Blog Posts: protected areas

Marine organisms and their genes are rich sources of antiviral compounds. But the ocean genome is at risk, and only some have access to its benefits.

A new tool from WRI’s Access Initiative and the Jamaica Environment Trust, shows where recently approved or proposed development projects overlap with protected areas, fisheries, forest reserves, and other areas important for Jamaica's environment and public health.

The government of Nova Scotia announced an ambitious plan earlier this month to protect 245,000 hectares of forest and park land, establishing the Canadian province as a conservation leader in one of the world’s most heavily forested nations. Roughly 14 percent of all land in Nova Scotia will now be legally protected from development, making it the province with the second-highest percentage of land devoted to protected areas in Canada, after British Columbia.

This news is significant for conservationists and for the vast number of Canadians who depend on these forests for clean air, water, and a bounty of other resources. It also illustrates a powerful truth: precise, science-based maps are an essential component of good forest management and planning.

With significant areas of overlapping high biodiversity resources and mineral wealth, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces increasing pressure from competing uses of land widely considered incompatible. This policy paper reviews the rise of commercial mining and the mining concessions afforded ostensibly at the expense of conservation efforts where protected areas and mining permits overlap. The paper highlights the need for the DRC to review and harmonize multiple and often contradictory laws, strengthen land use laws, and build implemetation and enforcement capacity.

Current use valuation programs can encourage landowners to resist development pressures and leave forest as forest.

A new WRI report explores what makes public ballot measures successful and how they can help conserve forests in the U.S. South.

It's time to raise awareness of the variety of incentives that can help forest owners in the southern U.S. keep their land.

As a result of rapid development over the last 40 years, the vast majority of land in the southern U.S. has been in some way impacted by humans.

CAR government and people will now be able to track and monitor the country’s forests and logging concessions.

Lawyers in India advocate for environmental rights, one case at a time.