A carbon tax is an efficient economic
instrument to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide released
from fossil fuel burning. Its impacts on production of
renewable energy depend on how it is designed --
particularly in the context of the penetration of biofuels
into the energy supply mix for road transportation. Using a
multi-sector, multi-country computable general equilibrium
model, this study shows first that a carbon tax with the

The objective of the Functional Review
of the Environment, Water and Forestry sector (FR-EWF) is to
help the Government of Romania (GoR) develop an action plan
for implementation over the short- and medium-term to
strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the sector
administration, and provide input to the Government National
Reform Program (NRP 2011- 2013) and beyond, especially in
relation to those functions that support Romania's

During the past several months, the
Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development
of Colombia has been researching potential indicators that
would be useful to assess and possibly adopt among which
included the ecological footprint. This work was
commissioned in order to provide the Ministry with a deeper
understanding of the ecological footprint and to train a
number of its staff on the scope of the footprint in order

Climate change is both a cause and an
effect of biodiversity change. Along with anthropogenic
dispersion, climate change is the main driver of change in
the geographical distribution of both beneficial and harmful
species, crops, livestock, harvested wild species, pests,
predators and pathogens. And the capacity of ecosystems to
adapt to climate change depends on the diversity of species
they currently support. This paper considers the connection

This policy note was prepared in
response to a request from the Government of Southern Sudan
(GoSS) for World Bank assistance in developing legislative
and institutional policies and strategies that will take
advantage of the potential of the region's forest
resources to contribute to poverty alleviation, food
security, sustainable agriculture, economic growth, and to
protection of forest-related environmental services such as

Sri Lanka's ten-year development
framework aims at accelerating economic growth while
ensuring a path of sustainable development and prioritizing
conservation of the country's natural heritage. It is
in this context that this policy note seeks to examine the
scope for enhancing protection of Sri Lanka's natural
assets through nature based tourism as an instrument for
conservation with a specific focus on elephant conservation.

The second Climate Investment Funds
(CIF) partnership forum took place at the headquarters of
the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Philippines, on
March 18-19, 2010. The objective of the 2010 partnership
forum was to share lessons learned from the CIF design
process and from early implementation of CIF-funded
programs. The forum aimed to provide an open, transparent
and constructive platform for dialogue on knowledge gained

This paper presents a framework for
analyzing tropical deforestation and reforestation using the
von Thunen model as its starting point: land is allocated to
the use which yields the highest rent, and the rents of
various land uses are determined by location. Forest cover
change therefore becomes a question of changes in rent of
forest versus non-forest use. While this is a simple and
powerful starting point, more intriguing issues arise when

Vietnam's forests remain dependent
on public resources, including international development
assistance, for the delivery of public and private services
that include timber production, state forest management,
forest protection and biodiversity conservation, and
extension and research. Public subsidies are also provided
to smallholder forest owners to stimulate investments into
the sector. For the Government it is important to

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Paraguay, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like
most countries in Latin America, Paraguay has submitted one
national communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a second one
under preparation. Land use change and forestry are the

This study is intended to be a
systematic and practical guide to the basic features of
modern forestry legislation. It identifies a range of issues
that should be considered in assessing the adequacy of
forest laws and presents options for addressing those issues
in ways that may improve the effectiveness of law as a
foundation for sustainable forest management. Part One
locates forestry law within the wider legal framework,

Miombo woodlands stretch across Southern
Africa in a belt from Angola and the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) in the west to Mozambique in the east. The
miombo region covers an area of around 2.4 million km. In
some areas, miombo has been highly degraded as a result of
human use (southern Malawi and parts of Zimbabwe), while in
others, it remains relatively intact (such as in parts of
northern Mozambique, and in isolated areas of Angola and the