‘I never give up’: Q&A with Chinese environmental lawyer Jingjing Zhang
Jingjing Zhang has been dubbed the “Erin Brockovich of China” for her work litigating against polluting companies on behalf of affected communities within the country.
Now living in the U.S., she has switched her focus to Chinese companies operating overseas, many of them under the aegis of Beijing’s ambitious and far-reaching Belt and Road Initiative.
But jurisdictional issues mean courts in China don’t yet hold Chinese companies accountable for their actions overseas.
In an interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Zhang talks about her career, what strategies could lead the Chinese government to establish regulations governing overseas investment, and the influence of government policy on Chinese companies.
We can prevent the next pandemic (commentary)
Research has shown that agriculture, urbanization, and other human activities that degrade forests and other ecosystems can trigger viruses to jump from other species into humans, a process known as “spillover.”
In this commentary, Prevent Pandemics at the Source co-founders Sonila Cook and Nigel Sizer argue that “it’s only when we prevent new diseases before they start at the source, where humans and animals come into close contact – that we will become less vulnerable to pathogens.”
Cook and Sizer say that prevention is much less costly than fighting pandemics once they start. “We can protect forests, clean up and reduce wildlife trade, improve farming practices and expand surveillance to detect spillovers as they are occurring for about $10 billion per year,” they write. “Compared with the massive human and economic cost of another pandemic, this price tag is tiny.”
Finding ways for farmers to adapt and survive upheaval in-cumbria.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from in-cumbria.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Indigenous Dayak man jailed after Indonesian palm oil firm alleges theft
An Indigenous Dayak man has been arrested for allegedly stealing oil palm fruit from a company’s plantation in Indonesia’s North Kalimantan province.
The company is embroiled in a long-running conflict with five Dayak communities in the area as its concession overlaps with their ancestral lands.
The arrest has triggered fear among the communities of further arrests if they keep trying to assert their land rights.
JAKARTA On March 10, Suande, a member of the Dayak Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo, said goodbye to his family before leaving his village for the police station in the nearby district of Nunukan.