The pattern of global land use has
important implications for the world's food and timber
supplies, bioenergy, biodiversity and other eco-system
services. However, the productivity of this resource is
critically dependent on the world's climate, as well as
investments in, and dissemination of improved technology.
This creates massive uncertainty about future land use
requirements which compound the challenge faced by

Recognizing the importance and
uniqueness of the Sundarbans, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
declared the Indian portion of the forest a World Heritage
Site in 1987, and the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program
has included the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve in the Global
Network of Island and Coastal Biosphere Reserves
Contributing to Action on Climate Change and Sustainable

Livestock systems globally are changing
rapidly in response to human population growth,
urbanization, and growing incomes. This paper discusses the
linkages between burgeoning demand for livestock products,
growth in livestock production, and the impacts this may
have on natural resources, and how these may both affect and
be affected by climate change in the coming decades. Water
and land scarcity will increasingly have the potential to

This paper provides a simple, yet
robust, methodology for comparing proposed hydroelectric
project sites in terms of their expected negative
environmental impacts, and relating these to power
generation benefits. The paper also summarizes the
environmental mitigation options for large dams. If properly
implemented, these mitigation measures can effectively
prevent, minimize, or compensate for many (though not all)

This case study, one of six evaluations
in a series of country case studies, aims to understand the
implementation of the 1991 Forest Strategy in World Bank
operations and to obtain the views of the various
stakeholders in the country about the involvement of the
Bank. Each country study examines the overall development of
the country's forest sector. This naturally includes
the environmental impacts on forests, such as degradation,

The first set of the land laws were enacted in 2012 in line with the timelines outlined in the Constitution of Kenya 2010. In keeping with the spirit of the constitution, the Land Act, Land Registration Act and the national Land Commission Act respond to the requirements of Articles 60, 61, 62, 67 & 68 of the Constitution. The National Land Policy, which was passed as Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2009, arrived earlier than the Constitution, with some radical proposals on the land Management.

This paper examines whether countries
consider the welfare of other nations when they make water
development decisions. The paper estimates econometric
models of the location of major dams around the world as a
function of the degree of international sharing of rivers.
The analysis finds that dams are more prevalent in areas of
river basins upstream of foreign countries, supporting the
view that countries free ride in exploiting water resources.

This forest policy note was prepared to
provide input to the ongoing forest sector reform in Kenya
on participation in sustainable forest management. It offers
recommendations on possible priority forest policy actions
within the forthcoming Natural Resource Management (NRM)
Project. The latter focuses enhancing the capacity of
Kenyans to manage the natural resource base and resources
available to poor and vulnerable communities. By outlining

Using plot-level data, the authors
estimate a bi-variate probit model to explain land clearing,
and the siting of protected areas in North Thailand in 1986.
Their model suggests that protected areas (national parks,
together with wildlife sanctuaries) did not reduce the
likelihood of forest clearing, but wildlife sanctuaries may
have reduced the probability of deforestation. Road
building, by reducing the impedance-weighted distance to

The urgent need to limit anthropogenic
carbon emissions has led to a global initiative to Reduce
Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+).
But designing national architectures for REDD+ that
integrate local actions on forests with national-level
outcomes and do so effectively, efficiently, and equitably
continues to be challenging. One option to facilitate the
design and implementation of REDD+ is to learn from the

This report evaluates the requirements
for an assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture
to guide policy makers on investment priorities and phasing.
Because agriculture is vital for national food security and
is a strong contributor to Brazil's GDP growth, there
is growing concern that Brazilian agriculture is
increasingly vulnerable to climate variability and change.
To meet national development, food security, climate

Throughout the world, demands on finite soil resources are ever increasing, and can lead to irreversible soil degradation, as the soil is used beyond its “bio-capacity”. A quarter of the inhabitated land area has already been affected by human-induced soil degradation. Against this background, soil remediaton is becoming more and more important. Focusing on the rehabilitation of oil-contaminated soil in Kuwait, the following article shows how it works, and where the problems lie