Forests play an important role in the water cycle, stimulating rainfall, protecting soils from erosion and regulating the flow of water. It is therefore important to preserve forests for water management. Previous efforts to protect forests in Ecuador have relied on controlling land use and excluding local people. These methods often have limited success, because of problems such as corruption and a lack of enforcement. A new approach is to pay people to protect the forests.

This report cautions against an overly rigid approach to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which it argues could limit development options for poor countries, particularly in how they are able to manage critical water resources. It identifies key challenges such as setting realistic targets, carefully considering the local context to address the needs of the poor, and promoting sustainable water resources development in a way that values healthy ecosystems.

Climate change prompts policymakers to pursue a low carbon energy pathway in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, this can lead to trade-offs with other sustainability objectives. This policy brief outlines key issues relating to biodiversity and the development of the hydropower sector in Vietnam. It is aimed at informing policymakers, civil society and donors. It argues that the large-scale development of the country’s hydropower sector is being undertaken without due consideration of the impacts that this is having on the nation’s biodiversity.

For women in rural China, inheritance rights are often limited by traditional customs which give greater benefits to men. Although this is being challenged by new laws that recognise women’s legal rights, increased access for women to jobs and education, there is a big gap between legislation and reality.Research from
University College Chester analyses the transfer of resources between
generations within households and village communities in rural China, with
particular reference to Dongdatun, a village in the

This paper seeks to analyse some of the problems of degradation persisting in the dryland regions with particular reference to Sub-Saharan Africa, and describe the processes that aim to tackle them.It identifies the threat to dryland regions as a complex mixture of degrading soils, continuous exposures to frequent droughts and political and economic marginalisation which is putting poor people living in the drylands at risk.

This report examines the benefits that a resource-rich country can derive from endorsing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and implementing its Principles. It also searches for courses of action that the EITI Board can pursue to persuade more countries to endorse EITI. Both issues are investigated in the context of Angola, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The authors argue that EITI is particularly beneficial for countries that suffer from the so-called “resource curse”.

This report examines the history, structure and monitoring mechanisms of REDD+ to better understand how it impacts upon, and interacts with, Community Forest Management (CFM). It presents case studies of CFM and REDD+ governance from Bangladesh, Indonesia and India, and concludes with some lessons learned.REDD+ is an example of multilevel governance that uses a variety of institutional structures and processes aimed at promoting sustainable management of forests, including financial incentives to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.

Sector approaches to combating corruption have gained momentum in recent years, yet the strategic prioritization of sector anti-corruption initiatives is still the exception. The National Water Directorate in Mozambique is one of the few public sector departments in the world known to have allocated its own resources to developing a sector-specific anti-corruption strategy. Its experience offers valuable lessons for others considering integrating anti-corruption in sectors.

Unstable geological conditions and steep topography, combined with frequent extreme weather conditions, make the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region prone to many natural hazards. Among these, flash floods – severe flood events that occur with little warning – are particularly challenging for communities, threatening lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. Vulnerable groups such as the poor, women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities are often the hardest hit.

The inspiration for this sourcebook came from a 2014 meeting of researchers, practitioners and policy makers in Addis Ababa under the auspices of an event co-convened by the Global Water Initiative East Africa (GWI EA), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Water, Land and Ecosystems programme of the CG system. The event agreed there was a pressing need for greater regional consolidation of knowledge on improving water management for smallholder farmers.

The Limpopo River Basin is home to 14,000,000 people, at least half of whom live in rural areas. Over ten million South Africans live in the basin - nearly 25% of the national population. The remaining population live in Botswana - one million people, nearly 60% of the national population - Mozambique and Zimbabwe. While there are no major cities located on the river, several major urban areas in or adjacent to the basin impact water availability including quality.

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is key to ensuring that local communities' livelihoods needs are met through the sustainable management of natural resources. Policies promoting CBNRM mean that government agencies, non-governmental organisations and other service providers are increasingly becoming involved in supporting these communities to form natural resource management (NRM) groups to make progress in areas of resource governance and realise its economic benefits through natural resource based enterprise.