South Africa experiences droughts on a regular basis, often associated with significant negative impacts on society and the economy. Droughts can be forecast, and South African climate scientists have been developing computer-generated models to forecast El Niño-induced droughts. Even so, there is a tendency to implement remedial interventions when droughts occur, rather than implementing proactive and preventative strategies. Being reactive seems to be a defining feature of South African water-resource management. This has also been the case with the 2015/2016 drought.

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are disadvantaged in a myriad of ways and they have special needs which require special attention. Challenges such as undiversified economies, vulnerability to climate change and climate variability, land degradation and desertification, among others, are undermining the economic potential of many LLDCs. This has been exacerbated by weak export base of many LLDCs centered on a few primary agricultural and/ or mineral commodities.

The growing scale of resource development activities accentuates the complexity underlying the sustainability of traditional livelihoods in Mongolia. At the same time, Mongolia experiences growing vulnerability to climatic variability and change, expressed in the form of intense desertification, water stress, and extreme dzuds.

The researchers have used evidence from Mato Grosso, Brazil, to show that changes in agricultural output stemming from the sensitivity of cropland area and cropping frequency to interannual climate variability are of similar magnitude to agricultural output changes associated with the sensitivity of crop yield to interannual climate variability.

The purpose of this study was to determine the financial cost of irrigation water in the Jordan Valley and the corresponding impact of higher water prices on farming. The analysis shows that JVA needs significant tariff increases to be able to attain a more financially sustainable footing. In case JVA wants to at least cover its operating and maintenance costs in 2013, it will require JD 0.108 per m3 - assuming that the current cross-subsidies and current inefficiency levels remain unchanged.

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.

The report's main objective is to provide key lessons from the sustainable urban tourism project through the analysis of different enabling conditions and obstacles that determined the course and the final outcome of the initiative.

It constitutes the background paper prepared for a CDKN-ICLEI learning programme. It provides a deeper analysis of the different factors which determined the course and the final outcome of the project ‘Sustainable urban tourism through low-carbon initiatives: Experiences from Hue and Chiang Mai’, conducted during 2012–2013.

The degradation of forests is a threat to both the functioning of ecosystems and the well-being of human communities. Nations have for several years grappled with the challenge of finding ways of restoring forest landscapes that suit the ecological constraints of particular sites as well as the socio-economic circumstances of the landowners or land users, and ensure resilience under various future uncertainties. Forest landscape restoration is a feasible option through which these challenges can be addressed.

The Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) approach, which is still in its nascent stages of development, is rapidly gaining attention as a more appropriate way to restore both degraded forests as well as the surrounding degraded landscape. The great value of this approach is that it integrates forest restoration actions with the desirable objectives of the landscape, and it is undertaken with the full participation of the people who will have a role in the management of the restored areas over the longer term.

New global forest restoration initiatives present an unparalleled opportunity to reverse the trend of deforestation and forest degradation in the coming years. This effort will require the collaboration of stakeholders at all levels, and most importantly, the participation and support of local people. These ambitious restoration initiatives will also require monitoring systems that allow for scalability and adaptability to a range of local sites.

Drawing on feminist and development literature, this paper suggests several important lessons and considerations for building equitable approaches to REDD+. Specifically, we illustrate the conceptual and practical significance of women’s participation for achieving the goals of REDD+as well as the limits and opportunities for gendering participation in REDD+.

Authors: Larson, A.M.; Dokken, T.; Duchelle, A.E.; Atmadja, S.; Resosudarmo, I.A.P.; Cronklet