Press Room

Recent press releases

Global warming adding to pollution and over-harvesting impacts on the world’s key fishing grounds says new UNEP—'In Dead Water' — report
(Monaco/Nairobi, 22th February 2008)

At least three quarters of the globe’s key fishing grounds may become severely impacted by changes in circulation as a result of the ocean’s natural pumping systems fading and failing they suggest.

These natural pumps, dotted at sites across the world including the Arctic and the Mediterranean, bring nutrients to fisheries and keep them healthy by flushing out wastes and pollution.

The impacts of rising emissions on the marine world are unlikely to end there. Higher sea surface temperatures over the coming decades threaten to bleach and kill up to 80 per cent of the globe’s coral reefs—major tourist attractions, natural sea defences and also nurseries for fish.

Meanwhile there is growing concern that carbon dioxide emissions will increase the acidity of seas and oceans. This in turn may impact calcium and shell-forming marine life including corals but also tiny planktonic organisms at the base of the food chain.

The findings come in a new rapid response report entitled “In Dead Water” which has for the first time mapped the multiple and combined impacts of pollution; alien infestations; over-exploitation and climate change on the seas and oceans.

The full press release is available at UNEP/GRID-Arendal. Please see the UNEP/GRID-Arendal maps and graphics library for GLOBIO maps, and other resources.

Globalization and Great Apes: Illegal logging destroying last strongholds of Orangutans in National Parks
(Nairobi, 6th February 2007)

The tropical forests of South East Asia, important for local livelihoods and the last home of the orangutan are disappearing far faster than experts have previously supposed according to a new Rapid Response report from The UN Environment Programme.

The report, The Last Stand of the Orangutan - State of emergency: illegal logging, fire and palm oil in Indonesia's national parks, says that natural rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo are being cleared so rapidly that up to 98% may be destroyed by 2022 without urgent action. The rate of loss, which has accelerated in the past five years, outstrips a previous UNEP report released in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) Then, experts estimated that most of the suitable orangutan habitat would be lost by 2032.

The illegal logging, driven by global demands, accounts for tens of millions of cubic metres annually and an estimated more than 73% of all logging in Indonesia. Approximately 20% of the logs are smuggled directly out of Indonesia, the remaining is used to support an extensive international and local wood industry, and then exported to the international markets by well-organized, but elusive commercial networks.

The report says that natural rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo are being cleared so rapidly that up to 98% may be destroyed by 2022 without urgent action. The rate of loss, which has accelerated in the past five years, outstrips a previous UNEP report released in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) Then, experts estimated that most of the suitable orangutan habitat would be lost by 2032.

The illegal logging, driven by global demands, accounts for tens of millions of cubic metres annually and an estimated more than 73% of all logging in Indonesia. Approximately 20% of the logs are smuggled directly out of Indonesia, the remaining is used to support an extensive international and local wood industry, and then exported to the international markets by well-organized, but elusive commercial networks.

The press release is available at UNEP/GRID-Arendal.

Curbing Coastal Pollution Aids Recovery of Heat-Stressed Corals
(Beijing/Nairobi, 19th October 2006 )

Ecosystems likely to cope better with climate change in a less contaminated world

Scientists studying reefs that were bleached in the late 1990s by high surface sea temperatures have found a link between recovery rates and the levels of contamination entering coastal waters from developments on the land.

The findings, released at an international marine pollution conference taking place in Beijing, China, have come from a team led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nature Seychelles—the environment wing of the Government of the Seychelles—and scientific and government experts from the Netherlands and Norway.

The new rapid report on coral reefs—“Our Precious Coasts: Marine Pollution, Climate Change and Resilience of Coastal Ecosystems”—is based on surveys of coastal vegetation carried out in 2004.

The findings are given even more urgency as a result of new modeling. It indicates that up to 90 per cent of the tropical coasts of the world may have been developed by 2030.

The press release is available in the GLOBIO press room.

Future of World's Arid Regions Chronicled in Landmark UN Environment Report (Algiers/London/Nairobi/Rioja, 5th June 2006 )

The world's deserts are facing dramatic changes as a result of global climate change, high water demands, tourism and salt contamination of irrigated soils.

Desert margins and so called "sky islands"-mountain areas within deserts that have been important for people, wildlife and water supplies for millennia-are under particular threat.

Global and regional instability, leading to more military training grounds, prisons and refugee holding stations, may also be set to modify the desert landscape the new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests.

"These intrusions import many people into deserts, generate considerable income and help upgrade infrastructure but have large environmental footprints particularly with respect to water. In an insecure and competitive world, this kind of investment will continue, even grow" it says.

