IUCN World Parks Congress 2014

     Invitation letter from Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General of IUCN

  

IUCN and our partners Parks Australia and the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service extend you a very warm welcome to the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, and the beautiful city of Sydney.

Taking the theme of Parks, People, Planet – Inspiring Solutions, the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 will advance an ambitious agenda that will inspire solutions for today's most pressing global challenges. As a prestigious global gathering of protected area leaders and professionals and the wider cross-section of society, with a legacy of collaboration and innovation dating back to the inaugural event in 1961, this World Parks Congress promises to build a dynamic foundation for achieving conservation and development goals for the decade to come.

For the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, we are particularly inspired by the success of the last Congress, held in Durban, South Africa in 2003. Durban helped develop a new paradigm for protected areas, defining and advancing the roles of governance, sustainable finance, capacity development, social equity and benefit sharing, leading to the Durban Action Plan and Durban Accord, both of which informed the Convention on Biological Diversity's successful Programme of Work on Protected Areas.

Sydney offers the opportunity to build on this success and to go further to confront the new challenges facing the world. Coming at the halfway mark of the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, agreed by nearly 200 governments in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, this Congress will provide a unique opportunity to report on our progress and take bold new steps. It will enable us to build new alliances, and to respond to what the world needs from protected areas for sustainable development.

In Sydney, our work will build on our collective achievements while drawing inspiration from the next generation of conservation leaders. We look forward to welcoming youth, governments, businesses and indigenous peoples to unite in partnerships from beyond the conservation world, where our shared ambition to provide lasting natural solutions to today's conservation and development challenges will result in tangible and enduring benefits for parks and people worldwide.

Please join us as we embark on this singular journey in support of IUCN's vision of 'a just world that values and conserves nature'.

Registration is open now

Click HERE to register

Kenya imposes lifetime imprisonment for poachers.

In an effort to clamp down on elephant and rhino poaching, Kenya has imposed lifetime imprisonment for poachers. This is in  addition to SH 20 million shilling fine.

The new effort of Kenya is laudatory. More nations should come up with stiffer penalties like this. Right now in many countries, poachers get away with light punishment. 

The new efforts by Kenya have come in for praise by United Nations. 

Be wary of buying Sukam Inverters

If you are planning to buy an inverter, don't go for the brand SUKAM. Their after sales service is atrocious.
I had the misfortune of buying a solar inverter from them. Tall promises were made by them at the time of purchase.

When I contacted the company for rectifying a glitch in the inverter I was requested to register with their phone complaint system This was promptly done by me on 24th evening. Till this day (7/01/14), the company has not bothered to send anyone to repair my inverter. The inverter has a 5 year warranty. Now I have to go through the hassles of going to the consumer court to set things right.

So, guys be wary of buying SUKAM products. You will be shortchanged.

Good omen for elephants - China getting serious about dealing with elephant poaching

At long last China has started doing what we all wished. Chinese Government has started cracking down on poachers. In a significant move Chinese authorities destroyed 6.1 tons of illegal ivory during a public event held in Guangzhou on 6^th January. It indicated a growing commitment of Chinese Government to help end the elephant slaughter in Africa. China is the largest market for ivory.

An elated Douglas-Hamilton, elephant researcher and CEO of Save the Elephants organization said “Excess demand for ivory is the root of the elephant poaching crisis. All other efforts to stop the killing of elephants will be useless if the world doesn't stop buying ivory. China’s leadership could save Africa’s elephants,”

There is all round increased awareness about poaching in China. Recently an ivory poaching story published in Southern Weekly, a prominent newspaper in China , went viral on social media in China. It had 10 million shares