EcoLogical's latest posts

My country, Zambia, doesn’t make international news very often. But recently, from The New York Times, to Al Jazeera to Bloomberg, Zambia is in the headlines. Once the fastest growing economy in Africa, Zambia’s economic growth projections have now been halved. Businesses and communities are suffering, and the government has now reached out to the […]

With 2.5 billion more people joining the consuming class in the next few decades, we must address the increasing demand for “soft commodities” – the raw materials that go into our food, personal care products, clothes, and even energy. A healthy planet requires sustainable production and consumption. Today, many soft commodities like palm oil, soy, […]

I have always loved birds and was delighted to be asked to write a few words about this year’s World Migratory Bird Day. The only problem being that I was so busy watching migratory birds over our long Ascension weekend (as May is THE month when the bulk of the spring migrants pass), that I […]

It’s not every day we glimpse our future. But if we did, what would we change about our actions today? This year, we have the privilege to take a peek at what the Mediterranean Sea may look like in 15-20 years. But let me take a step back. It’s almost Christmas 2015 and we are […]

The large meeting room at the United Nations room was full to the point of bursting as governments, assisted by NGOs and other groups, gathered to start developing the first new treaty for oceans in over 20 years. As the European Union representative placed the Easter bunny on the table – it was Easter Monday, […]

Sometimes it takes a coincidence of the calendar to help us see the obvious connections in nature. 21 March is International Day of Forests and 22 March is World Water Day, which prompted WWF’s leading freshie (Lifeng Li, director of our global freshwater programme) and head tree hugger (Rod Taylor, director of our global forest […]

In November last year, I spent three very nervous weeks glued to a parcel courier website watching the tortuous journey my passport was making around the world. I was due to travel to Bali to attend the annual meeting of the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to advocate shark and ray conservation measures, but […]

…and their future is linked to ours In today’s Anthropocene era, which is shaped by humankind, we are living in a time of unprecedented risk but also unparalleled opportunity for the future of our planet and our society.  A time when the world’s wildlife has been halved in less than a generation; extinction rates are […]

Why should a bank in Europe care about the haze in Singapore or forest fires in Indonesia? First: credit risk. If a bank finances a plantation involved in open burning, the borrowing company can face fines and other penalties under Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Act. Similarly, banks can see a deterioration in their client’s credit profile […]

The theme of this year’s Asia-Pacific Forestry Week is “Growing our Future,” and it focuses on the need to integrate forestry into the wider context of sustainable development. This is an issue that is especially relevant to Vietnam. Wood is one of our country’s most valuable resources. The livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people […]