The press release is available in the GLOBIO press room.

Strategy to Save Earth’s Life Support Systems Unveiled by UN Body (Curitiba/Montreal, 20th March 2006 )

2010 target aimed at saving the globe’s biodiversity from continued decline is doable but will require greater effort world-wide is the main conclusion from the Global Diversity Outlook 2, launched by the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The study, which details current impacts on forests and coral reefs up to birds and other species, also underlines the economic importance of biodiversity for fighting poverty and for achieving internationally agreed development goals.

The press release is available on the Convention on Biological Diversity web-site.

Water for Near Half the World's Population Under Threat at the Roof of the World (Nairobi/Bangkok, 5th September 2005)

Conservation of watersheds urgently needed to reduce increasing floods, human and biodiversity losses.

The mountains of Asia, including the mighty Himalayas, are facing accelerating threats from a rapid rise in roads, settlements, overgrazing and deforestation experts are warning in a new report.

There is concern that the region's water supplies, fed by glaciers and the monsoons and vital for around half the world's population, may be harmed alongside the area's abundant and rich wildlife.

The report is being released in advance of the 2005 World Summit in New York taking place in mid September. Here heads of state will assess the status of implementation of the Millennium Development Goals including the target of reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

The press release is available in the GLOBIO press room.

Poverty will make the great apes history (London, 1st September 2005)

World’s First Atlas of Great Apes reveals human struggle behind apes’ plight

Fewer than 250 wild Sumatran orangutans may exist in fifty years, their habitat is disappearing and the devastation of the Asian tsunami has accelerated the rate of destruction.

This is among the findings being announced at the launch of the first World Atlas of Great Apes and their Conservation today (1st September 2005) by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, which reveals that it is not just humans that will benefit from a campaign to ‘make poverty history’. For the other 6 species of great ape – the eastern and western gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran and Bornean orangutan – it could literally save them from the cooking pot.

The first World Atlas of Great Apes and their Conservation provides a country-by-country assessment of the 23 range states hosting the wild great apes. These countries are among the poorest in the world , so concerted international action is required if these species are to survive.

The Atlas, edited at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, is the most comprehensive compendium of information about great apes ever compiled, bringing together the latest research and observations from scientists throughout the world and including contributions from Kofi Annan, Jane Goodall, Richard Leakey, Toshisada Nishida, Russ Mittermeier and Ian Redmond. The book includes conservation status assessments at a species and country view level. The great apes’ biology, behaviour and culture are discussed in detail.

Read more about the World Atlas of Great Apes and their Conservation.

The press release is available in the GLOBIO press room.

Arctic development and climate change threaten some of planet's last wild coasts (Nairobi, 24 February 2005)

The Arctic, one of the last great wilderness areas on Earth is under threat from over- exploitation and a lack of protection.

Rapid infrastructure development, compounded by global climate change, is threatening wildlife and the lifestyles and livelihoods of indigenous peoples across the Arctic's unique coastal and marine areas.

Less than one percent of these critically important coastal areas are protected, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report, Vital Arctic Graphics, says that the construction of roads, pipelines, power-lines and hydropower dams have increased dramatically in the past decades in northern Scandinavia, Russia, northwestern Canada and Alaska.

Read more in Vital Arctic Graphics.

The press release is available in the UNEP/GRID-Arendal newsroom.

Arctic development and climate change threaten some of planet's last wild coasts (Nairobi, 24 February 2005)

The Arctic, one of the last great wilderness areas on Earth is under threat from over- exploitation and a lack of protection.

Rapid infrastructure development, compounded by global climate change, is threatening wildlife and the lifestyles and livelihoods of indigenous peoples across the Arctic's unique coastal and marine areas.

Less than one percent of these critically important coastal areas are protected, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report, Vital Arctic Graphics, says that the construction of roads, pipelines, power-lines and hydropower dams have increased dramatically in the past decades in northern Scandinavia, Russia, northwestern Canada and Alaska.

Read more in Vital Arctic Graphics.

The press release is available in the UNEP/GRID-Arendal newsroom.

Arctic faces drastic change without EU policy action (Brussels/Copenhagen, 15 March 2004)

The Arctic's unique environment and indigenous peoples are under increasing threat from industrial activities and the region is likely to change drastically unless decision-makers in the European Union and elsewhere address the challenges seriously.

This is the key message of a new report, Arctic environment: European perspectives, published jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). The report, compiled by experts at the UNEP/ GRID- Arendal centre in Norway, warns that the northern polar region faces a diverse range of threats from unsustainable development, pollution and climate change.

