Feed aggregator

Following the “This is Europe” debate with Croatian Prime Minister Plenković, EP President Metsola and PM Plenković will hold a joint press conference today at around 17.00.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Following the “This is Europe” debate with Croatian Prime Minister Plenković, EP President Metsola and PM Plenković will hold a joint press conference today at around 17.00.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Following the “This is Europe” debate with Croatian Prime Minister Plenković, EP President Metsola and PM Plenković will hold a joint press conference today at around 17.00.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Following the “This is Europe” debate with Croatian Prime Minister Plenković, EP President Metsola and PM Plenković will hold a joint press conference today at around 17.00.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Wednesday, 22 June

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Wednesday, 22 June

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Wednesday, 22 June

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Wednesday, 22 June

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Reporters Without Borders released on Wednesday a report with evidence indicating that Ukrainian photo journalist Maks Levin and his friend and bodyguard were executed by Russian soldiers in a forest near Kyiv, possibly after being interrogated and even tortured.

Salmon fishing. Credit: iStock

By Marla R. Emery, Jean-Marc Fromentin and John Donaldson
BONN, Germany, Jun 22 2022 (IPS)

You probably use wild species far more often than you realise. For many people, especially in more developed economies, the use of wild species sounds like something quite removed from their everyday lives – something perhaps more relevant to other people, in other countries.

It is a fact, however, that the use of wild species is a vital part of almost every human community. If you eat fish, they are most likely wild species. When you take cough medication, it’s likely to be derived, in part, from wild plants. Your wooden furniture may once have been a wild tree. Even the joy and inspiration you get from nature, such wildlife watching, is another use of wild species.

The 2019 Global Assessment Report by IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) alerted the world that direct exploitation is one of the main reasons that 1 million species of plants and animals now face extinction – many within decades. This should have been a wake-up call. Our human behavior is harming wild species, some of which we have relied on for centuries to provide nutrition, clothing, shelter, and more.

In other words, we use wild species to meet a wide range of human needs. By damaging them, we are also harming ourselves – and the policies and decisions we make about the use of wild species have consequences for our health, food security, livelihoods and general wellbeing.

This doesn’t mean that we have to stop eating fish entirely, give up on cough medication or find other materials for our homes – but what is needed, urgently, is better information and knowledge together with stronger institutions to ensure that our use of wild species is sustainable.

For this reason, four years ago, nearly 140 Governments tasked 85 leading experts, from every region of the word, with preparing a landmark new IPBES assessment report on the sustainable use of wild species – to help inform decisions about nature by governments, businesses, civil society, indigenous peoples and local communities – in fact by everyone whose choices and actions impact nature.

In the first week of July, this report – drawing on more than 6,200 sources, will be considered by the member States of IPBES. Once accepted, it will become the go-to resource to inform policy options and actions to promote the more sustainable use of wild species from the global to the national and even the very local scale.

One of the things that sets this report apart is the extent to which it draws on the expertise and experiences not only of the natural and social sciences – but also of indigenous peoples and local communities. For many local communities, the use of wild species is inextricably entwined with their culture and identity – with customs and practices evolved over millennia to ensure sustainable use.

The report will also have very immediate real-world relevance. Having been specifically requested by, among others, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), it will directly inform the decisions of the 19th World Wildlife Conference in Panama in November 2022.

Additionally, it will be taken up by the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in the negotiations later this year of the new global biodiversity framework for the next decade. The sustainable use of wild species is also closely related to our ability to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to deal with other global challenges such as land use and climate change.

Among the most important aspects of this new IPBES report is just how vital the sustainable use of wild species is to everyone – everywhere, in the face of multiple global environmental crises. It will offer better information and options for solutions that work – for people and the rest of nature.

Dr. Marla R. Emery is a Scientific Advisor with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and retired Research Geographer with the US Department of Agriculture.

