The Environment Chronicle

The United Nations declared 2014 the International Year of the Small Islands Developing States in order to call attention to their importance and to the current challenges faced by small island states in light of globalization and climate change.

The International Year of Family Farming 2014 is an initiative promoted by the World Rural Forum and supported by over 360 civil society and farmers’ organizations. This worldwide celebration, declared by the United Nations General Assembly, aims to become a tool to stimulate active policies for sustainable development of agricultural systems based farmer families, communal units, indigenous groups, cooperatives and fishing families. All this work is being made from the perspective of effectively combating poverty and hunger and the search for a rural development based on the respect for environment and biodiversity.

Mollusc of the year 2014 is the Garlic glass-snail (Oxychilus alliarius).

Poisonous plant of the year 2014 is the Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis).

Stentor, sometimes called trumpet animalcules, is the Protozoan of the Year 2014.

Orchid of the year 2014 is the Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum).

On 22 March 2014, the Global Nature Fund announced, the choice of the Chiemsee in Bavaria as Living Lake of the Year 2014.

Insect of the Year 2014 is the Phasia aurigera.

Animal of the Year 2014 is the wisent or European bison (Bison bonasus).

The Schönbuch was chosen as Forest of the Year 2014. The Schönbuch is an almost completely wooded area south west of Stuttgart and part of the Southern German Escarpment Landscape. In 1972 the centre zone of the Schönbuch became the first natural park in Baden-Württemberg.

Moss of the Year 2014 is the Hedwigia ciliata.

Lichen of the Year 2014 is the map lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum).

Endangered livestock breed of the Year 2014 is the Dülmen Pony.

The environmental foundation Global Nature Fund (GNF) proclaims the Philippine’s Lake Sampaloc and the six other crater lakes in San Pablo City, Province Laguna, as the “Threatened Lake of the Year 2014”. In commemoration of World Wetlands Day 2014, the GNF draws attention to the advancing destruction of the crater lakes.

Bird of the Year 2014 is the European Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis).

Medicinal Plant of the Year 2014 is the Plantago lanceolata commonly known as ribwort plantain, English plantain, buckhorn plantain, narrowleaf plantain, ribleaf and lamb's tongue.

Fish of the Year 2014 is the Sturgeon.

Since 2011, the Federal Environment Agency has selected a "water body type of the year".On World Water Day 2014 the Federal Environment Agency proclaimed the 'deep, low-nutrient lakes of Northern Germany' to be the Water Body Type of the year for 2014.

Laboratory animal of the Year 2014 is the monkey, especially the macaque monkeys.

The Christmas cactus is the cactus of the year 2014. The wild species Schlumbergera truncata with its red flowers grow epiphytically on trees in the Brazilian coastal forests. They root in the moss and loose humus that gathers on branches and twigs, sometimes even on the outer bark. Although millions of cultivars are produced each year by garden nurseries for the flower trade, the survival of the wild species of Schlumbergera occurring in the Organ Range in Brazil is endangered.

Fungus of the Year 2014 is the Crucibulum laeve.

The Anise Pimpinella anisum) has been chosen for the Medicinal Herb of the Year 2014 by the NHV Theophrastus.

Wild bee of the Year 2014 is the Wool-carder bee (Anthidium manicatum).

Algal researchers of the German Botanical Society have chosen Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as alga of the year 2014.

Water Plant of the Year 2014 is the Australian Water Clover (Marsilea mutica).

European spider of the year 2014 is the Linyphia triangularis.

Cave Animal of the Year 2014 is the Proasellus cavaticus.

Microbe of the Year 2014 is the microorganism Nostoc.

Flower of the year 2014 is the Butomus umbellatus, also known as flowering rush or grass rush.

Perennial Herb of the Year 2014 is the Epimedium.

Dragonfly of the Year 2014 is the White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia dubia).

The Yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) was nominated to the Amphibian of the Year 2014 by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde e.V. (DGHT).

Butterfly of the year 2014 is the Spurge Hawk-moth (Hyles euphorbiae).

More than 20,000 seabirds died during the storms that hit France's west coast in January and February, according to the French society for the protection of birds. So many avain deaths have not been since 1900, the organisation says. A total of 21,341 dead birds were found in western France by 500 volunteers working on three weekends in January and February, the French League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) said on 26 February 2014. A further 2,784 were taken to sanctuaries. The worst-affected species were the Atlantic puffin and the guillemot with the razor-billed auk also suffering badly.

Weather observers at the School of Geography and Environment confirmed that January 2014 being the wettest since records began in the 1760s. The heavy rain meant that the total recorded at the University's Radcliffe Meteorological Station overtook the previous record in January 1852 of 138.7mm. January 2014's rainfall of 146.9mm is almost three times the average for the month of 52.5mm.

A record 1,215 rhinos were poached in South Africa in 2014, a 21 percent increase from the previous year, environmental authorities said 22 January 2015 in Pretoria.