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Aerial shot of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, South America. Photo: Gustavo Frazao/Shutterstock.

Exploiting rainforest riches while conserving them

Products that are sustainably harvested from the Amazon can form a powerful bioeconomy Climate change is coming to the global policy agenda, and damage to the world’s tropical rainforests is a key component of it. In my own country, Brazil, there is widespread concern about climate change linked to…
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Wheat field with sun. Photo: TTstudio/Shutterstock.

Why investors must look beyond returns

Profitability and sustainability can reinforce each other. Business should do well, do right and do good – and it pays When starting a business, founders grapple with its purpose – the reason for it to exist. This purpose has multiple dimensions, seldom one. These could include: developing goods…
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Houses in Tonle Sap, Cambodia. Photo: takepicsforfun/Shutterstock.

All hands on deck: the climate crisis is here

The British daily newspaper The Guardian recently updated the language it uses to write about the environment, introducing terms that more accurately describe the environmental predicament facing the world. Terms like climate change will give way to preferred terms like “climate emergency, crisis,…
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Man looking at piles of rubbish at a landfill. Photo: Comaniciu Dan/Shutterstock.

Going circular offers a great opportunity

Combating climate change and the throwaway economy could achieve a leap in prosperity In the past few months, I have heard Sir David Attenborough, and believe him when he says the next 10 years are make-or-break time for environmental stability on this planet. I have heard Greta Thunberg, and share…
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Wind turbines on Costa Rica ridgelines. Photo: Stefan Scherer-Emunds/Shutterstock.

Helping countries improve transparency to meet bold climate commitments

Costa Rica has an ambitious goal to become the first carbon neutral nation in the world by 2021. The Central American country has long been known for its environmental stewardship, but the commitments Costa Rica made for itself under the Paris Agreement have set a new high bar for decarbonization.…
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Indonesian farmers harvesting rice. Photo: happystock/Shutterstock.

Transforming the food system to feed tomorrow's world

Supporting sustainable rice production protects the global commons, increases farmers’ incomes and is good for our business The delicate ecosystem that allows our planet and its people to thrive is under pressure as never before. The UK Government recently became the first in the world to declare a…
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Honey bee on a flower. Photo: Zoran Kompar Photography/Shutterstock.

Celebrating biodiversity in all corners of the world

The recent IPBES Global Assessment Report revealed that around one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, many within decades. Turning this situation around will take time, money, and collective efforts at many levels. Since 1993, when the Convention on Biological…
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Our failure to act over the past decades means that we are increasingly accepting that a part of our climate disruption is irreversible, and looking at adapting to it. But this, of course, should not prevent us from setting targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to stop it getting worse. Photo: testing/Shutterstock.

Pricing carbon will help us better deal with climate change

Nearly 1,400 companies are adopting an internal carbon price so as to future-proof prosperity The impact of climate disruption is already visible worldwide: irreversible damage to the oceans, more floods and prolonged droughts, which are causing issues for food production. Methane explosions in…
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While this year's Biological Diversity Day focuses on human nutrition and health, these are just a few of the aspects of life on Earth that are at stake when biodiversity’s future is threatened. But it’s not too late. We can change course. Photo: Conservation International/Aulia Erlangga.

This Biological Diversity Day, there is something to celebrate: proven solutions

The people who live along and fish the Mekong River within the Stung Treng protected wetland in northeast Cambodia may not be aware that they’re within the boundaries of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot—one of 36 global terrestrial regions of very high biological diversity that are under extreme…
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The people living on the mountain are the poorest of the poor and the unluckiest of the unlucky - losing children, homes and crops to the conflict and lacking schools and medical clinics. These women, having seen years of fighting, were not willing to give up. Photo: <a href=\"http://www.jenguyton.com/\">Jen Guyton</a>.

Are you here to plant trees or help people?

How Gorongosa National Park is using agriculture to protect biodiversity and lift people out of poverty Imagine trying to convince a group of poor farmers who don’t know you to plant a crop that they’ve never heard of, has no nutritional value, and takes three years to start producing. After…

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