New publication: 'Miniseks. Hofmakerij bij ongewervelden'

In the fast-growing cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, heavy rainfall creates thousands of large gullies. Houses are swallowed by these deep erosion channels, causing an estimated 12,000 Congolese to lose their homes each year. 

The strong decline of biodiversity in freshwater systems worldwide is a quiet crisis - one that few people are aware of. What happens underwater is a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Now, in a new Nature article, some 88 scientists and IUCN collaborators from all over the world who are involved in a twenty-year IUCN effort to assess various groups of freshwater animals have reported that a quarter of the planet's freshwater fauna is threatened with extinction.

When people hear the word ‘landslide’, they often think of the sudden collapse of earth or rock from a mountain. But slow-moving landslides – which can move as little as one millimeter per year and up to a few meters per year – are also a growing threat to people who are pushed to live on steeper slopes because of urban growth and flood risk.