The GLOBIO methodology is used in this report, with maps over Northern Norway among other things.

Read more in Arctic environment: European perspectives, Environmental issue report No 38/2003.

The press release is available on a separate page.

Humankind's closest living relative on the brink of extinction (Paris/Nairobi, 26 November 2003)

Twenty five million dollars is urgently needed to lift the threat of imminent extinction from humankind's closest living relatives, delegates to an international crisis meeting on the great apes were told today at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Such a sum, says the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is essential for reducing the risk of extinction of the world's remaining gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans, and for establishing areas where ape populations could stabilise or even increase.

"$25 million is the bare minimum we need, the equivalent of providing a dying man with bread and water", said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director. "The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes, animals that share more than 96 percent of their DNA with humans. If we lose any great ape species we will be destroying a bridge to our own origins, and with it part of our own humanity," he said.

The press release is available on a separate page.

Mountain Wildernesses: Increasingly Threatened by Farms, Roads, Fires and Wars (London/Nairobi, 23 October 2002)

New UNEP Report to be Key Contribution for Bishkek Mountain Summit

The world’s mountain regions, considered indomitable and unchanging, are gradually being tamed as more and more land is converted to farming and grazing, a new survey shows.

Apart from Greenland, the region whose mountains appear to be the most pristine is North and Central America. Here only an estimated 14 per cent has been converted of which nine per cent is for cattle, sheep and other domestic livestock and five per cent for crops.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said: "Mountains have been a source of wonder and inspiration for human societies and cultures since time immemorial. Mountains, from Mount Fuji in Japan to Mount Olympus in Greece, play key roles in many religions. Indeed they have often been seen as the homes of the Gods. Legends abound, from the fabled Yeti of the Himalayas, to Big Foot in the United States".

The full report is available on the Mountain Watch web-site

Massive Destruction of Great Ape Habitats Likely Over the Next 30 Years Unless Current Trends Reversed (Johannesburg, 3 September 2002)

New GLOBIO/GRASP report, and news Comes as UK Government, United Nations Foundation and International Fund for Animal Welfare Give Cash Backing to GRASP Partnership

Less than 10 per cent of the remaining habitat of the great apes of Africa will be left relatively undisturbed by 2030 if road building, mining camps and other infrastructure developments continue at current levels a new report suggests.

Findings for the orangutans of South East Asia appear even bleaker. The new report indicates that in 28 years time there will be almost no habitat left that can be considered "relatively undisturbed".

The results have come from study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is co-ordinating the Great Apes Survival Project partnership (GRASP), and scientists from Norway and the United States.

The full report is available on the GLOBIO Africa page

The Arctic is getting more and more vulnerable, UNEP warns (Tromsø, 13 August 2002)

Sneaking road development and less sea ice in a warming climate has opened up vast formerly in-accessible land and sea corridors to industry, and may result in a new boom in Arctic exploration for oil, gas and minerals. The Arctic is the last remaining wilderness on Earth, but over 70% may be heavily disturbed by industry in less than 50 years. Wildlife and indigenous people are particularly vulnerable as they now face the combined threats of industrial development, pollutants and climate change, warn UN-scientists at an Arctic Parliamentary Conference in Tromsø, Norway.

World Atlas of Biodiversity First map-based view of earth's living resources (London/Nairobi, 1 August 2002)

Experts estimate that, at current extinction rates of plants and animals, the Earth is losing one major drug every two years. It is estimated that less than one per cent of the world's 250,000 tropical plants has been screened for potential pharmaceutical applications. The first 'World Atlas of Biodiversity: Earth's Living Resources for the 21st Century', launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) shows how humankind is dependent on healthy ecosystems for all its needs....

Hard Facts: Tough Choices as UNEP Launches the Global Environment Outlook-3 (London, 22 May 2002)

Over 70 per cent of the Earth's land surface could be affected by the impacts of roads, mining, cities and other infrastructure developments in the next 30 years unless urgent action is taken.

Latin America and the Caribbean region is likely to be the hardest hit with more than 80 per cent of the land affected, closely followed by Asia and the Pacific region. Here, over 75 per cent of the land may well be affected by habitat disturbance and other kinds of environmental damage as a result of rapid and poorly planned infrastructure growth.

Meanwhile more than half the people in the world could be living in severely water-stressed areas by 2032 if market forces drive the globe's political, economic and social agenda.

Most of Arctic Affected by Human Activities by 2050 (11 June 2001)

Up to 80 per cent of the Arctic will be affected by mining, oil and gas exploration, ports, roads and other developments by 2050 if the industrialization of one of the world's last wilderness areas continues at current rates.