The Saiga Antelope is a migratory herbivore of the steppes and deserts of Central Asia and Russia, capable of travelling hundreds of kilometres north to south on its annual migrations. Saigas have been hunted since prehistoric times and today poaching remains the primary threat to this critically endangered species. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Saiga populations crashed by more than 95% within a decade. While a number of Saiga po...

Mortality due to entanglement and collisions with ships has been reported within the Southern Hemisphere. To varying degrees these threats are all present in both the Oceania region and the Southern Ocean. The International Whaling Commission’s Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and temporary moratorium against commercial whaling offers limited protection to Humpback Whales from commercial whaling, but scientific whaling remains a threat. There is...

Protecting the Cheetah’s range also benefits other migratory wildlife, including those not currently protected by international agreements such as Appendix I of the CMS. The Serengeti- Mara-Tsavo landscape, for example, is home not only to a globally important population of Cheetahs, but also to vast numbers of migratory Wildebeest, Zebra, Eland and Thomson’s Gazelle. In 2011, the Tanzanian government ensured that the proposed commercial road n...

The globally threatened Lesser White-fronted Goose is a Palearctic migrant, breeding discontinuously in forest- or shrub tundra and mountainous shrubby wetlands from Fennoscandia to easternmost Russia. The species has declined rapidly since the 1950s leading to a fragmentation of its breeding range. Many key stop-over and wintering sites are still unknown. Today, three distinct wild sub-populations remain, of which the two Western Palearc...

Parties and non-parties to the Convention of Migratory Species. Severe gaps exist in the north and east and are urgently needed for protecting the ecological networks and migrations of many endangered species

The Snow Leopard inhabits the alpine and sub-alpine regions of Asia’s most spectacular mountain ranges. Occupying nearly 2 million km2, the snow leopard’s range extends across 12 range states from Russia and Mongolia to Nepal and Bhutan. Unfortunately this magnificent predator had to be listed as Endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). As few as 3,500–7,000 cats may remain in the wild and the population is thought to be dwindling acr...

The East Asian-Australasian flyway for migratory birds

The tiny Nathusius’ Pipistrelle, weighing only 6–10 grams, travels almost 2000 km from its breeding grounds in north-eastern Europe to its main hibernation areas in south-west Europe. Populations in Russia are thought to winter in the eastern Caucasus and the Volga Delta. Recently, the breeding range of Nathusius’ Pipistrelle has expanded towards the west and the south. New nursery colonies have been found in Ireland, the Netherlands, France, and...

Acknowledging ecological networks and how their disrup-tion may have an impact populations of migratory species is essential for the survival of these species and for fostering international collaboration. This is an overview of selected migratory routes for birds.

Humpback annual migrations between feeding grounds in polar waters to mating and calving grounds in tropical waters are amongst the longest of any mammal. Following heavy exploitation during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Humpback Whales have been legally protected from commercial whaling since 1966, except for aboriginal and subsistence take, and in most areas their populations are showing signs of recovery. However, there is little evid...

Acknowledging ecological networks and how their disruption may have an impact populations of migratory species is essential for the survival of these species and for fostering international collaboration. This is an overview of selected migratory ranges for ungulates.

In Nepal, the gender division of labour is highly skewed, especially when agricultural, pastoral and wage labour is combined with household, community and casual labour, and when high rates of men’s out-migration to urban cities, towns and cross-border destinations in the region and beyond, are considered. Recent comparative research on the ‘feminisation’ of agriculture and natural resource management, undertaken by ICIMOD and supported by I...

Maiti Nepal rescues an estimated 2,000 thousand girls each year, including children and women intercepted at borders and victims liberated from brothels and from various forms of abuse and exploitation. It provides them with education, protection and rehabilitation. Current estimates are that Maiti Nepal receives over 4,000 thousand reports of missing young women suspected of being abducted every year. The majority, an estimated 70%, are sold an...

Critical importance is the under-representation of women in policy and decision-making institutions, in dialogue on adaptation to climate change, in the governance of natural resources and in other important livelihood dimensions. Numerous position papers on climate change recognise and argue the importance of integrating gender issues and increasing women’s participation in climate change negotiations and processes (IUCN – The International Uni...

Vulnerability of human populations to extreme climate related events and changes in major climate parameters over the next 30 years.

As numerous studies have demonstrated, women bear the disproportionate burden of the costs of disasters, if their rights are not ensured and if gender, socio-cultural and political-economic inequalities within the context of gender relations and institutions are not addressed (Mehta, 2007). When disasters hit, more women than men die because of lack of information, mobility, decision-making, access to resources and training, gender-based cultura...

Some estimates from Maiti Nepal suggest that trafficking from Nepal may have increased from an estimated 3-5,000 per year during the pre-war times (1990) to possibly 12-20,000 per year in 2010. This includes internal and external trafficking. Internal trafficking increased extensively during and after the ten years of armed conflict in Nepal, though great uncertainty exists about such estimates.

Recent studies focus attention on the radically changed flood patterns, including heavy rainfall that leads to landslides and soil erosion. For example, in Nepal women and men have noted increased frequency and damage caused by the floods over a twenty-year time-span (Gautam et al., (2007). During floods, rivers may cut into agricultural land, inundate crops or wash the fields away in their entirety. Economically poor and marginalised households ...