This working paper examines the development of regional socioeconomic scenarios for West Africa’s development, agriculture, food security and climate impacts. We present four globally consistent regional scenarios framed and outlined by regional experts who crafted narratives and determined key drivers of change. Stakeholders identified the type of actors driving change and the timeline of strategic planning as the most uncertain and most relevant factors of change affecting food security, livelihoods and environments in the region.

Reliance on rainfall for agriculture and increased climate change and variability pose growing production risks in developing countries. Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by smallholder farmers who depend mainly on rain-fed agriculture, putting food security at both household and national levels at risk, especially in the event of drought. Investment in smallholder irrigation becomes a priority in developing countries if food security and national development goals are to be met, as their economies are agro-based.

Much of the effort to include communities in conservation of large

landscapes has been driven by interests outside the savannas, either by national

governments, NGOs, or foreign conservationists (Neumann 2002,

Brockington et al. 2008). Once included in conservation planning only as

an afterthought, local communities are now major stakeholders. However,

initiatives driven, led, and managed by local leaders, communities, and institutions

to meet the needs of both wildlife and people remain rare. The

This paper reviews the literature on the participation of women and children in agricultural activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The review focuses on participation through labor in agriculture overall and in certain agricultural activities in particular. Also reviewed are the rural family`s access to and capacity for decision-making on resources. Factors influencing such participation are analyzed, such as farm size, land ownership, income levels, racial origin, and destiny of production.

Global insurance markets are vast and diverse, and may offer many opportunities for remote sensing. To date, however, few operational applications of remote sensing for insurance exist. Papers claiming potential application of remote sensing typically stress the technical possibilities, without considering its contribution to customer value for the insured or to the profitability of the insurance industry. Based on a systematic search of available literature, this review investigates the potential and actual support of remote sensing to the insurance industry.

Background: ‘Climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA)—agriculture and food systems that

sustainably increase food production, improve resilience (or adaptive capacity) of farming

systems, and mitigate climate change when possible—has quickly been integrated into the

global development agenda. However, the empirical evidence base for CSA has not been

assembled, complicating the transition from CSA concept to concrete actions, and

contributing to ideological disagreement among development practitioners. Thus, there is an

A number of studies have suggested that addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural

production, or ‘supply-side emissions’, will be insufficient to reduce agri-food sector GHG emissions to limit

the increase of global temperatures to well below 2o

C. Recent studies have also suggested that ‘demandside

measures’ related to food consumption, food value chains, and food loss and waste, will be necessary

to reduce emissions and may have a larger technical mitigation potential than supply-side measures.

Sustainable development of pastoral and agro-pastoral systems, dominated by collective and/or tribal ownership of rangelands, is a key issue for the West Asia and North Africa region. These two systems are located in arid and semi-arid areas and are increasingly threatened by desertification process. The policy responses to tackle this complexity have been a sectorial and fragmented, “top-down” approach, putting forward technical solutions and neglecting the social context.

The historical legacy in South Africa of apartheid and the resulting discriminatory policies and power imbalances are critical to understanding how water is managed and allocated, and how people participate in designated water governance structures. The progressive post-apartheid National Water Act (NWA) is the principal legal instrument related to water governance which has broadly embraced the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of climate change on the geographical distribution of selected native species from two areas from West Asia and North Africa. Three species representing two genera were selected for assessment of their vulnerability to climate change. The first species was Salsola vermiculata L. which is common to both study areas. The second genus was represented by two species, Haloxylon salicornicum (Moq.) Bunge from the Syrian rangelands and H. schmittianum Pomel from southern Tunisia.