This National Water Plan provides the broad outlines, principles and direction of the national water policy of the Netherlands for the 2016-2021 planning period, with a projection towards 2050. It also concerns related aspects of spatial policy. The National Water Plan lays down the central government’s strategic goals for water management. The Management and Development Plan for the National Waters by Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) outlines the conditions and measures for operational management to achieve these strategic goals.

The Growth and Sustainable Development Strategy (GSDS) is a strategic document with a multi-sectoral approach, relating to the period 2016-2019. Flowing from the Horizon 2030 vision, this strategic plan now charts the path to a better quality of life for all Belizeans, living now and in the future. It places at the fore sustainable development, reflecting a whole-system approach, and acknowledging increasing prosperity, eradicating poverty, improving social cohesion, caring for our natural resources, and securing peace and justice for all Belizeans as inter-connected goals.

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+.

Climate change projections internationally accepted as being reliable indicate that most countries in the Pacific region will suffer large-scale negative impacts from climate change. These impacts are likely to include elevated air and sea-surface temperatures, increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, and intensification of extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones and El Niño-related droughts.

Men and women interact with water resources and landscapes in different ways, and there are frequent criticisms that little research is undertaken across disciplines to address this issue. Biophysical scientists in particular struggle with how to integrate “gendered” water uses into models that are necessarily based on prevailing laws and equations that describe the movement of water through the hydrological cycle, independent of social constructs.

Bananas (Musa spp.) belong to the most important global food commodities, and their cultivation represents the world's largest monoculture. Although the plant-associated microbiome has substantial influence on plant growth and health, there is a lack of knowledge of the banana microbiome and its influencing factors. We studied the impact of (i) biogeography, and (ii) agroforestry on the banana-associated gammaproteobacterial microbiome analyzing plants grown in smallholder farms in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The ‘WISE-UP to climate’ project aims to demonstrate the value of natural infrastructure as a ‘nature-based solution’ for climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Within the Tana River Basin, both natural and built infrastructure provide livelihood benefits for people. Understanding the interrelationships between the two types of infrastructure is a prerequisite for sustainable water resources development and management. This is particularly true as pressures on water resources intensify and the impacts of climate change increase.

Ever since the oil, financial and food crises of 2008, sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed a marked increase in large-scale investment in agricultural land. The drivers of this investment are varied and include growing food, water and energy insecurity as well as social and economic interests of investors and recipient countries. The shape of these investments and their eventual outcomes are equally influenced by the existing land and water governance systems in the host countries.

The concept of ‘Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation’ (UTFI) is introduced as an approach for co-managing floods and droughts at the river basin scale. UTFI involves strategic recharge of aquifers upstream during periods of high flow, thereby preventing local and downstream flooding, and simultaneously providing additional groundwater for irrigation during the dry season for livelihood improvement. Three key stages in moving UTFI from the concept stage to mainstream implementation are discussed.

Le projet « WISE UP to climate » vise a demontrer l'utilite des infrastructures naturelles comme une « solution basee sur la nature » pour l'adaptation au changement climatique et le developpement durable. Dans le bassin de la Volta, les infrastructures naturelles, comme les construites, offrent des benefices pour la subsistance des personnes. Comprendre les interrelations entre ces deux types d'infrastructures est une condition indispensable a une gestion et un developpement durables des ressources en eau.