The future of the world's biodiversity hangs in the balance as countries convene for crucial negotiations in Nagoya, Japan. The 193 signatory nations to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) pledged eight years ago to cut species loss "significantly" by this year. But studies show that the health of global biodiversity is reaching a crisis point, with extinctions of mammal and amphibian species continuing to rise.
World leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York next week to discuss progress on two goals said to be complementary: saving species and lifting people out of poverty.
Feeding the world is going to require the scientific and financial muscle of agricultural biotechnology companies. Natasha Gilbert asks whether they're up to the task.
With nations admitting that they will fail to achieve their goal of significantly cutting biodiversity loss by 2010, a flurry of work is under way to develop new, more robust targets and ways of monitoring progress. These must be ready by next October, when the 193 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) meet in Nagoya, Japan.
Phosphate-based fertilizers have helped spur agricultural gains in the past century, but the world may soon run out of them. Natasha Gilbert investigates the potential phosphate crisis.
Nanoparticles have been blamed for two deaths at a Chinese factory, in a report that claims to be the first to document human disease caused by the particles.
Commercial development of plant-derived pharmaceuticals has moved forward today with the publication of the first European guidelines for growing these genetically modified (GM) plants.
