12 January

• United Kingdom Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009
  The Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 will ensure clean healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas, by putting in place better systems for delivering sustainable development of marine and coastal environment.
  More information: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/marine/legislation/index.htm

• Lundy Island becomes England's first Marine Conservation
  The waters around Lundy Island off the North Devon coast have today (January 12) become England’s first Marine Conservation Zone. This is a direct result of last year’s Marine & Coastal Access Act which aims to protect England’s most important marine habitats and species. Janette Ward, Natural England’s Regional Director in the South West, welcomed the announcement: “We are very pleased to have Lundy, one of the jewels of our natural environment in the South West, announced as the location of England’s first Marine Conservation Zone. Lundy, already a showcase of a well protected marine environment, now represents the first step in delivering a new approach to marine protection. It is wonderful that we can boast a site in the South West as a pioneer for marine conservation in English waters.”
  More information: http://lundyisland.co.uk/

11 January

• United Kingdom plans to double marine protection areas
  Next month the UK government will decide whether to create the world’s biggest marine reserve in the middle of the Indian Ocean. If the new reserve is approved on 12 February, the total global marine area with full protection status will be more than doubled, a big step towards helping to halt the loss of marine biodiversity. Although they look like tiny insignificant specks on a world map, the 55 coral islands of the Chagos Archipelago and their surrounding seas support a remarkable diversity of marine life. The area, also called the British Indian Ocean Territory, forms part of the UK Overseas Territories.
  More information: http://www.biodiversityislife.net/?q=node/248

• United Kingdom: Newlands for Southport as £1.8 million woodland replaces wasteland
  The Forestry Commission used 47,000 tonnes of sand to nurture trees and wildlife across the 26-hectare plot at Town Lane. The intensive four-month project has galvanised a site which provides views of the West Pennine Moors, Southport Mosses and Blackpool Tower. The development is part of the North-West Development Agency’s £59 million Newlands scheme, aimed at transforming more than 800 hectares of the region’s brownfield sites to boost local economies and improve health and environment resources.
  More information: http://www.culture24.org.uk/science+%2526+nature/environment/art74750

• International Year of Biodiversity - investing in nature, improving lives
  The International Year of Biodiversity has been launched at a ceremony in Berlin with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that the world will face "enormous costs" if no action is taken to tackle climate change and to secure biodiversity. The world is facing a global extinction crisis which threatens not only the natural environment but mankind itself. All life on earth depends upon species, ecosystems and natural resources. IUCN says this must be safeguarded before it’s too late, as we are destroying the very natural infrastructure that supports us, at an ever increasing rate.
  More information: http://www.iucn.org/?4490/International-Year-of-Biodiversity---Investing-in-Nature-Improving-Lives

8 January

• Discover biodiversity - every day
  Biodiversity is the backbone of all life on earth, and its conservation lies at the very core of IUCN’s work. ‘Species of the Day’ has been launched as part of IUCN’s involvement in the International Year of Biodiversity. With mounting scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis, it’s time to take action. “The latest analysis of the IUCN Red List shows the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss will not be met,” says Jane Smart, Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group. “It’s time for governments to get serious about saving species and make sure it’s high on their agendas for next year, as we’re rapidly running out of time.”
  More information: http://www.iucn.org/?4457/Discover-biodiversity-Every-day

• Coral Reefs Are Evolutionary Cradles
  Coral reefs aren't just beautiful and rich in species. They also have long served as an evolutionary wellspring for countless types of marine life, even groups such as clams and snails that researchers thought had originated in shallow coastal waters. That's the conclusion of a new examination of the fossil record, and the findings reinforce the idea that evolutionary potential is linked to the environment.
  More information: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2010/107/1

• The Paleobiology Database
  The Paleobiology Database is a scientific organization run by paleontological researchers from around the world. We are bringing together taxonomic and distributional information about the entire fossil record of plants and animals. Everyone is welcome to use our data.
  More information: http://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl

7 January

• Camera traps yield first-time film of tigress and cubs
  Camera traps deep in the Sumatran jungle have captured first-time images of a rare female tiger and her cubs, giving researchers unique insight into the elusive tiger’s behaviour. After a month in operation, specially designed video cameras installed by WWF-Indonesia’s researchers seeking to record tigers in the Sumatran jungle caught the mother tiger and her cubs on film as they stopped to sniff and check out the camera trap.
  More information: http://www.panda.org/wwf_news/?185602/Camera-traps-yield-first-time-film-of-tigress-and-cubs

