Asian palm oil buyers lag behind in global green push – survey
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation A survey of major palm oil buyers on their pledges to help curb deforestation shows that a quarter, mostly based in Asia, have yet to make commitments to purchase sustainable supplies, green group WWF said on Friday. The scorecard, now running for a decade, looked at 173 big buyers of the […]
Colombia’s Amazon tribes tap into rainforest protection funds
Bogota, ColombiaThomson Reuters Foundation Colombia is asking Indigenous Amazon tribes to suggest ways to spend more than $US7 million available to fight deforestation, the nation’s environment minister said this week, part of an international effort to protect the threatened rainforest. Involving native tribal communities is critical to saving the Amazon, which in Colombia covers about […]
In Japan, foreign parents lead charge against child “abduction”
Tokyo, JapanReuters A growing number of foreigners in Japan are speaking out against what they say is a little-known but entrenched system that allows one parent in a broken relationship to take away the children and block the other from visiting them. The issue of what media in Japan and overseas call parental child “abduction” […]
SOUTH AMERICA: SEX TRADE FLOURISHES IN PERU’S AMAZON DESPITE CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL MINING
ANASTASIA MOLONEY, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how, despite a military crackdown, prostitution is continuing around illegal mining activity in the Amazon…
Nations dawdle on agreeing rules to control ‘killer robots’ in future wars
Nairobi, KenyaThomson Reuters Foundation Countries are rapidly developing “killer robots” – machines with artificial intelligence that independently kill – but are moving at a snail’s pace on agreeing global rules over their use in future wars, warn technology and human rights experts. From drones and missiles to tanks and submarines, semi-autonomous weapons systems have been […]