This paper argues that REDD+ will not stop forest destruction developing countries and the underlying causes of deforestation remain untouched. The paper suggests that because REDD+ is embedded in the logic that environmental destruction in one location can be ‘compensated’ in another, it acts to reinforce the underlying drivers of deforestation and climate change. It also gives forest destroyers a way to legitimise their actions as environmentally ‘friendly’ or ‘carbon neutral’.

This report aims to improve the knowledge base for scaling-up investments in land management technologies that sequester soil carbon for increased productivity under changing climate conditions. The report presents the following key messages.

This paper outlines options for rural communities to participate in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in the forest sector in Nepal. It looks at the various institutional barriers that would need to be overcome, as well as the existing institutional opportunities, particularly in relation to tenure rights, both for mitigation (Clean Development Mechanism projects and REDD+) as well as for adaptation action.

The paper reviews research showing that soils contain more carbon than atmosphere and all plant life combined, noting that increasing carbon storage in soils is relatively simple compared to approaches to use geoengineering to avert climate change.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have published this annual report on joint projects financed during 2011 on ecosystems and biodiversity preservation, green development strategies, and sustainable use of water and ocean resources, among other topics. The GEF financed and supported 323 UNDP projects in 2011.

Localization—the growing economic and political power of cities, provinces, and other sub-national entities—will be one of the most important new trends in the 21st century. Together with accelerating globalization of the world economy, localization could revolutionize prospects for human development or it could lead to chaos and increased human suffering.Improved communications, transportation and falling trade barriers are not only making the world smaller they are also fueling the desire and providing the means for local communities to shape their own future.

Intensive farming has been adopted to produce large amounts of food grains and cash crops but environment is being deteriorated at alarming rate also. Increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, chemical growth regulators, machinery and poor management practices are accelerating environmental pollution, soil degradation, global warming, climatic change and food deterioration. Conservation agriculture offers a sustainable solution for all these problems most often. This review focuses the use of fertilizers in conservation agriculture and their impact on weed management.

This paper investigates the impact of climate variability on maize yield in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa using the Generalized Maximum Entropy (GME) estimator and Maximum Entropy Leuven Estimator (MELE). Maize constitutes about 70 percent of grain production and covers about 60 percent of the cropping area in South Africa. It is a summer crop, mostly grown in semiarid regions of the country, and is highly susceptible to changes in precipitation and temperature.

This report analyses the current status of the land-use sector under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, and formulates options for how various incentives and systems could be harmonised under a future climate treaty. It argues that the land-use sector serves key environmental and social functions and supports the livelihoods of around a half of the world’s population. However, it is argued that the climate regime fails to formulate a coherent vision or set of incentives for mitigation and adaptation from the sector.

Climate models are predicting a hotter, drier and less predictable climate in the Middle East, a region already considered the world's most water-scarce and where, in many places, demand for water already outstrips supply. This report addresses the links between climate change, peace and conflict.

This African atlas is the first publication to use satellite photos to depict environmental change in each and every African country during the last thirty years. Through an array of satellite images, graphs, maps, and photographs, this Atlas presents a powerful testament to the adverse changes taking place on the African landscape as a result of intensified  natural and human impacts. The atlas is composed of three parts:

This paper explores options for including land use in a future (post-2020) climate change agreement as anticipated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP). Options are considered with an eye toward reaching agreement under the ADP, keeping in mind the level of ambition of global efforts, and the need to accelerate the reduction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.