Kosovo is a small and young state that gained an interim United Nations (UN)-administered status in the wake of the Dayton peace accord only in 1999; it declared independence in 2008. Compared to neighboring countries, it is still lacking in its basic infrastructure and its administrative and technical skills. In addition, with the onset of the War in Yugoslavia in 1992 most investment and normal maintenance came to a standstill.

This note examines how to maximize the benefits from the use of market instruments in support of developing countries' low-emission development priorities. First, it briefly surveys the current state and trends of the carbon market, highlighting the main achievements of carbon finance over its decade-long history. Second, it reviews updated scenarios of the scale of future carbon markets and associated financial flows, in light of developments in climate negotiations and domestic markets.

Africa is currently experiencing the world's fastest urbanization rate at 3.5 percent annually-placing increasing pressure on resource-constrained local governments to maintain and improve livability standards of their cities. But simultaneously, an 'Information and Communication Technologies' (ICT) revolution has swept across the continent-as evidenced by vastly improved telecommunications and internet infrastructure, leapfrogging mobile communications penetration rates, and emergence of a successful homegrown IT applications industry.

There is global interest in promoting mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, forest, and other land-use (AFOLU) sectors to address the twin goals of climate change and sustainable development. This guideline deals with how to enhance carbon stocks in general in all land-based projects and its specific relationship with agriculture productivity. It outlines specific steps and procedures that need to be followed by project proponents and managers of land-based projects to enhance carbon stocks synergistically with increasing crop productivity.

In 2012, the Mexican Presidency of the G20 introduced inclusive green growth as a cross-cutting priority on the G20 development agenda. The second meeting of the G20 Development Working Group (DWG), hosted by the Government of the Republic of Korea, took place in Seoul the 19th and 20th of March 2012. As agreed during the first DWG meeting, this second meeting focused on the priorities for their presidency in the first half of 2012: infrastructure, food security and inclusive green growth (IGG).

Tanzania's land, local government and forest laws mean that rural communities have well defined rights to own, manage and benefit from forest and woodland resources within their local areas through the establishment of village forests. This approach, known by practitioners as Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) results in the legal establishment of village land forest reserves, community forest reserves or private forests. By 2008, 1,460 villages on mainland Tanzania1 were involved in establishing or managing village forests covering a total of over 2.345 million hectares.

This report presents the results of a review of the World Bank's Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) experience undertaken by the World Bank learning community-the SEA Community of Practice (CoP). This report is no more than a first step. Its findings and results cannot be treated as conclusive.

This publication is the result of an initiative to promote an exchange between Brazil and African countries on lessons learned about the role of community forestry as a strategic option to achieve the goals of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). The initiative was supported by the World Bank with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and coordinated by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) with support from the National Forestry Agency International (ONFI).

International policies to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) envisage the creation of financial incentive mechanisms that reward forest protection efforts and adequately compensate those actors that face new costs. In order for REDD+ to achieve these objectives, effective benefit sharing systems will need to be implemented. Benefit sharing in REDD+ could take a wide variety of forms depending on the policies used to achieve REDD+ objectives.

The growth of agriculture output over the past 200 years has been phenomenal. When Malthus wrote in 1798, he perceived limits on agricultural production as serious and imminent. Since then world population has increased by six-fold and global agricultural production has more than kept pace. Falling real grain prices for most of the 20th Century are cited as evidence. The sources of the increase in food production, however, have been quite different and have come in distinct waves. For most of the 19th century, increased output came from expanded land area in production.

Carbon finance recognizes the contribution of projects to mitigating climate change. To be able to access carbon finance, projects can certify their emission reductions under a variety of standards, one of which is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Project developers can sell their carbon credits either in the voluntary or the regulated market.

Mexico, Costa Rica, and Ecuador have substantial experience with implementing payments for ecosystem services (PES) and conservation incentive programs. Yet, many aspects of their experiences remain poorly understood and will require special attention in any new or expanded use of these types of incentives.