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 present study focuses on the transformations of a typical Mediterranean agroforestry landscape of southern Italy (high Agri Valley – Basilicata region) that occurred over 24 years. In this period, the valuable agricultural and natural areas that compose such a landscape were subjected to intensive industry-related activities linked to the …
Wetlands are “places where water is the primary factor controlling plant and animal life and the wider environment” and provide a variety of important ecosystem functions such as recharging groundwater supplies and trapping floodwaters in addition to facilitating nutrient cycling and the production of rice and fish as staple food …
SHIMLA: Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, on Tuesday, said that impact of environmental changes and hazards is most significantly felt by those who live on ground zero. Their livelihoods, habitation and sustenance — their whole existence — is linked to the environment they live in, he added. "While all who live …
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has released the first report, titled ‘Payment for Environmental Services: A promising tool for natural resources management in Africa,’ of an AfDB-Climate Investment Funds (CIF) knowledge series that will gather and share initial lessons in implementing and financing green and inclusive growth projects in Africa. …
Healthy communities rely on well-functioning ecosystems. They provide clean air, fresh water, medicines and food security. They also limit disease and stabilize the climate. But biodiversity loss is happening at unprecedented rates, impacting human health worldwide, according to a new state of knowledge review of the Convention on Biological Diversity …
Environmental management inevitably involves trade-offs among different objectives, values, and stakeholders. Most evaluations of such trade-offs involve monetary valuation or calculation of aggregate production of ecosystem services, which can mask individual winners and losers. We combine a participatory, modeling, and scenarios approach to identify social–ecological trade-offs in a tropical fishery …
About one in nine people globally still suffer from hunger with the majority of the hungry living in Africa and Asia. The world's forests have great potential to improve their nutrition and ensure their livelihoods. In fact, forests and forestry are essential to achieve food security as the limits of …
Increasing urbanisation and the accompanying changes in land-use patterns are leading to a silent crisis through the destruction of ecosystems and the services they provide to support the poor, as well as affecting the resilience of urban areas. Using the example of Gorakhpur City in India’s Uttar Pradesh, this paper …
Using the case of Costa Rica, this paper examines how 'carbon' became an identifiable problem for that state. We trace how, during the 1980s, rationalities of financialisation and security arose in this country that allowed for Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) to emerge as an economic and political mechanism. Our …
The publication intends to compile, analyse and disseminate experiences, and thereby to demonstrate and illustrate important steps and lessons learned as well as good practices to take into account when developing a climate change adaptation strategy for water management in the basin or transboundary context. It includes lessons learned and …
This case study explains the vulnerability and exposure of Valenzuela City to flood risk and elaborates on the impacts caused by the frequent flooding. Following, it presents the Partners for Resilience (PfR) programme implemented in Valenzuela aim to build resilient communities by integrating climate change adaptation and ecosystem management and …
Europe's environment and climate policies have delivered substantial benefits, improving the environment and quality of life, while driving innovation, job creation and growth. Despite these gains, Europe still faces a range of persistent and growing environmental challenges. Addressing them will require fundamental changes in the systems of production and consumption …
These guidelines outline the modalities of convergence between the National Mission for Green India (GIM) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) so as to achieve environmentally sound interventions to climate change and achieve a faster growth rate in the rural economy.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has made available an 'Impulse Report' and a 'Book of Abstracts' in advance of the UNCCD 3rd Scientific Conference, which will convene from 9-12 March 2015, in Cancún, Mexico. The Conference will take place as part of the 4th special session of the …
The mountains of Africa provide water and food, rich biodiversity, recreational areas and serve as important centres of cultural integrity and heritage. However, Africa faces growing challenges in ensuring the sustainable development of mountain areas, such as poverty and climate change and addressing the feat of transboundary co-operation. Through use …
Globally, disasters due to natural hazards takes an enormous toll in terms of human lives, destruction to crops and livelihoods, and economic losses. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has therefore become a critical part of sustainable development strategies. Over the past decades, the role of healthy ecosystems in providing cheap, reliable …
How often do people visit the world’s protected areas (PAs)? Despite PAs covering one-eighth of the land and being a major focus of nature-based recreation and tourism, we don’t know. To address this, we compiled a globally-representative database of visits to PAs and built region-specific models predicting visit rates from …
A ground-breaking report on biodiversity and health, launched at the 14th World Congress on Public Health, in Kolkata, India, shows the significant contribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services to better human health. The report, Connecting Global Priorities: Biodiversity and Human Health, demonstrates that the relationship between biodiversity and human health …
