Attention has recently been focused on the health of wild nature, first by a report suggesting that diverse UK insect populations are declining at alarming rates (Report, 11 February), and now by one showing pollinators are in trouble (Bees and hoverflies lost from a quarter of British sites, major study finds, 27 March). While headlines […]
The European parliament has voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers as part of a sweeping law against plastic waste that despoils beaches and pollutes oceans. The vote by MEPs paves the way for a ban on single-use plastics to come into force by 2021 in all EU member states. The […]
Mar 31 2019 | Posted in
No Plastic |
Read More »
The total forest coverage in Bangladesh has shrunk to less than 10%, experts said at a workshop in Chittagong on Friday. “A country should have at least 25% forest coverage to meet the ecological balance, but the total area of forestland in Bangladesh has come down to 7-9%,” said Dipak Chakraborty, director of Local Government, […]
Mar 28 2019 | Posted in
Forest & Land |
Read More »
India now has a globally recognised forest-certification scheme developed specifically for Indian forests. Recently, a Geneva-based non-profit decided to endorse the Certification Standard for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) developed by Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF), an Indian non-profit. On March 4, 2019, the council of Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), […]
Mar 28 2019 | Posted in
Forest & Land |
Read More »
More than half of the carbon sink in the world's forests is in areas where the trees are relatively young — under 140 years old — rather than in tropical rainforests, research at the University of Birmingham shows. These trees have typically 'regrown' on land previously used for agriculture, or cleared by fire or harvest […]
Mar 28 2019 | Posted in
Forest & Land |
Read More »
The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz has come out in support of forest dwellers of India. She criticised the exclusionary form of conservation that the petitioning wildlife conservation societies in the Supreme Court advocate. Some national wildlife conservation groups along with former forest department bureaucrats had brought […]
Mar 28 2019 | Posted in
Forest & Land |
Read More »
Researchers have been baffled by tropical rainforest diversity for over a century; 650 different tree species can exist in an area covering two football fields, yet similar species never grow next to each other. It seems like it's good to be different than your neighbors, but why? To grow in a tropical rainforest is to […]
Mar 28 2019 | Posted in
Forest & Land |
Read More »
The government is supposed to increase forest land to 20 percent of the country's total landmass by 2030, but the reality is, it is losing land every year to different government agencies who demand land for their establishments and development projects. Official numbers show that so far Bangladesh has 17.62 percent of its landmass covered […]
Mar 28 2019 | Posted in
Forest & Land |
Read More »
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued new guidance to improve treatment of multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB). WHO is recommending shifting to fully oral regimens to treat people with MDR-TB. This new treatment course is more effective and is less likely to provoke adverse side effects. WHO recommends backing up treatment with active monitoring of […]
Mar 27 2019 | Posted in
Health |
Read More »
Dentists across the country have agreed to stop using mercury, a highly toxic heavy metal, for dental filling, in a step towards ensuring mercury-free dentistry. Nepal Dental Association (NDA)—the umbrella organisation of dental surgeons in the country—together with other professional associations and non-governmental organisations working for making the health sector and environment mercury-free, has made […]
Mar 27 2019 | Posted in
No Mercury |
Read More »