Content Index

One of the first comprehensive forest surveys takes place in the duchy of Saxe-Weimar.

A series of drought hits the Sahel from 1968 to the early 1980s, leading to one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the twentieth century.

As many as ten million people die as a result of the severe famine.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is signed in Montreal, Canada.

The Association of Zimbabwe Traditional Environmental Conservationists (AZTREC) is founded in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province.

The 1989 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora (CITES) bans the international trade of African elephant ivory.

As a result of this provision, the old-growth conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest are protected as critical habitats for the owl.

The Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus founds the Grameen Bank as a new model for addressing local poverty by providing microloans.

Books by Victor Olgyay (Design with Climate) and Ralph Knowles (Form and Stability ) pioneer a “green building” movement among architects and designers.

One of the first guilds in Europe is founded by silver miners in Germany’s Harz Mountains.