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It takes just 4 years to detect human warming of the oceans

We’ve known for decades that the Earth is warming, but a key question is, how fast? Another key question is whether the warming is primarily caused by human activities. If we can more precisely measure the rate of warming and the natural component, it would be useful for decision makers, legisla ...

Regional Bio-Bridge Initiative Round Table for Central and Eastern Europe, 5-7 December 2017 - Minsk, Belarus

Reference: SCBD/IMS/ET/LZ/86820 (2017-093)
To: CBD Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points and CHM Focal Points in Central and Eastern Europe

Carbon dioxide trapped by ice-age oceans raises questions for future

Over the past few decades, scientists have monitored the atmosphere and oceans using instruments, gauges and satellites. But modern climate variability remains small compared to what we can expect in the future due to human emission of carbon dioxide.

How warm oceans can turn coral reefs into graveyards

A healthy coral reef teems with life. Fish, sea anemones, and other creatures live on and around the reef. And inside the corals live mutually beneficial algae which provide them with critical nutrients.

This Newly Discovered Jurassic Sea Monster Was Related to Ocean Super-Predators

So many new species aren't discovered straight out of the ground, but after having been under our noses for decades. Such is the case with Arminisaurus schuberti, a newly discovered 'sea monster' that swam the Jurassic oceans 190 million years ago.

15 Equator Prize Winners Receive Prestigious Award at New York Gala Event

The 9th Equator Prize Award Ceremony honoured 15 winners in a gala event last evening in New York, coinciding with the Global Goals Week and the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly. Leading thinkers, policy-makers, business and civil society leaders from around the globe gathered in The Town ...

‘Fingerprinting’ the Ocean to Predict Devastating Sea Level Rise

SCIENTISTS ARE “FINGERPRINTING” sea level rise around the world in an effort to identify coastal areas most at risk from devastating storm surge, as hurricanes grow increasingly destructive.

New 'carbon currency' aims to ease sustainable transactions

A new project unveiled today (19 September) will use blockchain technology to create a carbon currency that enables businesses to measure the carbon footprint of transactions in real terms.

Document

FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication

United Nations Collaboration Delivers New Expert Guidance To Stimulate Transition To Smart Sustainable Cities

The United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) collaborative initiative has provided new expert guidance for the transition to more efficient, sustainable urban environments -in the form of four new reports. Sixteen United Nations bodies contributed to the development of the reports, a process ...

Small-scale fisheries have big impact on oceans

A new UBC study has found that small-scale fisheries may have a much larger impact on ocean ecosystems than previously thought, due to a lack of data on their development over time.

Corals in the Pacific are in Trouble

As global warming continues to take its toll, corals in the Pacific Ocean are dying off en masse. Reefs in several areas have experienced alarming mass bleaching episodes, leaving large swathes of coral dead or near-dead.

New species of ferocious mega crocodile discovered in 95-million-year-old fossil

A huge crocodile relative from the Cretaceous Period is an entirely new species, scientists have said. The beast was 20ft long and roamed what is now the southern US at the time of T. rex.

The Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) today released a new publication titled "Guidelines for tourism partnerships and concessions for protected areas: generating sustainable revenues for conservation and development."

New guidance on tourism concessions for protected areas released

14 September 2017 – The Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) today released a new publication titled Guidelines for tourism partnerships and concessions for protected areas: generating sustainable revenues for conservation and development

CBD/SBSTTA/21/8

New and Emerging Issues Relating to the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity

Rare burrowing water snake discovered from Western Ghats in Maharashtra

A new species of a burrowing water snake or Aquatic Rhabdops was discovered from the north of Western Ghats in Maharashtra, Goa and northern Karnataka by scientists after an eight-year-long research. The snake was earlier wrongly identified as the Olive Forest Snake, which is found in the Wayand ...

World’s Biggest Oxygen Producers Living in Swirling Ocean Waters

Plankton are not just one species of sea creature but, rather, a large variety of tiny organisms. Algae, bacteria, crustaceans, mollusks, and more are all considered plankton. What sets them apart from other organisms is how they move. Their extremely small size precludes them from swimming agai ...

