Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

Surveying 15 economic zones and 48 craft villages, the National Assembly Standing Committee’s supervisory group has warned of seriously environmental pollution caused by a wrong policy, which aims for raising budget revenue, but neglecting consequences.

A polluted river in Bac Ninh province.

According to the supervisory group, environmental pollution at trade villages is “alarming”. However, it is difficult to deal with this situation since all provinces are running after the goal of increasing budget revenue and economic growth. Read more »

23 September 2011: The seventh “Environment for Europe” Ministerial Conference concluded with the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration titled “Save water, grow green!” Through the Declaration, ministers agree to take the lead in the transition to a green economy and to make substantive contributions to the discussions on green economy within the context of sustainable development, poverty alleviation and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20). Read more »

More than 35 countries recently participated in a United Nations-sponsored effort to protect  traditional medicines from bio-piracy. At a three-day meeting in New Delhi they discussed a database that has been developed in India – the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) – that documents and protects centuries old knowledge about country’s traditional medicines and treatments. The idea is to try and help protect these traditional medicines, which should be the property of people and nations, from being patented by unscrupulous companies and individuals for profit.

Traditional medicine is, according to the World Health Organisation, "the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses."

Every natural environment, regardless of where it is, produces plants which can be used both as food and medicine, and all First Nations peoples retained knowledge and uses for them.

The plants used in traditional healing will vary from place to place, as is explained by Katsitsarishons (Suzanne Brant) is a Health Programs Coordinator at the First Nations Technical Institute, Tyendinaga 

Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada:

“Whatever [plant] you need is right around you. It’s conditioned to its environment, so it grows in certain soils and certain areas. It’s the same with us as human beings. We grow in a certain place, so we utilize those plants that are around us. And [plant use] shifts depending on where you’re at.” Read more »

Nairobi (Kenya), 22 February 2011

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced that India, with one of the fastest growing economies in the world that is embracing the process of a transition to a Green Economy, will be for the first time ever the global host of World Environment Day 2011 (WED) on 5 June.

This year's theme 'Forests: Nature at Your Service' underscores the intrinsic link between quality of life and the health of forests and forest ecosystems. The WED theme also supports this year's UN International Year of Forests.

India is a country of 1.2 billion people who continue to put pressure on forests especially in densely populated areas where people are cultivating on marginal lands and where overgrazing is contributing to desertification. Read more »

Businesses in the United kingdom are definitely doing their "bit" for the environment by signing up to a oluntary government-backed initiative which aims to reduce the waste they create and increase recycling efforts in their operations. The latest big companies to sign up to the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) are Associated British Foods, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kraft Foods, Premier Foods and Procter & Gamble. They join recent other signatories that include well known high street retailers like Asda, Boots, Marks & Sepncer, Sainsury's and Tesco.

Picture: courtesy of Environment Canada

The agreement sets a target ofor the companies that by 2012 they Read more »

On Februray 2, the United Nations kicked off a year-long celebration to raise awareness of the importance of the world's forest resources.

How to light a cigarette or make a fire in the woods during a cold damp night without using oil, gas or smashing two stones together? Here are a few green lighters easily available. Let the sunshine light your fire… Butane, pressurized liquid gas or matches used to light a cigarette…Smokers are also to blame for climate change and resource waste. But with solar energy they now can get rid of their old lighters.

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