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 …
After using gross domestic product, or GDP, as the universal measurement of economy for six decades, the world has begun looking beyond this gold standard for measuring a country’s economy.
Ecosystem service assessments have increasingly been used to support environmental management policies, mainly based on biophysical and economic indicators. However, few studies have coped with the social-cultural dimension of ecosystem services, despite being considered a research priority. We examined how ecosystem service bundles and trade-offs emerge from diverging social preferences …
A new TEEB -The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity- initiative for Water and Wetlands will be launched at the UN's Summit on Sustainable Development on 15 June in Rio, Brazil. The new TEEB for Water and Wetlands aims to utilise the TEEB approach to generate a better understanding of the …
Two decades ago the first Earth Summit raised the question of how biological diversity loss alters ecosystem functioning and affects humanity; this Review looks at the progress made towards answering this question.
Increasing population size and per capita impacts are making sustainability a difficult to goal to achieve; this Review explores possibilities for sustainable development.
n the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), 1,200 new species have been discovered in the past 20 years, while on the island of Borneo, scientists have discovered 600 new species in that same time span. The Himalayan mountain range is another biodiversity hotspot with an incredible spectrum of flora and fauna, …
Using case studies primarily from developing countries, this report outlines the key building blocks towards creating a shared agenda for more inclusive and sustainable human development. It demonstrates how strategic investments in growth industries, and in the ecosystem services that account for up to 89 percent of the so-called “GDP …
The growing risks and impacts of climate change and the accompanying loss of ecosystem services require the world to urgently invest in a new development paradigm. As the UN’s global development network, UNDP recognizes the increasing urgency of mainstreaming climate change into sustainable development planning at all levels, linking development …
In the face of climatic and other socioeconomic changes, most South Asian countries having large and growing population, limited land resources, and increasing water stress face a common challenge of how to grow more food with the same or less land, less water, and increased energy prices. This concept paper …
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has launched a publication titled “From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies,” which consists of an analysis of 20 select projects that illustrate the key lessons emerging from the 20 years of work by the GEF. The publication was launched …
This paper explores the type and quality of linkages between the objective of achieving sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns, and those of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. The paper constructs a theoretical framework based on the analysis of development specialists, as well as scenarios and empirical data which show …
As a part of the Mountain Initiative, Nepal's Ministry of Environment organized a two-day `International Conference of Mountain Countries on Climate Change' in Kathmandu from 5-6 April 2012. The main objective of the conference was to bring all mountain countries together to make their collective voice stronger at international platforms. …
Participatory three-dimensional modelling (P3DM) is a participatory geographic information system (PGIS) method that attempts to convey indigenous experience and spatial knowledge in a digital form that is communicable to researchers and policymakers, theoretically empowering indigenous communities with a voice in the legislative planning and management of natural resources. This manual …
Water is an essential resource for virtually all aspects of human enterprise, from agriculture via urbanization to energy and industrial production. Equally, the many uses for water create pressures on the natural systems. This report analyses the different ways for quantifying and accounting for water flows and productivity within the …
In the Neotropics the predominant pathway to intensify productivity is generally thought to be to convert grasslands to sown pastures, mostly in monoculture. This article examines how above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) in semi-natural grasslands and sown pastures in Central America respond to rainfall by: (i) assessing the relationships between …
The Amazon is a globally important system, providing a host of ecosystem services from climate regulation to food sources. It is also home to a quarter of all global diversity. Large swathes of forest are removed each year, and many models have attempted to predict the spatial patterns of this …
In China, and elsewhere, long-term economic development and poverty alleviation need to be balanced against the likelihood of ecological failure. Here, we show how paleoenvironmental records can provide important multidecadal perspectives on ecosystem services (ES). More than 50 different paleoenvironmental proxy records can be mapped to a wide range of …
Climate change is projected to cause substantial increases in population movement in coming decades. Previous research has considered the likely causal influences and magnitude of such movements and the risks to national and international security. There has been little research on the consequences of climate-related migration and the health of …
The Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development marks 20 years since the historic Earth Summit that was instrumental in laying the foundations and charting the course for contemporary sustainable development. This report, based on an analysis of data from more than 130 countries, looks at the issues that pertain …