Dr. Jean-Marc Fromentin is a Researcher at the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), Deputy Director of the MARBEC research Unit.

Prof. John Donaldson is an independent biodiversity consultant and previously Chief Director Biodiversity Research, Assessment and Monitoring at the South African National Biodiversity Institute.

IPS UN Bureau

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

Excerpt:

The authors are Co-Chairs of the IPBES Assessment of the Sustainable Use of Wild Species

Beim Spiel um WM-Bronze kugelt sich Joana Heidrich die Schulter aus – der Traum von einer Medaille war geplatzt. Nun meldet sich die Schweizerin nach dem Beach-Drama auf Instagram. Und Swiss Volley gibt eine erste Diagnose bekannt.

Az esztergomi bazilikában misével köszöntötték hétfőn az Esztergom-Budapest főegyházmegyét 20 éve vezető Erdő Péter bíborost 70. születésnapja alkalmából.

Das Angebot beim Post- und beim Zahlungsverkehr soll sich in Zukunft stärker an den Bedürfnissen der digitalen Gesellschaft ausrichten. Der Bundesrat lässt Abklärungen dazu treffen. Er reagiert damit auf einen Bericht von Experten.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama confirmed on Wednesday (22 June) that he will attend Thursday's EU summit that will focus on enlargement, after announcing on Tuesday that he may boycott it due to Bulgaria’s veto over North Macedonia that is also holding up Tirana.

Un homme a été condamné à 5 ans de prison ferme et 2 millions de francs CFA d'amende par la CRIET le mardi 21 juin 2022.
L'homme condamné ce mardi par la CRIET a promis à une dame la remise en liberté de son fils en prison pour cybercriminalité. Il a même donné la garantie que le prévenu ne serait pas condamné et ce, moyennant le paiement d'une somme de 700.000 FCFA. Il faisait croire à la dame qu'il était un proche du procureur spécial près la CRIET.
La mère du cybercriminel présumé a payé l'argent exigé mais son fils a été condamné.
Poursuivi pour usurpation de titre et escroquerie, le faux proche du procureur de la juridiction spéciale a été arrêté et déposé en prison en mai dernier.
A l'issue du procès, mardi 21 juin 2022, il a été condamné à 5 ans de prison ferme et 2 millions de francs CFA d'amende.
Son complice a écopé de 5 ans de prison dont 3 fermes et un million d'amende.
M. M.

Die Zahl der Stellen, für welche die grössten Schweizer Unternehmen Personal suchen, ist in den vergangenen Wochen deutlich gestiegen. Standen bei den 50 grössten Firmen im Mai rund 8600 Stellen offen, sind es nun bereits über 9300.

La commission chargée d’enquêter sur l’utilisation du logiciel espion Pegasus a interrogé un représentant de la société israélienne à l’origine de la technologie, le groupe NSO, en lui posant des questions, mais beaucoup restent sans réponse.

Die Volleyballerinnen von Neuchâtel UC wurden in dieser Saison zum dritten Mal in Folge Meister. Nun verzichtet das Team jedoch auf die Teilnahme in der Champions League.

A polio vaccinator administers the oral polio vaccine to a child in Pakistan. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

By Ifeanyi Nsofor
ABUJA, Jun 22 2022 (IPS)

For forty days, Kunle Adeyanju – a Nigerian, Rotarian, polio eradication advocate and biker – rode for more than 12,500km from London to Lagos to raise funds for polio eradication.

Adeyanju documented his journey on Twitter, where his handle is appropriately named @lionheart1759. Indeed, it takes one with a lion’s heart to embark on such a bold adventure. People like philanthropist Bill Gates, who works on polio eradication, and the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, tweeted out their support and admiration.

