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The COVID-19 pandemic is a global human health crisis that is deeply intertwined with the global biodiversity crisis. It originated when a zoonotic virus spilled over from wild animals to humans. Viruses can spread easily in disturbed ecosystems, and with increasing contact between humans and wildlife the risk of contagion grows. Conservation is crucial to reduce the risks of future pandemics, but the current pandemic also impacts on conservation in many ways.
In this Briefing Paper we suggest strategies to alleviate the pandemic’s adverse effects on conservation in the Global South. Many zoonoses originate there, and livelihoods are strongly dependent on natural resources. The paper considers the pandemic’s overarching economic implica-tions for protected and other conserved areas, and specific ramifications for the tourism and wildlife trade sectors, which are closely related to these areas.
As economies shrink, natural resources come under pressure from various sides. Financial resources are reallocated from the conservation to the health sector, countries decrease environmental protection standards to boost economic recovery, and poor people in rural regions resort to protected wild resources as a subsistence strategy. Together, these trends speed up the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services and create supportive conditions for the emergence of zoonotic disease and the undermining of livelihoods.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, nature-based tourism was a multi-billion dollar industry, and the temporary breakdown in tourism is having both positive and negative impacts on sustainable development. On the negative side, many people employed in tourism have lost their jobs and livelihoods, and a key source of funding for management of protected areas has been depleted. On the positive side, a temporary decline in tourism has given nature time to recover, and a drop in international flights has lowered global carbon emissions from air travel. The need for the industry to plan its post-COVID outlook offers a chance to promote more community-driven tourism to support inclusion of local people.
Wildlife trade – a major spreader of zoonotic viruses – has been banned in response to the pandemic in some countries. Yet social safeguards for local communities dependent on protein from wild animals are still largely missing.
Our recommendations to address these challenges are that conservation must remain high on the international agenda, especially in the midst of a global health crisis that could quickly repeat itself if ecosystem destruction continues at the current pace. Environmental legislation must be upheld and funding made available for sustainable livelihoods. The resurgence of nature-based tourism should be supported because of its potential to generate conservation funding and income for local communities. In the meantime, the tourism industry should work on further reducing its environmental footprint and improving community self-determination. Bans on wildlife trade need to be designed in ways that do not undermine communities’ need for sources of protein.

A meeting between EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski and US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack showed the first signs of thawing relations after the trade dispute that has soured transatlantic relations in recent years.

Trois ressortissants Algériens ont trouvé la mort, aujourd’hui, dans un incendie qui s’est déclenché au niveau du centre-ville de Thessalonique, en Grèce. Les trois Algériens vivaient apparemment dans un immeuble abandonné. En effet, d’après l’agence de presse mondiale Associated Press, Trois Algériens ont péri aujourd’hui dans un incendie qui s’est déclenché dans un immeuble abandonné […]

L’article Des sans-papiers algériens morts dans un incendie en Grèce est apparu en premier sur .

Észak-Macedóniában ismét éjszakai kijárási tilalmat vezettek be a rossz járványügyi mutatók miatt - közölte a Vesti.mk észak-macedón hírportál szerdán.

Social protection plays a central role in achieving several of the social and environmental goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As a result, this policy area is gaining increased recognition at the nexus of global climate change and development debates. Various social protection instruments are deemed to have the potential to increase the coping, adaptive and transformative capacities of vulnerable groups to face the impacts of climate change, facilitate a just transition to a green economy and help achieve environmental protection objectives, build intergenerational resilience and address non-economic climate impacts. Nevertheless, many developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change have underdeveloped social protection systems that are yet to be climate proofed. This can be done by incorporating climate change risks and opportunities into social protection policies, strategies and mechanisms. There is a large financing gap when it comes to increasing social protection coverage, establishing national social protection floors and mainstreaming climate risk into the sector. This necessitates substantial and additional sources of financing.
This briefing paper discusses the current and future potential of the core multilateral climate funds established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in financing social protection in response to climate change. It further emphasises the importance of integrating social protection in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to access climate finance and provides recommendations for governments, development cooperation entities and funding institutions.
To date, investments through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaptation Fund (AF), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for integrating climate change considerations into social protection programmes, policies and mechanisms are generally lacking, even though social transfers and subsidies have often been used to implement climate change projects. Yet, these climate funds can support governments in mainstreaming climate risk into social protection-related development spheres and aligning social security sectoral objectives with national climate and environmental strategies. This, in turn, can help countries increase their capacity to tackle the social and intangible costs of climate change.
This paper makes the following recommendations:
• Funding institutions should make explicit reference to opportunities for financing projects on social protec¬tion under their mitigation and risk management portfolios.
• National governments and international cooperation entities should use climate funds to invest in strengthening social protection systems, work towards improved coordination of social protection initiatives, and utilise the potential of NDCs for climate-proofing the social protection sector.
• Proponents of social protection should make the most of two major opportunities to boost climate action in the social protection domain: the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and the momentum to build back better after the COVID-19 crisis.