• Oldest Land-Walker Tracks Found--Pushes Back Evolution
  The first vertebrates to walk the Earth emerged from the sea almost 20 million years earlier than previously thought, say scientists who have discovered footprints from an 8-foot-long (2.4-meter-long) prehistoric creature. Dozens of the 395-million-year-old fossil footprints were recently discovered on a former marine tidal flat or lagoon in southeastern Poland (prehistoric time line). The prints were made by tetrapods—animals with backbones and four limbs—and could rewrite the history of when, where, and why fish evolved limbs and first walked onto land, the study says. Because they are thought to have evolved from such creatures, reptiles, birds, and mammals—including humans—are today classified as tetrapods...
  More information: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100106-tetrapod-tracks-oldest-footprints-nature-evolution-walking-land.html

• Tetrapod trackways from the early Middle Devonian period of Poland
  The fossil record of the earliest tetrapods (vertebrates with limbs rather than paired fins) consists of body fossils and trackways. The earliest body fossils of tetrapods date to the Late Devonian period (late Frasnian stage) and are preceded by transitional elpistostegids such as Panderichthys and Tiktaalik that still have paired fins. Claims of tetrapod trackways predating these body fossils have remained controversial with regard to both age and the identity of the track makers. Here we present well-preserved and securely dated tetrapod tracks from Polish marine tidal flat sediments of early Middle Devonian (Eifelian stage) age that are approximately 18 million years older than the earliest tetrapod body fossils and 10 million years earlier than the oldest elpistostegids. They force a radical reassessment of the timing, ecology and environmental setting of the fish–tetrapod transition, as well as the completeness of the body fossil record.
  More information: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7277/full/nature08623.html

6 January

• A New Year’s Gift in the Blackfoot Valley
  More than 4,100 acres of private timber land in the Blackfoot Valley now belongs to the public. The Nature Conservancy in Montana transferred the land to the Bureau of Land Management, which had oversight for most of the surrounding property on Chamberlain Mountain. The transfer helps eliminate the patchwork of intermixed public-private ownership that made it difficult and costly to manage the land for public recreation, wildlife habitat and forest production.
  More information: http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/montana/press/press4344.html

• The Billion Tree Campaign: 7.4 Billion Trees and Counting
  A phenomenal year for the Billion Tree Campaign ended on a high note as all 32 pupils at Rushbury CE Primary School in Shropshire went tree planting just before the end of term. The children had a fantastic day out, planting 50 trees with the help of Wardens from the National Trust. The tree planting in England brings to a close a landmark year in which the Billion Tree Campaign reached and overtook its new goal to see 7 billion trees planted around the world, one for each person on the planet.
  More information: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?
  DocumentID=606&ArticleID=6437&l=en

• UN opens Biodiversity Year with plea to save world's life-supporting ecosystems
  In a bid to curb the unprecedented loss of the world's species due to human activity - at a rate some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression - the United Nations is marking 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, with a slew of events highlighting the vital role the phenomenon plays in maintaining the life support system on Planet Earth.
  More information: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?
  DocumentID=606&ArticleID=6439&l=en&t=long

• Puma and UNEP Announce Strategic Partnership to Support the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity
  Puma Unveils World's First Continental Football Kit to Support this Global Cause.
  PUMA and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) were joined today by the Indomitable Lions - Cameroon's national football team - with team captain Samuel Eto'o, to announce a strategic partnership to support biodiversity worldwide and specific initiatives in Africa. The 'Play for Life' partnership will support the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity by raising awareness about habitat and species conservation among football fans and the general public during worldwide football events, including the Orange Cup of African Nations in Angola later this month and international friendly games leading up to the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. With 12 African football team sponsorships to its name and a history of innovation with Africa, PUMA is uniquely positioned to help drive this effort with UNEP.
  More information: http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?
  DocumentID=608&ArticleID=6440&l=en

5 January

• A call for action against ocean acidification (EPOCA)
  An important and immediate reduction of the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) is necessary to significantly curb ocean acidification and thus prevent the extinction of marine species, risks for food security and significant socioeconomic consequences. Here are what several experts state, amongst them members from the European project EPOCA, in a guide entitled: “Ocean acidification- The facts” which has just been published within the framework of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
  More information in French: http://www.insu.cnrs.fr/a3317,appel-action-contre-acidification-ocean-epoca.html

