Today the World Resources Institute released Ecosystem Services Review for Impact Assessment: Introduction and Guide to Scoping, the first of two Working Papers presenting a new methodology to help incorporate ecosystem services into impact assessment. On January 1, 2012, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) will begin requiring client projects to “maintain the benefits from ...
Today, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released the Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation (CEV), an innovative framework designed to enhance business understanding of the benefits and value of ecosystem services like fresh water, food, fiber and natural hazard protection. This first-of-its-kind framework enables companies to consider the actual benefits and value ...
The World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has released a Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation (CEV), which is the first of its kind, catering directly for the needs of business. The Guide is designed to enhance business understanding of the benefits and value of ecosystem services like fresh water, food, fiber and natural hazard protection. It provides a framework for ...
Poster abstracts are invited for a Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Impact Assessment Special Symposium which will be held in Washington, DC on 7-8 February, 2013. Abstracts will be accepted through 15 December. This symposium will bring together practitioners who work at the cutting edge of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) with both policy makers responsible for shaping IA ...
In December 2015 the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) will hold a special symposium in Panama City, Panama. The theme of the event is "Sustainable Mega-Infrastructure and Impact Assessment." In conjunction with this symposium, IAIA would like to offer three training courses. The courses would be offered on 4–5 December, following the symposium on 1–3 December. ...
Partnerships are key to Innovate to solve water issueswas a statement made by many stakeholders at the IWA Water and Development Congress in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Isle was invited to facilitate the IWA-Isle Innovation Hub on the exhibition floor and to moderate the Innovators Workshop in the conference. Both were moderated by Isle UK Managing Director, Ben Tam, and in both sessions companies were ...
WASHINGTON - Dennis Takahashi-Kelso, Ocean Conservancy’s Executive Vice President, issued the following statement in response to the announcement that BP had capped the well and for the time being the oil has ceased to flow: “After some eighty-seven days, news that oil has stopped gushing into the ocean is an enormous relief. We will await the full results of integrity tests to learn ...
'Gross domestic product, regularly used as an indicator of the size of a country's economy, does not factor in the benefits from nor the costs to the ecosystem,' said EEA Executive Director Prof. Jacqueline McGlade in her presentation at the expert workshop preceding the 'Beyond GDP' conference in Brussels this week. 'The free services that the ecosystem provides such as, air and water should ...
Foreseeing future challenges to the environment is essential for the development of environmental policy. Some recent contentious issues that could have been foreseen include the negative public reaction to genetically-modified crops in the United Kingdom, and challenges posed by avian flu, foot and mouth disease and biofuels. New research points toissues ranging from extreme weather events to ...
Only two of the world"s largest 100 companies have identified biodiversity and ecosystem loss as a strategic issue according to analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP into corporate reporting on biodiversity and ecosystem impact and dependency. The analysis, undertaken as part of the UN report on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for business to be released in summer, shows few of ...
Over the past decade, more companies have recognized the value that healthy ecosystems provide to business. Proactive companies have started managing their connection to ecosystems in order to avoid being blindsided by unexpected risks arising from the degradation of ecosystems. Today, many managers want to know how ecosystem service considerations can be integrated into business performance ...
Four training courses on the topics of biodiversity and mitigation hierarchy will be held 16-17 November in Washington, D.C. These courses will be held immediately following a special biodiversity symposium on “Mainstreaming the Mitigation Hierarchy in Impact Assessment.” Registration for the courses by 2 October is recommended as any courses that do not reach the minimum number of ...
Haitian wireless operator Voila, a subsidiary of Seattle-based Trilogy International Partners, and UNIBANK, Haiti's premier bank, have launched T-Cash, Haiti's first mobile money solution. A groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind service in Haiti, hundreds of thousands of the country's 'unbanked' population and Haitians in regions unreached by traditional financial service providers will now have ...
The 2011 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, Prof. Stephen R. Carpenter believes that the need to deal with large catastrophic events such as floods and droughts will make us rethink how or landscapes and institutions are built. In an interview with the Stockholm Water Front from his office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Carpenter says that natural science is making a lot of progress in ...
The number and impacts of disasters have increased in Europe in the period 1998-2009, a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) concludes. The report assesses the frequency of disasters and their impacts on humans, the economy and ecosystems and calls for better integrated risk disaster management across Europe. The Agency's new report 'Mapping the impacts of natural hazards and ...
In September 2013, seven European organisations joined forces to create Wetlands International – European Association. This new element of the global Wetlands International network will focus on the development and implementation of EU policy, and on its effects and impacts on global wetlands. In February 2014 the Association was awarded an operating grant from the European Commission to ...
In a recent editorial entitled Eradicating disease: an ambitious but energising goal, David Dickson offers an in-depth perspective on disease eradication, and he is correct in saying that eradication strategies, though important, will be challenging. One key reason is that we do not yet fully understand disease patterns. And new or re-emerging diseases will only add more complexity that could ...
Petrochemical lubricants have toxic effects on Antarctic seafloor ecosystems even after five years of degradation, a new study suggests. Examining the impacts of a standard lubricant and one marketed as biodegradable, the researchers were able to show that algae, which form the basis of the food chain, remained affected even after five years. Furthermore, the biodegradable lubricant appeared to ...
That is the view held by the majority of banks and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) surveyed for Biodiversity, the Next Challenge for Financial Institutions published by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) this month. Ivo Mulder, the report's author, said: 'Continuous decline of global species diversity is not only leading to more concerned conservationists - the private sector is also ...
Vistex, Inc. today announced it has received an equity investment from SAP SE (NYSE: SAP). The move marks a key milestone in the 16-year relationship between the companies and underscores SAP’s focus to accelerate innovation with its ecosystem on behalf of its customers. Vistex is an industry leader enabling progressive companies to further enable sales and marketing while reducing risk, ...