Category: <span>World Heritage Convention</span>

Hydro-power poses mortal threats to the UNESCO World Heritage property in Kyrgyzstan

The international environmental coalition “Rivers without Boundaries” has raised alarms over the potential destruction of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kyrgyzstan. The organization has appealed to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, expressing concern about the Kyrgyz government’s proposal to exclude the …

Witch Hunt at Lake Baikal Targets Local Environmental Activists

Officials in Russia’s Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia have publicly denounced activists seeking to block a controversial bill that would ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal. In an open letter, 34 regional officials, including six mayors, accused environmental activists of waging a cyberbullying campaign and inciting “inter-social …

Era of Building Big Dams Draws to a Close

Experts say the world has hit ‘peak dams,’ which conservationists hail as good news for riverine ecosystems By Jacques Leslie | June 27, 2023  https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/ California’s Oroville Dam, the tallest in the U.S., sustained more than $1 billion in damages in 2017 when its spillway partially collapsed. The rising cost …

Civil Society Calls on Bankers to Take Global Biodiversity Framework Seriously

As exemplified by the continuing extermination of river ecosystems supported by multilateral banks, most international finance institutions are yet to understand that the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is awake-up call for the whole concept of “international development assistance” and international investments in general. The RwB Coalition supported an important appeal …

Amur-Heilong featured in the River Culture Book published by UNESCO

UNESCO published in Beijing a richly illustrated socio-ecological saga “River Culture –  Life as a Dance to the Rhythm of the Waters” (available in full and chapter by chapter here ) In 36 chapters spanning 900 pages the book analyses relationship between key ecosystem processes (e.g. periodic flooding) and ethno-cultural …

Call on Chinese Actors to Stop Extinction:  90 Civil Society Groups Call on China to Protect Biodiversity in its Overseas Investments

On December 15, 2022, 90 civil society groups from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the world called on Chinese authorities and actors to protect biodiversity and people in its overseas investments. As China is chairing the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP) currently …