International Year of Biodiversity

Last Updated on Friday, 22 January 2010 15:08 Friday, 22 January 2010 14:59

The UN declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). Throughout the year countless initiatives will be organized to disseminate information, promote the protection of biodiversity and encourage organizations, institutions, companies and individuals to take direct action to reduce the constant loss of biological diversity worldwide. The celebrations for the International Year of Biodiversity are led by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

See the International Year of Biodiversity web site.

Sustainability at Universities

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 15:51 Wednesday, 20 January 2010 15:40

Sustainability at Universities - Opportunities, Challenges and Trends
Edited by Walter Leal Filho (BSc, PhD, DSc, DL, DPhil, DLitt, FLS FIBiol, FRGS)
Peter Lang Scientific Publishers, New York, December 2009
ISBN 9783631596906, 340 pp.

Sustainability is widely defined as "the ability to meet the needs of the present while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems and without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". However, the goal of managing today's resources so that they may be available to future generations is not easy to reach. Indeed, in order to achieve this ambitious goal, it is important that universities -- similar to other sectors of society- become engaged in the sustainability debate, not superficially as it has largely been the case until now, but in a manner not seen before.

Progress towards the European 2010 biodiversity target

Last Updated on Friday, 15 January 2010 12:57 Friday, 15 January 2010 12:49

As the first indicator-based assessment of progress towards the European target of halting biodiversity loss by 2010, this report serves two purposes. First, it takes stock of the state of biodiversity and its loss in Europe based on the most recent data available. Second, it functions as a bridge to a comprehensive assessment of the 2010 target to be done in 2010. As such, the indicators in this report do not only show what is currently known. They also show where information is missing and what more needs to be measured and examined to enable a comprehensive assessment in 2010.

See EEA Report no.4/2009.

Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa

Last Updated on Friday, 15 January 2010 12:58 Friday, 08 January 2010 15:34

The Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (JSDA) is the official journal for sustainable development in Africa. In July of 2008, the Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa was moved to Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where the editor-in-chief is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The journal addresses the policy components of Africa’s development issues. The general belief is that theoretical and operational discussions of development efforts in Africa must be interdisciplinary so that policy makers and academics will have a useful academic journal, which could be instrumental in moving Africa’s development forward. The journal focuses on debates of development; development paradigms; social, cultural, economic, and ecological sustainability; and the politics of sustainable development with regard to governance.