
We’ve just launched CABI’s new Working Paper series, which will make available the results of CABI research in preliminary form for discussion and comment. The first two papers focus on the links between climate change and two of CABI’s key research areas: invasive alien species and agricultural commodities.
What was the outcome of the UN Climate Change conference in Cancún?
The UN Climate Change Conference (COP16) ended on Saturday, 11th December 2010 and during the second week of the conference, ministers from developed and developing countries were paired in an attempt to facilitate negotiations on the main issues, such as mitigation, adaptation, financing, REDD and technology. The outcome was the 'Cancún Agreements' as it is…
Copenhagen couldn’t, but can Cancún?
The climate change summit in Copenhagen last year was a disappointment for many. This is mainly because of the lack of a concrete document to take big steps towards reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and stopping climate change. Has the delegates’ experience on negotiations improved since then? Can the next meeting in Cancún deliver something…
Putting a value on Mau Forest
Photo courtesy of United Nations Environment Programme. Mau Forest Complex forms the largest closed-canopy forest ecosystem of Kenya. It is the single most important water catchment in the Rift Valley and western Kenya. As Dave pointed out in his blog article last year, the ecosystem services provided by Mau Forest support key economic sectors, including…
Carbon sequestration: Could GM trees be the key?
New research in the latest issue of BioScience examines the prospects for enhancing biological carbon sequestration through a variety of policy and technical approaches, including the deployment of genetically engineered trees and other plants. Forests of genetically altered trees and other plants could sequester several billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and…
The market triumph of ecotourism?
Lake in Tambopata region As Editor of CABI's Leisure Tourism Database, I get to keep up to date with news and research in the leisure and tourism industry. It's always of interest to follow developments in places I've been to, so my attention was grabbed last week by an email from the University of East…
Solving the UK’s future energy needs with organic waste
Recently, the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) sent a letter to the Climate Minister Chris Huhne, in reply to Huhne's earlier letter requesting update on the level of the UK renewable energy ambition to 2020. In the reply letter the CCC suggested that one of the country’s renewable energy targets (to obtain 10% of…
Do current e-book models help or hinder the migration from print to online?
December 7, 2010
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