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 …
Most nations recently agreed to hold global average temperature rise to well below 2 °C. We examine how much climate mitigation nature can contribute to this goal with a comprehensive analysis of “natural climate solutions” (NCS): 20 conservation, restoration, and/or improved land management actions that increase carbon storage and/or avoid …
This management plan has been prepared by the Government of Nepal in response to the Bishkek declaration (2013) to secure 20 snow leopard landscapes by 2020. The management plan process involved extensive consultation and in-depth analyses of the current bio-climatic and socio-economic situation; an assessment of future scenario based on …
This 200-page report by Biodiversity International provides solid evidence that investments in agrobiodiversity also play a critical yet overlooked role in tackling wider global targets such as reducing poverty and malnutrition, reversing environmental degradation and combatting climate change. It demonstrates that agrobiodiversity can be a more mainstream approach to sustainable …
The purpose of this report is two-fold: to analyse how food systems influence people’s dietary patterns and nutritional outcomes; and to highlight effective policies and programmes that have the potential to shape food systems, contribute to improved nutrition and ensure that food is produced, distributed and consumed in a sustainable …
Climate change is a well-documented driver of both wildlife extinction and disease emergence, but the negative impacts of climate change on parasite diversity are undocumented. We compiled the most comprehensive spatially explicit data set available for parasites, projected range shifts in a changing climate, and estimated extinction rates for eight …
Research of the past decades has shown that biodiversity promotes ecosystem functions including primary productivity. However, most studies focused on experimental communities at small spatial scales, and little is known about how these findings scale to nonexperimental, real-world ecosystems at large spatial scales, despite these systems providing essential ecosystem services …
The report provides scientifically sound practical guidance for selecting SLM (Sustainable Land Management) practices that help address DLDD (Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought), climate change adaptation and mitigation, and for creating an enabling environment for their large-scale implementation considering local realities. It targets a broad audience from scientists, policy makers, …
This book brings together research findings and experiences from science, policy and practice to highlight and debate the importance of nature-based solutions (NBS) to climate change adaptation in urban areas. Emphasis is given to the potential of nature-based approaches to create multiple-benefits for society. The expert contributions present recommendations for …
In response to the pressing global challenges of climate change, community based management of miombo woodlands in Tanzania is promoted for carbon credit project development. However, evidence on its feasibility is scanty and questionable. This study examined the economic feasibility of carbon credit project development in community based forest management …
The economic viability of any development project that involves diversion of forest land may now reduce with the environment ministry coming up with new cost benefit analysis guidelines. The new guidelines submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by the ministry comprise a number of new costs for diversion of …
The objective of this study is to analyze heterogeneous perceptions of the relative importance of riverine ecosystem services to inform policy decisions. To improve allocation of scarce resources across competing uses, it is crucial to understand the values placed on various water uses. Based on electronic surveys conducted across three …
FAO has developed new guidelines aimed at helping countries develop strong National Forest Monitoring Systems, which are key to measure progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To fulfil their pledges under the Paris Climate Agreement and Agenda 2030 countries are expected to collect more detailed forestry data. This not …
We evaluated a program of payments for ecosystem services in Uganda that offered forestowning households annual payments of 70,000 Ugandan shillings per hectare if they conserved their forest. The program was implemented as a randomized controlled trial in 121 villages, 60 of which received the program for 2 years. The …
Elaborated in the framework of the UNDP-UN Environment “Poverty Environment Initiative” (PEI), this publication identifies entry points to integrate environmental sustainability and social protection goals. It aims to contribute to the improvement of policy tools by providing practical examples of an integrated approach to the implementation of Agenda 2030 in …
The strong focus on species extinctions, a critical aspect of the contemporary pulse of biological extinction, leads to a common misimpression that Earth’s biota is not immediately threatened, just slowly entering an episode of major biodiversity loss. This view overlooks the current trends of population declines and extinctions. Using a …
The Ramsar Convention recognizes the interdependence of people on wetlands for their important economic, cultural, scientific and recreational values. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) provides a framework for considering the multiple values of nature, including wetlands, and its benefits to society within policy-making and decision-making …
This framework document has been prepared by the team at ICIMOD working on various aspects of ecosystem management in collaboration with the United Nations Environment – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP–WCMC), with technical inputs from eminent ecologists, gender and governance specialists, sociologists and economists from the region. The document provides …
This report aims at providing an evidence-based, comprehensive analysis of the relationships between forestry and FSN. It clarifies the links between sustainable forestry and FSN. It considers how sustainable forestry can address competing demands and contribute to FSN in the long term. This report by the High Level Panel of …
CHENNAI: In a bid to restore biodiversity in Gulf of Mannar, the State Environment Department has kickstarted a Rs 24.74 crore project to rejuvenate the coastal ecosystem. This is one of four projects under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) in late 2015. “First realisation about impact of …
Ecosystem carbon carrying capacity (CCC) is determined by prevailing climate and natural disturbance regimes, conditions that are projected to change significantly. The interaction of changing climate and its effects on disturbance regimes is expected to affect forest regeneration and growth, which may diminish forest carbon (C) stocks and uptake. We …