Social protection plays a central role in achieving several of the social and environmental goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As a result, this policy area is gaining increased recognition at the nexus of global climate change and development debates. Various social protection instruments are deemed to have the potential to increase the coping, adaptive and transformative capacities of vulnerable groups to face the impacts of climate change, facilitate a just transition to a green economy and help achieve environmental protection objectives, build intergenerational resilience and address non-economic climate impacts. Nevertheless, many developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change have underdeveloped social protection systems that are yet to be climate proofed. This can be done by incorporating climate change risks and opportunities into social protection policies, strategies and mechanisms. There is a large financing gap when it comes to increasing social protection coverage, establishing national social protection floors and mainstreaming climate risk into the sector. This necessitates substantial and additional sources of financing.
This briefing paper discusses the current and future potential of the core multilateral climate funds established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in financing social protection in response to climate change. It further emphasises the importance of integrating social protection in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to access climate finance and provides recommendations for governments, development cooperation entities and funding institutions.
To date, investments through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaptation Fund (AF), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for integrating climate change considerations into social protection programmes, policies and mechanisms are generally lacking, even though social transfers and subsidies have often been used to implement climate change projects. Yet, these climate funds can support governments in mainstreaming climate risk into social protection-related development spheres and aligning social security sectoral objectives with national climate and environmental strategies. This, in turn, can help countries increase their capacity to tackle the social and intangible costs of climate change.
This paper makes the following recommendations:
• Funding institutions should make explicit reference to opportunities for financing projects on social protec¬tion under their mitigation and risk management portfolios.
• National governments and international cooperation entities should use climate funds to invest in strengthening social protection systems, work towards improved coordination of social protection initiatives, and utilise the potential of NDCs for climate-proofing the social protection sector.
• Proponents of social protection should make the most of two major opportunities to boost climate action in the social protection domain: the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and the momentum to build back better after the COVID-19 crisis.

Social protection plays a central role in achieving several of the social and environmental goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As a result, this policy area is gaining increased recognition at the nexus of global climate change and development debates. Various social protection instruments are deemed to have the potential to increase the coping, adaptive and transformative capacities of vulnerable groups to face the impacts of climate change, facilitate a just transition to a green economy and help achieve environmental protection objectives, build intergenerational resilience and address non-economic climate impacts. Nevertheless, many developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change have underdeveloped social protection systems that are yet to be climate proofed. This can be done by incorporating climate change risks and opportunities into social protection policies, strategies and mechanisms. There is a large financing gap when it comes to increasing social protection coverage, establishing national social protection floors and mainstreaming climate risk into the sector. This necessitates substantial and additional sources of financing.
This briefing paper discusses the current and future potential of the core multilateral climate funds established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in financing social protection in response to climate change. It further emphasises the importance of integrating social protection in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to access climate finance and provides recommendations for governments, development cooperation entities and funding institutions.
To date, investments through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaptation Fund (AF), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for integrating climate change considerations into social protection programmes, policies and mechanisms are generally lacking, even though social transfers and subsidies have often been used to implement climate change projects. Yet, these climate funds can support governments in mainstreaming climate risk into social protection-related development spheres and aligning social security sectoral objectives with national climate and environmental strategies. This, in turn, can help countries increase their capacity to tackle the social and intangible costs of climate change.
This paper makes the following recommendations:
• Funding institutions should make explicit reference to opportunities for financing projects on social protec¬tion under their mitigation and risk management portfolios.
• National governments and international cooperation entities should use climate funds to invest in strengthening social protection systems, work towards improved coordination of social protection initiatives, and utilise the potential of NDCs for climate-proofing the social protection sector.
• Proponents of social protection should make the most of two major opportunities to boost climate action in the social protection domain: the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and the momentum to build back better after the COVID-19 crisis.

