From Corporate Social Responsibility to Accountability Mechanisms:The Role of the Convention on Biological Diversity

This paper traces the progressive shift at the international level from purely voluntary approaches (corporate social responsibility or CSR) towards accountability mechanisms to ensure the environmentally sound conduct of private entities. It examines whether the most recent international discussion on human rights and corporate accountability have adequately considered environmental protection concerns. It then concentrates on the growing number of international oversight mechanisms that provide a readily-available and impartial avenue for addressing complaints against private companies..

People’s participation in health services: A study of Bangladesh’s rural health complex

Health is a basic requirement to improve  the quality of life. A national economic and social development depends on the state of health. A large number of Bangladesh’s people, particularly in rural areas, remained with no or little access to health care facilities. The lack of participation in health service is a problem that has many dimensions and complexities. Education has a significant effect on participation in health services and administrative factors could play a significant role in increasing the people’s participation in Bangladesh’s health sector. But..

Scores for effective forest conservation: A village-to-village approach

Community forestry in Nepal strives for forest conservation and sustainable forest management. Evaluating progress towards this end requires periodic measurements, and currently there are no standard tools for undertaking evaluations in a participatory way. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a standardised way for measuring effective forest conservation through the use of locally set scores. A village-to-village approach was used to assign scores on criteria and indicators developed earlier for forest conservation. A total of eight small meetings with forest users were conducted to..

Consumption pattern of timber and fuelwood in community forests: A case study from Sindhupalchok District

The study was carried out in four community forest user groups (CFUGs) of Sindhupalchok district of Nepal with a view to find out the consumption pattern of forest products especially timber and fuelwood from the community forests (CFs). A set of structured questionnaires was used to collect data from the respondents of the selected CFUGs. Four CFUGs were randomly selected from among those meeting the predetermined criteria such as: more than 5 years old, regularly harvesting timber and fuelwood, and active in forest management. With a 20% sampling intensity, 103 respondents were..

No Need to Reinvent the Wheel for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Tackling Climate Change:The Contribution of International Biodiversity Law

This chapter provides a systematic analysis of the ways in which international biodiversity law contributes to the fight against climate change by assessing and preventing the negative impacts on biodiversity and community livelihoods of measures to address climate change (‘response measures’), and adopting the ecosystem approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation. In highlighting readily available legal avenues for ensuring the mutual supportiveness of the international biodiversity regime and the international climate change regime, the chapter argues that positive interaction..

Medicinal plants of Nepal: Distribution pattern along an elevational gradient and effectiveness of existing protected areas for their conservation

This study explores patterns of medicinal plant species richness along an elevational gradient in Nepal and the effectiveness of existing protected areas for their conservation. The authors used published data on the distribution of medicinal plants. The number of medicinal plants and the number of protected areas present in each 100 m elevation band were collated by interpolation. They tested the number of protected areas and the number of species as the response variables against elevation as a predictor variable. To explain the relationship between the total medicinal plant richness and..

Habitat mapping and conservation threats to river dolphin in Karnali River of Nepal

This study was carried out in the Karnali River of Nepal with the aims of preparing habitat map of dolphins in the Karnali River and assessing conservation threats to dolphin at the local level. The habitat map of the dolphin was prepared on the basis of study and local sightings. Altogether 100 households were surveyed around the Karnali River living within 3 km from the river distance. Questionnaire survey, group discussion, field observation and key-informants interviews were conducted to assess conservation threats to dolphin at the local level. Statistical tools like Pie chart and bar..

Ecological study of Ghodaghodi lake

Wetlands comprise 5% of world’s total land areas of Nepal. The present study Ghodaghodi Lake in the Far-West Nepal Terai manifested the physicochemical contamination in the lake. All the parameters were within the WHO guideline values except for Phosphate and Dissolved Oxygen. Water depth varies form 1-4 m. High phosphate level suggested that the lake is hypertrophic. Dissolved oxygen was low, ranging between 5.27-6.56 mg/l. The presence of high density of Hemiptera (384.23 ind/m2) and Ephimeripterae (273.66 ind/m2) indicted that water was polluted due to high nutrient deposition..

Forest grazing and natural regeneration in a late successional broadleaved community forest in Bhutan

This study investigated the sustainability of combining forest grazing and timber harvesting with selection felling in a cool broadleaved community forest (CF) in Bhutan. Forest grazing and timber production are critical livelihood activities for many farmers throughout the world, so it is important to understand under what conditions the two activities can be combined. The study was based on a household survey to quantify livestock holdings and grazing patterns, a comparison of two forest inventories to assess forest structure and regeneration, and a study of stumps to quantify harvesting..

Nutritional Value and Use of the Andean Crops Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and Kañiwa (Chenopodium pallidicaule)

En: FOOD REVIEWS INTERNATIONA