Annual revenue flow to developing countries for ecotourism (or nature-based tourism) could be as large as US$ 210×1012, providing an enormous financial incentive against habitat loss and exploitation. However, is ecotourism the most privately and/or socially valuable use of rainforest land?
Comprehensive, longitudinal field studies that monitor both disease and vector populations for dengue viruses are urgently needed as a pre-requisite for developing locally adaptable prevention programs or to appropriately test and license new vaccines.
The threats facing Ecuador's Yasuní National Park are emblematic of those confronting the greater western Amazon, one of the world's last high-biodiversity wilderness areas. Notably, the country's second largest untapped oil reserves—called “ITT”—lie beneath an intact, remote section of the park. The conservation significance of Yasuní may weigh heavily in upcoming state-level and international decisions, including whether to develop the oil or invest in alternatives.
With the threat of increased disasters from climate change, many countries are already taking steps to reduce their vulnerability to weather and climatic hazards, such as floods, cyclones, heatwaves and droughts. Adaptation to climate change is a relatively new concern, but it can call on a rich tradition spanning many decades of practices to reduce disaster risks.
This note reports on examples of recent experience in eight countries where national and local governments and civil society participants have worked to strengthen their disaster risk reduction and adaptation actions.
If the next climate treaty tackles deforestation, tropical nations will need to monitor the biomass of their forests. One ecologist has worked out a way to do that from the sky, finds Jeff Tollefson.
A day after dropping its pursuit of rival Anglo American PLC, mining giant Xstrata PLC will turn its focus toward projects it already has in the pipeline, rather than seek new acquisitions, its chief executive said in an interview.
The role of the tropics in triggering, transmitting, and amplifyinginterhemispheric climate signals remains a key debate in paleoclimatology.Tropical glacier fluctuations provide important insight on regionalpaleoclimatic trends and forcings, but robust chronologies arescarce.
