The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation has initiated the work of compilation of environmental accounting under the “Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services” Project. Apart from compiling and releasing three publications on environmental accounts under the title “EnviStats India”, the Ministry has also set up a mechanism …
The Global Forest Review (GFR) provides accessible, comprehensive, and data-driven insights to better inform protection, restoration, and sustainable management of forests worldwide. Delivered through a dynamic online platform, the GFR tracks vital trends on the extent, condition, use, and social and ecological values of forests globally.
Soil organisms play a crucial role in boosting food production, enhancing nutritious diets, preserving human health, remediating polluted sites and combating climate change, but their contribution remains largely underestimated, FAO said in its first ever report on "The State of Knowledge of Soil Biodiversity". Despite the fact that biodiversity loss …
This report seeks to explore the current status of mainstreaming biodiversity into production sectors — in theory and in practice. It first explores a number of key concepts of biodiversity mainstreaming. Then a review of the literature reveals that while the literature on mainstreaming continues to evolve and improve, its …
Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) is a global partnership that uses natural capital accounting to mainstream naturalcapital considerations into economic policy. Natural capital accounting helps to underscore the contribution of natural resources to the environment as well as highlight the impact of the economy on the environment. …
There is increasing recognition of the need to bring about changes across the full spectrum of agricultural practices to ensure that, in future, food production systems are more diverse, sustainable and resilient. In this context, the objectives of irrigation need to be much more ambitious, shifting away from simply maximizing …
This paper discusses how debt-for-climate swaps can be useful “triple-win” instruments to address the climate crisis by ensuring the protection of valuable terrestrial and marine ecosystems, while also contributing to debt sustainability. The paper draws on examples of previous debt-for-nature swaps and identifies lessons for moving forward, particularly around matters …
Lack of policies regulating impact on natural world means finance industry effectively bankrolling biodiversity loss, analysis finds. The world’s largest investment banks provided more than $2.6tn (£1.9tn) of financing linked to the destruction of ecosystems and wildlife last year, according to a new report. The findings in the Bankrolling Extinction …
Rising inequality, biodiversity loss, the growing impact of climate change and unrelenting pressure on natural resources could lead to irreversible environmental damage in the Mediterranean basin, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean finds that, unless …
The annual economic value of ecosystem services provided by the Delhi zoo works out to be ₹426 crore, an assessment by the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and commissioned by the Central Zoo Authority has found. These ‘ecosystem services’ constitute heads such as biodiversity conservation, employment generation, education and …
NSO India with the support of the IMG and the technical guidance provided under the EU-funded project, in 2018, released “EnviStats India 2018 – A Supplement on Environment Accounts”. This publication was the first in the series of annual publications of NSO India to ensure that accounts depicting the status …
Countries across the world are reliant on a range of services that are based around their natural ecosystems. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES) include such necessities as food provision, water security and regulation of air quality that are vital to maintaining the health and stability of communities and economies. Over …
Recent major international reports have highlighted the alarming impact of food production systems on climate change, land and biodiversity. This report shows that common ground between the agriculture and conservation sectors for mutually beneficial action exists, and that there is great potential for widespread adoption of sustainable agricultural practices that …
Few studies exist that document how high-elevation Andean ecosystems recover naturally after the cessation of human activities and this can limit the implementation of cost-effective restoration actions. We assessed Andean forest (Polylepis stands) and páramo grassland recovery along an elevation gradient (3,600–4,350 m.a.s.l.) in the Yanacocha Reserve (Ecuador) where natural …
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat has released the zero draft of the global biodiversity framework. The framework “builds on the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020” and aims to bring about a “transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living …
This book presents current knowledge about ecosystem services (ES) in urban planning, and discusses various urban ES topics such as spatial distribution of urban ecosystems, population distribution, and physical infrastructure properties. The book addresses all these issues by: i) investigating to what extent ecosystem services are currently included in urban …
The Climate, Nature and our 1.5°C Future report brings together the findings of four recent authoritative reports on climate change and biodiversity from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). These are the IPCC special reports on global warming …
Boosting agricultural production to meet the food demands of growing and more prosperous populations increasingly comes with a cost to the ecosystems upon which human life more broadly depends. Yet many developing countries (and some developed countries) do not acknowledge or understand these trade-offs. This is becoming one of the …
Agricultural expansion is the greatest driver of the loss of nature and its biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide. In Africa, this is primarily the expansion of food crops to meet growth in domestic food demand. Further losses are inevitable before the situation stabilises. But they could be greatly reduced by …
We evaluate methods to calculate the economic value of protected areas derived from the improved mental health of visitors. A conservative global estimate using quality-adjusted life years, a standard measure in health economics, is US$6 trillion p.a. This is an order of magnitude greater than the global value of protected …
