The extent to which households should be
allowed to transfer their land rights in post-socialist
transition economies is of considerable policy interest. The
authors use data from Vietnam, a transition country that
allows rental and sales of land use rights, to identify
factors conducive to the development of land markets and to
assess the extent to which land transfers enhance productive
efficiency and transfer land to the poor. They find that

Despite the widespread tariff reductions
sparked by the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade
Agreement, borders in the region remain thick, with many
hurdles standing in the way of regional trade. Although
anecdotal evidence suggests that nontariff measures raise
trade costs and inhibit trade in the region, little is known
about the magnitude of these economic effects. This paper
uses a newly collected data set to quantify the incidence of

The World development report 2010:
development and climate change highlights the link between
biotechnology, development, and environment. Aside from
recognizing biotechnology's potential to improve crop
productivity, increase crop adaptation to climatic stresses
such as drought, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, the
report emphasizes the need to establish science-based
regulatory systems 'so that risks and benefits can be

There is overwhelming consensus amongst
climate scientists that the Earth's warming in recent
decades has been caused primarily by human activities that
have increased the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the
atmosphere. To mitigate the most serious impacts of climate
change a range of different strategies to lower carbon
dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere are required.
Building on outcomes and recommendations from various

In this report, in addition to aggregate
results, six brief case studies are used to highlight the
impact of Bank supported mining sector reform on various
indicators at different links of the value chain. These
include: the impacts on investment; production and
employment in Argentina; institutional capacity building in
Papua New Guinea; production and fiscal revenues in
Tanzania; community and regional development in Madagascar;

Poverty reduction strategies (PRSs)
provide a central framework for macroeconomic, structural,
and social policies in developing countries. Because of the
numerous and complex links between environment and poverty,
it is important that environmental issues are taken into
account in the PRS process. This paper follows six previous
assessments of the degree of mainstreaming environment in
the PRS process using a similar methodology to present

The livelihoods of communities in rural
areas of Peru are predominantly dependent on
climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture. Given their
close connection with the environment, the understanding of
how these communities perceive risks and how they adapt to
and cope with climate hazards is important for identifying
entry points for efforts aimed at building resilience. In
this context, it is assumed that the successful use of

This paper describes the contract
mechanism developed for the Regional Integrated
Silvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project, which is being
implemented with financing from the Global Environment
Facility (GEF). The project is testing the use of the
payment-for-service mechanism to encourage the adoption of
silvopastoral practices in three countries of Central and
South America: Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The

The review examines the use of
environmental valuation in 101 projects in the World
Bank's environmental portfolio approved in fiscal years
2000, 2001, and 2002. It has three broad objectives. First,
it examines the extent to which environmental costs and
benefits have been incorporated in the economic analysis of
projects. Second, it examines how well valuation was used.
Third, it seeks to identify areas of weakness so as to feed

This paper seeks to clarify how
valuation should be conducted to answer specific
environmental policy questions. In particular, it looks at
how valuation should be used to examine four distinct
aspects of the value of ecosystems: 1) Determining the value
of the total flow of benefits from ecosystems; 2)
Determining the net benefits of interventions that alter
ecosystem conditions: 3) Examining how the costs and

This paper disaggregates the term
"biodiversity" into components (landscapes,
ecosystems, communities, species/populations, and genes) and
attributes (structure, composition, and function). It then
disaggrgates "logging" by detailing the vast range
of activities subsumed under the term including variation of
logging intensities, logging methods, collateral damage, and
silvicultural approaches. Using the richness present in both

This paper analyzes the available
literature about the effects of structural adjustment
programs (SAPs) on the environment and the convincing
evidence for their success or failure. The studies covered
refer to the SAPs by the World Bank as well as to general
government programs that have similar policy implications.
SAPs are designed to reform economies to become more
liberalized and export-oriented while reducing the role of