In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
When it comes to public services like access to water and sanitation, it has been proved that turning to the private sector is hardly the solution. Public Public Partnerships (PUPs), on the other hand, have achieved remarkable successes worldwide by forging open, democratic and dynamic relationships between State institutions and …
Dutch born nature photographer Frans Lanting has, with his recent photography, brought to life the jungles of South America. Currently on exhibition at the Yale Peabody Museum, Connecticut, usa and funded partly by the National Geographic Society it is entitled
The first chapter depicts the status of and the global trends in the biofuels industry and markets. It traces the history of the production programme of biofuels and the efforts to promote them in Japan, Canada, the European Union, the United States, Brazil, Latin America, South-East Asia, India, China and …
This paper analyzes institutional design, organizational capacity, and interplay in markets for ecosystem services. It examines the development of a market-based mechanism to commercialize forest carbon in Mexico through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This is compared with a State-run carbon forestry program aiming to provide emission rights to voluntary, …
Rapid expansion in the use of agricultural crops as a transport fuel has been justified in Northern countries as a prodevelopment policy that will help bring developing countries out of poverty. The agrofuels boom, it is said, will increase agricultural production, generate foreign revenues through export, make countries less dependent …
There is mounting evidence that climate change is triggering a shrinking and thinning of many glaciers world-wide which may eventually put at risk water supplies for hundreds of millions
This report looks at the importance of effective management of trade in wild species in order to maximize its potential to deliver on the MDGs. It also presents the findings of three case studies: the wild meat trade in East and Southern Africa; the skin and wool trade in Latin …
Protected areas attract human settlements? globally, creating protected areas (pas) has been a preferred method of biodiversity conservation. Such areas with their mandate of providing refuge to wildlife are usually assumed to have negative impact on local communities since their access to natural resources is restricted. But a study from …
Agricultural water management (AWM) is generally perceived as a key step towards improving low yielding smallholder farming systems in sub-Sahara Africa, South Asia and Latin America. This paper aims to give a first overview of
What are the impacts of the increasing spread of biofuels on access to land in producer countries, particularly for poorer rural people? Biofuels could revitalise rural agriculture and livelihoods
Waste-pickers worldwide gathered in Colombia to highlight how central they are to urban existence Sometime in 2007, history was unmade and made. From being a global village, the world became an urban conglomerate
British journalist Peter Beaumont and tribal rights organization, Survival International, have become involved in an unsavoury row over the status of an endangered South American tribe. On June 22, Beaumont, the foreign affairs editor of Observer, reported that Survival had wrongly described a South American tribe as
Protected areas (PAs) have long been criticized as creations of and for an elite few, where associated costs, but few benefits, are borne by marginalized rural communities. Contrary to predictions of this argument, the researchers found that average human population growth rates on the borders of 306 PAs in 45 …
fuel price India fails to shield consumers A pressed Indian government raised petrol and diesel prices by 10 per cent on June 4, curbing losses to its state-owned refiners but stoking inflation and risking a political backlash. Petrol and diesel prices are now dearer by Rs 5 and Rs 3 …
This study explores urban spatial growth patterns in three middle-sized Metropolitan Regions (MRs) in three world regions: Quito, Ecuador in Latin America; Xi
To find the optimal delivery model for urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) services, one must look beyond ownership structures to the practices and designs that support good performance. Consumer cooperatives are often attractive institutional models. This note focuses on a Bolivian cooperative that is one of the most successful …
