Institute of Biodiversity Conservation

This study represents the first time, researchers looked at population changes within a national park system relative to all of the wildlife populations across the whole country. “And we found that wildlife populations inside and outside of the parks are declining at much the same rate,” according to David Western, an adjunct professor of biology at University of California, San Diego and the founding executive director of the African Conservation Center in Nairobi, who headed the study published in the July 8 issue of the journal PLoS One.

Surveying 240 studies, scientists at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies found that the speed of recovery depended upon the type of ecosystem and the growth rate of the organisms within it. Forests recovered within 42 years, but ocean floors in less than a decade. Polluted ecosystems – those plagued by oil spills, mining, trawling, or invasive species – could recover in just five years. Only 15 percent were deemed beyond recovery.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Uganda will lose its entire forest cover in the next 50 years if the government does not embark on immediate efforts to halt rapid deforestation, a forestry expert warned on Thursday.

Forests and tree planting can help mitigate the effects of global warming by increasing carbon storage and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, experts say. Tropical deforestation accounts for a fifth of emissions from human activities.

[ August 6, 2009 to August 7, 2009. August 6, 2009 to August 7, 2009. ]

Background
Article 26 of the Convention states that the objective of national reporting is to provide information on measures taken for the implementation of the Convention and the effectiveness of these measures. In accordance with Article 6, measures to be addressed, in light of specific national circumstances, are reflected in the national biodiversity strategy and action [...]

More than 800 animal and plant species have gone extinct in the past five centuries with nearly 17,000 now threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported on Thursday.

A detailed analysis of these numbers indicates the international community will fail to meet its 2010 goal of bolstering biodiversity — maintaining a variety of life forms — a commitment made by most governments in 2002.