Release by the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive

Impoundment of Ilisu Dam Reservoir has not yet started – Drought in Iraq has other reasons
On June 1, 2018 news began to circulate that the impoundment of the reservoir of the controversial Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River in the Kurdish Southeast of the Republic of Turkey had started. The Turkish State Water Works (DSI) announced that with the closing of the first valves of the three diversion tunnels the filling of the reservoir had begun. …

In an article in the Journal "Trends in Ecology & Evolution" twenty-four experts in conservation research and practice, ecology, economics, policy, and science communication  reviewed 117 potential issues and identified 15 priority topics following a wide consultation. They followed a Delphi like process to score and identify the most important.
This is the ninth such annual "horizon scan" to identify emerging issues. Themes among selected topics include new mechanisms driving the emergence and geographic expansion of diseases, innovative biotechnologies, reassessments of global change, and one of them highlights the development …

The Amazar Pulp and Saw Mill (APSM) – the single most controversial forestry project in Siberia
Chinese Version via link: 俄罗斯造纸项目考验绿色“一带一路” 
One quarter of 214 million m3 of wood harvested in Russia is exported to China. In Asian Russia most logging is driven by signals from Chinese market. Facing growing demand for wood and shortages in domestic supply, Chinese authorities are pushing for greater imports from Russia, ignoring the fact that its neighbour will cease to be a reliable supplier within a decade. On the website …

An article “Harmonizing World Heritage and Climate Measures. The Case of Lake Baikal” by Sergey Shapkhaev, Director, Buriat Regional Union for Baikal and Eugene Simonov, Coordinator of the Rivers without Boundaries Coalition and Researcher at Daursky Biosphere Reserve was published in 2018 World Heritage Watch Report.
 

I. "Climate Measures" vs Natural Values – conventions lack coordination
World Heritage sites’ OUVs are affected and threatened by many climate-related threats: floods, droughts, hurricanes, etc. However, it is often overlooked that haphazard human activities allegedly directed towards mitigation and adaptation to climate change also may …

An interview with conservation biologist William F. Laurance: Chinas Global Infrastructure Initiative Could Bring Environmental Catastrophe
Humans are ravaging tropical forests by hunting, logging and building roads, and the threats are mounting by the day. China is planning a series of massive infrastructure projects across four continents, an initiative that conservation biologist William Laurance described as “environmentally, the riskiest venture ever undertaken.” In a commentary published in the journal Nature Sustainability, he and an international team of researchers urge China to weigh the possibly disastrous consequences of its Belt and …