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425 - Agroecosystems: reservoirs of biodiversity to be promoted
February 2013
In order to deal with the current biodiversity crisis, the policy and scientific choices made over the past 20 years have led to the development of global assessment, management and conservation tools for living organisms. Such
standardisation of environmental policies and instruments tends to marginalise cultivated tropical ecosystems and their related practices. This state of affairs was criticised by a multi-disciplinary team of the IRD and its partners(
1) in the Conservation Letters
journal, based on work conducted in Laos and Madagascar.
The researchers demonstrated how the standardisation of conservation methods leads to a decline in species diversity and local knowledge. Agroecosystems(
2), which are reservoirs of biodiversity and account for 30% of the earth's surface, should receive far more attention from international programmes.
423 - How can children's interests be protected in the face of poverty?
January 2013
According to several studies( 1), more and more children around the world are separated from their homes and placed in residential facilities. However, most of them are neither orphaned nor abandoned: they are placed into these institutions due to financial or family difficulties, as is revealed by a new survey conducted in Madagascar. In a context of philanthropic support and the high demand for international adoption, the child protection role of these organisations is thus diverted. In order to guarantee "children's best interests" by keeping them within their families( 2), efforts must be focused on the fight against poverty and the reduced stigmatization of certain children.
Sub-Saharan Africa : the population emergency
December 2007
Reliability of corruption indicators in relation to development aid
February 2007
