Gunung Leuser National Park harbors many species that represents Sumatran and Indonesian biodiversity ranging from ornagutans, to elephants, tigers, and rhinoceros. Restoring the natural habitat will also help preserve the cultural and spiritual traditions that make this area so unique.

UNEP

As part of the Spain-UNEP Partnership for Protected Areas, this project helps facilitate the action plan for Monk Seal conservation in Mauritania.

This short film demonstrates how the initiative aims to protect the critically endangered Monk Seal and increase food security and income generation for the coastal community at the Cap Blanc Satellite Reserve.

UNEP

As part of the Spain-UNEP Partnership for Protected Areas, this initiative supports conservation activities in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo. This short film presents the objectives and positive impacts this initiative has on local populations' livelihoods.

Strengthening the management of the park will ultimately help improve wildlife conservation planning in the region. It will also contribute to law enforcement and monitoring, including Ebola health monitoring and promote eco-tourism.

UNEP

HA NOI, VIET NAM - State Bank of Viet Nam Governor Nguyen Van Giau and Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda today signed a $1.38 billion financial assistance package to enhance Viet Nam’s nationwide clean water access, conserve threatened forests, and ease urban gridlock. The total cost of the three projects is almost $4.5 billion.

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Spain-UNEP LifeWeb Partnership to Raise Incomes and Improve Conservation in Protected Areas in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

UNEP

This short animated film highlights the role forests can play in national development, a green economy and climate change. The film also reviews the impact of forests on business as usual and on transformative solutions.

UNEP

For every kilo of shrimp netted, up to 20 kilos of other sea creatures are needlessly killed. It's called bycatch and it makes shrimp trawling one of the most wasteful methods of fishing harming the marine environment and also damaging commercial fisheries. Earth Report travels to Mexico and the Philippines where the industry is trialling new nets and new practices that aim to drastically reduce the bycatch from shrimp fishing.

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During the last decades, Thailand has seen a remarkable economic growth. While it has resulted in increased prosperity and wellbeing for many, the environment has taken a great toll.

Today, large scale environmental degradation is threatening the livelihood of people who rely directly on natural resources.

Volcanoes National Park was the first conservation area ever created in Africa. It protects a vast, and vital, forest ecosystem - one of the last refuges of the mountain gorilla. But balancing the needs of the environment and the local population is not always easy. Staff at the nearby eco-tourism centre used to make a living from poaching but now their knowledge of the rainforest is now shared through music and dance. A wider approach could bring further benefits to local people -- if international schemes begin to finance tropical forests as global assets that help reduce climate change. Produced by tve and EEMP for UNEP.

For more on World Environment Day, click here.

This EEPSEA study from the People's Republic of China assesses a number of potential policy options that could help protect the Qixinghe Wetlands which lie in the country’s Sanjiang Plain. The region’s wetlands are the most important breeding ground and migration route for waterfowls in Northeastern Asia, and provide a habitat for numerous species of wildlife. They face many challenges, one of the most significant being the disruption of the water supplies that feed them. Agriculture is the main cause of this problem, accounting for more than 75% of the total water use in the area. As the flow of water entering the wetlands is diverted, its ecosystem is damaged. This problem affects many wetland areas in the PRC.

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EEPSEA