planthro BIBLIO | Platform anthropocene Inc.

Extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and extreme heat, are becoming more frequent and more intense. These have often impacted countries experiencing new or escalating conflicts.

Without urgent adaptation, mitigation and measures to address loss and damage, climate change impacts are expected to increasingly, and disproportionately, affect climate vulnerable States and communities, including forcibly displaced people. The report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reveals that almost 3 in 4 forcibly displaced people were living in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards.

At the end of 2023, an estimated 117.3 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing the public order. Based on operational data, UNHCR estimates that forced displacement has continued to increase in the first four months of 2024 and by the end of April 2024 is likely to have exceeded 120 million.

The increase to 117.3 million at the end of 2023 constitutes a rise of 8 per cent or 8.8 million people compared to the end of 2022 and continues a series of year-on-year increases over the last 12 years.

One in every 69 people, or 1.5 per cent of the entire world’s population, is now forcibly displaced. This is nearly double the 1 in 125 people who were displaced a decade ago.

Durable solutions can be progressively attained through voluntary repatriation, integration into local communities, and resettlement to a third country. Complementary pathways can lead to solutions that can be attained through education and labour mobility.

UNHCR releases two flagship statistical reports on global forced displacement each year, the Global Trends report and the Mid-Year Trends report. The Global Trends report, released annually in June, analyses changes and trends in forcibly displaced populations in the previous calendar year (from 1 January to 31 December). It provides key statistics on the global numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced people and stateless people, as well as their main host countries and countries of origin.

In October each year, the Mid-Year Trends report is released to provide updated figures and analysis for the initial six months of the current year (from 1 January to 30 June). These figures are preliminary, and the final data is included in the subsequent Global Trends report.

Data and official statistics on forcibly displaced and stateless populations are critical to inform and guide policy-making and programming at the global, regional and national levels. Through this, UNHCR and partners can more effectively safeguard the rights and well-being of displaced people.

UNHCR Global Trends report 2023

This Resource Book makes the case for Integrated Water Resources Management Planning (IWRM) approach for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It includes guidelines specific to SIDS, and argues that unlike traditional models, SIDS desiring to implement IWRM need not start with expensive and time consuming institutional reforms. The pragmatic approach towards sustainable water management promotes co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

The world’s Small Island Developing States (SIDS) - located in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans - have unique ecological, geographical, hydrological, economic and cultural characteristics. SIDS are renowned for their natural tropical beauty, and a good number of SIDS’ economies are built around tourism, a major consumer of freshwater. Typically with small land masses, small populations and a narrow base of livelihood options, most SIDS lack the economic, institutional and human-resource capacity of larger countries with broadbased economies. SIDS are also particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which include extreme weather and sea-level rise. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)—the systematic process of sustainably developing, allocating and monitoring the use of water resources in the context of social, economic and environmental objectives is key to development in SIDS. Successful IWRM approaches for SIDS must take into account these special characteristics, as well as local cultural and social contexts.

This publication will complement existing IWRM initiatives in SIDS. It will serve as an inspiration and practical guidance tool for those concerned with water planning and management, including coastal zone management practitioners; representatives of public-sector agencies in the water sector; organizations dealing with watersheds and catchments; and community groups interested in improving the quality and quantity of water in their locality.

Resource book on IWRM planning approach for small island developing states

Loss of pristine tropical forests slowed last year — but the world is still falling far short of a global goal to end deforestation by 2030. The findings, from an analysis of the interactive satellite data released this week by the Global Forest Watch, highlighted the need to improve conservation of tropical forests to protect biodiversity and slow climate change. It found that in 2023, the tropics lost 3.7 million hectares of primary forest — areas of natural, mature forest cover that have not been recently cleared and regrown.

“Those tropical primary forests in particular represent some of the most important ecosystems to protect in order to avoid carbon emissions and biodiversity loss,” said Mikaela Weisse, director of Global Forest Watch at the World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental think tank in Washington DC, at a press briefing. The WRI conducted the study with researchers at the University of Maryland in Riverdale.

By analysing satellite data on tree cover, Weisse and her colleagues found a 9% reduction in the loss of primary tropical forests last year, compared with 2022.

This reduction is mostly down to shifts in political leadership in Brazil, which saw a 36% decrease in primary-forest loss, and Columbia, where there was a 49% decrease, according to Weisse. But the researchers found that this progress was largely counteracted by increases in loss of tropical primary forest in countries including Bolivia, Laos, Nicaragua and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Globally, loss of tree cover owing to both natural and human causes — in plantations as well as natural forests — increased by 24% from 2022 to 2023. This global rise was driven entirely by a fivefold increase in fire-related loss of tree cover in Canada. In the rest of the world, tree cover loss declined by 4%.

The researchers also found that the world is on track to miss a goal to halt and reverse forest loss due to human activity, or deforestation, by 2030. This goal was agreed in 2021 by more than 145 countries and territories that, between them, are home to 90% of the world’s forests.

To be on track, we need at least a 10% annual reduction in deforestation, but the persistence of the deforestation rate indicates we are far from this target,” says ecologist Dolors Armenteras at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá (see ‘Falling behind’). Meeting it will require stronger political will to tackle deforestation, along with greater international cooperation and more financial incentives to conserve existing forests, she adds.

The interactive world map cited in the study can be accessed through its official website.

Tropical-forest destruction has slowed — but is still too high

“We are entering a new climate reality,” Catalonia’s regional president Pere Aragonès said when announcing the emergency.

“It is more than likely we will see more droughts that will be both more intense and more frequent.”

Catalan authorities declared a state of pre-emergency in November last year. Now, high temperatures have reduced the already low water levels in reservoirs.

The region's almost 40-month-long lack of rain has exacerbated the situation. Experts say climate change is driving the drought, with the entire Mediterranean region expected to warm faster than many other parts of the world in the coming years.

""Southern Europe is experiencing potentially critical drought conditions. The most affected regions are the Mediterranean coast of Spain, central and southern Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean islands," the Copernicus Emergency Management Service told Euronews.

"These conditions, combined with low rainfall and snow cover, raise concerns for the coming spring and summer. The management of water resources should be monitored and planned," they added.

"Droughts are natural in the Mediterranean climate pattern. What is very dramatic are the projections of climate change. ... What we are seeing is an increase in the intensity and frequency of droughts," Annelies Broekman, a water management specialist at the Barcelona-based research institute CREAF, told the Associated Press.

Broekman noted an important difference between the extraordinarily intense dry spell northeastern Spain is experiencing now and the last serious drought in Catalonia in 2008, when boats were used to transport water to Barcelona.

Next week, Catalan authorities will meet with Teresa Ribera, Spain's Minister of Energy and Climate, to discuss the potential to take water from other territories if necessary in the coming months.

According to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute, Spaniards use an average of 133 litres of water per day. The regional emergency declaration aims to reduce water for crop irrigation by 80%, for livestock by 50% and for industry by 25%. The less populated southern part of the region is fed by the Ebro river and is in better shape.

Barcelona declares drought emergency, with big fines for breaking water rules

Platform anthropocene Inc. or planthro is a New York registered, globally active, not-for-profit public charity organization.

planthro targets scientists, students, citizens, governing bodies, entrepreneurs and stakeholders concerned with the concept of anthropocene and its multiple implications.

The organization aims at:
● conveying and sharing a lucid view of the complexity characterizing human interaction with Earth,
● empowering individuals and organisations to work collaboratively in economic, social, environmental, and governance contexts,
● supporting and promoting informed and creative solutions on sustainability, mitigation and adaptive strategies.

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