• BirdLife and Audubon's conservation work gets Royal support
  “Protecting threatened species is vitally important to developing a different relationship with our planet”, said HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco at a recent event in Washington DC, United States. “Humanity needs to adopt a more humble attitude, aware that it needs other species to survive”. The event was organised by BirdLife, Audubon (BirdLife in the US) and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and took place at the Washington DC Residence of H.E. Gilles Noghes - the Ambassador of the Principality of Monaco to the US. The evening was also attended by Bernard Fautrier and John B. Kelly – respectively CEO of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and President of the Foundation’s US Chapter...
  More information: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/12/washington_event.html

• Saving a Coral Kingdom
  New Disneynature Film "OCEANS" Benefits Coral Reefs in The Bahamas
  What’s better than the premiere of a new Disneynature film? How about the chance for you to help save nature — just by attending the movie! You’ll have that opportunity when Disneynature OCEANS opens in movie theaters across the United States and Canada on Earth Day 2010. In honor of each moviegoer who sees the movie during opening week (April 22-28), Disneynature will make a contribution to The Nature Conservancy to help protect coral reefs. You can select a day to have a coral reef e-card reminder sent to you and 10 friends so you remember to attend! Through this effort, Disneynature, through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and The Nature Conservancy will support the expansion and management of new marine parks through the new Adopt a Coral Reef project in The Bahamas, which is scheduled to launch on February 1, 2010.
  More information: http://adopt.nature.org/coralreef/saving-a-coral-kingdom.html?src=news

• Coral Reefs of the Tropics - 10 Easy Steps to Help Protect Coral Reefs
  Do you want to make a difference every day? Want to learn about simple, effective actions you can take to help save coral reefs and the fish, animals, and plants that depend on them? You've come to the right place!
  1. Conserve water: The less water you use, the less runoff and wastewater will pollute our oceans.
  2. Help reduce pollution: Walk, bike or ride the bus. Fossil fuel emissions from cars and industry raise lead to ocean warming which causes mass-bleaching of corals and can lead to widespread destruction of reefs.
  3. Use only ecological or organic fertilizers: Although you may live thousands of miles from a coral reef ecosystem, these products flow into the water system, pollute the ocean, and can harm coral reefs and marine life.
  4. Dispose of your trash properly: Don't leave unwanted fishing lines or nets in the water or on the beach. Any kind of litter pollutes the water and can harm the reef and the fish.
  5. Support reef-friendly businesses: Ask the fishing, boating, hotel, aquarium, dive or snorkeling operators how they protect the reef. Be sure they care for the living reef ecosystem and ask if the organization responsible is part of a coral reef ecosystem management effort.
  6. Plant a tree: Trees reduce runoff into the oceans. You will also contribute to reversing the warming of our planet and the rising temperatures of our oceans.
  7. Practice safe and responsible diving and snorkeling: Do not touch the reef or anchor your boat on the reef. Contact with the coral will damage the delicate coral animals, and anchoring on the reef can kill it, so look for sandy bottom or use moorings if available.
  8. Volunteer for a coral reef cleanup: You don't live near a coral reef? Then do what many people do with their vacation: visit a coral reef. Spend an afternoon enjoying the beauty of one of the most diverse ecosystems on the Earth.
  9. Contact your government representatives: Demand they take action to protect coral reefs, stop sewage pollution of our oceans, expand marine protected areas and take steps to reverse global warming.
  10. Spread the word: Remember your own excitement at learning how important the planet's coral reefs are to us and the intricate global ecosystem. Share this excitement and encourage others to get involved. Send a free coral reef e-card today!

  More information: http://www.nature.org/joinanddonate/rescuereef/explore/help.html

• Creation of the National Natural Reserve of the Hourtin Dunes and marshland
  On December 15, 2009 just a few days ahead of the International Year of Biodiversity, the Prime Minister signed a decree for the creation of the National Natural Reserve of the dunes and marshlands of Hourtin which has a surface of 2150 hectares and spans along the municipalities of Hourtin and Naujac sur Mer. This is the 6th national natural reserve created in Gironde (1) and the 12th in Aquitania (2), Bordeaux (France). The project started in 2003 within the framework of the contract based on objectives between the National Office of Forests and the Environment Ministry. The perimeter includes the beach, the public forest area of Hourtin, from the sea to the lakes beyond the dunes, that is, a representative sample of the environment which characterizes the Coast of Aquitania .
  More information in French: http://www.bordeauxactu.com/+Creation-de-la-reserve-naturelle+.html

