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 …
This document represents the collective expertise of a diverse group of individuals concerned with ecosystem degradation, and the continuing loss of the services provided by these ecosystems. Attention is given to aquatic ecosystems because of water`s fundamental role as the `blood` of ecosystem structure and functions, and an engine of …
The UNEP Year Book 2009 presents work in progress on scientific understanding of global environmental change, as well as foresight about possible issues on the horizon. The aim is to raise awareness of the interlinkages among environmental issues that can accelerate the rates of change and threaten human wellbeing. The …
The current world food crisis is the result of the combined effects of competition for cropland from the growth in biofuels, low cereal stocks, high oil prices, speculation in food markets and extreme weather events. The crisis has resulted in a several-fold increase in several central commodity prices, driven 110 …
Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation have led to economic losses which dwarf the losses of the current financial crisis. Biodiversity loss involves high risks and irreversibilities for current and future generations. Adequate attention must therefore be given to questions of whose values count and how to take these values into …
The "rice culture" of Kerala is fast vanishing due to the increasing diversion of the land for non-agricultural purposes. The real estate sector is gradually swallowing up the rice cultivating low-lying wetlands. This paper attempts to examine the growth of real estate business and consequent destruction of the wetland ecosystems …
Forests can sequester carbon dioxide, thereby reducing atmospheric concentrations and slowing global warming. In the U.S., forest carbon stocks have increased as a result of regrowth following land abandonment and in-growth due to fire suppression, and they currently sequester approximately 10% of annual US emissions. This ecosystem service is recognized …
They are good for pollinators WEEDS have invariably been considered unwanted by modern agriculturists who have always laid emphasis on their removal. They affect crops by competing for nutrients. India loses an estimated 30 per cent of its crop yield every year due to weeds. This is more than the …
In view of the major opportunities and risks associated with it, and the complexity of the subject, bioenergy policy has in a short time become a challenging political task for regulators and planners
Written by Chantal van Ham, Thomas Greiber, Gerben Janse and Marta Gaworska, this study explores the state of development of forest-groundwater related payments for environmental services (PES) schemes in the European Union. It shows that PES structures already exist in a number of EU member states, which fund afforestation and …
A synthesis of observations from the international conference on Adaptation of Forests and Forest Management to Changing Climate with Emphasis on Forest Health, held in Ume
This report documents a global analysis designed to help illuminate the distribution and condition of oyster reefs, which have been among the most important and valuable resources to humans and among the most poorly understood as a habitat. Numerous recent papers document the condition of and threats to marine ecosystems …
This report reviews threshold changes in North American ecosystems that are potentially induced by climatic change and addresses the significant challenges these threshold crossings impose on resource and land managers. Sudden changes to ecosystems and the goods and services they provide are not well understood, but they are extremely important …
Wetlands perform many essential ecosystem services—carbon storage, flood control, maintenance of biodiversity, fish production, and aquifer recharge, among others—services that have increasingly important global consequences. Like biodiversity hotspots and frontier forests, the world’s largest wetlands are now mapped and described by an international team of scientists, highlighting their conservation importance …
Large cardamom (Amomum subulatum) is a perennial cash crop grown under the Himalayan alder (Alnus nepalensis) or mix forest tree species in the hills of Nepal, Darjeeling hills, Sikkim and Bhutan. The cardamom based agroforestry system in the Himalayas has proved to be a sustainable land use practice at the …
Eco-efficiency is an instrument for sustainability analysis, indicating how efficient the economic activity is with regard to nature's goods and services. This paper conducts an eco-efficiency analysis for regional industrial systems in China by developing data envelopment analysis (DEA) based models. Using real data of 30 provinces in China, an …
The equitable and sustainable allocation and management of water are crucial for maintaining the ecological function of freshwater water ecosystems. These functions sustain the significant services that these ecosystems provide to support human well-being; biodiversity underpins the functioning of these ecosystems and therefore the services provided. Loss of biodiversity, therefore, …
