Security for Foreign Aid Workers

When we think about humanitarian aid workers, we have a tendency to think about the good work they do, and the personal sacrifices they make in their efforts to help others. But not often enough do we consider the dire circumstances and imminent danger that they put themselves in. The killing of several foreign workers at...

Shark Conservation

Sharks are among the oldest species of fish in our oceans, with an evolutionary history that started before the dinosaurs roamed our planet. Worldwide, to...

Clean Energy, Not Climate Change

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to focus on clean energy rather than on climate change, reports the Guardian.  Ban Ki-moon will still be involved with international climate change negotiations, and recently called on the world...

Humanitarian Satellite

Using satellite images to watch for troops buildup or unusual movements is a new way of preventing humanitarian abuses, reports Radio Free Europe. The...

World Bank, Gender & Poverty

The World Bank Group, along with various UN organizations, is attempting to make substantial progress toward gender equality, according to a recent st...

UN Convention on Biological Diversity

The two-week UN Convention on Biological Diversity conference is underway in Nagoya Japan, with delegates from over 190 countries trying to agree to 20 measurable conservation targets for the next decade. They’re trying to tackle some of our world’s hu...

Protracted Food Crises

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)  has just released a report stating that roughly 20% of the world’s 925 million undernourished people face protracted food crises due to a combination of natural disasters, conflict and weak governance. ...

Crisis Overhaul

Valerie Amos, the United Nations’ new under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, is pushing for a new strategy in order to combat the mass disasters that plague the world. As part of her major funding appeal fo...

One Million Trees

Earth Day Network recently announced it had found partners in 15 countries who together will plan one million trees in 2010 as part of the Avatar Home Tree Initiative.  The Initiative is a partnership program between Earth Day Network and Twentieth C...

UNEP Travel and Conservation

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is linking travel with conservation in order to conserve the Arctic’s habitat. The UN News Centre reports that a joint campaign by conservation groups and tour operators in the 1990’s has helped set up protected areas in Svalbard, Norway.  S...

Snails vs Bushmeat

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN reports that people in many African countries eat bushmeat, which tends to be more readily available and cost less than other forms of protein-based foods.  Modern hunting methods including rifles and po...

Wild Weather Solutions

Weather and humanitarian efforts are becoming more and more linked. The UN and its aid partners have appealed for $1.9 billion for this year for Sudan, Africa, which makes it the world’s largest humanitarian operation. Along with tribal and political...

Caring About Climate Change

If you drove through Vancouver’s Kerrisdale today, or one of many other neighborhoods across North America, you may have noticed groups of people holding signs about climate change.  The group I stopped to chat with was led by Janette McIntosh of KAIROS...