Environmental Policy News

Germany was among the donor countries that welcomed the revival of the Amazon Fund at the start of the year, seen as an important conservation measure by Brazilian President Luis…

When world leaders and climate activists meet in Dubai for the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), for the first time, African representatives will bring to the negotiation table…

The early optimism that launched plastic treaty negotiations in 2022 was stymied at talks this month in Nairobi at which large petrostates stonewalled against creating a binding international treaty that would regulate cradle-to-grave plastics production.

The company’s rapid downfall raises questions about how it can supply its annual 6 million metric tons of wood pellets to the UK, EU and Asia, and how nations relying on biomass to meet energy and climate commitments will cope.

JAKARTA — Indonesian fisheries authorities have welcomed as “better than nothing” a new policy by neighboring Singapore that should in theory help stem the smuggling of lobster larvae out of…

The Indigenous residents of the highlands of southeastern Angola have long lived there with a light touch. Ironically, with the end of the country’s civil war and the slow return…

Commercial mining in the deep ocean is not yet a reality, but the possibility is on the horizon. Delegates of the U.N.-affiliated deep-sea mining regulator, the International Seabed Authority (ISA),…

Last week, communities and conservation stakeholders from across the African continent gathered in Windhoek, Namibia, to attend the first Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Conservation Congress. “IPLCs themselves organized this…

JAKARTA — The wild populations that sustain a significant Indonesian fishery are more depleted than the government had estimated, as highlighted by a recent scientific study. The authors have called…

JAKARTA — New research on slugs has found two types of mangrove forests in the Indo-West Pacific region, highlighting their much-needed protection against deforestation and rising sea levels. The study…

The government of New Caledonia recently announced that it would highly protect 10% of its ocean to safeguard ecologically important marine areas for sea turtles, sharks, dolphins, whales and seabirds.…

ST. JULIAN’S, VALLETTA and MOSTA, Malta — Mediterranean countries, under the guidance of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), are investing in the development of aquaculture as a solution…

KATHMANDU – In the golden hours of twilight, as a tiger tries to hide its long shadows, a herd of spotted deer graze in tranquil oblivion. Every rustle in the…

JAKARTA — The Indonesian fisheries ministry is considering once again allowing exports of lobster larvae, a controversial policy that landed the former minister in jail for corruption. The ministry says…

With plastic pollution littering the planet, certification organizations are popping up to sell “plastic credits” to companies, allowing them to offset the plastic they make and use with equivalent plastic waste collected and reused. Critics are skeptical.

LAS NAVES, Ecuador — The small farming community of Las Naves in the center of Ecuador is surrounded by a rich variety of crops crawling up hillsides next to large…

Every year in the run-up to the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) publishes a shortlist of possible contenders. This year included two long-time…

Research finds impacts by tiny plastic particles on marine plankton and microbes could disrupt carbon and nitrogen cycling in the world’s oceans, possibly putting Earth’s operating system and the planet’s habitability at risk.

Long before the European conquest of the Americas, the Warao Indigenous people, originally from the Orinoco Delta in what is today northeastern Venezuela, lived off nature, supporting themselves by fishing…

Seventy-six countries and the European Union have now signed the high seas treaty, signaling interest in ratifying the agreement designed to protect marine biodiversity in international waters. The signing of…

“This here is really great. I feel so good! I’m not stressed, and I’m not sad. When I’m here in the garden, everything is good,” says Waldir Francisco de Almeida,…

SUMENEP, Indonesia — Fisherwomen on Indonesia’s Madura Island are at the forefront of a protest against a plan to convert a stretch of their coast into salt farming in their…

Brazilian banks link credit for Amazonian meatpackers to traceability by 2025, backed by the similar proposal from the powerful Agriculture and Livestock Confederation.

SUMENEP, Indonesia — Small-scale fishers in Indonesia’s Masalembu Islands have filed a petition to the government calling for the establishment of an exclusive fishing zone off-limits to larger trawlers that…

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — A moratorium on deep-sea mining established by a group of Pacific island nations has struck a blow to the Solwara 1 project in Papua…

BATAM, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities have called on their counterparts in neighboring Singapore to crack down on the illegal lobster larvae trade, given that the city-state is a key hub…

In September 2022, researchers at BC Whales, a Canadian research nonprofit studying cetaceans in the north of British Columbia province, gasped when they saw a drone image of a humpback…

KAVIENG, Papua New Guinea — Papua New Guinea’s minister for mining confirmed in early August that a deep-sea mining company would once again be looking to mine the seafloor under…

Released in February 2022, the latest report prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stressed that greenhouse gas emissions are increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme temperatures…

JAKARTA — A quota-based fisheries management system that the Indonesian government introduced earlier this year has already run up against opposition for undermining the role of local authorities and fishing…