The 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CMS COP11) to the UNEP Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) will take place from 4-9 November 2014 in Quito, Ecuador. A High Level Ministerial Panel will be held on 3 November to discuss how to reconcile the rights of nature with the green economy in ...

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has recognised family farmers as central to solving global hunger and malnutrition. According to FAO, family farming includes all family-based agricultural activities. Family farming is a means of organising agricultural, forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture production, which is managed and operated by a family and is predominantly reliant on family ...

Smallholder farmers throughout the world play a key role in maintaining natural resources through the use of sustainable practices, and can significantly contribute the conservation of biodiversity, the Convention on Biological Diversity stressed on Thursday, in a joint press conference with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), held in the margins of COP 12 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on the ...

The final round of formal negotiations before the UN climate convention conference in Lima, Peru takes place next week in the German city of Bonn. The ‘October session’, running from 20 to 25 October, will give governments the important opportunity to further develop a cohesive text of a new draft climate agreement. The elements must be clear by the Climate ...

A considerable number of Lagosians are facing a range of challenges in the bid to access proper health care services. A visit to two primary health centres in Alimosho Local Government Area (LGA) in Lagos State reveals that ridiculous demands, lack of medical workers and epileptic power supply are among obstacles militating against effective health delivery in the neighbourhood. Alimosho ...

The Director, Public Health and Disease Control, Ebonyi Ministry of Health, Dr Chris Achi, said that regular hand washing reduces risk of contracting infectious diseases by more than 30 per cent.   Achi made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abakaliki on the occasion of 2014 World Hand Washing Day.   He said the ...

Gov. Babangida Aliyu of Niger on Wednesday picked an expression of intent form for the Niger East Senatoria District on the PDP platform.   The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Aliyu’s form was bought by an organisation, Talba Support Movement (TSM), at the party’s state secretariat in Minna.   TSM Coordinator, Alhaji Hamisu Jankaro, said Aliyu’s candidacy would ...

The Brazilian Federal Government has announced the creation of over 58,000 hectares of new marine Protected Areas in the northern state of Pará, in the Amazon region.  Decrees published on Monday 13 October by the Presidency of Brazil with the Ministry of Environment established three new marine extractive reserves and expanded an existing marine extractive reserve. The measures will underpin biodiversity ...

United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has said that planning for disaster should take account of the reduced mobility experienced by many older persons. He spoke on Monday in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital city, in commemoration of this year’s International Day for Disaster Reduction, which the UN boss described as an opportunity to recognise the role of older men and ...

President of the Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara; President of Senegal, Macky Sall; as well as the Prime Minister of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves alongside hosts the Executive Secretary of the ECA and the Prime Minister of Morocco officially opened the 9th African Development Forum (ADF) on Tuesday in Marrakech, Morocco. The ADF is organised by the United Nations Economic ...