The iconic giant pandas have been downgraded to “vulnerable animals” because the species has shown a slow population rise in the last few years.
Last week in Honolulu Thousands of people gathered to talk about the endangered animals, climate change, and the Earth’s ecosystems.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, also known as IUCN is the biggest conservation organization and is made from 1,300 governmental and nongovernmental organizations. This year’s meeting was about the environmental policy and had a record number of participants.
The gathering had a new motto “Planet at a crossroads”.
For the first time in 68 years, the Congress was held on U.S land. The organizations come together every four years to talk about the Earth problems.
The topics discussed at the IUCN were the Giant Pandas, the warming of oceans, and the focus on the forests.
The Giant pandas were moved off the endangered species list. The iconic giant pandas have been downgraded to “vulnerable animals” because the species has shown a slow population rise in the last few years. The population of pandas started to rise due to the forest restoration in China. The bad news came from the scientist that cautioned about climate change that is going to eliminate 35% of the China bamboo forests by 2080.
The warming of oceans is a dangerous threat. 80 scientists showed that 93 % of the heat made by humans since the 1970s had been taken up oceans. If the heat had been gone into the atmosphere, the temperature would have jumped by 97 degrees Fahrenheit.
This report reveals that a multitude of the processes of oceans such as breeding and migration of whales and fish are affected by the warming.
The IUCN is going to focus more on forests and oceans using the native knowledge for conservation.
More than 100 resolution were adopted by the IUCN’s members on protecting the ecosystems in the World. These resolutions don’t affect the policy directly, but there might be some regional agendas affected by it.
A notable decision is the closing of domestic markets specialized in trading with elephants ivory. Other resolutions consist in protecting the intact land from oil palm expansion and the putting of every classified land off-limits to infrastructure and industrial activities.
The director of the Forest Legality Alliance, Charles Barber, says that this year’s congress was an action-oriented one.
Do you think that these resolutions can help the endangered animals?
Image Source: Flickr
