Suchergebnisse

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost region, in the aftermath of a destructive locust plague and in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the conflict, the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and its allies – formal and informal military factions of the adjacent Amhara region, the Eritrean Defence Force – oppose the troops of the Tigray Regional Government, the Tigray Defence Force. The aim in this work is to document and map as much information as possible about civilian casualties, more particularly those killed by military forces and warfare. With communication lines blocked, we document pieces of a bigger puzzle, yet to be fully reconstructed. By providing spatially explicit information, we hope to transfer useful information to human rights organisations and other humanitarian and development actors. This document also serves as an explanatory note to the online database of massacres and civilian victims of the Tigray war (www.ethiopiatigraywar.com).

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost region, in the aftermath of a destructive locust plague and in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the conflict, the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and its allies – formal and informal military factions of the adjacent Amhara region, the Eritrean Defence Force – oppose the troops of the Tigray Regional Government, the Tigray Defence Force. The aim in this work is to document and map as much information as possible about civilian casualties, more particularly those killed by military forces and warfare. With communication lines blocked, we document pieces of a bigger puzzle, yet to be fully reconstructed. By providing spatially explicit information, we hope to transfer useful information to human rights organisations and other humanitarian and development actors. This document also serves as an explanatory note to the online database of massacres and civilian victims of the Tigray war (www.ethiopiatigraywar.com).

Anaerobic digestion is an established technology to convert biowaste into renewable energy and nutrient-rich digestates. Nutrient recovery from these digestates as renewable fertilizers with high-nutrient use efficiency or as P-poor alternative fertilizers has gained increased attention in order to meet both regulatory drivers and market demands, while producing an internal revenue source. However, until now, this opportunity has been difficult to realize due to obstacles and inconsistencies in legislative systems, and lack of insights into the composition and properties of these products, as well as in their impact on crop yield and soil quality. The aim of this review is to prove the effectiveness of fertilization strategies using biodigestion waste derivatives as compared to conventional practices using animal manure and chemical fertilizers. As adequate field-scale data are lacking in the literature, a ground-breaking three-year field trial has been performed. The value and impact of these biobased fertilizers are demonstrated by the use of high-level performance indicators measuring farming pressure on the environment and how that pressure is changing over time. Bottlenecks for marketing and legislative constraints are discussed. An economic and ecological evaluation is also assessed. The proof of concept provided in this chapter should help to better classify these biobased products into fertilizer and environmental legislations and serve as a support to stimulate their use in the farming community. Moreover, this review should stimulate and provide guidance for further field research on biobased fertilizers, which is highly essential in the development and implementation of more effective and environmentally friendly farming strategies.

In the transition from a fossil to a bio-based economy, it has become an important challenge to maximally recycle valuable nutrients that currently end up in waste streams. Nutrient resources are rapidly depleting. Significant amounts of fossil energy are required for the production of synthetic fertilizers, whereas costs for energy and fertilizers are increasing. Meanwhile, biogas production through anaerobic digestion produces nutrient-rich digestates, which could potentially be reused as green fertilizers in agriculture, thereby providing a sustainable substitute for synthetic fertilizers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of using bio-digestion waste derivatives instead of synthetic fertilizers and/or animal manure on soil and crop production. In a field trial, nutrient balances were assessed and the physicochemical soil fertility and quality were evaluated. The biogas yield of the harvested energy crops was determined. An economic and ecological evaluation was conducted. Application of bio-digestion waste derivatives induced small, albeit statistically insignificant improvement in crop yield, soil fertility and quality compared to current common practices using animal manure and synthetic fertilizers. Moreover, the use of these products might stimulate nutrient mobilization from the soil, thereby increasing the use efficiency of soil minerals. For all reuse scenarios the calculated economic and ecological benefits were significantly higher than the reference. It is clear that the reuse of bio-based products as nutrient supply in agriculture should be stimulated in European legislation. Further field research is on-going in order to validate the results and evaluate the impact on soil quality in the longer term.

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost region. The objective of this 'Atlas of the Humanitarian Situation' is to document and map the situation in which approximately 6 million Tigrayans currently find themselves. For this, we contacted key informants in different districts of Tigray to collect qualitative and quantitative evidence of the actual situation on the ground. We also confronted these data and testimonies with information disclosed by the Government of Ethiopia and by humanitarian organisations. The 26 maps in this atlas provide detailed information at the scale of districts (woredas) or sub-districts (tabiyas). Besides background information related to administrative divisions, social and natural resources - locations of internally displaced people, massacres and civilian casualties receive due attention. Humanitarian access and needs are particularly addressed; official data on humanitarian aid distribution are mapped, and contrasted to ground evidence related to such distributions. The final outlook, links up the emergency and famine conditions in Tigray to the current crop status and to the blockade and siege of the region.

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost region. The objective of this 'Atlas of the Humanitarian Situation' is to document and map the situation in which approximately 6 million Tigrayans currently find themselves. For this, we contacted key informants in different districts of Tigray to collect qualitative and quantitative evidence of the actual situation on the ground. We also confronted these data and testimonies with information disclosed by the Government of Ethiopia and by humanitarian organisations. The 26 maps in this atlas provide detailed information at the scale of districts (woredas) or sub-districts (tabiyas). Besides background information related to administrative divisions, social and natural resources - locations of internally displaced people, massacres and civilian casualties receive due attention. Humanitarian access and needs are particularly addressed; official data on humanitarian aid distribution are mapped, and contrasted to ground evidence related to such distributions. The final outlook, links up the emergency and famine conditions in Tigray to the current crop status and to the blockade and siege of the region.

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost region. The objective of this 'Atlas of the Humanitarian Situation' is to document and map the situation in which approximately 6 million Tigrayans currently find themselves. For this, we contacted key informants in different districts of Tigray to collect qualitative and quantitative evidence of the actual situation on the ground. We also confronted these data and testimonies with information disclosed by the Government of Ethiopia and by humanitarian organizations. The 25 maps in this atlas provide detailed information at the scale of districts (woredas) or sub-districts (tabiyas). Besides background information related to administrative divisions, social and natural resources - locations of internally displaced people, massacres and civilian casualties receive due attention. Humanitarian access and needs are particularly addressed; official data on humanitarian aid distribution are mapped, and contrasted to ground evidence related to such distributions. The final outlook, links up the emergency and famine conditions in Tigray to the current crop status and to the blockade and siege of the region.

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost region. The objective of this 'Atlas of the Humanitarian Situation' is to document and map the situation in which approximately 6 million Tigrayans currently find themselves. For this, we contacted key informants in different districts of Tigray to collect qualitative and quantitative evidence of the actual situation on the ground. We also confronted these data and testimonies with information disclosed by the Government of Ethiopia and by humanitarian organisations. The 26 maps in this atlas provide detailed information at the scale of districts (woredas) or sub-districts (tabiyas). Besides background information related to administrative divisions, social and natural resources - locations of internally displaced people, massacres and civilian casualties receive due attention. Humanitarian access and needs are particularly addressed; official data on humanitarian aid distribution are mapped, and contrasted to ground evidence related to such distributions. The final outlook, links up the emergency and famine conditions in Tigray to the current crop status and to the blockade and siege of the region.