October is the month of increased attention on hunger and poverty, with special focus on the future and nature of international aid. Twenty-two countries are facing enormous challenges like repeated food crises and an extremely high prevalence of hunger due to a combination of natural disasters, conflict, and weak institutions. These countries are in what is termed a protracted crisis, FAO said in its “State of Food Insecurity in the World 2010” hunger report, jointly published today with the World Food Programme (WFP). The current aid architecture needs to be modified to better address both immediate needs and the structural causes of protracted crises. Findings of the 2010 hunger report will be discussed by members of the newly reformed Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in Rome (11-16 October 2010). This happens while Tropentag keynote speaker Paul Collier blogs about the need for international aid that is subject to the same standards of integrity and transparency, while one of the most important donors' vision for "feeding the world" is questioned.

An opportunity for funding cutting-edge research that delivers improved understanding of how ecosystem function, the services they provide, the full value of these services, and their potential role in achieving sustainable poverty reduction was announced through the Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA). ESPA's goal is to ensure that, in developing countries, ecosystems are being sustainably managed in a way that contributes to poverty reduction and inclusive/sustainable growth. This announcement of opportunity invites proposals for research consortium projects that will address this agenda. All projects are required to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) through the web-based form by the closing date of 8 December 2010.

In recognition of the United Nations' declaration of 2010 as the 'International Year of Biodiversity', the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) has included a special section on biodiversity in its September 2010 issue of Biotropica. The section includes 16 commentaries assembled by Jaboury Ghazoul, an ecologist at ETH Zurich and Editor-in-Chief of Biotropica. The editorials cover a wide range of issues relating to tropical biodiversity.

The assessment of the submitted contributions has been communicated. The authors should confirm their presentations before July 18th - otherwise it is assumed that the contribution is withdrawn.

All necessary information is also posted on our website: www.tropentag.de