Biodiversity blogs
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Composing songs for conservation - our journey to Bwindi the Impenetrable
5 January 2015A project in Uganda is using music and video to promote conservation and poverty alleviation, thanks to a creative partnership
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Ensuring equitable management of protected areas: we're still defining the issues
5 December 2014Last month's once-a-decade World Parks Congress didn't talk enough about 'equity' when managing protected areas — but at least it's on the agenda
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It's time to end conservation injustice
17 November 2014Human injustices in the name of nature conservation have to become a relic of the past. It's time to get serious about human rights at the World Park Congress
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Q&A: Why the PCLG website is the place to be for poverty and conservation issues
9 October 2014The PCLG website is at the heart of the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group. It has been relaunched with a new look and updated content
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A marriage to save the earth: Farmers and researchers innovate to conserve biodiversity
7 October 2014Traditional knowledge combined with the latest science could increase food production while safeguarding biodiversity, new research shows
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Piloting Social Assessment of Protected Areas: some initial reflections
23 September 2014With the global forum on protected areas, the World Parks Congress, just two months away, it's a good time to consider our experience with the Social Assessment of Protected Areas (SAPA) initiative
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Poverty and conservation in DRC – what role for a network?
24 August 2014A new network being set up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo aims to bring organisations together on poverty and conservation issues
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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.