Goal 7 specifies the international commitment to ensuring environmental sustainability, by targeting the reversing of loss of environmental resources, halving the proportion of people without sanitation and sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015, and achieving significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. Progress towards this goal is measured by factors such as the proportion of land area covered by forests, extent of protected areas for maintaining biological diversity, energy efficiency (in terms of GDP per unit of energy use), per capita carbon dioxide emissions, and also the proportion of the population with access to improved drinking water, sanitation, and secure tenure.
04-11-2009The latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that globally 17,291 species out of the 47,677 assessed ones are facing extinction. Its biodiversity conservation group has said that scientific evidence of extinction crisis is only mounting.
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Image: Kihansi Spray Toad is 'extinct in the wild'/ Photo credit: Tim Herman
03-11-2009Last week’s fire at an oil depot in a western Indian city is posing serious health hazards for people living in its vicinity. Experts fear that spreading smoke may also hit agriculture in the surrounding villages that supply vegetables and food grain to Jaipur.
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Image: Black smoke from the burning IOC depot hangs over Sitapura, Jaipur/ Photo credit: The Hindu
31-10-2009Prakash Thosre, an Indian Forest Service officer in Maharashtra, was roped in to spearhead the National Green Corps project that has come to occupy a place among the top three states in terms of impact and value additions. In an exclusive interview with OneWorld South Asia, he talks of the project’s achievements.
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04-11-2009Resentment is simmering among villagers in Maharashtra due to a proposed nuclear power plant to be set up a few hundred kilometers south of Mumbai. It will be India’s first international collaboration after the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group lifted restrictions on civil nuclear cooperation.
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Indian villagers tap traditional ways of water storage 07-08-2009Rural communities in two Indian states have turned to ancient models of drought mitigation and water conservation. NGOs, have helped them form watershed associations and repair old tanks and other irrigation systems to cope with changing climate.
Swimming a life-saver for children in Bangladesh 14-09-2009Thousands of children get drowned in Bangladesh each year. Australian lifeguards are now teaching children to swim so that they can survive during floods.
06-10-2009An information hub set up by an NGO in south India is aiding fishing communities with alert messages on maritime changes, availability and trade of fish. Integrating community radio to the public announcement system has enabled the rural villagers to address health and socio-economic related concerns.
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Image: Photo credit: Coastal region in India/ Google
22-09-2009OECD’s publication Natural Resources and Pro-Poor Growth: The Politics and Economics shows how effective policy making and investments aimed at natural resource management can support economic development and poverty reduction. It offers decision makers a wealth of examples to adopt and replicate.
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Image: Cover page of the publication/ Photo credit: OECD
