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In the Philippines municipality of Paracale, over half of the population is involved in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, either as workers, financiers, processors, or gold panners. Many operations use the toxic chemical mercury to extract their gold and use outdated equipment--but this site is home to a brand new mercury-free processing system thanks to the planetGOLD Philippines project. This upgraded facility eliminates harmful emissions of mercury while also supporting livelihoods by enabling miners to recover more gold than before when they were using mercury.

Floating through the crystal-clear waters off the east coast of Thailand, fisher Sutham Hemmanee spots a large female crab amidst the morning’s haul, its underside swollen with the promise of offspring.  

“A female crab like this can produce millions of babies,” the 57-year-old says, pointing to the bulging yellow pouches attached to the crab’s stomach. “We put these egg-carrying females in the crab bank.”  

Sitting at the base of Islamabad’s Margalla Hills is the Raziuddin Siddiqi Memorial Library, a four-storey building packed with more than 2 million books, CDs and DVDs.  

Along with being one of Pakistan’s largest libraries, Raziuddin Siddiqi is unique for another reason: on entering the building one won’t hear the tell-tale flicker of fluorescent lights. 

The Pacific Islands are hard-hit by the economic, social, and environmental costs of climate change. Despite the region’s less than 0.02 per cent contribution to the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, Pacific Island countries are at the frontline of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

The monsoon season, which runs from June through September, has become a nervous time for the people of Nepal.

The climate crisis has supercharged the fallout from the annual rains, which are triggering an increasing number of floods and landslides, disasters that are especially devastating in a nation defined by its vertigo-inducing slopes.

International Women's Day, celebrated annually on March 8th, is a day dedicated to recognizing the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world. It is also a time to raise awareness about women's ongoing struggles and inequalities and to renew the call for gender equality and women's rights. 

This day has been observed since the early 1900s and continues to be a powerful symbol of the progress that has been made and the work that still needs to be done to create a more just and equal world for all women.

Puipaa, Samoa, 08 November 2022: The International Coastal Clean-up Day

Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Viet Nam have united to reduce pollution from the textile sector $43-million initiative will support businesses to manage risks to workers and eliminate the most toxic chemicals from their production processes Hazardous chemicals used in textile production pose significant risks to human health and the environment

Islamabad, 14 October 2022 – The

Ancient forests. Snow-capped mountain peaks. And towering waterfalls cascading down rocky slopes. China’s Shennongjia National Park is the stuff of legends, providing inspiration to thousands of years of Chinese poets, artists and authors.

It’s also home to one of the world’s most elusive primates, the endangered golden snub-nosed monkey, who spends winters in large groups of mostly males deep in the mountain forests of Asia.

Pacific countries made major strides towards realising the vision of the Cleaner Pacific 2025 today, with the launch of ISLANDS Pacific – a 14-nation initiative aiming to avoid the release of 28,000 tonnes of marine litter, safely dispose of 720 tonnes of contaminated material, and reduce the burden of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury in island communities. 

The Green Climate Fund has approved a USD 21.7 million project to support the establishment of end-to-end climate information services and multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) in Timor-Leste 1.03 million people in Timor-Leste (80% of the population) are expected to directly benefit

Nairobi, 8 October 2021 – A major new project developed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will address the urg

Fishing is big business in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand. The industry supports millions of people in the region and accounts for some 10 per cent of global fisheries production every year.

But the region’s success as a seafood exporter has come at a cost – the depletion of local fish stocks, environmental damage and, ultimately, a decline in food security and livelihood opportunities for local communities.

Remote mountainous regions of Nepal are harsh places in which to survive and make a living.

Economic, social and environmental challenges include lack of market access, outmigration, dependency on imports and subsidies, women’s drudgery, malnutrition, unpredictable weather, pests and diseases.

Joshua Wowo discovered and secured 1,400 boxes of DDT in Papua New Guinea’s East New Britain Province. Now he waits for the day when his township’s toxic timebomb will finally be defused.

More than 90 per cent of rice is produced and consumed in Asia. Prior to the green revolution in the 1960s, India was home to more than 100,000 rice varieties, encompassing a stunning diversity in taste, nutrition, pest-resistance and, crucially in this age of climate change and n

In some ways India could be considered test case for the rest of the world, as it works out how to feed its population of 1.3 billion people in a sustainable way. The challenge is to achieve this feat without degrading the land, soil and water resources, destroying the country’s rich diversity of flora and fauna, or causing serious smog in cities like Delhi.

For Thanh, the six annual tea harvests form the rhythm of family life, having raised her two children among the waist-high tea bushes that carpet the steamy slopes near her home in northern Vietnam’s Yen Bai province.

Today, Thanh is proud of the thick, green leaves her tea bushes produce, stretching in straight rows across her two-hectare plantation. But it wasn’t always this way.

Twenty-seven Small Island Developing States have come together in a bid to manage and eliminate toxic chemicals and waste. The initiative is backed by $450 million in funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and partners. Global program will prevent the release of over 23,000 metric tons of toxic chemicals and more than 185,000 metric tons of marine litter.

Washington DC, 1

How many people does it take to change a light bulb? So begins the old joke, but the more serious question for India’s Energy Efficiency Services Ltd was how many people need to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs in order to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint?

Soil degradation is a major challenge for Vietnam's farmers, but biochar could be the answer.