Every year on April 22nd over a billion people across the world come together to observe Earth Day. First established in 1970, Earth Day was created to drive action in combatting the ongoing global environmental and climate crisis. The theme of the 2021 event is Restore Our Earth. The 2021 Earth Day campaign covers various concepts for how we can restore our earth, but sometimes these can be difficult to visualise.
COVID-19 may have forced the 50th anniversary of Earth Day to be commemorated online last year, yet millions of people participated in calls to action. As we begin to look beyond the pandemic, however, it's vital to remember that we cannot go back to business-as-usual as far as our planet is concerned.
Today, on Earth Day I want to celebrate the efforts made by Indigenous peoples around the world to continue protecting our planet. Of the many significant experiences at the local level, I want to highlight an initiative developed in the Peruvian Amazon with the MDE Saweto Peru project.
Despite its proven efficiency in protecting rainforests, Indigenous Peoples and local communities only receive a small share of funding for climate and biodiversity protection.
What are the state-of-the-art and new approaches to land consolidation as part of integrated rural development strategies in North Africa and Near East? That was the main question around which several experts from Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Turkey joined the FAO/ RVO roundtable discussion on land consolidation during the Second Arab Land Conference last February; a session which 110 participants attended – both in person and online.
by TISrilanka (TISL) for Transparency International
Originally posted at: https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/turning-the-tide-on-sri-lankan-corruption#
By challenging favouritism in Sri Lanka’s land department, a resident is undermining public officials’ corruption that damages many people’s lives
In the aftermath of the 6.5 magnitude earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia, in 2016, disaster managers were able to able to identify which communities were at greatest risk due to rapid access to data. They used the open source InaSAFE platform to access real-time hazard data and modeled population data mapped down to the village level. This was made possible by the collaborative use of “open” data — data that is free to use, open license, and in machine readable formats — between scientists, local and national governments and communities.
While green groups spoken to agreed that the Government has become more receptive to their views, they believe it is now time to put conservation or preservation at the front and centre of future development projects.
By Navene Elangovan for Channels News Asia (CNA) Singapore
Using satellite technology and digital innovation, the United Nations Development Programme, through its Sustainable Palm Oil Initiative, in partnership with the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), has built an Android-based digital system to address challenges in developing a land cover monitoring system.
The INA- Alert application allows users to get real time accurate information and it works in conjunction with the WebGIS Ecosystem, developed by Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN).
