A 2003 World Bank study, "Governance of Natural Resources in the Philippines," analyzed natural resources management and governance in the Philippines. It assessed sector policies, particularly property rights, institutions, and financing mechanisms as well as program implementation.

The important role of biomass fuels
today. Timor Leste is a relatively small country located in
the eastern part of Timor Island with an area of about 1.5
million ha and an estimated 2007 population of 1.0 million.
At about US$550 GDP per capita, it is one of the least
developed countries in the world, with an estimated 40
percent of the population in poverty. However, the
development of offshore oil and gas resources in partnership

The objective of this study is to raise awareness and understanding of exposure and vulnerability to drought in Central Asian countries and the Caucasus and to introduce a strategic, pro-active framework of mitigation and prevention. The audiences of the report are the governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia. The report will further be of interest to NGOs and civil society, as well as donors.

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the size of the range lost to other forms of land uses. This will support the argument that it is time to reconsider the pastoralists sector as a legitimate mode of production in the country which, like other sectors, deserve due priority.

This sourcebook is intended to be a
ready reference for practitioners (including World Bank
stakeholders, clients in borrowing countries, and World Bank
project leaders) seeking state-of-the-art information about
good land management approaches, innovations for
investments, and close monitoring for potential scaling up.
This sourcebook is divided into three parts: the first part
identifies the need and scope for sustainable land

There is increasing interest in climate
change issues in Indonesia particularly in the lead-up to
the COP13 or Copenhagen meeting in Bali in December 2007
when there was renewed focus on Indonesia as the third
largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world due
to deforestation, peat-land degradation, and forest fires.
In Indonesia, the agriculture sector employs the largest
share, 45 percent, of Indonesia's labor and contributes

The question of whether biofuels help
mitigate climate change has attracted much debate in the
literature. Using a global computable general equilibrium
model that explicitly represents land-use change impacts due
to the expansion of biofuels, this study attempts to shed
some light on this question. The study shows that if biofuel
mandates and targets currently announced by more than 40
countries around the world are implemented by 2020 using

This study analyzes the long-term
impacts of large-scale expansion of biofuels on land-use
change, food supply and prices, and the overall economy in
various countries or regions using a global computable
general equilibrium model, augmented by a land-use module
and detailed representation of biofuel sectors. The study
finds that an expansion of global biofuel production to meet
currently articulated or even higher national targets in

International migration has increased
rapidly in recent decades and this has been accompanied by a
remarkable increase in transfers made by migrants to their
home countries. This paper investigates the effect of the
rural economic growth brought about by migration and
remittances on Nepal's Himalayan forests. The authors
assemble a unique village-panel dataset combining remote
sensing data on land use and forest cover change with data

The objective of this Country
Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to highlight the underlying
challenges and opportunities for Indonesia's
environment and management of its natural resources in order
to guide the World Bank support to Indonesian institutions
for more sustainable development. Rather, the CEA sets the
broader context (chapter one) and economic costs of
environmental degradation (chapter two) in order to identify

A pattern of forest area loss followed
by a period of reforestation is representative of the forest
transition process. Forest transition has been observed in
many countries and is a feature of the development process.
China reached its inflection point earlier and faster than
most other countries that have gone through the transition.
The report describes the success of reforms to forest
resource tenure in collective forest areas. These reforms,

Global warming and changes in climate
have already had observed impacts on natural ecosystems and
species. Natural systems such as wetlands, mangroves, coral
reefs, cloud forests, and Arctic and high-latitude
ecosystems are especially vulnerable to climate-induced
disturbances. However, enhanced protection and management of
biological resources and habitats can mitigate the impacts
and contribute to solutions as nations and communities