News

Myanmar: Myanmar to Launch Digital Land Database

Jan 14, 2021 | Aung Loon, Myanmar Times

Myanmar will launch an online land database soon, said Minister of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations U Thaung Tun. The online land database will be…

Liberia/Sierra Leone: Saving the Gola Forest: Reimagining Forest Conservation in West Africa

Jan 12, 2021 | Lewis Kihumba, Bird Life International

Covering more than 350,000 hectares, straddling the Liberia and Sierra Leone borders, Gola Forest is the largest remaining block of Upper Guinean Forest. Years of…

Middle East: Facebook and Google Earth Help Probe Eco-Crimes in the Middle East

Jan 12, 2021 | Cathrin Schaer, Deutsche Welle

Researchers are using the same open-source data methods that helped track war crimes in Syria to document environmental offenses in places like Yemen and Iraq.

Uganda: Mubende Youth, Women Embrace Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies

Jan 11, 2021 | Dan Wandera, Daily Monitor

Ms Hilda Atwongyeirwe, an IT graduate who is now deeply committed to her 35 acre soybean plantation at Kahumuro village Kitenga Subcounty  in Mubende District…

United Kingdom, South Africa: UK to Support South African Women Entrepreneurs to Develop GreenTech Businesses

Jan 11, 2021 | Rebecca Campbell, Engineering News

The UK, through the UK-South Africa Tech Hub, and in partnership with the Future Females Business School, will help 30 South African women entrepreneurs to…

Myanmar: Myanmar Mulls Online Gems and Jewellery Sales

Jan 4, 2021 | Pa Pa, Myanmar Times

After almost a year without income due to the inability to hold physical emporiums and promotional events in 2020, the Myanmar gems and jewellery industry…

Where Are the Women in Food Insecurity Analysis?

Jan 4, 2021 | Amy Lieberman, Devex

NEW YORK — Women are more likely to experience food insecurity than men, and the pandemic has exacerbated this divide. Women continue to shoulder more…

Liberia: Communities Use New App to Track Illegal Logging

Dec 23, 2020 | Varney Kamara, FrontPage Africa

Rural towns and villages are now using ForestLink, a new app, to track illicit forest operations and deforestation across Liberia, including illegal logging and mining,…

Iran/Jordan: A Controversial New Power Grid Divides the Middle East

Dec 22, 2020 | Simon Watkins, OilPrice.com

More details have emerged on the Iraq-Jordan electricity power grid that is fast becoming a highly controversial project due to Iraq’s persistent political game-playing with…

Afghanistan: UN Involved in Afghanistan Blockchain Land Registry Tool

Dec 2, 2020 | Ledger Insights

Later this month, the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) plans to launch a land registry solution for urban cities in Afghanistan called goLandRegistry. The project is a collaboration with…

More Women in Boardrooms Mean Better Climate Change Policy, Study Says

Dec 1, 2020 | Heesu Lee, Business Standard

Companies with greater gender diversity in their boardrooms show better performance on developing policies and methods to address climate change risks, according to BloombergNEF.

Fire, Conflict and Land Systems in the Middle East

Nov 27, 2020 | Lina Eklund

Since 2019, the author has been involved in a Marie Curie project on fire and conflict in the Middle East: FIRE – Fighting Insurgency Ruining…

Conflict Minerals: Minespider Partners with Google for Tin Blockchain Traceability

Nov 23, 2020 | Ledger Insights

Minspider has partnered with Rwandan tin producer LuNa Smelter and Google to develop a blockchain-based tool, OreSource, to help miners and smelters track data about the mineral’s production process. The platform…

Sierra Leone: ‘We See the Sparks Before They Turn into Fires’: Training Women to Avoid Conflict in Sierra Leone

Nov 21, 2020 | UN News

In the West African country of Sierra Leone, the UN is supporting a government programme, training women and men to take on leadership roles in…

The Weaponisation of Environmental Information in the Era of Fake News

Nov 12, 2020 | Doug Weir

Environmental disaster? War crime? Ecological terrorism? A polarised and omnipresent social media is turbocharging the manipulation of environmental information during conflicts. While the use of…

