Morocco is one of the African countries in which implementation of the UNCCD has progressed the furthest. In the Moroccan National Action Programme, integrated rural development, poverty reduction, drought mitigation and conservation of natural resources are the four cornerstones of effective desertification control.The country has succeeded in building up strong partnerships with most of its bilateral and multilateral development partners.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is one of the three conventions agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. But from the very outset it has led a marginal existence, because industrialized countries feel far less concerned with desertification than developing countries. Moreover, the Convention?s targets are not binding and are open to a variety of interpretations by the Parties.The conflicting interests of environmental and
development policy are weakening its position further.

The devastating tsunami has shown in a tragic way the great vulnerability and exposed nature of coastal communities to natural calamities. It also has drawn global attention to the poor living conditions of fishing communities and the many threats to the sustainable use of fishery resources and coastal ecosystems. Post-tsunami rehabilitation offers the opportunity to build back better, improve and make more secure the lives of disadvantaged sections of the population and set fisheries and coastal resource use on a sustainable footing.

Rural areas are not exempted from the impacts of globalisation. Global trends affecting agriculture are particularly significant in this respect. A number of options are available to developing countries in responding to these trends. Given the scarcity of resources it is important that they choose carefully. If they fail to respond, rural areas will become even more marginalized than they are already.

More than 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas.The World Bank's approach to rural development is holistic and multisectoral, focused on improving the wellbeing of rural people by building their productive, social, and environmental assets. The author of this article explores what this means in the longer term horizon of beyond 2015.

Agriculture in Africa is not only exposed to climate change impacts but is also a source of greenhouse gases (GHGs). While GHG emissions in Africa are relatively minimal in global dimensions, agriculture in the continent constitutes a major source of GHG emissions. In Ghana, agricultural emissions are accelerating, mainly due to ensuing deforestation of which smallholder cocoa farming is largely associated. The sector is also bedevilled by soil degradation, pests, diseases and poor yields coupled with poor agronomic practices.

Berenty Reserve, a fully protected gallery forest beside the Mandrare River is renowned for its lemurs, but the continuous canopy of the main forest is shrinking, fragmenting and degrading. The aim of this study, before any restoration can be considered, is to investigate why canopy-cover is declining and define the forest’s vegetation status and composition. Our study includes analysis of tamarind age (the dominant species) and regeneration, forest extent, climate and soil.

The Salween River originates in the eastern highlands of the Tibetan Plateau and flows through valleys that are at first steep and narrow, then increasingly broad as the river approaches the tropical lowlands. Eventually it enters the Andaman Sea in eastern Myanmar.

The 2815 km long Salween river runs parallel to the mighty Mekong River for much of its course and forms part of the border between Myanmar and Thailand. When it flows through Yunnan, it is known as the Nujiang river.

This region contains Indochina�s largest block of moist forest, one of its richest plant diversities, and its largest number of mammals. This Global 200 ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests; Kayah-Karen montane rain forests.

Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 5,900 square miles...
Conservation Status: Critical/Endangered...
G200: No...

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The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is a CGIAR Consortium Research Centre. ICRAF’s headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, with six regional offices located in Cameroon, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Peru.

The Centre’s vision is a rural transformation throughout the tropics as smallholder households increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve their food security, nutrition security, income, health, shelter, social cohesion, energy resources and environmental sustainability.