January 2009: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has released a nine-minute video by Ibrahima Fall, a Senegalese filmmaker, which documents the work of the GEF in climate change projects in selected African countries.
15 January 2009: The UN has regionally launched its World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 Report, a joint product of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and the five UN regional commissions.
December 2008: The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), published an overview of achievements, research needs and outlook for sweet sorghum as resource for pro-poor biofuel development. The article, published in ICRISAT's newsletter on the State of the Art on Semi-arid Agriculture (SASA), describes the work of ICRISAT's BioPower Initiative on the use of sweet sorghum for food, fodder and as feedstock for ethanol production in different countries.
15 January 2009: Three projects aimed at countering the gorilla's slide towards extinction were spotlighted as the international Year of the Gorilla (YoG) 2009 got underway with a “Gorillas on Thin Ice” event. The projects, which were drawn up by the UN Environment Programme Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (UNEP/CMS), seek to boost the prospects for the Cross River Gorilla, which is Africa's rarest ape.
13 January 2009: The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), will produce a detailed digital soil map of 42 sub-Saharan countries. The project, named the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS), will provide information necessary to overcome soil depletion and improve crop production through better soil management.
December 2008: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has published a discussion paper entitled: “Global Carbon Markets: Are There Opportunities for Sub-Saharan Africa?” The paper investigates the constraints that prevent Sub-Saharan countries from fully participating in global carbon markets and suggests policies for better integration.
22 December 2008: The Second UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Conference on Tourism Trends and Outlook for the Asia Pacific took place from 17-19 December 2008, in Guilin, China, and gathered over 100 experts from 25 countries.
18 December 2008: The UN has launched a year-long advocacy campaign to help millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs), which represent 1% of the world's population, focusing on mitigating the impact of conflict and natural disasters.
19 December 2008: Among 34 development-related actions put forward by its Second Committee (Economic and Financial), the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a number of resolutions reflecting the breadth of the Committee's agenda, including consideration of the economic ramifications of climate change, and addressing the need for a more equitable international financial system and to bolster developing countries' resilience to financial risk.
15 December 2008: Joel Boutroe, UN Humanitarian Coordinator/Resident Coordinator for Haiti, delivered a statement on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a seminar on Climate Change and the Environment, which convened in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 13 December 2008. In the statement, Ban noted the urgent need “to come together as a global community” to find common solutions to common problems such as climate change.
| Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) |
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| Conference Reporting Services (CRS) |