A Digital Revolution to Save Nature and Build Peace

Nov 12, 2020 | Wim Zwijnenburg

The revolution in space-based technologies is creating a wealth of opportunities to track environmental degradation and its impact on lives and livelihoods. From rapid urbanisation…

Key Player in War on Climate Change? The Pentagon

Oct 26, 2020 | Michèle A. Flournoy

To its credit, the DoD has already been investing over $1.5 billion of its annual research and development budget in new energy technologies. In the past,…

Lack of Flood Maps at Many U.S. Military Bases Creates Risks

May 22, 2020 | Marc Kodack

In the 2020 NDAA, Congress further required that DoD include in its’ installation master plans a discussion of risks and threats that included those from extreme…

There Have Been Repeated Warnings About the Environmental Risks Posed by Flooded Coal Mines in Eastern Ukraine, Are We Now Seeing Evidence That It Is Happening?

Apr 27, 2020 | Eoghan Darbyshire

On the 12th March reports emerged on social media of contamination and discoloration at a reservoir in the town of Yenakiyevo, northwest of Donetsk. A follow up article by Free…

From ENMOD to Geoengineering: The Environment as a Weapon of War

Apr 7, 2020 | Gabriela Kolpak

Collateral environmental damage has long been regarded as an inevitable consequence of armed conflicts. But there have also been many examples of the intentional manipulation of…

Launch of NextGen Climate Forecasting System in Colombia [Video]

Mar 11, 2020 | Francesco Fiondella

In August of 2019, Colombia’s national meteorological service, IDEAM, launched a state-of-the-art climate forecasting system called NextGen. You can read more about this milestone in the latest report about…

Upcoming Conflict Minerals Regulation Does Not Cover Major Technology Companies

Mar 9, 2020 | Sebastian Kovig Skelton

Technology companies are unlikely to tackle the controversial use of so-called conflict minerals in their products because of weaknesses in a forthcoming EU regulation.

The European…

Can Artificial Intelligence Predict the Middle East's Next Conflict?

Feb 28, 2020 | Robert Tollast

In January 2014, most Iraq analysts knew security in the country was rapidly deteriorating. Beyond general warnings, however, few predicted exactly how bad the situation…

How Can Data Build a Truer Picture of the Gender Gap in Food Insecurity?

Feb 4, 2020 | Teresa Welsh

Getting an accurate picture of the differences in food security between men and women can be hampered by typical household survey methods, experts say.

The most…

Land Portal at CFS46: Empowering Advocates for Women's Land Rights Through Open Data

Nov 15, 2019 | Laura Meggiolaro

At CFS 46, the Land Portal had the opportunity to be the co-organizer of the side event How the VGGT have changed rural women’s lives:  Key…

Peace, Security and Conservation on Central Africa's Radio

Nov 13, 2019 | Tiffany Gibert

In northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and eastern Central African Republic (CAR), high-frequency radios are helping to cultivate peace, security, and, more recently, conservation.…

Green Technology's Dark Side

Aug 7, 2019 | Ronald Stein

The hype these days is to stop using those dirty fossil fuel driven cars and trucks and convert everyone to those clean electric vehicles. But…

Serving Refugee Communities with Tech, Energy Access, Entrepreneurship: Mastercard and USAID’s Collective Approach

Jun 19, 2019 | Katrina Pielli and Sasha Kapadia

As we mark World Refugee Day 2019 (June 20) and reflect on the fate of displaced communities all around the world, we are convinced, now…

Blockchain Is Great, but It Can't Solve Everything. Take Conflict Minerals.

Apr 23, 2019 | Fritz Brugger

Blockchain technology can help trace a product as it moves through a supply chain, but it cannot create trust where it’s often most needed. 

Who's Interested in Afghanistan's Lithium?

Mar 27, 2019 | Hindol Sengupta

What connects mobile phones, the Taliban, India and China? A metal called lithium.