Freshwater ecosystems are central to the global water cycle, in local generation of freshwater flows, and the healthy functioning and resilience of other ecosystems. Freshwater security depends on healthy ecosystems. Current human threats to freshwater ecosystems include rapid infrastructure development and land-use change, inefficient water use and over-abstraction, and pollutants. These threats, combined with increasing demand for water resources, exacerbate the sustainable development challenge.

This paper examines poverty and deforestation in developing countries as linked problems and focuses on policies that can favour poverty alleviation in forested regions. The paper encompasses two elements: analysis of the spatial coincidence between poverty and forests, and proposed policy options for reducing poverty in forested areas.

This paper examines poverty and deforestation in developing countries as linked problems and focuses on policies that can favour poverty alleviation in forested regions. The paper encompasses two elements: analysis of the spatial coincidence between poverty and forests, and proposed policy options for reducing poverty in forested areas.

La semana pasado CONDESAN estuvo presentando nuestra experiencia, vinculada a los mecanismos para compartir beneficios en cuencas hidrográficas, a través de una presentación a cargo de Bert De Bievre, Coordinador del Área de Cuencas Andinas, en el Seminario Taller Internacional de Cultura del Agua organizado por la Secretaría del Agua del Ecuador; a través de la Dirección Nacional de Cultura y en coordinación con la Red Latinoamericana de Centros del Conocimiento en Gestión de Recursos Hídricos (RALCEA).

A principal criterion for classifying a tourism operation as 'ecotourism' is that local residents at the site should receive substantial economic benefits, which serve both to raise local living standards and as enhanced incentives for nature conservation. This paper sets out a methodological framework for analysis of the alleged participation-income-conservation link, and applies it to the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon region.

We analyse the threats of global environmental change, as they relate to food security. First, we review three discourses: (i) ‘sustainable intensification’, or the increase of food supplies without compromising food producing inputs, such as soils and water; (ii) the ‘nexus’ that seeks to understand links across food, energy, environment and water systems; and (iii) ‘resilience thinking’ that focuses on how to ensure the critical capacities of food, energy and water systems are maintained in the presence of uncertainties and threats.

Forest resources share attributes with many other resource systems that make difficult their governance and management in a sustainable, efficient and equitable manner. Destruction or degradation of forest resources is most likely to occur in open-access forests where those involved, or external authorities, have not established effective governance. Conventional theories applied to forest resources presumed that forest users themselves were incapable of organizing to overcome the temptations to overharvest.