This paper discusses the role of local governments as powerful, but often over-looked, actors in locally led adaptation. Local governments represent key stakeholders that have largely untapped potential to lead local adaptation action, mediate between local actors and national authorities, and manage climate finance to address local needs. This paper …
This is the second volume in the new series on the Values of Protected Landscapes and Seascapes produced by the Protected Landscapes Task Force of IUCN
Owing to its enormous construction and maintenance costs, the management of wastewater in many urban centres of developing countries via a centralised wastewater management approach is very difficult. Often, untreated wastewater is directly discharged into adjacent natural water courses, causing a grave threat to both public health and the aquatic …
The agricultural sectors of developing Asian countries are experiencing two important new developments: the growth of organic agriculture (OA) and the increasing use of land to grow energy crops (biofuels). This policy brief summarizes the pros and cons of OA and biofuel and makes policy recommendations based on a detailed …
The occurrence of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in human blood is known to be widespread; nevertheless, the sources of exposure to humans, including infants, are not well understood. In this study, breast milk collected from seven countries in Asia was analyzed (n = 184) for nine PFCs, including perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and …
This paper details some of the difficulties in financing a community-based waste management (CBWM) project for the collection of waste in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It presents a series of financing scenarios based on several potential logistical arrangements. The financial variables investigated include labour costs and honorariums, collection fees, charges for …
This study poses questions concerning the relative effectiveness of different conservation approaches, and is believed to be the first effort to address such questions focusing on wildlife trade drivers and interventions across multiple countries and products in south-east Asia. This research highlighted the diversity of the trade and pointed to …
With the global carbon trade booming, environmental projects in developing countries have joined forces to finance their poverty reduction efforts by selling carbon credits collectively As a rule, the world of carbon credits is dominated by large- scale industrial projects backed by international companies with deep pockets. But Cambodia is …
HANOI: Torrential rains and overflowing rivers have brought some of the worst flooding in decades to Vietnam and its neighbors, flooding cities and farmlands in five nations. At least 130 people were killed, dozens were missing and thousands were driven from their homes in northern Vietnam and hundreds of tourists …
Tens of millions of people in south and southeast Asia routinely consume ground water that has unsafe arsenic levels. Using hydrologic and (bio)geochemical measurements, the researchers show that on the minimally disturbed Mekong delta of Cambodia, arsenic is released from near-surface, river-derived sediments and transported, on a centennial timescale, through …
South Asia's well-water is widely polluted with arsenic, but no one has located the source. A study on the Mekong River finds that contamination begins in pond sediments, and is spread by groundwater flow to wells.
This paper attempts to analyse the current global crisis in the availability and prices of rice by drawing upon the long-term developments in the rice market. The instability and thinness in the world rice markets are shown to be mainly due to the predominantly precautionary export policies of major exporting …
High oil and food prices are a double blow no nation can dodge entirely. Even oil states like Iran are seeing food-price protests. But there's a small class of farm-and-gas exporters for whom the dual spike is more opportunity than threat. Canada, Brazil, Vietnam and Thailand are all enjoying the …
Precisely when many in the developed bloc were frantically counting their money at the height of a surreal shock over subprime rate, the globalising world was jolted by a potential crisis of subsistence that would hit the poor and other vulnerable sections very hard. Is there a link, therefore, between …
A wildlife conservation scheme in Cambodia staffed by poachers-turned-gamekeepers has led to a dramatic recovery of the endangered bird population on Tonle Sap lake. Seven species of water birds - the spot-billed pelican, milky stork, painted stork, lesser adjutant, greater adjutant, black-headed ibis and Oriental darter - increased up to …
