News

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Berlin on Saturday to protest against planned free trade agreements between the European Union and both the United States and Canada. According to the organisers, 250,000 people took to the streets while police said 150,000 attended. Demonstrators say that the the free trade agreements TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and […]

Nineteen EU member states have “opted out” of growing genetically modified (GM) crops within all or part of their territories under new EU rules. Commission spokesman Enrico Brivio confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that the Commission had received 19 formal opt-out requests following the expiry of a deadline on October 3. The 19 countries wishing

The European Union has made little progress in halting biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services, according to the mid-term review of the EU biodiversity strategy, published by the European Commission on Friday. The report assesses whether the EU is on track to achieve its biodiversity targets in six main areas by 2020. The

A new study reveals that indigenous peoples and local communities lack legal rights to almost three quarters of their traditional lands, hampering efforts to combat hunger and poverty, sparking social conflict and undermining plans to reduce deforestation and the impacts of climate change. The analysis, conducted by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), shows that

The 193 Member States of the United Nations formally adopted the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 global goals at the start of a three-day special summit in New York on Friday. The new framework, entitled “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, contains 17 goals (SDGs) and a set of

Colombia will change its strategy in the fight against illegal drugs by giving land to farmers who grow food crops instead of coca, President Juan Manuel Santos announced as the country stops fumigating coca crops with the herbicide glyphosate. Part of the new anti-drug policy is to provide poor campesinos alternatives to illicit coca crops,

As climate negotiations are gaining momentum ahead of the UN climate conference COP21 in December, civil society organisations have voiced deep concerns about the growing influence of a concept called “Climate-Smart Agriculture” (CSA) and urged decision-makers to support agroecology instead. In a joint statement published on Monday, a coalition of 355 civil society groups, social

Land degradation costs the world trillions of dollars worth of nature’s benefits each year and could force the migration of millions of people from affected areas, a new UN-backed report has warned. The report, published on Tuesday by the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative, estimates the value of ecosystem services provided by land such

Unhealthy eating is the most common cause of premature death across the globe, a new study has found. Poor eating habits, including diets low in fruit, whole grains, and vegetables, and diets high in red meat, sugar, sodium and cholesterol, were implicated in 21% of premature deaths worldwide because they contribute towards ischemic heart disease,

The European Parliament has voted to ban the cloning of all farm animals. The vote, which took place on 8 September, takes the Commission’s proposal a step further by extending the restriction to all farm animals, their descendants and products derived from them, including imports into the EU. “Up to now, we have been able