The International Day of the Tropics celebrated each 29 June, marks the extraordinary diversity of the tropics while highlighting unique challenges and opportunities nations of the Tropics face. The Day provides an opportunity to take stock of progress across the tropics, to share tropical stories and expertise and to acknowledge the diversity and potential of the region. Some of the challenges the tropical region faces include climate change, deforestation, logging, urbanisation and demographic changes, such as hosting most of the world's people and two-thirds of its children by 2050.
Natural Resources and the Environment
The sustainable production of coffee, and indeed other crops, is more of a cultural rather than environmental commitment according to the manager of the largest coffee farm in the United States.
Ethiopia’s Kafa zone is known as the birthplace of wild Arabica coffee.
COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it jumps between animals and people, and is therefore closely connected to the lands both inhabit. Human and economic activity is eroding wild spaces, forests and other important ecosystems, bringing us closer to “reservoir hosts”—animals and plants that can harbour diseases. In this interview, Frank Turyatunga, Deputy Director of the United Nations Environment Programme () Africa Regional Office shares insights on how to better protect landscapes on the continent.
From countries taking action on policy issues to people raising their voices #ForNature, shows how World Environment Day was a major 2020 milestone featuring how biodiversity provides critical services for all of use.
How drought destroys lives and what we can do about it
A thick water pipe snakes its way from Sudan’s White Nile River for over two kilometres, pumping into a large reservoir in Al Jabalain locality, where thousands of saplings are growing. The tree nursery has a capacity to produce 200,000 saplings a year – the fruit of a partnership between the Sudan’s forestry body, the Forests National Corporation (FNC), and . Refugees and their hosts together plant one million trees in a massive reforestation drive in Sudan’s White Nile State.
Land degradation affects some 3.2 billion people. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the productivity of the land. The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed every year to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat this issue. This year’s theme, “” is focused on changing public attitudes towards the leading driver of desertification: humanity’s relentless production and consumption. Join the celebration through ’s .
To care for humanity, we MUST care for nature
Nature is sending us a clear message. We are harming the natural world – to our own detriment. And now, a new coronavirus is raging, undermining health and livelihoods. To care for humanity, we MUST care for nature. We need our entire global community to change course.
World Environment Day is the most renowned day for environmental action since 1974, but we are still struggling to meet our commitment our planet. It would take 1.6 Earths to meet the demands that humans make on nature each year. This year it is . The 2020 focus of the observance is on biodiversity – a concern that is both urgent and existential. Recent events, from bushfires in Brazil, the United States, and Australia to locust infestations across East Africa – and now, a global disease pandemic – demonstrate the interdependence of humans and the webs of life.
A pandemic allows for a “what if” moment: How to champion biodiversity as the world stands still
From mangrove to mountain: Building coastal resilience in Timor-Leste
A ‘blue’ economy implies some measure of alignment between economic development and the health of the ocean. helps Seychelles, consisting of about 115 islands, strike that balance.
If you take care of the land, it will take care of you, says Tsefaye Kidane, a coffee farmer in southwest Ethiopia. When he took over the farm from his father, Kidane said the soil quality was poor and crops erratic, their irregularity exacerbated by the ravages of climate change and decades of land degradation. With support from the , Kidane has turned the situation around. He has addressed soil erosion with a host of measures, including terracing the steep landscape.
Urgent action is needed to safeguard the biodiversity of the world’s forests amid alarming rates of deforestation and degradation, according to . The report, produced by and , shows that conservation of the world’s biodiversity is dependent on the way we interact with the world’s forests. The COVID-19 crisis has thrown into focus the importance of sustainably using nature and recognizing the link between the ecosystem’s and people’s health.