• Ski area plans threaten Europe’s last untouched forests
  Plans for new skiing areas in the region around the Carpathian Mountains and the Balkans threaten to harm major protected areas that house some of Europe’s last remaining untouched wilderness. New developments and expansion plans for existing facilities for downhill skiing are in the works across many parts of the region, particularly in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Ukraine.
  More information: http://www.panda.org/wwf_news/?184562/Ski-area-plans-threaten-Europes-last-untouched-forests

• NEVADA Truckee River Project: Restoring a Broken River
  The Nature Conservancy is leading the restoration of the lower Truckee River, and is currently working on a nine-year, eight-and-a-half-mile, $20 million restoration project to revitalize the river and its ecosystem. The work is taking the damaged and degraded river system and reshaping it into a sanctuary for birds and wildlife, as well as a vital resource to the community. Once a thriving, wild waterway with hundreds of bird species and 40-pound Lahontan cutthroat trout, the Truckee has been highly degraded over the past century. The lower river has lost approximately 90 percent of its forest and as much as 70 percent of its bird population from 1900 levels. The native fish have nearly disappeared. The Nature Conservancy took on the task of bringing back the Truckee River - for people and for nature.
  More information: http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/
  nevada/preserves/art11312.html?src=news

• Call for tougher wildlife law gets the support of 56,000
  The Malaysian Nature Society, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and WWF-Malaysia, urgently call for the tabling and adoption of amendments to the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972 (Act 76) at the next session of Parliament. The campaign, which was carried out over one and a half years, calling for a stronger and more comprehensive wildlife law, has received the support of 56,062 people from 161 countries.
  More information: http://www.traffic.org/home/2009/12/16/call-for-tougher-wildlife-law-gets-the-support-of-56000.html

• New study highlights scale of international wildlife trade in Southeast Asia
  More than 35 million animals listed in CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) were exported from Southeast Asia between 1998 and 2007, according to a study published this week in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. The top animal groups traded were reptiles (17.4 million), seahorses (16 million), birds (1 million), mammals (0.4 million), butterflies (0.3 million) and fish (0.1 million). There were also more than 18 million pieces and 2 million kg of live corals exported.
  More information: http://www.traffic.org/home/2009/12/23/new-study-highlights-scale-of-international-wildlife-trade-i.html

• Red Sanders Red Alert
  A series of seizures of Red Sanders, a valuable timber species native to southern India have taken place in the past 48 hours, and indications are that smugglers are getting increasingly more sophisticated in transporting the valuable timber out of India. According to media reports, more than 50 tonnes of Red Sanders logs were seized on 22 December in Leh, in the far northern State of Jammu and Kashmir, where it was en route to China. One person has been arrested with more arrests expected.
  More information: http://www.traffic.org/home/2009/12/23/red-sanders-red-alert.html

4 January

• TARA OCEANS: Interview with Etienne Bourgois, co-director of Tara Oceans and president of the Tara Foundation
  As the year ends, Etienne Bourgois talks about the Copenhagen summit meeting on climate, and reviews the first months of the expedition.
  More information: http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/fr/interview-d-etienne-bourgois-co-directeur-de-tara-oceans-et-president-du-fonds-tara.php?id_page=247

18 Decembre

• Saving Forests
  Protecting forests has always been central to Conservation International’s mission. Now it is more important than ever. Did you know the burning and clearing of tropical forests contributes approximately 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and fuels climate change? Human activity is the main cause of deforestation, usually tied to economic development, increasing consumption rates – in both developed and developing countries – and extractive industries such as logging. Pristine jungles are burned and cleared for farming and ranching, or for plantations to produce biofuel crops. Cities and villages expand, prompting industrial development that supplants forests. Loggers extract more trees than the forest can reproduce, destroying ecosystems and leaving roads that invite other exploitative forces.
  More information: http://www.conservation.org/learn/climate/forests/Pages/overview.aspx

• FORESTIA-ONLINE GAME
  Thanks to a certainly new simulation and strategy game called CREO, young people can now experience the inherent challenges of sustainable forest management. The tool features a virtual forest that has to be managed in such a way as to sustain the economy, protect biodiversity while taking into considerations the needs of multiple users: hunters, fishermen, hikers...This educational game has also been designed to be used in the classroom, thanks to pedagogical guidebooks for geography teachers in primary education cycles two and three and first part of the secondary education. “This simulation game is a highly effective tool to make a problematic issue such as sustainable forest management understandable”, explains CREO President Caroline Julien. “And it also connects with young people from the digital C generation who were born in the era of new technologies. Ask your own kids tonight whether they would prefer to take a theoretical course in Geography or…play with FORESTIA!”
  More information in French: http://www.science-en-jeu.ca/forestia/

