Biodiversity blogs
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Conservation works better with social justice
20 August 2014Poverty threatens wildlife conservation despite widespread efforts to integrate conservation and development so that local communities benefit. So what's going wrong? Our research suggests it's social justice that's missing.
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How best to deal with wildlife crime while protecting the poor?
1 August 2014A new project will explore the different reasons people commit wildlife crimes and suggest ways governments can respond without harming the poorest communities
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Finding the best outcomes for biodiversity and development
22 May 2014Protecting an island paradise shouldn't come down to money, but it sometimes seems that way for those trying to ensure that development in the Seychelles is not at the cost of its rich biodiversity
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Camila Oliveira on NBSAPs revision in Brazil
1 May 2014Camila Oliveira is an environmental analyst in the Ministry of the Environment in Brazil and national manager of the project Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition. Here she describes the NBSAP revision process in Brazil
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What we know about how biodiversity and poverty are linked: The good, the bad and the ugly
31 March 2014There is an explicit assumption in international policy statements that conserving biodiversity can help in efforts to tackle global poverty
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Time for a new look at social impacts of protected areas
11 March 2014A new framework for assessing the social impacts of protected areas will be key to ensuring conservation is effective, and contributes to human well-being and poverty reduction
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Making the business case for biodiversity — in an instant
10 March 2014Life's too short for long, dull text – and when life itself is the topic, it is critical to get the message across in a quick, clear way.
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Wanted: Community wildlife conservation success stories
3 March 2014Ensuring local communities benefit from wildlife is key to successful conservation in the long term and can also help to fight the illegal wildlife trade. Share your community success stories with us on World Wildlife Day.
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Are "alternative livelihoods" projects effective?
4 February 2014Considerable sums have been spent on projects designed to provide people with alternative ways to make a living in and around protected or biodiverse areas. But do such projects work?
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Great apes: Their fate is ours
24 October 2013We need new people, new tools and new ideas to ensure a future for great apes – that was the key message from the 2013 Great Apes Summit.
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Maps reveal what motivates people to take resources from flagship national park
9 October 2013A project that maps people's unauthorised use of resources in a national park provides important insights into the links between poverty and conservation.
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Traditional innovation in farming is under threat
2 October 2013Indigenous knowledge is innovative, not static. Protecting it will help food security.
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Uganda: Can a gorilla park deliver more benefits to local people?
26 July 2013A project aims to help poorer members of the community receive more benefits from a national gorilla park in Uganda through research and by advocating for change with national and local authorities.
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Botswana: Biodiversity and dragons come together
22 May 2013With the Day for Biological Diversity on 22 May, a new biodiversity project highlights its importance and draws out tensions that arise when biodiversity is put at the centre of development policies.
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How communities are protecting their biocultural resources with community protocols
2 October 2012As delegates gather for the 11th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity this photostory looks at why two communities in India and Borneo have developed community protocols.
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World Conservation Congress: key themes and a new leader to watch
17 September 2012The role of markets and the green economy, and the risks of monetising nature were two key themes that emerged from the Conference.
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IUCN World Conservation Congress begins
6 September 2012At the start of the World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea, IIED’s Director Camilla Toulmin, reflects on the controversies and challenges that it faces.
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Making the Nagoya Protocol work at the community level
4 July 2012Two safeguards for communities' rights to resources can help implement the Nagoya Protocol.
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Community protocols can bring real benefits to communities and combat biodiversity loss
15 March 2012Indigenous people and local communities have received few benefits from the commercial use of the wealth of traditional crops and medicinal knowledge they have developed.
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Rafts of rubber and a hotel for birds with spit that sells
21 February 2012There’s plenty of room at the Hotel Sri Tahjung. Any time of year… you can find it here. But if you want to stay, you’ll need a pair of wings and plenty of saliva.
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Patently obvious: intellectual property rights could support small producers
14 November 2011The humble potato is a great example of how Quechua communities in the Andes have maintained crop biodiversity.
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Ask not what you can do for nature…ask what it can do for you
1 August 2011In 1997 a British barrister uttered three words that left my sister and me speechless and gave us a glimpse of the future.
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“Protecting and promoting the rights of indigenous people benefits us all”
9 June 2011He gave the example of indigenous peoples in Peru who are responding to climate change by reintroducing native potato varieties and so are “helping to conserve the earth’s biodiversity”. “Indigenous peoples have been living a ‘green economy’ for centuries,” he added — economists should look to old practices in indigenous communities for new ways to achieve sustainable development.
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Can hunting wildlife contribute to biodiversity conservation?
19 November 2010It’s a politically and ethically charged debate. Can hunting animals really contribute to wildlife conservation and biodiversity objectives?
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Charting a course for biodiversity and the poor
22 October 2010Negotiations by parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) continue in Nagoya, Japan. Biodiversity researchers, advocates and government officials have gathered here to strike a deal that will, hopefully, safeguard life on Earth over the next decade.