This IPCC technical paper extensively and thoroughly examines the potential consequences of climate change on the world’s freshwater resources and the communities that depend on them. Its objective is to improve understanding of how water-related issues are linked to climate change and adaptation and mitigation responses. The methodology splits sections into observed and projected effects with error margins and a stress on uncertainty presented as necessary context.

This is a compilation of twenty seven articles focusing on the interactions, impacts and effects of the changing climate on the Amazon region. Each article examines a specific area, providing a multidisciplinary analysis of climate change impacts. Areas discussed include:

Will intensifying the road network around market areas produce greater economic returns and less environmental damage than extending the road network into new areas?Rural roads promote economic development but also facilitate deforestation. To explore the trade-offs between development and environmental damage posed by road building, Chomitz and Gray develop and estimate a spatially explicit model of land use.

Examining the assumption that private property rights create incentives for the management of resources, this paper argues that private property rights and current wildlife conservation and management laws and policies in Kenya fail to provide the solution to wildlife biodiversity erosion.

Tackling the issue of land and resource tenure is one of the prerequisites for mechanisms such as REDD+ to have positive impacts not only on reducing emissions from the forestry sector but also in reducing poverty and achieving food security. These new guidelines by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) outline principles and practices that governments can refer to when making laws and administering land, fisheries and forests rights.

Results demonstrate that the effects of management on cropland can be beneficial for carbon and nutrient retention without risking (large) yield losses.

Nevertheless, effects on soil carbon are small compared with extant stocks in natural and semi-natural ecosystem types and managed forests.

While agricultural management can be targeted towards sustainable goals, from a climate change or carbon sink perspective avoiding deforestation or reforestation constitutes a far more effective overall strategy for maintaining and enhancing global carbon sinks.

In 2011, the Government of Nepal made its policy on climate change public. The policy envisions a country “spared from the adverse impacts of climate change, by considering climate justice, through the pursuit of environmental conservation, human development, and sustainable development [with] all contributing toward a prosperous society”. This objective of making Nepal and Nepali society more resilient to climate change is laudable, especially as emerging evidence suggests that Nepal and its people are likely to be very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

This paper reviews the impact of the Landcare Program on, farming households, communities, and the local environments in three sites in Mindanao, Philippines: Claveria in Misamis Oriental; Lantapan in Bukidnon; and Ned, Lake Sebu in South Cotabato. This paper reviews and synthesizes various studies conducted throughout the period from 1996 to 2004, during which the Landcare Program was established and matured. The key intervention studied is the landcare approach which consists basically of two components: conservation farming technologies and landcare processes and institutions.

This paper analyses the livelihoods of the Borana pastoral communities of Southern Oromiya in Ethiopia. It aims to inform policy makers, donors, and development practitioners about the best strategies for protecting and promoting sustainable livelihoods in the region. The study is based on survey data from participatory research carried out in three communities, as well as stakeholder consultations at district and regional levels.

This perspective document, part of the 16-paper series on water and climate change adaptation, focuses on the impacts and adaptive strategies in arid and semi-arid regions. The series reflect the central topic of the 5th World Water Forum, ‘climate change and adaptation’, where it was presented and discussed. The following risks posed by climate change to the water sector in arid regions are identified.

This toolkit provides a practical guide on designing climate change mitigation activities. The toolkit aims to enhance synergies between climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation policies.The first part of the toolkit gives an overview of possible climate change mitigation activities, especially in the land use, land use change and forestry sector.

This document discusses the outcome of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 17th Conference of Parties, with an explicit focus on implications for the forestry sector in the Asia-Pacific region. The report’s content is the product of a specialist workshop held in the Philippines during February 2012; the event was organized by the Centre for People and Forests (RECOFTC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CoDe REDD. The report consists of responses to 13 key questions which were discussed during the specialist workshop.