• Director General presents UNESCO climate change initiative at Copenhagen Conference
  Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, yesterday presented UNESCO's climate change initiative at a press briefing held during the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). "Thanks to its interdisciplinary capacities, UNESCO can render a unique contribution to mitigation and adaptation to climate change through distinct action in education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. All these efforts are closely coordinated with the response of the entire UN system to the new global challenge. In particular, and most prominently as a first pillar of its initiative, UNESCO continues to contribute to climate science and the building of the indispensable knowledge base through its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), in close collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and its International Hydrological Programme (IHP)". This work contributes to the better understanding and forecasting of climate phenomena.
  More information: http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/575/

11 Decembre

• United Nations Climate Change Conference Site
  The web page had 4 million visitors from February to December 2009, of which 1.65 million visited the website during the conference. On the busiest day, approximately 200,000 users visited COP15.dk. Thousands of visitors also viewed the webcast from COP15. The website featured news coverage, blogs, background material and more, and allowed visitors to send "Climate Greetings" to COP15, which were shown on large screens at the conference and at various outdoor venues in Denmark. More than 15,000 Climate Greetings were received from around the world.
  More information: http://en.cop15.dk/

• UNESCO related events at COP-15 (Copenhagen - Denmark, 7-19 December 2009)
  In addition to participating in plenary and working group sessions, UNESCO was involved in some events at the UN Climate Change Conference.
  More information: http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=8027&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

• UNESCO and climate change: a long-term concern
  Higher temperatures of the air and the oceans, massive melting of glaciers, rising sea levels....Even before the experts had sounded the alarm, UNESCO was already working on increasing our knowledge of climate change. The Organization is continuing and expanding its activities today.
  More information: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=47030&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

• Tourism, an accomplice to global warming?
  The United Nations officially recognized the active contribution of the tourism industry to global warming at the Davos Conference in 2007. “As an indispensable growing factor for the global economy, tourism contributes to a great extent to global warming. (…) If measures are not to be taken against this situation, this part will experience a disproportionate growth in comparison with other sectors, as a result of the strong growth of tourism”, indicated Eric Scheidegger, Deputy Director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). According to a report presented by the UN agencies for tourism, environment and climate, if no measures are not to be taken, the impact of tourism on climate change will rise by 150% over the next 30 years.
  More information in French: http://www.tourisme-autrement.be/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=138&Itemid=136

A World of Science (January–March 2010)
IN FOCUS
Wildlife in a warming world
NEWS
Science must be a priority, says new UNESCO head
Concern over budget for science
Colombia hosts Year’s largest space marathon
Launch of consortium for science in the South
Three science prizes awarded
A biosphere school for Guinea Bissau
Healthier oceans vital for combating climate change
Collapse of karez forces Iraqis to abandon homes
Sustainable development needs cultural dimension
Two Nobel Prizes for L’ORÉAL–UNESCO laureates
18 countries test tsunami system
INTERVIEW
Farouk El-Baz returns to the Moon
HORIZONS
The Bushbuckridge healers’ path to justice
Can a blue dye help save the Aral Sea?
IN BRIEF
Diary
New releases
http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=8188&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

The UNESCO Courier 2009 - number 10. Climate change: where are we going?
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) now taking place in Copenhagen (Denmark) is deciding the fate of the planet. Everyone agrees on the substance: only a concerted global effort can meet the climate challenge. But when it comes to form, opinions diverge.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=46901&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Reducing Some Water Flow Rates May Bring Environmental Gains
Conservation projects often attempt to enhance the water-based transport of material, energy, and organisms in natural ecosystems. River restoration, for example, commonly includes boosting maximum flow rates. Yet in some highly disturbed landscapes, restoration of natural water flows may cause more harm than good, according to a study published in the January 2010 issue of BioScience.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104122306.htm

New Evidence Of Culture In Wild Chimpanzees
A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study, reported online on October 22nd in Current Biology, shows that neighboring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091022122321.htm

Tipping Elements in the Earth System: How Stable Is the Contemporary Environment?
A Special Feature of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents the latest scientific insights on so-called tipping elements in the planetary environment. These elements have been identified as the most vulnerable large-scale components of the Earth System that may be profoundly altered by human interference. If one or more of those components is tipped -- especially in the course of global warming -- then the age of remarkably stable environmental conditions on Earth throughout the Holocene may end quickly and irreversibly.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091209193728.htm