31 OCT 2015 (Roll-on-News-Day)

Prelude :-  Upon checking the newspapers and different website , we at UPSCTREE came to a conclusion that , today is a ‘Roll-on-News-Day’ , i.e. Newspapers have published the old news in a new avatar for today. If you check our 30 th OCT 2015 , you may find all the relevant news that are running in 31 Oct 2015 newspapers. ‘Roll-on-News-Day’ are good as it gives us space to focus on something important from preparation perspective.

We are publishing all  environment related organization , such as – wetland international , bird-life international etc .UPSC has asked questions on this kind of organization  every year . For eg-  Birdlife International ( 2015 Prelims) ,Wetland International (2014 prelims).

1)BirdLife International:-

• BirdLife International is the world’s largest nature conservation Partnership. There are 120 BirdLife Partners worldwide – one per country – and growing.

• Vision

  The BirdLife Partnership wishes to see a world where nature and people live in greater harmony, more equitably and sustainably.

  Mission

  The BirdLife Partnership strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.

  Commitment

  • To prevent extinctions in the wild
  • To maintain and where possible improve the conservation status of all bird species
  • To conserve the sites and habitats important for birds and other biodiversity
  • To sustain the vital ecological systems that underpin human livelihoods, and enrich the quality of people’s lives
  • In the process, BirdLife will empower people and contribute to the alleviation of poverty, and strive to ensure sustainability in the use of natural resources
• Histroy :-
  • 1922 was the year that the birth of the world’s first true international conservation organisation, The International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP), the organisation which grew into the BirdLife International Partnership, was founded.1922 has been described as the 20^th Century’s annus mirabilis, a miracle year for many reasons.  It was the year that public radio hit the airwaves, especially in the USA and Europe. Suddenly, it became possible to reach huge audiences with new ideas and information and for people to take an active interest in the world beyond their provincial and national borders.It is world’s oldest international conservation organisation.
• Focus Areas:-
  • Saving species
  • Conserving sites
  • Focusing on the marine environment
  • Sustaining migratory species
  • Climate Change
  • Addressing Invasive Alien Species
  • Providing Scientific support to policy
• Programmes:-
  • Capacity Development
  • Forest of Hope – BirdLife Partners have been working in tropical forest conservation for decades, in more than 50 countries. Around the world Partners are involved in numerous projects to conserve intact forest and restore degraded forest ecosystems, and promote sustainable forest use.
  • Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) – The BirdLife Partnership has, since the late 1970s, been working collectively to identify, document and protect all places on earth of greatest significance for the conservation of the world’s birds.  As a result, over 12,000 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) are now recognised. Fully 33% of IBAs lack any form of formal protection and a further 45% are only partially protected. Achieving adequate protection for these sites is among the most urgent of global conservation priorities.
  • Invasive Alien Species :-
    • Introduced species have been the primary driver of documented bird extinctions. They are implicated in the decline of more than half of all threatened bird species
    • BirdLife Partners are designing, implementing and sharing techniques to control and eradicate invasive alien species at IBAs.
    • At least four bird species have been saved from extinction by Partner action against invasive species.
    • BirdLife’s Pacific Partnership has cleared thirty islands of invasive rodents. Bird populations are recovering, and people are benefiting from increased crop yields and reduced disease risk.
  • Local Engagement and Empowerment Programme
  • Changing the way the world’s fisheries operate, to reduce seabird mortality.Albatross Task Force, the world’s first international team of seabird bycatch mitigation instructors working at-sea on commercial fishing vessels.
  • Migratory Birds and Flyways – Two thousand species of bird, 20% of all known species, make regular seasonal movements. Many travel thousands of miles between their breeding places and their wintering grounds. More than 40% of these migratory species are declining, and nearly 200 are now classified as globally threatened. They face many dangers: destruction and degradation of habitats, loss of critical stopover sites such as coastal wetlands, illegal hunting, poisoning and pollution, and collisions with badly-sited infrastructure like power lines and wind turbines
  • Preventing Extinctions :- BirdLife is the global Red List authority on the threat status of birds.

2)Conservation International :-

• Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Its goal is to protect nature as a source of food, fresh water, livelihoods and a stable climate.
• For more than 25 years, Conservation International has been protecting nature for the benefit of everyone on Earth.
• Theme– Nature doesn’t need people. People need nature. Our food, our water, our health, our jobs — they all rely on the health of the planet’s ecosystems.
• CI has helped establish 1,000 protected areas across 77 countries and protected more than 612 million hectares of land, marine and coastal areas.
• Conservation International was founded in 1987 with the aim of analyzing the problems most dangerous or harmful to nature and building a foundation dedicated to solving these issues on a global scale. This model:-
  • detects the problems most threatening to nature,
  • prevents the industry side of the world from being detrimental to nature,
  • ensures the knowledge the institution has acquired over its first twenty five years is shared with governments and, in doing so,
  • establishes policies within these countries that serve as a great benefit to people and nature.
• Criticism:-CI has been criticised for links to companies with a poor environmental record such as BP, Cargill, Chevron, Monsanto and Shell and for allegedly offering greenwashing services.
• Program – Nature is Speaking awareness Campaign