Tag Archives: environment
Mohammed: Vigorous youth make a sublime nation
Mohammed: Vigorous youth make a sublime nation Staff Reporter / 13 August 2013 His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has posted some tweets on his Twitter Account on Monday meant to motivate young people. In his tweets, Shaikh Mohammed mentioned that he meets a lot of young Emiratis who repeatedly ask the question: ‘What does the leadership expect from young people?” Perhaps it is a good opportunity here to answer with some detail”, Shaikh Mohammed said. Shaikh Mohammed continued: ‘We want from our young people the power of knowledge, perseverance in work, skill when shouldering responsibility and humility at completion.’ He added: ‘Our young people are the spirit that pervades our home; we want them to be knowledgeable and have vision and understanding as well as a sense of responsibility towards their homes and their families.’ He went on to say: ‘We want our young people to be efficient and able to make a positive change in their life, their society and their homeland as vigorous young people make a sublime nation.’ –news@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Pakistan PM urges ‘new beginning’ with India
Pakistan PM urges ‘new beginning’ with India (AFP) / 13 August 2013 Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called for a “new beginning” in relations with India in comments published Tuesday, amid high tension over the disputed region of Kashmir. Clashes in recent weeks across the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), which divides the Himalayan territory between India and Pakistan, have raised the temperature between the neighbours. Sharif said it was vital India and Pakistan became “good friends”, in remarks published Tuesday by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), the state news agency. “Let us make a new beginning. Let us sit together to resolve all outstanding issues in a friendly manner and in a peaceful atmosphere,” he said in comments on Monday. India’s army on Tuesday accused Pakistan of firing across the LoC late on Monday in the latest confrontation. Pakistan and India have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two over Kashmir. A deadly flare-up along the LoC in January derailed peace talks that had only just resumed after a hiatus sparked by the 2008 Mumbai attacks. “We must become good friends. Hold each other’s hands. We must sit together with open and clean heart,” Sharif said, adding that Pakistan had “a lot of love and affection” for the Indian people. Sharif has stressed his desire for better relations with India since his election in May. But tensions have flared in the Kashmir valley since the killing last week of five Indian soldiers, which India blamed on the Pakistani army. Pakistan accused India of killing a civilian during firing on Monday and summoned its envoy in Islamabad to register a protest. The picturesque Himalayan territory is divided between India and Pakistan by the UN-monitored LoC, but both countries claim it in full. Continue reading
EcoPlanet Bamboo’s Expansion Plans Target 1 Million Acres of Degraded Land
PRWeb Published 7:05 pm, Thursday, August 8, 2013 EcoPlanet Bamboo’s plantations have received independent accreditation from a range of institutions, from the World Bank to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Such accreditation demonstrates that a for-profit company can earn strong financial returns in a sustainable and transparent way, while positively impacting the lives of the poor, improving the environment, and protecting the planet. Barrington, IL (PRWEB) August 08, 2013 Increasing demand for timber and fiber continues to put pressure on forests globally, and although sustainability issues are a hot topic, market economics ultimately win and the forest loses. Over the past three years EcoPlanet Bamboo has driven the development of commercial plantations of non invasive tropical clumping bamboo around one core pillar – to set in stone the benchmarks and framework for the industrialization of bamboo as an alternative fiber in a way that addresses issues of social and environmental concern. EcoPlanet Bamboo’s recently concluded first phase of growth, the strategically located reforestation of approximately 10,000 acres of highly degraded land, in some of the poorest and least developed regions of Central America and Southern Africa, was focused on being demonstrative. Proving that bamboo could be successfully produced at a commercial scale across different species and climates from both seed and tissue culture plantlets; proving that climate change benefits (accredited by the Verified Carbon Standard), as well as biodiversity and social co-benefits (accredited by the Climate, Community, Biodiversity Alliance) could be achieved; and ultimately proving that bamboo could be produced in a truly sustainable manner through the early acquisition of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Forest Management certification for the Rio Siquia and Rio Kama plantations. In addition to these certifications, EcoPlanet Bamboo’s plantations have received independent accreditation from a range of institutions, from the World Bank to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Such accreditation demonstrates that a for-profit company can earn strong financial returns in a sustainable and transparent way, while positively impacting the lives of the poor, improving the environment, and protecting the planet. EcoPlanet Bamboo is hopeful that this success will set a new global benchmark for the industrialization of bamboo. With this framework strongly in place to guide the development of each new plantation, EcoPlanet Bamboo has set its sights on a second phase of growth – achieving the reforestation of 1 million acres of highly degraded land into fully functioning commercial bamboo forests, with a focus on Southeast Asia, Brazil and Africa. Split into manageable operations of 25,000 – 100,000 acres, these are to be dedicated plantations; each one co-developed alongside timber dependent manufacturing companies within strategic locations globally, providing them the ability to create a long-term competitive price advantage, secure supply and a meeting of each entity’s sustainability goals. “While our achievements to date are still a long way from our 1,000,000 acre goal, they have proved not only that we can, but that we are committed to industrializing bamboo in a way that benefits the local community, is environmentally positive, and enables the feedstock security that multinational corporations require to ultimately move away from unsustainable logging practices, and make the switch to an alternative fiber,” says Troy Wiseman, CEO of EcoPlanet Bamboo Group. For the original version on PRWeb visit:[url=”http://www.prweb.com…web11010766.htm”] http://www.prweb.com…web11010766.htm Continue reading
