Culture And Communication

Ocean threats: acidification, deoxygenation, warming, heatwaves. Do we have anything useful to bend, change, or reverse the results? This brochure, conceived to advocate and educate at the UNFCCC COP27 meetings, summarises these threats and how various solutions (explained within) can actually help protect the ocean as Nature-based Solutions, if correctly constructed, and the existing and emerging financial mechanisms and institutions that can build and fortify these solutions. 

The aim of the National Protected Areas Forum was to fulfill mandates and strengthen policies to protect the country’s abundant natural assets into the future to benefit all life and future generations. Led by the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Many species of sharks are threatened with extinction, and there has been a longstanding debate in scientifc and environmental circles over the most efective and appropriate strategy to conserve and protect them. Should we allow for sustainable fsheries exploitation of species which can withstand fshing pressure, or ban all fsheries for sharks and trade in shark products? In the developing world, exploitation of fsheries resources can be essential to food security and poverty alleviation, and global management eforts are typically focused on sustainably maximizing economic benefts.

If you’re one of the many people working from home because of coronavirus, you may have noticed your energy bills creeping up. But don’t worry – you can cut the cost of your gas and electric by becoming more energy efficient. Find out how with our top energy-saving tips. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been spending a lot more time cooped up inside. This has resulted in higher spending on gas and electricity, particularly during the height of lockdown...Check out our useful COVID-specific energy-saving advice to learn how to keep your bills down.

Enjoying the outdoors and getting enough exercise has been difficult this past year. Despite lockdowns and social distancing measures, national parks remain one of the few places where you can do both of those things safely.  ‘An Essential Guide To Enjoying National Parks’ offers a lot of useful information, such as:

Sustainable tourism involves increasingly attracting visitors while preserving the natural capital of a destination for future generations. To foster tourism while protecting sensitive environ‐ ments, coastal managers, tourism operators, and other decision‐makers benefit from information about where tourists go and which aspects of the natural and built environment draw them to particular locations. Yet this information is often lacking at management‐relevant scales and in remote places. We tested and applied methods using social media as data on tourism in The Bahamas.

The conservation, rehabilitation and climate-informed management of biodiversity and ecosystems increases resilience to climate change and provides low-cost and long-term solutions to protect lives, livelihoods and infrastructure, and advance progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.

Full Paper (Pdf)

As our behavioral patterns change due to the COVID-19 crisis, our impact on nature and the environment changes too. Pollution levels are showing significant reductions. People are more aware of the importance of access to local green and blue spaces. By analyzing online search behavior in twenty European countries, we investigate how public awareness of nature and the environment has evolved during the COVID-19 crisis. We find that the crisis goes hand in hand with a positive shift in public awareness of nature-related topics, but that awareness of environmental topics remains unaffected.

In recent decades, despite their value, coral reefs have been endangered and are swiftly declining because of land overuse, rising sea temperatures, and increasing ocean acidification. This study assesses the willingness to pay (WTP) for coral reef conservation in Japan. We conducted an online discrete choice experiment with 10,573 respondents. A latent class logit model framework was used, and three respondent classes were recognized.