The importance of forests for climate change mitigation and species conservation, as water stores and oxygen producers, soil protectors and humus providers, is well known. However, over 13 million hectares of forest are lost each year, mainly in the tropics.
Certification is viewed as one of the most effective ways of curbing unregulated logging and conserving natural forests in the tropics. In the meantime, there are several dozen certifying organisations. Among these, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) lead the field worldwide.
The Congo Basin Forest Partnership aims to reconcile forest conservation with forest use. This article explains what a “policy network” of this sort can achieve and where its limits lie.
In rural areas of many developing countries fuelwood constitutes the only energy source – often with negative impacts on humans and the environment. Wise management and modern technology can guarantee a sustainable use of this valuable resource, as some examples from Latin America demonstrate.
Every year, 13 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide; that is an area the size of Austria and Switzerland combined. 90 percent of this deforestation involves tropical forests. Forest loss has devastating effects on the climate and is the source of between 15 and 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If global warming is to be kept below the critical threshold of two degrees Celsius, forest loss and degradation must be halted without delay
Carbon labels for food are a new strategy of industrialised countries to reduce climate change-relevant gas emissions in agriculture. However, not every label includes the measurement of all emissions and may disadvantage and even exclude exporting farmers from developing countries. Policy-makers should reconsider this approach or at least focus on fair and non-discriminatory labels.
Several studies have shown that the land registration and certification reform in Ethiopia has been implemented at an impressive speed, at a low-cost, and with significant impacts on investment, land productivity, and land rental market activity. This study provides new evidence on land productivity changes for rented land and on the welfare effects of the reform. The study draws on a unique household panel, covering the period up to eight years after the implementation of the reform.
En este estudio se evaluó la sostenibilidad de los agroecosistemas tradicionales y alternativos de producción de maíz en tres Ejidos de la Región Selva de Chiapas, mediante la aplicación del enfoque agroecológico (MESMIS). El estudio se realizó en dos ciclos agrícolas: milpa y tornamil. En el primero se evaluaron los sistemas de roza-tumba-quema (R‑T‑Q), sin quema y en sucesión de nescafé (Mucuna deeringiana Bort.). En el segundo ciclo se analizaron tres sistemas sin quema con diferentes periodos de nescafé, y se modificó la densidad poblacional para analizar su efecto sobre la producción.
Land is a scarce resource increasingly affected by the competition of mutually exclusive uses. Fertile land in rural areas becomes scarcer due to population growth, pollution, erosion and desertification, effects of climate change, urbanization etc. On the remaining land, local, national and international users with different socioeconomic status and power compete to achieve food security, economic growth, energy supply, nature conversation and other objectives. Land use planning can help to find a balance among these competing and sometimes contradictory uses.
The economic dimension of desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) is increasingly gaining importance.
For this reason, the UNCCD has launched an initiative to help make the economic side of desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) an integral part of policy strategies and decision-making. An important step in this direction was the Partnership meeting on the Assessment of the »Economics of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought« ( EDLDD), held December 14 – 15, 2010.
Climate change is one of the major threats to the development of rural Africa, and without wide-ranging adaptation strategies the challenge it presents cannot be met. Although appropriate measures have been identi? ed, international funding for adaptation has not materialised at the rate that was pledged. This is irresponsibly delaying the implementation of adaptation measures.
Les petits paysans dans les pays en développement ne peuvent pas, à eux seuls, absorber plus longtemps les conséquences massives du changement climatique au moyen de leurs stratégies traditionnelles de gestion des risques. Ils doivent bien plus se mettre en quête d'instruments de gestion des risques qui tiennent compte de la nouvelle dimension de ces dangers.