Our Nature

The Naturalliance network is run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to help you to live well. To live well, you need to make good decisions, for yourself and in your community, about benefits and risks from the natural world. IUCN embraces knowledge from 1400 organisations, including 90 governments, and 24,000 experts to provide the best knowledge for decisions about the natural world.

 
In Ukraine, local people monitor the truth.

Ukraine has been invaded from the north and east by more than 150,000 soldiers. This aggression is against the UN charter and has killed thousands of Ukrainians. Such a brutal assault on cities has not been seen in Europe for three generations. Below you can see and hear what local people have recorded in videos, with a report on environmental aspects and a well-researched paper on ecocide from our European coordinator Prof Tetiana Gardashuk who has been sheltering in Kyiv.

From Kupyansk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URaJ6HhJJfg

From western Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHplFNbFJ4o

In Kyiv on 24 February: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-zilnPtZ2M

In Kyiv on 1 March: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNp35_S_mS4

Attack on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plants with incendiary weapons, 4 March 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrC_U0b4NIU

Protest at occupation in Kherson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UroqeEdMxkI 

Chernihiv was bombed on 4 March and many civilians died: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMcWBMzjG6A

The Mariupol Maternity Hospital was bombed on 9 March:   https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/video-aviaudar-po-dytyachiy-likarni-ta-polohovomu-budynku-v-mariupoli/31744998.html

Damage to apartment blocks and schools in Kyiv on 14 March. People were killed and injured. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZmxRBCp0UM&ab_channel=%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BA%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8

Video shown in China on destruction of Mariupol, where more than 2000 people have been killed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30_CbmTO5X4

Recording from a drone in late March of severe damage in Mariupol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4AoDYFklMQ

Al-Jazera reports on 3 April about the killing of some 400 civilians in Bucha: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zRtcIA187k

 
Consider COVID-19 carefully

Please think carefully about the threats to you and nature from COVID-19. Use only advice from trustworthy organisations on how you and your community can recognise and avoid this disease. The virus survives in moist air and infects us through mouth, nose and eyes. Therefore, important advice is to:

  • keep 2m from people - avoid air they breathe out;
  • wear a mask when surrounded by many people in enclosed environments or crowds;
  • obey rules about travel and get vaccinated if you can.

 

Measures against future pandemics must also be devised wisely, based on the best science. New laws should avoid harm to rural livelihoods and to nature conservation.

 
The United Nations is 75. Happy Birthday!
11 Aug 2020

Everyone is invited to a United Nations survey! The UN observer with specific expertise for biodiversity, nature conservation and sustainable use is IUCN, so do visit our Naturalliance site too. In each case choose your language at top right.

 

 

 

We live in a world highly influenced by humans, but that was not always the case. Modern humans evolved for tens of millennia as small groups of hunter-gatherers. Our ancestors hunted, fished and gathered plant products before learning to cultivate plants and tame animals. This formed our species in ways we do not fully understand.

 

Cave paintings show that respect for other animals has always been important. Hunting created the first nature reserves and anglers organise to restore rivers. Animal protection organisations were started by people who had gained empathy for companion animals.

 

Nowadays, humans dominate and harm nature's riches. Yet we all depend on nature for air to breath, clean water, and clement weather to grow crops. Many of us stay healthy through recreation in nature. We should learn ways to manage nature well, not least for COVID-19 and wildlife trade. If you enjoy wild foods or just love watching wildlife, you too can help conserve those resources.

 

Hunters and watchers of wildlife do not always cooperate, but they need to. Conflicts divert attention from threats to all, like climate change. Using renewable resources sustainably is not different from using farmed produce, but often better for conserving nature. Hunting, farming and other uses of natural resources can be solutions for conservation and the threats from global warming. We need to focus together on solutions, based both on technology that creates new livelihoods and on nature itself