The Key to Predicting Drought and Deluge: The Ocean

Marine conditions influence rain patterns, and new research on ocean temperatures could help improve predictions on whether the American West will face wet or dry times in the years ahead.

Hot spots in a frigid ocean

Climate change will dramatically alter life in the oceans, scientists say, but there is so much still to learn about marine ecosystems that it is hard to know exactly how.

Scary news about sea salt

The plastic is a result of litter in the oceans, which gets broken down and ends up in our food.Scientists have discovered that sea salt harvested from the planet’s oceans is contaminated with plastic.

Regional Bio-Bridge Initiative Round Table for Africa, 7-9 November 2017, Entebbe, Uganda

Reference: SCBD/IMS/ET/LZ/86821 (2017-090)
To: CBD Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points and CHM Focal Points in Africa

New device zooms in on microbe behaviour at the right scale

Marine microbes play an important role in the productivity and functioning of our oceans but scientists studying their behaviour face many challenges.

The Rapa Nui have shown us that conservation can protect their ocean – and their culture

Over a thousand years ago, bold Pacific voyagers traversed a massive blue expanse, teeming with life. The natural abundance of the ancient world is unimaginable to those of us living today, as our seas have been emptied of the great whales, turtles, sharks, and other large fish.

'Keep it local' approach more effective than government schemes at protecting rainforest

Conservation initiatives led by local and indigenous groups can be just as effective as schemes led by government, according to new research. In some cases in the Amazon rainforest, grassroots initiatives can be even more effective at protecting this vital ecosystem. This is particularly importa ...

CBD/TSC/WS/2017/1//COP/13/INF/21

Bio-Bridge Initiative Action Plan 2017-2020 and Report on Progress towards the Implementation of the Initiative

Selected participants for the Sustainable Ocean Initiative (SOI) Training of Trainers Workshop, 25 to 29 September 2017 - Seocheon, Republic of Korea

Reference: SCBD/SPS/SBG/JL/JMQ/86366 (2017-088)
To: CBD National Focal Points, Marine and Coastal Biodiversity National Focal Points and SBSTTA Focal Points

This brilliant floating farm actually heals the world’s oceans

85% of the world’s fisheries have been pushed beyond their limits – and the future of ocean life looks grim. Fortunately, GreenWave has developed a revolutionary floating farm that actually regenerates our oceans while providing jobs and a sustainable source of food. The vertical aquaculture far ...

Underwater technology makes ocean floor a laboratory for deep sea sponges

Advanced Canadian technology is allowing scientists off Nova Scotia to carry out tests on the ocean floor that once had to be done inside the laboratory.

The oceans need our protection – and our lives depend on them

Framed by three oceans, Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world, and yet we can easily forget this, in the context of our busy and increasingly urban lives. While the recent collapse of a fish farm off the Pacific coast may have caught your attention, it's important to refle ...

How a tiny portion of the world's oceans could meet global seafood demand

Seafood is an essential staple in the diets of people around the world. Global consumption of fish and shellfish has more than doubled over the last 50 years, and is expected to keep rising with global population growth. Many people assume that most seafood is something that we catch in the wild ...

Viet Nam strengthens its partnership with UNCTAD on sustainable use of biodiversity, access and benefit sharing and BioTrade

The Viet Nam Biodiversity Conservation Agency, focal point for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) approved a decree on the Management of Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing. The decree support ...

The Earth Has 2 Billion Living Species

Biologists from the US university of Arizona have estimated that there are 2 billion living species on Earth, most of them bacteria.

Indigenous storytelling is a new asset for biocultural conservation

Some of the areas hosting most of the world's biodiversity are those inhabited by indigenous peoples. In the same way that biodiversity is being eroded, so is the world's cultural diversity. As a result, there have been several calls to promote biocultural conservation approaches that sustain bo ...

The Making of Biodegradable Plastic Could Take Off With This New Technique

Plastic waste continues to pose one of the largest threats to Earth’s oceans and wildlife, to the point where it’s even in the seafood on our plate. The US recycles less than 22 percent of its garbage, which includes petroleum-based plastics that are nearly impossible to break down.

