Much of the rural poor -- who are
growing in number -- are concentrated in ecologically
fragile and remote areas. The key ecological scarcity
problem facing such poor households is a vicious cycle of
declining livelihoods, increased ecological degradation and
loss of resource commons, and declining ecosystem services
on which the poor depend. In addition, developing economies
with high concentrations of their populations on fragile

The rural sector, defined here as the
economic sector that falls under the scope of the Ministry
of Agriculture and Water (MAH), the Ministry of Animal
Resources (MRA), and the Ministry of the Environment and
Sustainable Development (MEDD), is one of the pillars of the
Burkina Faso economy. Although its contribution to GDP has
decreased in recent times from 35 percent in 1999 to 30
percent in 2011 due to the development of the other sectors

Promoting the transfer of
environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) and best practices
to developing and transition countries is a key priority for
all countries that seek to mitigate climate change impacts
and build resilience. The Global Environment Facility (GEF)
is one of the entities entrusted to provide financial
resources to assist developing and transition countries in
implementing the United Nations Framework Convention on

Greenhouse gas emissions are largely determined by how energy is created and used, and policies designed to encourage mitigation efforts reflect this reality. However, an unintended consequence of an energy-focused strategy is that the set of policy instruments needed to tap mitigation opportunities in agriculture is incomplete. In particular, market-linked incentives to achieve mitigation targets are disconnected from efforts to better manage carbon sequestered in agricultural land.

Interest in farmland is rising. And,
given commodity price volatility, growing human and
environmental pressures, and worries about food security,
this interest will increase, especially in the developing
world. One of the highest development priorities in the
world must be to improve smallholder agricultural
productivity, especially in Africa. Smallholder productivity
is essential for reducing poverty and hunger, and more and

This report details seven
recommendations from the International Environmental and
Social Panel of Experts for the Nam Theun 2 (NT2)
Multipurpose Project in the Lao People s Democratic
Republic. 1) Watershed Management and Protection Authority
(WMPA) conservation patrols will be repeated at least once a
month, including the wet season. 2) The provincial and
central government authorities will take effective action to

Zambia is endowed with an abundance of
natural resources that include, water, forests and wildlife.
The country's wildlife resources are managed through
government-supported National Parks and Game Management
Areas (GMAs) and private sector game ranches. The main
objective of this wildlife sector policy review is to
consolidate the findings collected from an extensive
bibliography published during the life of the current

This is a Regional Program Review (RPR)
of the World Bank's support for the MBC. The review is
framed around an assessment of five Global Environment
Facility (GEF)-financed World Bank implemented projects in
Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama that had
the common objective of consolidating the Mesoamerican
Biological Corridor (MBC). It also reports on the
achievements of trust fund activities, financed by the Bank

Woodfuels (firewood and charcoal) are
the dominant energy source and the leading forest product
for most developing countries. Representing 60 to 80 percent
of total wood consumption in these nations, woodfuels often
account for 50 to 90 percent of all energy used. Although
woodfuels are widely perceived as cheap and primitive
sources of energy, commercial woodfuel markets are
frequently very large, involve significant levels of

This paper investigates the optimal
timing of greenhouse gas abatement efforts in a
multi-sectoral model with economic inertia, each sector
having a limited abatement potential. It defines economic
inertia as the conjunction of technical inertia -- a social
planner chooses investment on persistent abating activities,
as opposed to choosing abatement at each time period
independently -- and increasing marginal investment costs in

Climate change is widely acknowledged as
foremost among the formidable challenges facing the
international community in the 21st century. It poses
challenges to fundamental elements of our understanding of
appropriate goals for social and economic policy, such as
the connection of prosperity, growth, equity, and
sustainable development. This volume seeks to establish an
agenda for research and action built on an enhanced

This paper examines the cost of
producing emission reduction credits under the Clean
Development Mechanism. Using project-specific data, cost
functions are estimated using alternative functional forms.
The results show that, in general, the distribution of
projects in the pipeline does not correspond exclusively to
the cost of generating anticipated credits. Rather,
investment choices appear to be influenced by location and