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	In the end, mixed feelings and full encouragement
	Human as it is, the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona left mixed emotions among participants on the decisions that will shape their work in the crucial next four years.

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Mission: Make a BIG difference

Interview with IUCN President-elect, Ashok Khosla

Thorny decisions left for the end

Most likely, it was not intentional. But the IUCN general assembly voted the most controversial resolution proposals at the very end of its 10-day-long and tiring congress, when numerous members were either exhausted or plainly absent.

Members to Khosla: Let's hit the grassroots

Now that they have voted, they want their cut. Members want newly-elected IUCN president Ashok Khosla to better involve grassroots organisations.

Hilmi Toros

If money talks, IUCN may lack a loud voice, but will still have a sufficiently strong for the time being.

Finally, geology is taken into account

Julio Godoy

Until very recently, the conservation of geo-diversity was not included among the pressing priorities of environmental policy, not even among grass-roots activists. An incomprehensible neglect, given that geology studies human kind's genealogy and climate evolution recorded in the rocks.

MYANMAR - 'Mangrove Loss Exacerbated Cyclone Devastation'

Marwaan Macan-Markar/IPS

When researchers surveyed the battered coastlines of Asian countries after the December 2004 tsunami, they stumbled upon an arresting fact -- that mangroves can save lives.

Ashok Khosla: To pastures new

Ramesh Jaura

Imagine newly-elected IUCN president Ashok Khosla joining the World Bank chief and the European Commission president at the G8 summit.

The Faith factor

Hilmi Toros

Is perhaps humankind paying for its sins against Mother Earth? Some NGOs and faith-based groups seem to think so and are invoking religion and spirituality as a weapon to fight climate change and environmental degradation, to the concern of both scientists and pragmatists.

Julio Godoy

The old Latin adage pecunia non olet (money does not smell) has been used throughout the ages to justify all sorts of financial dealings. But, as the IUCN is experiencing right now, if you are committed to protecting the environment, you have to carefully watch where the money comes from.

Election: Long with suspense...

Hilmi Toros

If IUCN is unique, and in many ways it is, so is the process of electing its president.

Fertilising the ocean: A bad idea and illegal too

Julio Godoy

The craziest proposals to reverse climate change include so-called “geo-engineering" projects.

Weather forecast Magungu knows better

Kathryn Strachan/IPS

When the magungu bird flies higher in the sky than usual and seems to float in the air in its passage from south to north, the Abasuba people living around Lake Victoria know the rains are on their way and that it is time to plant.

US military base may wipe out unique mammal

Zoltán Dujisin

The construction of a U.S. defence base in Japan could mean the death sentence for a threatened water species - dugong, of which just 50 remain.

Q&A - 'Oil Prices Have Revived Interest in Dams' - Jeremy Bird

Marwaan Macan-Markar/IPS

ARGENTINA - Women Create Food and Jobs in Wetlands

Marcela Valente/Tierramérica

Wearing a cap and a white apron, Melina Lucero cuts the heads and tails off fish caught in the Paraná River, before skilfully filleting them.

Corporates become bugbear for IUCN

By Julio Godoy

The way the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been managing its partnership with the private sector, especially with major corporations in the extractive industries, has provoked some strong-worded vindications against the group's director general and its governing body, the council.

Members shout reforms at IUCN

Zoltán Dujisin

The IUCN members are ready with a long list for the new president.

No more impunity for war crimes

TerraViva

Arab Group seeks a resolution on liability and compensation for environmental war crimes.

A New IUCN? Candidates speak out

Ramesh Jaura

IUCN's three presidential hopefuls answer questions from TerraViva.

Climate crises likely to spur mass migrations

Thalif Deen/IPS

As climate change, sea-level rise, earthquakes and floods threaten countries such as Bangladesh, Tuvalu, Vietnam and Tajikistan, the Tokyo-based U.N. University (UNU) warns that by 2050, some 200 million people will be displaced by environmental problems.

BOLIVIA - Water, energy everywhere - but not for locals

Franz Chávez/IPS

Peasant farmers in 42 villages along the Zongo valley in western Bolivia stand by and watch as the flourishing electricity industry harnesses the swift-flowing river while, paradoxically, their own farms are languishing from lack of water and energy.

IUCN elections: First salvoes fired

Ramesh Jaura

The battle royale has been triggered. The three presidential candidates have fired their first salvoes - one of them loud enough not to be overheard.

Congress: From glitz to ballots

Hilmi Toros

With the eventful hit-show, the Forum over, the IUCN World Conservation Congress comes down to inevitable politics.

Going the way of the dodo

Stanislaus Jude Chan

With nearly 1,226 species of birds facing extinction humans face potentially catastrophic impacts.

New media to help meet environment targets faster?

Zoltán Dujisin

Blogging, facebook, YouTube or mobile phones, they have all revolutionised the way we communicate.

Buy the Amazon to preserve it

By Julio Godoy

"Rainforest Delight" is too tempting a brandname to be truthful.It sounds just another half-lie of the advertising machinery which litters so much of the world. But it is not. In this case, the brand name is an accurate description of the product.

World Bank releases draft standards for biofuels

Zarina Geloo

In an attempt to reign in the rush towards producing biofuels which is emerging as the latest threat to the ecosystem, even blamed for causing environmental damage, especially in third world countries, and believed responsible for pushing up the prices of food globally, the World Bank and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RBS) have released a list of draft standards on the sustainable production of biofuel production at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

A swampy future for mangroves

Stanislaus Jude Chan

Even as the images of the Indian Ocean tsunami four years ago remain locked vividly in memories, conservationists say the impact of such a disaster can be cushioned considerably through the conservation of coastal ecosystems, including preserving mangroves.

Corporates and NGOs, partners in arms?

Zoltán Dujisin

If the civil society is from Venus and the corporate sector from Mars, can branding bridge their divide?

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TERRAVIVA TV

Farewell: TerraViva correspondents draw interesting conclusions.

Interviews

"We don't need to sell our soul"
IUCN DG Julia Marton-Lefevre speaks to TerraViva on the burning issues of this congress.

Save your logo, environment
A GEF campaign wants companies like Lacoste to do something to preserve real life crocodiles, says Gustavo Fonseca.

China is predating Africa's environment - US official
Interview with Claudia A. McMurray, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs

Governments should take lead in renewables: Shell CEO
Media has created a court of public opinion against Shell, says its CEO, Jeroen van der Veer talking to TerraViva.

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TerraViva is an independent publication of IPS-Inter Press Service news agency. The opinions expressed in TerraViva do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of IPS or the official position of any of its sponsors. This edition is the product of a partnership between IPS and IUCN.