Even in the face of dwindling resources and competing demands, the push for the total eradication of polio must continue because as long as even a few people have polio, it could spread widely again

I also followed Adeyanju’s journey on Twitter, and I applaud him too, including because I love to see individuals pursue their dreams, no matter how terrifying it seems. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female President and former President of Liberia, aptly captures this sentiment, “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”

I also support his cause. Polio is a serious infectious disease – it causes paralysis of muscles and also kills if the respiratory muscles are affected. In the past, polio victims who were unable to breathe on their own were placed in iron lung machines to enable them to breathe. Thanks to the efficacy of the polio vaccine, this is now history.

I am a proud alumnus of polio eradication. It was my first experience in global health. As a young monitoring, evaluation and surveillance officer at Nigeria’s National Programme on Immunization, I was involved in the global polio reaction initiative supporting advocacy, training of health workers and supervising routine and polio vaccinations across Nigeria.

We’ve seen in recent years how the global community has come a long way in almost making polio the second infectious disease (after smallpox) to be eradicated. Without a doubt, Rotary International has been a major partner and funder on this journey. I am part of the Rotary International family and was the president of the Rotaract Club at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University College of Medicine, Nnewi, southeast Nigeria. Rotary International launched a global polio vaccination campaign in 1985.

Three years later, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was established. At that time, polio paralysed more than 1000 children globally daily. Since then, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunized against polio. Consequently, global incidence of polio cases has decreased by 99%. Currently, wild poliovirus continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nigeria interrupted polio transmission in 2019.

Even in the face of dwindling resources and competing demands, the push for the total eradication of polio must continue because as long as even a few people have polio, it could spread widely again. The final five-year push to eradicate polio would cost an estimated less than $1 billion per year.

Like Adeyanju, Gates, and others, I want to see polio completely eradicated. These are four areas where those $5 billion funds could make that possible.

First, polio vaccine is needed to vaccinate all eligible children. To be fully protected for life, children need four doses of polio vaccines. Polio vaccines come in two forms – oral and injectable. Based on UNICEF estimates, cost per fully vaccinated child is $0.42 for oral polio vaccine. In contrast, it is $2.78 for an injectable polio vaccine.

Second, polio surveillance is a continuous process necessary for prevention and detection of the virus. The polio virus is passed out in stool. That’s why polio transmission is faeco-oral.

This makes polio transmission common in communities with poor sanitation and widespread public stooling. Surveillance activities involve collecting and screening stools of children who have quick onset paralysis after episodes of fever. Further, environmental surveillance of polio involves collecting and testing sewage water for the polio virus.

Third, vaccine storage via modern cold chain equipment. Maintaining the right cold chain for vaccines requires constant electricity, which is lacking across communities in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, only 48% of sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity, according to the World Bank.

Therefore, clean renewable energy such as solar is a sustainable way to provide the right cold chain for vaccines. Across African countries, some primary health centers already use solar freezers for vaccine storage. Solar freezers don’t come cheap. A Solar Direct Drive Freezer sold on the African Union’s “Africa Medical Supplies Platform” costs $5,797.56.

Lastly, public health education is imperative to achieve equity in complete polio eradication and to continue to see successful vaccination campaigns in countries without polio. Indeed, the University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda captures this succinctly, “to achieve equity in healthcare, depends on equity in health education”.

Polio education is delivered in communities using community health workers, community leaders and community based organisations. Other means include use of radio, TV, print media and electronic media. More polio education should be delivered via social media. Adeyanju has made polio topical among youths on social media by following his heart and pursuing his dream

Adeyanju’s bold ride from London to Lagos has put polio on the front burners of international discourse, especially in these times of covidization of everything.

Through his action, he has answered in the affirmative Rotary International’s four-way test of what people say, think or do:

Is it the truth? – Yes

Is it fair to all concerned? – Yes

Will it build good will and better friendships? – Yes

Will it be beneficial to all concerned? – Yes

Thank you, Kunle Adeyanju. Your boldness will save lives and stop children from being paralysed. You are a hero.

 

Dr. Ifeanyi McWilliams Nsofor is a graduate of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University.