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.

In the natural resources sector, laws are often formulated to regulate the relationship between men and the environment. Ideally, the law can play a vital role in regulating and protecting communities from adverse environmental and social impacts of mining, loss of land, biodiversity and natural wealth, as well as other human rights violations. Almost all countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have developed laws and institutions to regulate and monitor the extraction of mineral resources and their impact on the environment and people.

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.

Jordan’s SCP Strategy and National Action Plan (NAP) is a nation-wide document that addresses key human activities with a particular impact on the Jordanian environment. The overall goal of the Strategy is to achieve a shift to sustainable patterns in three identified priority areas of consumption and production, namely agriculture/food production, transport, and waste management, to be met through the identification of operational objectives and specific actions.

L’objectif général des Priorités résiliences pays (PRP) est: « À l’horizon 2035, la pauvreté des populations burkinabés et la vulnérabilité de leurs moyens de subsistance sont réduites de moitié, et elles jouissent d’une sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle durable », à travers (i) la dynamisation des politiques et stratégies pro-résilience existantes, (ii) l’identification et la mise en œuvre de nouvelles politiques et stratégies pro-résilience.

The National Agricultural Policy of Myanmar is a sectoral policy with the following objectives:Promote a common understanding among stakeholders (e.g., government, development partners, civil society organizations, community-based organizations, and the private sector) on the desired outcome of strengthening disaster resilience of the communities in Myanmar; Propose coherent approaches and lessons for pursuing disaster resilience at the community level; Identify potential opportunities for implementing measures across different sectors and themes of development that will strengthen disaster

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.