Author of the Month: Plants and Planting on Landscape Sites, Peter Thoday
“Plant a tree in ’73, Plant some more in ’74”. Those slogans mark the start of the public’s awareness and many authorities enthusiasm for tree planting. Of course our love of and respect for trees in both urban and rural landscapes, had been part of our culture for centuries but had somehow slipped out…
Why Latin America is nearer elimination of rabies than Africa
Latin America is doing far better at controlling and ultimately eliminating rabies from the region than Africa. Latin America uses dog vaccination; Africa relies on post-exposure prophylaxis. Can the lessons learned in Latin America be applied or adapted to Africa? At RSTMH “Challenges in Disease Elimination”, [September 12-16th, 2016], Dr Katie Hampson described the PAHO surveillance & management framework operating in Mexico and Brazil, devised to support the elimination of rabies in 25 PAHO countries, which could be adapted. Tanzanian researchers have developed a targeted surveillance system to improve case detection for the African setting where resources are constrained.
World Tourism Day: Tourism for All – promoting universal accessibility
World Tourism Day is celebrated on 27 September to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value. In 2016, the theme of WTD is accessibility, and how to make tourism something everyone can enjoy. While accessibility is most commonly discussed in relation to people…
CABI joins the Africa Green Revolution Forum 2016
Image: The Plantwise stand attracts great interest from the AGRF audience CABI was among more than 200 organizations that took part in AGRA’s Africa Green Revolution Forum 2016 in Nairobi on 5-9 September 2016. The forum, which brings together stakeholders in agriculture from Africa and other parts of the world, was themed ‘Seizing the Movement:…
Stepping out in the countryside – how much is it worth?
Staff at the CABI HQ in Wallingford this week are making an extra effort to get up from their desks to walk around the building, and the surrounding paths and lanes may be seeing more groups of people than usual out for lunchtime walks. This is all down to a ‘wellness’ campaign in which…
Adapt – Amplify – Accelerate – recommends new report on rural development
According to a new report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) economic growth is not enough to transform rural areas in developing countries; governments need to develop inclusive policies and tailor investments if they want to make a fundamental change in rural peoples’ quality of life.
South-south and triangular cooperation leads to Rwanda soil health breakthrough
"As we embark on efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we need to accelerate development momentum across the South, including by building resilience and mitigating risk." – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Message for the UN Day of South-South Cooperation 12 September is the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation. South-south cooperation (the exchange of resources,…
School expedition gathers data on biodiversity in Mexico
Scuba quadrats. Image credit: David H. Williams, Rye St Antony Our guest blogger this month is David Williams, who is the Head of Science at Rye St Antony School, Oxford. He recently led a group of schoolgirls on an Operation Wallacea expedition to Mexico, where they took part in a conservation project which involved conducting mammal surveys…
Global food security equals national security?
What motivates you to care for people and environments with whom you’re not in direct contact? That is the question I’ve been pondering today on the fourth International Day of Charity. The day was established by the United Nations to encourage people, NGOs and other stakeholders to help others through volunteer and philanthropic activities. Such…
CABI at EcoSummit 2016
CABI promoted its new invasive species initiative at this year's EcoSummit event which took place in Montpellier, France, from 29 August – 1 September. CABI’s latest initiative aims to tackle the issue of invasive species to improve the lives of 50 million farmers in Africa and Asia.