Weather is the term used to describe the atmospheric conditions (heat, wetness, wind, etc.) prevailing at any one place and time. Climate is the sum of the prevailing weather conditions of a given place over a period of time, typically summed over many decades. This paper seeks to provide strategic directions for mainstreaming support for climate change within the World Bank's broader program of assistance to Vietnam.

The climate change (CC) caused by increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 and other Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), can be addressed through adaptation and mitigation strategies. Adaptation consists of strategies which minimize vulnerability to CC. The objective is to increase resilience of the ecosystems and communities through adoption of specific sustainable land management (SLM) techniques that have adaptive benefits. On the other hand, the goal of mitigation strategies is to enhance soil and vegetation (land) sinks for absorbing atmospheric CO2 and to minimize net emissions.

The Cambodia environment monitor 2008 is one of a series of environmental reports prepared for East Asian countries under an initiative sponsored by the World Bank. The objective of this series is to present a snapshot of environmental trends across a range of issues. The purpose of the monitor is to engage and inform interested stakeholders about key environmental changes in an easy to understand format accessible to a wide audience. This report identifies seven strategic priorities for the Royal government of Cambodia and its conservation partners.

The current pressures on land are huge and expected to continue growing: there is rapidly escalating competition between the demand for land functions that provide food, water, and energy, and those services that support and regulate all life cycles on Earth.

This book is intended as a basic information kit that tells “the story” of desertification, land degradation and drought at the global scale, together with a comprehensive set of graphics. The book indicates trends as they have taken place over the last decades, combining and connecting issues, and present priorities.

Este libro tiene como objetivo ser un manual informativo en el que se cuenta “la historia” de la desertificación, la degradación de las tierras y la sequía a escala global acompañado por una completa serie de gráficos. Este libro muestra tendencias que han tenido lugar a lo largo de las últimas décadas, combinando y conectando temas y presentando prioridades.

This book is intended as a basic information kit that tells “the story” of desertification, land degradation and drought at the global scale, together with a comprehensive set of graphics. The book indicates trends as they have taken place over the last decades, combining and connecting issues, and present priorities.

This book is intended as a basic information kit that tells “the story” of desertification, land degradation and drought at the global scale, together with a comprehensive set of graphics. The book indicates trends as they have taken place over the last decades, combining and connecting issues, and present priorities.

The earth’s climate is changing at a rate unprecedented in recent human history and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The impacts and risks associated with this are global, geographically diverse and increasingly being felt across a range of systems and sectors essential for human livelihoods and well-being. The more severe and far-reaching the impacts of climate change are, the greater the loss of species will be, and the greater the deterioration of drylands and the risk of desertification and land degradation around the world will be.

Dryland biodiversity is of tremendous global importance, being central to the well-being and development of millions of people in developing countries. In June 2012, at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (or “Rio+20”), global leaders from governments and civil society reaffirmed the intrinsic value of biological diversity and recognised the severity of global biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems. Although drylands were implicitly recognised, there continues to be inadequate attention to this major biome that covers such a vast part of our world’s terrestrial surface.

The challenges and threats of water scarcity to dryland populations are set to increase in magnitude and scope. As the world’s population has swollen to well over 6 billion people, some countries have already reached the limits of their water resources. With the existing climate change scenario, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030, including between 75 million and 250 million people in Africa. In addition, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places will displace between 24 million and 700 million people (WWDR 2009).

Parmi l’éventail des mesures souvent mises en avant dans l’approche genre dans le cadre de la lutte contre la désertification, la dégradation des terres et de l’atténuation des effets de la sécheresse, figurent l’amélioration de la participation des femmes à la prise de décision, le renforcement des capacités des organisations féminines, l’élimination de l’illettrisme féminin, l’allègement de la charge de travail des femmes et l’élimination des disparités hommes-femmes au travail, dans l’accès aux ressources et à la propriété.