Les unités de secours et de recherches de la Protection civile ont retrouvé, aujourd’hui mercredi, le corps de la dernière victime des inondations d’Oued Meknassa, à l’ouest de la wilaya Chlef. Le bilan des victimes de la crue de l’Oued Meknassa, suite aux pluies diluviennes enregistrées à Chlef dans la nuit de samedi, s’est alourdi […]

L’article Inondation à Chlef : Le corps de la dernière victime retrouvé est apparu en premier sur .

Auf dem Integrationsgipfel am Dienstag (9. März) verabschiedete die Bundesregierung ein Maßnahmenpaket, das mit rund 100 Initiativen die Integration von Zuwanderern in Deutschland fördern soll. Der Opposition und Verbänden geht dieser nicht weit genug. Der fünfstufige „Nationale Aktionsplan Integration“ (NAP-I)...

Si la plupart des citoyens ont tendance à pointer manque des précipitations, les spécialistes eux, évoquent plusieurs autres facteurs, dont le gaspillage. Cependant, il faut reconnaitre que le problème existe, et qu’il est temps de le prendre au sérieux. Face à l’inconscience des citoyens, d’au moins la plupart d’entre eux, et l’immobilisme des autorités face […]

L’article Stress hydrique : les prémices d’une crise de l’eau se dessinent est apparu en premier sur .

Die CO2-Grenzsteuer der Europäischen Union, die im Juni vorgestellt werden soll, wird in asiatischen Ländern weithin als protektionistischer und einseitiger Schritt wahrgenommen.

REPORT on the 2019-2020 Commission Reports on Kosovo
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Viola Von Cramon-Taubadel

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Oltással állítható meg a koronavírus-járvány, az átoltottság jelentheti a megoldást, a Magyar Honvédség oltóbuszokkal vesz részt ebben a programban – közölte a Honvédelmi Minisztérium parlamenti államtitkára.

Németh Szilárd, az MH Béketámogató Kiképző Központban levő oltóbusznál, a határra induló katonák oltása közben tartott sajtótájékoztatón elmondta: az oltóbuszok február végén készültek el, és öt áll rendelkezésre. Az oltóbuszok nemcsak a honvédség, hanem a lakosság beoltásában is részt vesznek majd a jövő héttől.

Az oltóbuszok működtetésére ugyanaz az orvosi-egészségügyi protokoll vonatkozik, mint amit a lakosok az oltópontokon, a háziorvosoknál megszokhattak. Az oltóbuszok energiaellátását áramtermelő aggregátor segíti, tehát a jármű olyan helyen is rendelkezésre áll, ahol nem tud közvetlenül áramforráshoz csatlakozni. Az oltás után automata permetbefúvásos rendszerrel fertőtlenítik a járművet. Az emberek beoltás után az izolációs, megfigyelő sátorban várakoznak – ismertette.

Németh emlékeztetett arra, hogy a honvédség a vírus elleni védekezésben is – mint például ipari vagy természeti katasztrófák, nagy árvizek vagy a vörösiszap-katasztrófa esetén – kiemelkedő és nélkülözhetetlen módon veszi ki a részét. A járvány idején a katonák a határvédelemben, a járőrözés során, a kórházparancsnoki rendszerben, a kórházak adminisztratív segítésében, a készletgazdálkodás megszervezésében, az idősotthonok, a szociális otthonok, az iskolák és óvodák fertőtlenítésben is részt vettek, továbbá a beoltások során – sorolta.

The post Oltóbuszokkal is részt vesz a honvédség a védekezésben appeared first on .

The European Parliament has lifted the immunity of Carles Puigdemont and two other Catalan MEPs. They now face extradition to Spain and charges of sedition and misusing public funds. Until now the Belgian judiciary had refused to allow the extraditions. The press has different takes on what could - and should - happen next.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is predicting 5.6 percent global growth for this year. The main drivers are China with 7.8 and the US with 6.5 percent, but the Eurozone is also on trend with an expected plus of 3.9 percent. However, this is still not enough to allay the concerns of the commentators.