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.

The adaptation of land-use patterns is an essential aspect of minimising the impact of climate change at regional and local scales; for example, adapting watershed land-use patterns to mitigate the impact of climate change on a region’s hydrology. The aim of this study is to simulate and assess a region’s ability to adapt to hydrological changes by modifying land-use patterns in the Wu-Du watershed in northern Taiwan.

This IPCC technical paper extensively and thoroughly examines the potential consequences of climate change on the world’s freshwater resources and the communities that depend on them. Its objective is to improve understanding of how water-related issues are linked to climate change and adaptation and mitigation responses. The methodology splits sections into observed and projected effects with error margins and a stress on uncertainty presented as necessary context.

This is a compilation of twenty seven articles focusing on the interactions, impacts and effects of the changing climate on the Amazon region. Each article examines a specific area, providing a multidisciplinary analysis of climate change impacts. Areas discussed include:

This document presents analysis of key issues relating to Community Forest Management (CFM) in Vietnam. CFM has emerged as an important mechanism for realizing multiple development goals. The first section focuses on issues that relate to the transfer of forest rights to local people through Forest Land Allocation (FLA), including: an overview of FLA in Vietnam, a case study highlighting tensions that can arise between conservation and food security and a discussion of customary land rights of ethnic minorities.

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.

This contributory chapter of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines the status of climate change mitigation in agriculture and its implications on development, production and consumption trends. It presents regional and global trends in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as future global trends.

This review seeks to assess the sustainable livelihoods projects currently supported by Norway in Malawi within the context of climate change and its predicted impact on agriculture development and food security.The report found that since the adaptation to climate change was not a design feature of any of the projects or undertakings, the relevance of the activities to adaptation to climate change was rather incidental.

This paper argues for the need to make protected areas more directly relevant in the light of climate change. This includes the contribution of protected areas towards sustainable livelihoods, the provision of ecosystem services, and ensuring climate mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. The author advocates for mainstreaming protected area planning into sectors such as transportation and energy, reviewing the economic importance of protected areas while addressing climate-related concerns, and ensuring that protected areas form an integral part of climate adaptation efforts.

The global food system will experience an unprecedented combination of pressures over the next 40 years. Global population size will increase and competition for land, water and energy will intensify, while the effects of climate change will become increasingly apparent. Over this period, globalisation will continue, exposing the food system to novel economic and political pressures.This final report of the Foresight Global Food and Farming Futures Project argues that decisive action needs to take place now. The report identifies five considerable challenges ahead:

Understanding factors affecting farmers’ adoption of improved technologies is critical to success of conservation agriculture (CA) program implementation. This study, which explored the factors that determine adoption and extent of farmers’ use of the three principles of CA (i.e., minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover with crop residues, and crop rotations), was conducted in 10 target communities in 8 extension planning areas in Malawi. The primary data was collected using structured questionnaires administered to individual households.