This paper analyses issues that affect the role of agriculture as a source of economic development, rural livelihoods and environmental services. Using experiences of land expansion in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa, it assesses the extent to which recent demand for land differs from earlier processes of area expansion and identifies the current challenges, in terms of land governance, institutional capacity and communities’ awareness of their rights.

Considerable hype and debate are currently surrounding the potential of biochar (charcoal created through the burning of biomass in low oxygen environments) in climate change mitigation and agriculture. This report attempts to summarise the arguments, assumptions and interests in the biochar debate and offer reflections on its prospects. The report begins by outlining what it calls the triple-win of biochar. The production of biochar can be tuned to release bioenergy or biofuels in the form of syngas and bio-oil, thus providing decarbonised biomass fuel.

The fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) analyses the state, trends, outlook and responses to environmental change. It assesses progress towards meeting internationally agreed goals and identifies gaps in their achievement.The outlook examines the drivers of environmental change and the overarching socio-economic forces that exert pressure on the environment.

This paper focuses on the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project, implemented by the NGO Vi Agroforestry, which is designing and implementing climate finance projects in the agricultural sector.

Greening rural development can stimulate rural economies, create jobs and help maintain critical ecosystem services and strengthen climate resilience of the rural poor. This report by the Ministry of Rural Development, India, with support from the United Nations Development Programme, presents strategies for inclusive rural development embodying the principles of environmental sustainability. It defines ‘green’ outcomes for major rural development schemes, reviews the design and evidence from the field to highlight potential green results and recommends steps to improve green results.

This United Nations flagship publication launched at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 aims to raise awareness on sustainability and green growth. The objective is to show renewed political commitment for sustainable development, while assessing progress to date. Sustainable development, which is seen as the guiding principle for long-term global development, consists of three pillars: economic development, social development and environmental protection.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief introduction to greenhouse and climate change, international frameworks, carbon sequestration and carbon trading. It focusses in particular on policy relating to Australia.The paper demonstrates that increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have been identified as a major cause of global warming. The Kyoto Protocol set the collective target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions of industrialised countries by 5% of 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

Surplus woody plants in areas where there is bush thickening present an opportunity to harvest the wood as bio-fuel. The health of the ecosystem and rangeland restoration must, however, always be prioritised during any tree harvesting for bio-fuel. In South Africa, indigenous woody plants are a prominent feature of the savannah, the largest of the vegetation biomes in South Africa and the Southern African sub-continent.

This booklet provides information to forestry and land-use audiences, principally in developing countries, who want to find out more about the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and how it affects their activities.

The objective of the ‘Water Management Adaptation’ Project is to build capacity for good governance and adaptation to climate change through applied research, awareness, public participation and demonstrative experiences, for effective water management based on an ecosystems integrated management approach.

This study assessed the extent of land use and cover change in Buliisa and Nakasongola Districts in the cattle corridor of Uganda over 27 years (1986 –2013), and their impacts on livestock management under drought induced pasture. The study found that area under open water and grassland declined by 3.5 and 48.3 per cent, while woodland, wetland, small scale farming and forest increased by 0.2, 62.2, 320.7 and 64.1 per cent, respectively, in Buliisa.

This paper is part of a set of working papers that resulted from the Resilience Academy 2013-2014. The United Nations University Institute of Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) publishes these papers as part of its UNU-EHS Working Paper series.
It presents several multi-scale case studies from islands around the world to offer a historically informed review of the cultural, environmental, political and economic systems and influences on island resilience.