International Conservation & Development

Globally, we generate $120 billion of agricultural waste every year. What farmers cannot sell, they often burn, with catastrophic consequences for human health and the environment. Takachar has developed a cheap, small-scale, portable technology that attaches to tractors in remote farms. The award-winning machine converts crop residues into sellable bio-products like fuel and fertilizer, and reduces smoke emissions by up to 98%.

As the first large-scale Marine Protected Area (MPA) in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the Ross Sea region MPA sets a precedent for design, adoption, and implementation of other MPAs on the high seas. Together with a team of co-authors, Cassandra Brooks recently published a paper in Marine Policy that highlights the strong management in place within the Ross Sea region MPA, including research and monitoring.

Camila Bustos is part of an expert group from Harvard, Yale, and the University Network for Human Rights calling on Biden administration to revise immigration and climate policy to afford protections to those fleeing devastating climate change impacts in Central America.

Jeannette Laramee writes that designs for clean water and sanitation infrastructure in developing areas should encourage use to achieve the goal of creating healthy communities.

Cassandra Brooks discusses the global challenges and successes to protect Antarctica in Episode 3 of the new PBS series, The Age of Nature. Series description: Explore humanity’s relationship with nature and wildlife, as scientists and conservationists from all over the world examine ways we can restore our planet. This documentary series asks whether newfound awareness of nature could bring about a new chapter in the human story. Watch the episode

Antarctica has been a beacon of international diplomacy, scientific and peaceful cooperation for 60 years. History will judge us harshly if we fail to protect the world’s last large and unique wilderness, writes Cassandra Brooks and participants in the Homeward Bound Project on which she served as a faculty member.

Mountains around the world share something in common – they are home to wildlife that can only tolerate so much disturbance from human activity. ...