Feature Article

In India, the criteria and indicators approach for sustainable forest management is being implemented on a pilot basis since 2000. The initiative, known as the Bhopal-India process, has over the years endeavoured to formulate a working framework for the achievement of the goals of sustainability specific to the national forestry conditions.

The habitat loss, increasing air pollution, changes in the microclimatic conditions and uncontrolled harvest have become the major detrimental factors for lichen diversity in India. Propagation of lichens by means of tissue culture method proved to be uneconomical and their re-introduction into the field has been unsuccessful. Hence declaring lichen-rich areas as

If there is an example of a silver bullet among genetically modified (GM) crops, it would be virus-resistant papaya trees. They saved the papaya industry in Hawaii from devastation by the ringspot virus, a serious pathogen that deforms fruit and eventually kills conventional trees.

It was supposed to prevent blindness and death from vitamin A deficiency in millions of children. But almost a decade after its invention, golden rice is still stuck in the lab.

Atmospheric measurements show that the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere is currently '385 parts per million (ppm) and rising fast. But this value is a global average that tells us nothing about the regional distribution of greenhouse gas emissions. As the world embraces myriad mitigation strategies, it must gauge which strategies work and which do not. Gaining such understanding will require a greenhouse gas monitoring system with enough accuracy and precision to quantify objectively the progress in reducing emissions.

More than a billion acres have been planted with genetically engineered crops in the USA since 1996, but we do not fully know their ecological costs and benefits.

The Arctic and northern subpolar regions are critical for climate change. Ice-albedo feedback amplifies warming the Arctic, and fluctuations of regional fresh water inflow into the Arctic Ocean modulate the deep ocean circulation and thus exert a strong global influence.

Demand for plant products has never been greater, more people, rising affluence, and expanding biofuels programs are rapidly pushing up the prices of grain and edible oil. Boosting supply isn't easy: All the best farm land is already in use. There's an acute need for another jump in global agricultural productivity-a second Green Revolution. Can it happen? Will it happen? (Editorial)

The Arctic and northern subpolar regions are critical for climate change. Ice-albedo feedback amplifies warming in the Arctic, and fluctuations of regional fresh water inflow to the Arctic Ocean modulate the deep ocean circulation and thus exert a strong global influence. By comparing observations to simulations from 22 coupled climate models, the researchers find influence from anthropogenic greenhouse gases and sulfate aerosols in the space-time pattern of precipitation change over high latitude land areas during the second half of the 20th century.