Many drylands in the world suffer problems of land degradation and desertification derived from human activities and exacerbated by drought. Too often these degradation processes have been endured by the ecosystems for a long time, and, according to forecasts of climate change, are likely to worsen in the future. Ecological restoration combined with adaptive management can be effective tools in response to this environmental and socioeconomic problem.

The Kyoto Protocol negotiated in the mid-1990s to address climate change adaptation and mitigation will be replaced by a post-Kyoto agreement in 2012. The new agreement under negotiation needs to seal the policy gaps in adaptation and mitigation that were omitted or excluded from Kyoto on account of scientific uncertainties. Particular attention needs to be given to the potential of land in all its dimensions considering its high capacity to store carbon. Land stores twice as much organic carbon as vegetation and the atmosphere combined.

In the past few decades there has been an increasing pressure of population all over the world, especially in India, resulting in the utilization of every available patch of available land from woodlands to badlands. The study area represents a basin which is economically growing fast by converting the fallow lands, badlands and woodlands to agricultural land for the past few decades.

The Agriculture Strategic Development Plan is a national policy with a multi-sectoral approach. The Timeframe of this Plan is 3 years between 2010 and 2012.

The issue of climate change was already being discussed in the 1980s as scientists raised alarm over the world's increasing emission of manmade green house gases (GHGs), the main cause of global warming. In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), began to look into the effects of manmade GHG emissions on climate change. Following the release of the IPCC findings in 1990, the United Nations initiated the process of convening countries with the goal of reducing man-made GHG emissions and helping countries adapt to climate change.

This paper examines the drivers of deforestation and the loss of forest services, and the various mechanisms that exist to protect forests in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). In most cases policy mechanisms play a greater role in forest protection than payment for environmental services (PES) which has yet to develop in the subregion. Scenarios presented suggest that higher income countries will have much greater scope in protecting forest environmental services that low income countries.

En muchas regiones del mundo, la disponibilidad y calidad del agua potable cada vez está más amenazada por su explotación excesiva, el mal uso y la contaminación. En este contexto, la relación entre los bosques y el agua debe recibir una gran prioridad. Las cuencas de captación forestales suministran una gran parte del agua destinada a satisfacer las necesidades domésticas, agrícolas, industriales y ecológicas, tanto en las zonas de río arriba como en las de río abajo.

This guidelines booklet is addressed to the LADA partner countries and, more in general, to the increasing number of countries which are expressing their interest in implementing the LADA approach for mapping Land Degradation. The specific objective is to provide guidelines for the identification, selection and description of nationally based indicators of land degradation. The LADA approach is well defined by a range of specific documents and manuals. The National indicators common to all countries are based on the LADA-Wocat QM manual.

Insect pests, diseases and other biotic agents have considerable impacts on forests and the forest sector. They can adversely affect tree growth and the yield of wood and non-wood products. Damage caused by forest pests can significantly reduce wildlife habitat thereby reducing local biodiversity and species richness.

Dans de nombreuses régions du monde, la quantité d’eau potable et sa qualité sont menacées par la surexploitation, le mauvais usage et la pollution. Il est nécessaire à cet égard d’accorder une haute priorité aux relations entre les forêts et l’eau. Les bassins versants boisés fournissent un pourcentage important de toute l’eau utilisée à des fins domestiques, agricoles, industrielles et écologiques, dans les zones situées tant en amont qu’en aval.

Developments in China will have substantial impacts on forestry in the rest of the region. This wide-ranging country outlook study discusses a host of topics including prospects for China's afforestation/reforestation efforts, supply and demand for forest products and ecological services, key drivers of change, impacts of globalization, policy developments, and social objectives of forestry.