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 …
We were standing at the edge of what looked like a swamp—grass and pools and streams. On one side was heavily barricaded land with high walls, barbed wires and armed security. A board read: East Coast Energy, Kakarapalli. This was where a bloody battle had taken place a few months …
How much water should flow in Indian rivers? Hydrologists have been discussing minimum river flows for over four decades now. The churning has resulted in the concept of environmental flow, or e-flow. This implies strategically releasing water downstream of dams and reservoirs to protect the services a river provides. Two …
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 …
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 …
WORLD leaders trying to mitigate the effects of depleting biodiversity of various ecosystems have a reason to worry. Loss of biodiversity may make organisms, including humans, more vulnerable to infectious diseases and influence emergence of new illnesses. That is the conclusion of a paper which stated animals, plants and microbes …
The National Mission for a Green India has been approved by the PM’s Council on Climate Change. It aims to increase the quantity and quality of 10 million ha. of forest area, achieving an annual CO2 sequestration of 50 to 60M tonnes by 2020. The National Mission for a Green …
This book released recently by the Wotld Bank contends that most countries are relatively highly dependent on natural capital initially, and the ones that progress most successfully are those that manage their assets for the long term and reinvest in human and social capital as well as in building strong …
The draft of Green India Mission submitted to PM's Council on Climate Change aims at addressing climate change by enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests, adaptation of vulnerable ecosystems and adaptation of forest-dependant communities. This Mission document envisages an approach that is innovative in several ways: First, it proposes …
The Public Consultations Report on Green India Mission, one of the eight missions under National Action Plan on Climate Change. It has been prepared by Centre for Environment Education (CEE) for the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) On May 24, 2010, the Ministry of Environment & Forests released a …
Draft of Green India Mission, one of the missions under NAPCC released by MoEF. Aims to address climate change by enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and adaptation of vulnerable ecosystems & forest dependant local communities to changing climate. The National Mission for a Green India, as one of …
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 …
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 …
Mexico faces both high deforestation and severe water scarcity. The Payment for Hydrological Environmental Services (PSAH) Program was designed to complement other policy responses to the crisis at the interface of these problems. Through the PSAH, the Mexican federal government pays participating forest owners for the benefits of watershed protection …
Global economic growth during the past century has lifted many into lives of unprecedented luxury.The cost has been the degradation of vital ecosystems
This report identifies ecosystem services and stakeholders and determines spatio-temporal dimensions of the identified services. It documents past and present trends of resource utilization in various forest types. It also documents functional attributes of different forest types including biotic stresses.
