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 …
Blue Carbon activities refer to a suite of sustainable policy, management and planning activities in coastal ecosystems to reduce emissions from conversion and degradation and to conserve and sustainably manage coastal carbon sinks. The updated framework set out in this document describes a coordinated program to support the development and …
The report, Towards the future we want: end hunger and make the transition to sustainable agricultural and food systems, urges governments to establish and protect rights to resources, especially for the poor; incorporate incentives for sustainable consumption and production into food systems; promote fair and well-functioning agricultural and food markets; …
The World Bank Group's Environment Strategy 2012-2022 lays out an ambitious agenda to support 'Green, Clean, Resilient' paths for developing countries, as they pursue poverty reduction and development in an increasingly fragile environment. The Environment Strategy, which covers the World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency …
Urban water management is now on the verge of a revolution in response to rapidly escalating urban demands for water as well as the need to make urban water systems more resilient to climate change. Growing competition, conflicts, shortages, waste and degradation of water resources make it imperative to rethink …
Soils are the most significant nonrenewable geo-resource that have for ensuring water, energy, and food security for present and future generations while adapting and building resilience to climatic change and shocks. But soil’s caring capacity is often forgotten as the missing link in our pursuit of sustainable development. The Food …
Since the rises in food prices in 2008 and beyond, food security is high on the development agenda. Recognizing that water is an essential element to achieve food security goals, several high level events this year put 'water and food security' as their main theme. More investments in agricultural water …
The WWF released its ninth Living Planet Report, detailing the ongoing destruction of the world's environment by the predatory behaviors of rich nations, which, the report concludes, are responsible for the most drastic drop in biodiversity in poor countries in over 40 years. In effect, the LPR portrays a “state …
Climate change is likely to alter the spatial distributions of species and habitat types but the nature of such change is uncertain. Thus, climate change makes it difficult to implement standard conservation planning paradigms. Previous work has suggested some approaches to cope with such uncertainty but has not harnessed all …
Fungi strongly influence ecosystem structure and functioning, playing a key role in many ecological services as decomposers, plant mutualists and pathogens. The Mediterranean area is a biodiversity hotspot that is increasingly threatened by intense land use. Therefore, to achieve a balance between conservation and human development, a better understanding of …
Healthy ecosystems provide us with fertile soil, clean water, timber, and food. They reduce the spread of diseases. They protect against flooding. Worldwide, they regulate atmospheric concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide. They moderate climate. Without these and other “ecosystem services,” we’d all perish.
The lack of progress in establishing ambitious and legally binding global mitigation targets means that the need for locally based climate change adaptation will increase in vulnerable localities such as Africa. Within this context, “ecosystem-based adaptation” (EBA) is being promoted as a cost-effective and sustainable approach to improving adaptive capacity. …
This report is intended to provide an overview of the concept of ecosystem approach to disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR), natural resource management and disaster linkages, incorporating Eco-DRR concepts in various phases of disaster management, including post disaster recovery in wide range of human and natural environmental settings. The case studies …
We quantified the wholesale transformation of the boreal landscape by open-pit oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada to evaluate its effect on carbon storage and sequestration. Contrary to claims made in the media, peatland destroyed by open-pit mining will not be restored. Current plans dictate its replacement with upland forest …
Exploring the prospects of the ecosystem services approach for natural resource management and poverty alleviation in India, this paper points out that it is vital to have an understanding of the political economy of negotiations over natural resource use. An appreciation of the synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services is …
PES is often touted as win-win with both environmental gains and poverty alleviation. But REDD+ does not neccesarily translate into forest conservation or benefit local communities.
Funding is a major stumbling block for environmental initiatives, says Edward Barbier. Taxing financial transactions or trade in arms, tobacco and fuel might help.
Insect behavior is largely decided by farming practices. Both plants and insects are mutually dependant. While plants provide food to insects, insects provide the necessary ecological services to the plant. Farmers therefore need to manage cropping as a part of a larger ecosystem management. This requires deeper understanding of the …
The impact of protection on the ecology and ecosystem services of a fragmented sacred grove of Karnataka in agricultural landscape was studied. Comparative assessment of two time scale data revealed positive influence of protection on vegetation in term of species richness, diversity, endemism and basal area. An increment in above …
The FAO has released a working paper summarizing knowledge and experience in forest management as a response to climate change, based on a literature review and a survey of forest managers. The paper is part of an FAO-led process to prepare climate change guidelines for forest managers. It reviews the …
This report discusses the need to balance short-term water productivity gains, particularly in agriculture, with water flows’ long-term role in maintaining sustainable landscape ecosystem services and supporting human well-being. Water is under increasing pressure for supporting both various functions in society whilst sustaining healthy ecosystem services in landscapes, and there …