Invitation to consultation process for the “Caring for Coasts” Initiative

Reference: SCBD/SPS/DC/SBG/CSt/NG/86788 (2017-085)
To: CBD National Focal Points

Higher levels of cooperation for provision than for maintenance of public goods

Dr. Felix Koelle, a research fellow at the Faculty of Management, Economics, and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne, led a team studying how the paradigm of reciprocity influences public goods. Participants (n = 876) in a series of experiments and simulations were asked to either maint ...

Saving olive ridley turtles of the Indian Ocean

One of the world’s smallest turtle (some sources claim smallest is Kemp’s ridley) is also the most abundant, yet to me, it seems to be the hardest to find! I’ve dived on reefs across the tropics, with camera in hand, and have yet to encounter a single olive ridley. I’ve seen scores of hawksbills ...

Mother’ coral reefs are breathing life into their neighbours

Meet the Gaias of the coral world. “Mother” reefs are spreading life to their neighbours via swift ocean currents. This activity was spotted from space, after Dionysios Raitsos at Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK and his colleagues studied satellite images of ocean currents in the Red Sea fr ...

Diving head first into a sea of Arctic knowledge

Ever wondered what an Arctic char does all day, hanging out beneath the waves? A British Columbia-based ocean education group made it possible to see what goes on in the Arctic’s underwater world Aug. 27 when it sent a diver and a video camera into chilly 6 C waters near the north dock area in C ...

Underwater Gardening: Coral Reefs and Aquaculture

Our oceans are home to most of the world’s biodiversity, and 25 percent of its diversity thrives in coral reefs—that’s about two million species that call the reefs their home. But as reefs suffer the effects of climate change and globalization (several Caribbean reef-building species are now co ...

Sea views: mapping the ocean floor

If all the water in the seas suddenly disappeared, we would be shocked by the strange, new world of seamounts, gullies, sheer cliffs and plains that would be revealed – some in places where they would not be expected. That’s because less than 15 per cent of the seafloor is mapped in reliable det ...

Almost 400 new species discovered in the Amazon over a two-year period

The Amazon stays true to its reputation as the world’s prime biodiversity hotspot. A new report by the WWF and Brazil’s Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development (link in Portuguese) indicates that in 2014 and 2015, no fewer than 381 have been discovered, more than one every two days.

Coral skeletons may resist the effects of acidifying oceans

Coral skeletons are the building blocks of diverse coral reef ecosystems, which has led to increasing concern over how these key species will cope with warming and acidifying oceans that threaten their stability.

Kenya: What Govt Can Do to Protect, and Benefit From, Ocean Resources

Kenya earns around USD$2.5 billion per year from its ocean - less than 4% of its GDP. This shows the potential for growth which could raise peoples' incomes in coming years. But it won't happen unless damaging practices and declining resource and ecosystem health issues are dealt with.

Researchers go down and very deep into the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Scientists with Oceana Canada and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans are offering the public a rare glimpse of life on the sea floor in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

After Mass Extinction, Earth’s Ocean Was Jurassic Dead Zone

A mass extinction event that wiped out the majority of the world’s creatures was made worse because the Earth’s ocean had almost no oxygen for thousands of years afterward.Scientists reported in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems that they studied rock formations to determine how m ...

Freshwater to Sea, the Resilience of Oceans

Peter Thomson, President of the UN General Assembly in an address to World Water Week in Stockholm. - It is a great pleasure to join you today at World Water Week and to be here in Stockholm. This city has been at the forefront of sustainable development since it hosted the first Earth Summit ba ...

'Sea dragon' fossil is 'largest on record'

The fossil of a marine reptile ''re-discovered'' in a museum is the largest of its kind on record, say scientists. The ''sea dragon'' belongs to a group that swam the world's oceans 200 million years ago, while dinosaurs walked the land. The specimen is the largest Ichthyosaurus to be described, ...

As oceans alkalized, life developed bones and shells

A critical feature of many multicellular lifeforms on Earth are hard, biological structures, such as animal bones and snail shells that are made from minerals. Tiny fossils recently discovered in Canada have pushed back the oldest known evidence of "bio-mineralization" to 810 million years ago.