Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation but also after clearcutting. Two important purposes of reforestation programs are for harvesting of wood or for climate change mitigation purposes.
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose. A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although it is set on a smaller, non-commercial scale and may emphasize berry shrubs in preference to fruit trees. Most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy.
Secret police are police, intelligence, or security agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization.
Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology.
The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, also called Tai Po Kau Special Area, is a nature reserve in the Tai Po area of the New Territories in northern Hong Kong. The area comprises a dense, hilly woodland with over 100 species of trees and numerous streams and rivers. It is one of the most biologically diverse forests in Hong Kong. It is noted by the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society and others as one of the best locations for seeing forest birds in Hong Kong.
The Rooftop Film Festival is an annual US summer independent film festival organized since July 1997 by film maker Mark Elijah Rosenberg.
The Mannahatta Project is a Wildlife Conservation Society research project in historical ecology led by landscape ecologist Eric W. Sanderson that principally ran for 10 years from 1999-2009, reconstructing the island at the point of first contact between the Dutch ship Halve Maen and the Lenape in 1609. The work culminated in the publication of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City in 2009 and has subsequently developed as the Welikia Project and in influence on other environmental initiatives.
Rewilding is a form of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. It differs from other forms of ecological restoration in that rewilding aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. It is also distinct from other forms of restoration in that, while it places emphasis on recovering geographically specific sets of ecological interactions and functions that would have maintained ecosystems prior to human influence, rewilding is open to novel or emerging ecosystems which encompass new species and new interactions.
The Beirut River is a river in Lebanon separating the city of Beirut from its eastern suburbs, primarily Bourj Hammoud and Sin el Fil. The river flows mostly east to west from snow drains and springs on the western slopes of Mount Kneisseh and the southern end of Mount Sannine near the towns of Hammana and Falougha, before curving north and emptying at Beirut's northern Mediterranean coast, east of the Port of Beirut. According to popular legend, St. George slew the dragon in a spot near the mouth of the river.
International College Hong Kong (ICHK) is an international kindergarten, primary and secondary school in Hong Kong based in two campuses in the northeastern New Territories.
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation, an American conservationist, former CEO of Patagonia, Inc., a UN Patron of Protected Areas from 2018-2022. She has committed her career to protecting and restoring Chile and Argentina’s wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, restoring the wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. Having protected over 14 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through Tompkins Conservation and its partners, Kristine and Douglas Tompkins, her late husband who died in 2015, are considered some of the most successful national park-oriented philanthropists in history.
The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), formerly the Voluntary Carbon Standard, is a standard for certifying carbon credits to offset emissions. VCS is administered by Verra, a 501(c)(3) organization. Verra is the world's biggest certifier of voluntary carbon offsets. As of 2020 there were over 1,500 certified VCS projects covering energy, transport, waste, forestry, and other sectors. In 2021 Verra issued 300 MtCO2e worth of offset credits for 110 projects. There are also specific methodologies for REDD+ projects. Verra is the program of choice for most of the forest credits in the voluntary market, and almost all REDD+ projects.
Akira Miyawaki was a Japanese botanist and an expert in plant ecology who specialized in seeds and natural forests. He was active worldwide as a specialist in natural vegetation restoration of degraded land.
Book censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and is currently widespread in China. Enforcement is strict and sometimes inconsistent. Punishment for violations can be arbitrary many times leading to long sentences for crimes against censorship laws.
Rewilding Europe is a non-profit organization based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, dedicated to create rewilded landscapes throughout Europe. The group's efforts have contributed to increase the stock of previously endangered species such as the European bison and the Iberian lynx.
Thomas Ward Crowther is a professor of ecology at ETH Zürich and co-chair of the advisory board for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. At ETH Zürich, he started Crowther Lab, an interdisciplinary group of scientists exploring the role of biodiversity in regulating the Earth's climate. Crowther is the founder of Restor, an online platform that supports thousands of community-led restoration projects around the world. In 2021, the World Economic Forum named Crowther a Young Global Leader.
Iberá National Park is a national park in Argentina located in the northeast province of Corrientes. The national park adjoins the 5,530 km² Iberá Provincial Park to the southeast. The national park and provincial park are both within the Iberá Provincial Nature Reserve, a conservation area of 13,245 km² created in 1982. The combined protected area is the largest in Argentina.
Sea rewilding is an area of environmental conservation activity which focuses on rewilding, restoring ocean life and returning seas to a more natural state. Sea rewilding projects operate around the world, working to repopulate a wide range of organisms, including giant clams, sharks, skates, sea sturgeons, and many other species. Rewilding marine and coastal ecosystems offer potential ways to mitigate climate change and sequester carbon. Sea rewilding projects are currently less common than those focusing on rewilding land, and seas are under increasing stress from the blue economy – commercial activities which further stress the marine environment. Rewilding projects held near costal communities can economically benefit local businesses as well as individuals and communities a whole.
Sarah Ichioka is a British–American urbanist and writer based in Singapore. The founder of strategic consultancy Desire Lines, Ichioka is a proponent of regenerative design, biomimicry, and the incorporation of indigenous knowledge into urban planning. Ichioka served as the Director of the Architecture Foundation, an independent center for urbanism and architecture in the United Kingdom from 2008 to 2014. In Singapore, Ichioka has advocated for the rewilding of green spaces as a strategy for increasing resilience and minimizing intensive management, and for the government to adopt more urgent language about addressing climate change.
A pocket forest or Miyawaki forest is created by planting native trees, shrubs and groundcover plants to form a canopy layer of tall trees, a shrub layer, and ground cover in small urban areas. The concept was pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki as a means of restoring native plant species in damaged ecosystems. The concept has been embraced by environmentalists as a means of teaching urban residents about native forest environments.
