Biodiversity

Opinion
Can a One Health approach avert the next pandemic?
Greater global collaboration urgently needed to safeguard the health of animals, humans and the environment from the next emerging pandemic.
Other news

Opinion
Biodiversity data: development banks as part of the solution
With wider sharing of the vast amounts of raw biodiversity data collected from the studies and projects they finance, development banks could facilitate the implementation of ecological transitions. Last part of this series focusing on the links between data sharing and biodiversity.

Opinion
Biodiversity: better data sharing for effective ecological transitions
An increasing amount of biodiversity data has become available worldwide. Yet, we clearly lack data on groups of little-known organisms in the intertropical zone, which is richest in biodiversity.

Interview
Biodiversity: Advocating for rewilding
According to natural scientists, Gilbert Cochet and Béatrice Kremer-Cochet, rewilding land helps restore biodiversity, and thus offers better protection for humankind.

Analysis
Ending overfishing, an inaccessible goal?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals provided for subsidies contributing to overfishing to end by 2020. Where are we now, with negotiations on overfishing resuming at the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

Development news
Zoonoses: placing animal health at the heart of development
COVID-19, Ebola, Malaria… Even as human activities are destroying biodiversity and increasing global temperatures, zoonoses are posing an increasing threat to humans. How does animal health affect us? Is it the poor cousin of development?

Opinion
Agriculture: protecting biodiversity for tomorrow’s food
Agriculture has been one of the main causes of the decline in biodiversity. Yet it is essential to guarantee the productive potential of future farmlands. According to agricultural economist Jacques Loyat, the common agricultural policy (CAP) must be used as a means of restoring and protecting...

Interview
Making our relationship with animals central to ecological transition
For philosopher Corine Pelluchon, who recently published ‘Réparons le monde’ (Rivages), ecological transition must put “planetary limits, our relationship with animals, health and reducing inequalities” at the heart of government policy.

Press Review
In the shadow of COVID-19, the poor and the environment
Crises overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic are now resurfacing, although they are counteracted by notable progress. While Latin America faces environmental and social issues, in Africa, the use of the law and of technology to protect populations is a step forward.

Opinion
Biomimicry: reconciling humanity with biodiversity
Humans use the biodiversity found in nature as a material, yet it is also a major source of information from which we can draw inspiration through biomimicry, providing models that can be replicated, especially in terms of transition and adaptation.

Opinion
Pandemics: the environmental origins of COVID-19
What are the environmental origins of pandemics such as COVID-19? Why are they going to become more and more frequent? In this first article of a series devoted to the links between COVID-19 and the environment, agronomists Julien Calas and Léa Lugassy, together with economist Étienne Espagne...

Opinion
Tackling illegal pangolin trade, a priority for Nigeria’s development and public health
In just a few years, illegal pangolin trade originating in Nigeria has boomed. For Chervine Oftadeh, a strong, coordinated response to this issue could save this near-extinct species, protect global health and contribute to the country’s development.

Press Review
Locust swarms, coronavirus: Africa under threats
As crop-decimating locusts pose a major threat to food security in the Horn of Africa, nearly fifty suspected cases of coronavirus have been numbered in the African continent. This week’s Development press review compiles striking news from around the globe.

Development news
“Nature-based solutions”: biodiversity saving the climate
In 2020, both climate and biodiversity will be addressed by a Conference of the Parties (COP). These two subjects are often addressed in silos, but are in fact inseparable: biodiversity has a leading role to play in mitigating climate change.

Press Review
In 2020, let’s keep our resolutions for the Planet!
2020 kicked off with Australia’s unprecedented fires – a tragedy for its unique biodiversity and a very serious climate warning. Our first Development press review of the year highlights striking news from the past few weeks.

Opinion
Protecting ecosystems is taking action against climate change
Managing ecosystems in marine, agricultural, and forest environments is key to addressing the climate challenge,” says Laura Buis. It can either amplify or mitigate the impact of global warming.

Publication
10 years to invest in sustainable development
As the challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals represent a serious emergency, ID4D presents to you this cross-cutting scientific booklet that gathers the voices of 11 experts in development on various topics, from water to governance through biodiversity, inequalities or entrepreneurship.

Interview
“Biodiversity is Our Life Insurance”
Biodiversity continues to decline, and conservation efforts are not equal to the challenges. According to Gilles Kleitz, biodiversity conservation has a part to play in the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Interview
Overfishing: transparency can change the system
More than 3 billion people depend on fishing and marine and coastal biodiversity. For Frédéric Le Manach, safeguarding the ocean requires greater transparency in management and sharing.

Development news
The Seed War: food biodiversity against corporations
Three-quarters of the world’s food is generated from 12 plants and 5 animal species. Agrobiodiversity gets less attention than animal biodiversity, but it’s nonetheless threatened by major corporations that have built economic monopolies in the seed market.

Development news
Animal Biodiversity: saving the remaining species
The losses in biodiversity have never been as fast nor as dramatic. Nonetheless, scientists and organizations fight on. Save endangered species, restore animal communities, return their habitats to them: it’s still possible.

Interview
“One Health”: Rethinking health at the human-animal-ecosystem interface
The “One Health” approach invites us to think differently of health. Explanations below on this view of the interdependence between human beings, animals and ecosystems.

Development news
Deforestation, a plague to halt
45% of the world’s forest surface disappeared during the 20th century. The 4 billion hectares of the planet’s forests are threatened by deforestation, particularly in tropical regions. Yet they are essential for planetary balance. Protecting them is a priority.

Development news
Oceans under threat, humanity in danger
Oceans cover 71% of the earth’s surface and provide an estimated 2.5 trillion dollars of revenue per year, according to WWF. Impacted by global warming and human activities, they are under greater and greater threat. Yet solutions exist.

Opinion
Innovative financing for protected areas in Africa: where does the innovation lie?
Biodiversity is increasingly under threat on the African continent. In the face of this danger, IDDRI researchers Renaud Lapeyre and Yann Laurans promote a contractual approach to the financing and management of protected areas in Africa.