Rainforest Blogs

Life behind the scenes with our animals, plants and people

Tracing the footsteps of the Ecological Footprint

In June we were honoured to interview the co-creators of the ecological footprint concept, Bill Rees and Mathis Wackernagel, for an upcoming Thought Leaders feature for Canada’s International Institute for Sustainable Development.

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‘Living well’ as an alternative to limitless growth

Indigenous participants at this week’s climate change summit in Bolivia have challenged Western ideas about economic development with an alternative vision known as ‘buen vivir’ (‘living well’). ‘Living well’ emphasises respect for nature, reducing waste and generally living within the limits of planetary life support systems.

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Cochabamba climate summit: An opportunity for the world to listen and learn

Over 20,000 delegates – including indigenous people, activists and other representatives from 120 countries – gathered earlier this week in the central Bolivian town of Cochabamba to try to breathe new life into spluttering international attempts to combat climate change.

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Is the world ready for a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth?

Following the Copenhagen Climate Summit which ended in stalemate last December, the President of Bolivia is seizing the initiative and hosting a People’s World Summit on Climate Change in Cochabamba this April. One of the key documents for discussion will be a Draft Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth.

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Magnificent Medinilla

Last week, we had a visit from a research student from Oxford Brookes University. She was studying the Medinilla magnifica plant.

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The Copenhagen Accord – Final Nail in the Coffin or a New Beginning for Climate Policy?

The Copenhagen Accord is a beautifully written document and full of good intentions. I encourage everyone to read it. It can be found on the UNFCCC website, is quite short and touches on many of the contentious issues in climate change policy. Unfortunately, it is almost entirely lacking of any consequence or even content. Today, this document is literally empty: it contains two tables that are intentionally blank. Let’s have a closer look.

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Nopenhagen

Over the last 48 hours, we’ve watched in stunned disbelief as the Copenhagen Summit has unravelled before our eyes. Post-Copenhagen, environmental governance will never be the same again.

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Obama’s Hopenhagen

COPENHAGEN – I have to admit, seeing President Barack Obama finally walk up to the podium did make my heart beat just a little bit faster. After so much hype about his arrival – the potential visit in the first week, then a firm commitment to support the process personally in the second week and, yesterday, some rumours that he may not come after all – it was exciting to finally see him there. Agile, hopping onto the stage, adjusting the microphone, obviously fully comfortable in his role of addressing the world on the most important issue of our time. It is all too easy to rekindle your hopes when you see President Obama speak.

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A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

COPENHAGEN – Bob Dylan’s 1963 classic about floods and rising oceans is taking on new meaning in Copenhagen. The song has become a bit of a theme song for climate action. For the first time in its seventeen-year history, the United Nations climate summit is being bombarded with massive protests inside and outside the conference centre.

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Restricted Access – to Planet Earth

COPENHAGEN – The United Nations Climate Secretariat has acted on its threat – access to the Copenhagen climate summit will be restricted starting tomorrow. Observer organizations, such as my own, the University of Oxford, will be restricted in terms of how many participants can be allowed into the conference centre for the rest of the week. Forty thousand officially registered participants are being limited to a group of fifteen thousand participants who will actually be allowed access to the site of the historic climate negotiations. That means that many of the observer organizations can only bring in less than half of their delegates. The rest are to enjoy the day in Copenhagen city.

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