PRELIMS BOOSTER 2018
Andaman White-toothed Shrew, Jenkin’s Andaman Spiny Shrew and the Nicobar White-tailed Shrew and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Andaman White-toothed Shrew, Jenkin’s Andaman Spiny Shrew and the Nicobar White-tailed Shrew
- Critically endangered — IUCN
- endemic to India
- nocturnal animal
- Habitat
lives in tropical moist deciduous and evergreen forests, where it inhabits leaf litter and rock crevices
- Distribution
- Andaman White-toothed Shrew –found on Mount Harriet in the South Andaman Islands
- Jenkin’s Andaman Spiny Shrew — found on Wright Myo and Mount Harriet in the South Andaman Islands
- Nicobar White-tailed Shrew — found in the southern tip of Greater Nicobar Island and is also recorded in the area extending from the Campbell Bay National Park to the Galathea River in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Threats
- Habitat loss due to selective logging
- natural disasters such as the tsunami
- drastic weather changes
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Formation — 1945
- Headquarters –Rome, Italy
- specialized agency of the United Nations
- leads international efforts to defeat hunger
- motto — let there be bread
- members — 197 member states
- Budget — funded by its members, through contributions set at the FAO Conference
- priority work area
- Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition
- Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable
- Reduce rural poverty
- Enable inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems
- Increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises
- programmes
- Codex Alimentarius(FAO and the World Health Organization) – international food standards, guidelines
- World Food Summit – 1996
- Rome Declaration — established the goal of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by the year 2015
- International Plant Protection Convention – 1952
- prevent the international spread of pests and plant diseases in both cultivated and wild plants
- Alliance Against Hunger and Malnutrition — 2002
- address food security by enhancing resources and knowledge sharing and strengthening hunger activities within countries and across state lines at the regional and international levels.
- Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)
- identify, support and safeguard Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and their livelihoods, agricultural and associated biodiversity, landscapes, knowledge systems and cultures around the world
