How should we engage the disenfranchised? The organization “Participación Ciudadana” is addressing this issue, aiming to involve Ecuadorian society in processes of social transformation. The approach is to inform citizens of news who are often forgotten about by the centric-national media. The project, Participación Ciudadana, is an electronic newspaper produced by regional news agencies in [...]
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is growing in popularity worldwide as a way to provide faster, more efficient transportation that is lower in carbon emissions than traditional bus routes and less costly than light rail. BRTs are growing in popularity particularly in Latin America and Asia. BRTdata.org was launched at the end of March by EMBARC, [...]
An initiative being co-led by Conservation International (CI), the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa and the Earth Institute (EI), Columbia University, has been launched with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Africa Monitoring System (AMS) tool will track, monitor and diagnose agricultural productivity, ecosystem health, and human [...]
WaterWiki.net, a UNDP, UN-Water initiative recently relaunched and added more features such as a LinkedIn discussion forum. WaterWiki is a useful resource and popular forum for practitioners and agencies. It features over 800 articles, case studies and reports. Some of the best features: articles with embedded videos on specific projects over a hundred national case studies [...]
New Agriculturist reports that International Small Group & Tree Planting Program (TIST) has begun to train over 50,000 farmers in eastern Kenya on carbon trading. TIST reports that it has planted over six million trees in Kenya. TIST is involved in tree planting ventures across Africa and Asia. In this particular initiative, TIST acts as [...]
The Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) makes one wonder how people coped before it existed. Africa Soil offers an enormous abundance of peer-to-peer information and services, namely data and maps that are georeferenced. The site fills a much needed gap because knowledge about the condition of African soils because it tends to be fragmented and [...]
Save the Elephants is celebrated for its conservation work in Kenya, Congo, Mali, and South Africa. The four pillars of Save the Elephants are research, protection, grassroots, and education. Each of these pillars is taken seriously in a comprehensive way, keeping in mind that the ultimate approach to conservation is through local knowledge and understanding [...]
Last month WRI (World Resources Institute) released its report on threats to coral reefs, Reefs at Risk Revisited, a three-year study that resulted in the greatest-detailed global maps to date. The maps were produced in partnership with the Google Earth Outreach Development Grant and are meant to protect critical areas through mapping. Besides the report, [...]
The conservation blogosphere is covered in REDD+, but what is it? REDD+ is simply an acronym for Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. It aims to foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhance forest carbon stocks through local incentives by creating a financial value for carbon stored in trees. Once this carbon is [...]
Energy consumption is ever increasing. Supply systems can’t keep up with the demand and are maxed out, causing blackouts, unreliable service and headache. There is limited distribution for rural areas and alternative sources are difficult to integrate into the existing network. How are we to provide energy to a growing and more connected world? [...]
