ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 22, 2024--
Today, the Government of Mongolia, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and others announced the launch of Eternal Mongolia – a Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) initiative that will deliver lasting conservation and sustainable community development for the Central Asian country whose vast steppe represents our planet’s last great tract of intact temperate grassland.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240421544883/en/
Eternal Mongolia is a negotiated partnership that will deliver USD $198 million of new investment over 15 years to support Mongolia’s ambitious goals and deliver lasting conservation and sustainable community development in and around protected areas. This includes a USD $71 million transition fund from private and other global donor sources. This transition fund will accelerate Mongolia’s conservation and community development goals, while providing time to develop sustainable financing mechanisms to ensure protected areas can be managed sustainably in the long-term and that Mongolian people benefit from nature, now and for the future.
Eternal Mongolia will dramatically expand and strengthen the effectiveness of the country’s entire National Protected Area network, support sustainable herding practices, invest in the sustainable tourism industry, and set an unprecedented example to the rest of the world about the value of land and freshwater conservation.
The PFP will support local community-driven proposals to safeguard an additional 14.4 million hectares of Mongolia’s lands and waters including intact grasslands, forests, deserts, wetlands and rivers; strengthen the management of all of Mongolia’s National Protected Areas covering 47 million hectares; and extend sustainable and climate-resilient community-managed practices to 34 million hectares outside protected areas.
Mongolia established itself as a world conservation leader 30 years ago by committing to a vision revolutionary for its time: to protect 30% of its lands—a goal now shared around the world. Eternal Mongolia unlocks all the funding and policy commitments needed for Mongolia to ensure its 30% conservation target will be met by 2030 while providing a secure and economic future for Mongolians.
Eternal Mongolia is an initiative of Enduring Earth, an ambitious collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, The Pew Charitable Trusts, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and ZOMALAB that works in partnership with nations and communities as they accelerate and amplify conservation for a more sustainable, prosperous future for people and planet.
“To address the dual climate and biodiversity crises we must catalyze action at scale and ensure that people and livelihoods are at the center of the solution,” said Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy and Board Chair of Enduring Earth.
Eternal Mongolia anticipates key financial support from Legacy Landscapes Fund.Eternal Mongolia initiatives would not be possible without philanthropic support from Jennifer Speers, Pamela Tanner Boll, The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust, Joanna & Stuart Brown, TheLorinetFoundation, China Global Conservation Fund, Sabra Turnbull & Clifford Burnstein, Trafigura Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Arcadia,Fondation Hans Wilsdorf,TheGallogly Family Foundation,and Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust.
The full version of this press release with more information and additional quotes, including those from the Government of Mongolia, can be found at www.nature.org/en-us/newsroom/eternal-mongolia-pfp-announcement/
Mongolia's Nationally Protected area, Toson Hulstai. ©TNC
BRUSSELS (AP) — Germany on Friday accused Russian military agents of hacking the top echelons of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party and other sensitive government and industrial targets, and was joined by NATO and fellow European countries in warning that Russia’s cyberespionage would have consequences.
Relations between Russia and Germany were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russian military cyber operators were behind the hacking of emails of the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition. Officials said they did so by exploiting Microsoft Outlook.
Officials described a hacking campaign that persisted for months.
The German Interior Ministry said in a statement that the hacking campaign began at least as early as March 2022 — a month after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine — with emails at Social Democrat party headquarters accessed beginning that December. It said German companies, including in the defense and aerospace sectors, as well as targets related to the war were also a focus.
The statement said international efforts led by the FBI shut down in late January a botnet of compromised network devices used by the Russian hackers — known as APT28 or Fancy Bear — in the cyberespionage scheme.
“Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace,” Baerbock said at a news conference in the Australian city of Adelaide. She attributed the hack to a unit of Russia's GRU military intelligence unit.
“This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences,” she said, without specifying what they might be.
A separate German statement said the hacking occurred over “a relatively long period” and also targeted various unidentified German government authorities, foundations and associations. It said the Social Democrats' executive committee was targeted.
The Council of the EU and the Czech Foreign Ministry said Czechia's institutions have also been targeted by the same group. Both German and Czech officials said the GRU hackers leveraged a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook.
In a statement by the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s nations said they “strongly condemn the malicious cyber campaign" by Fancy Bear "against Germany and Czechia.”
The EU noted that it had previously imposed sanctions on individuals and entities associated with the group for targeting the German parliament in 2015. It said it will not tolerate the continuation of such attacks, particularly with EU elections upcoming in June.
NATO accused Fancy Bear of targeting “other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators and other entities across the Alliance," including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.
“We are determined to employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyberthreats to support each other, including by considering coordinated responses,” said the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO.
Baerbock is visiting Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, with the trip focusing on security policy as China pushes for influence in the Pacific region.
“The defense cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we would like to deepen it further and together expand it, because we are in a situation where we face similar threats,” said Baerbock, who is the first German foreign minister to visit Australia in 13 years.
Discussions between Baerbock and Australia counterpart Penny Wong centered on the conflict in Gaza. “I think we all understand that the only path out of this cycle of violence that we see in the Middle East at such great cost is one that ultimately ensures a two-state solution,” Wong said.
Associated Press Technology writer Frank Bajak in Boston, Karel Janicek in Prague, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Samuel Petrequin in Brussels and Foster Klug contributed to this report.
Germany's Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock, left, speaks with Lewis O'Brien, the oldest living Kaurna man, in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, center, poses with Lewis O'Brien, the oldest living Kaurna man, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, left, in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrive for a news conference in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong attend a news conference in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the indigenous Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig. (Michael Errey/Pool Photo via AP)
