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 …
Researchers like to work on projects that start small and slowly scale up. They must think bigger and faster, says Sandy J. Andelman, to tackle today's problems in time. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7356/full/475290a.html
The Uttarakhand chief secretary, Subhash Kumar, presided over a meet on Gross Environment Product (GEP) in the Secretariat during which it was decided that the State needs to set a standard for measuring the value of the environment being protected in Uttarakhand. Considering the need for a detailed study of …
Agronomic intensification has transformed many agricultural landscapes into expansive monocultures with little natural habitat. A pervasive concern is that such landscape simplification results in an increase in insect pest pressure, and thus an increased need for insecticides. We tested this hypothesis across a range of cropping systems in the Midwestern …
A healthy ecosystem can provide a variety of crucial services for public goods, such as clean water, nutrient cycling, climate regulation and food security services that contribute directly or indirectly to human well-being. Yet today, many ecosystems are in decline; this is of particular importance to agriculture, which depends on …
Forests are vital for ensuring stability of water cycle and its benefits to agriculture and households, carbon cycle and its role in climate mitigation, soil fertility and its value to crop production, local microclimate for safe habitats, medicinal plants for health, biodiversity for survival, and so on; which are all …
Hagfishes represent an ancient and unique evolutionary lineage that plays an important role in the cycling of organic matter and other nutrients to maintain the overall health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Fisheries worldwide directly profit from the harvesting of hagfishes for leather and food, as well as from the …
My position on the need to re-position forests in development (see ‘Rethink growth with forest capital’, Down To Earth, May 16-31) has brought me a huge response. On the one hand are those who argue that functions of forests already include conservation vital to life; they need to be valued …
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity reports were born out of an initiative in 2007 to produce an analysis of the economics of biodiversity loss parallel to that of existing analysis of climate change. The reports do not preach to the committed environmentalist who already values nature. They are geared …
Researchers must collaborate to manage one of the planet’s most precious and threatened resources — for food production and much more. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7350/full/474151a.html
This paper reviews three leading forest sector policy approaches relevant to benefit-sharing for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+): payments for ecosystem services, also known as payments for environmental services (PES), participatory forest management (PFM), and forest concession revenue-sharing arrangements. A survey is made of these three approaches …
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has released a study that provides scientific and technical information on ways to ensure that the design and implementation of policies for REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, as well as conservation, sustainable management of forests …
The UNEP has launched a report titled "Taking Steps Toward Marine and Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management: An Introductory Guide." The report highlights how planners and policy makers in local, national and regional governments can adopt an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach to help ensure sustainable development for marine and coastal environments and …
In today’s climate of rapid biodiversity loss, decreasing philanthropic and public conservation dollars, and the growing recognition that conservation must address the scale of economic drivers it seeks to correct, governments and businesses are seeking new ways to balance economics and ecology. And as governments and businesses explore and adopt …
INDIA’S first pilot project to be recognised under the UN’s mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) could be in the East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya. A watershed project, started jointly by a California-based non-profit and a tribal community in 2005 in the northeastern state aims at checking …
The European Commission has published a strategy for the EU to protect and improve the state of Europe's biodiversity and contribute to the 2020 global biodiversity targets. The strategy, contained in the Commission Communication titled “Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020,” is aimed at …
A review of literature on global evaluations of land degradation shows a significant development in methods and approaches to mitigate it. Earlier evaluations based their assessments on expert opinion and concentrated on only a few types of land degradation—namely soil erosion and deforestation. Recent studies have expanded the types of …
During the 2011 International Year of Forests, WWF’s Living Forests Report is part of a year?long conversation with partners, policymakers, and business about how to protect, conserve, sustainably use, and govern the world’s forests in the 21st century.
Conservationists and agriculturalists must harness new, integrated approaches to achieve biodiversity and agricultural goals, argues Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028085.100-conservation-and-farming-must-learn-to-live-together.html?full=true&print=true
This essay argues that the Forest Rights Act 2006 is designed on the principles of labour teleology. It undermines the foundational position of forests, prepares them to become a playground for profits and minimally serves the interests of the marginalised tribal and forest dwellers. The paper describes the basic features …
Forests provide multiple benefits to the society, which are both direct and indirect. A study was conducted in Dehradun and Tehri districts to quantify and assess the economic value of various provisioning services which local people derive from the forest to meet their day to day requirement.
