New data published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) reveals that the overall 2023 air pollution levels in Jakarta were arguably the worst since 2019. Despite improvements between 2020 and 2022, the rise of pollution in 2023 is a notable setback. Over 29 million people …
While cities in Asia and the Pacific have been concentrating on their conventional infrastructure requirements, many cities are still discovering how to deal with the challenge of urban renewal in a broader sense. Many cities in the region do own old or historic inner-city areas of considerable historic and cultural …
This guideline provides a set of priority principles on fire management, which is an essential component of sustainable forest management. Fire management is the discipline of using fire to achieve land management and traditional use objectives, together with the safeguarding of life, property, and resources through the prevention, detection, control, …
Infrastructure is shown to be a cost-effective means of lowering trade costs and thereby promoting regional growth and integration. This report combines thematic and country studies, while breaking new ground in quantifying infrastructure's impact on Asia's trade costs. The contributors add to empirical estimates of Asia's trade costs and infrastructure's …
600 years ago, a tsunami hit the Indian Ocean. Some lessons THE Indian Ocean Tsunami System Programme, costing US $16. 6m, ended in March this year, amidst hopes that it would check the devastation that occurred in 2004. The 2004 tsunami
Lawmakers in the Indonesian province of Papua are debating a bill which proposes to implant microchips in hiv positive people. The legislation proposes tracking the movements of hiv-positive people who behave in what some MPs describe as
global warming Maldives seeks new homeland As rise in the sea level caused by global warming threatens low-lying islands across the world, Maldives is looking for a new territory to relocate to.
To increase communities involvement in mitigating climate change, support from local governments is very crucial not only as facilitator but also as finance providers. Local Government in developing countries can create umbrella program for communities througout the country to implement small scale mitigation project activities, such as Programmatic CDM. Local …
In recent years the underlying drivers of tropical deforestation have shifted profoundly, prompting conservationists to reassess their strategies for protecting forests. Those in the tropical timber industry need to think hard and fast about these new realities. If they fail to do so, they will increasingly be considered part of …
This paper examines several aspects of the rehabilitation and reconstruction program that followed the 2004 tsunami in Asia. Almost 230,000 people died in the disaster. It focus on two main issues: aid delivery and reconstruction policy following the disaster. Although issues such as immediate relief activities in disaster management and …
The Sustainable Livelihoods Enhancement and Diversification (SLED) approach has been developed by Integrated Marine Management Ltd (IMM) through building on the lessons of past livelihoods research projects as well as worldwide experience in livelihood improvement and participatory development practice. It aims to provide a set of guidelines for development and …
The Small Piped Water Network (SPWN) tool kit was conceived and developed as a result of the lessons and experiences of the Asian Development Bank regional technical assistance: Implementing Pilot Projects for Small Piped Water Networks, as well as the experiences of professionals and development agencies implementing similar projects. The …
An Indonesian city battling the effects of deforestation has come up with a novel way of tackling the problem. Would-be families must plant a tree. "Everyone who wants to get married or apply for a birth certificate must plant a tree," Syahrum Syah Setia, the head of Balikpapan city's Environmental …
Indonesia, which has been losing forests at a rapid pace in recent years, plans to plant 100 million trees across the country this year in an effort to limit deforestation, a forestry official said on Wednesday. Indonesia has lost an estimated 70 percent of its original frontier forest, but it …
On a misty mountaintop on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists for the first time in more than eight decades have observed a living pygmy tarsier, one of the planet's smallest and rarest primates. Over a two-month period, the scientists used nets to trap three furry, mouse-sized pygmy tarsiers -- …
Palu (Indonesia), A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Monday, killing four people, toppling homes and triggering tsunami warnings that sparked widespread panic. Thousands of people fled to higher ground in the middle of the night after US and Indonesian agencies warned of a possible …
A dirty brown haze sometimes more than a mile thick is darkening skies not only over vast areas of Asia, but also in the Middle East, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin, changing weather patterns around the world and threatening health and food supplies, the UN reported Thursday. The huge …
