Kemiskinan adalah masalah yang persisten di Indonesia. Tujuh tahun setelah dimulainya desentralisasi hanya terlihat sedikit peningkatan pada kesejahteraan masyarakat. Pemerintah daerah telah memperoleh kesempatan dan tanggung jawab baru untuk melaksanakan pembangunan, tetapi hanya beberapa kabupaten saja yang mempunyai kemampuan dan pengalaman yang diperlukan untuk mengurangi kemiskinan secara efektif. Laporan ini menyajikan potret kemiskinan dan kesejahteraan di Kutai Barat, sebuah kabupaten yang baru didirikan pada tahun 1999.

Poverty is a persistent problem throughout Indonesia. With decentralization, local governments had a new direct role in alleviating poverty and local wellbeing. At the same time they could do so in accordance with local realities and development needs. Yet, there is little improvement in the wellbeing of rural people. Local governments may lack the necessary capacity and experience to reduce poverty effectively. This report shows how a local specific monitoring system can be developed and applied.

Farmers in Malawi remove woodlands to plant crops but they also derive a vast range of other basic needs from the surrounding forests. These miombo woodlands have until relatively recently always been vast in comparison to the human population and their needs. Over the years the woodlands and the way they have been used have changed, but their contribution for maintaining well being and providing peoples’ basic needs appears to have remained important.

Springs are the major source of freshwater in many small mountainous watersheds within the Himalayan region. In recent years, their flow rates have diminished, but the reasons for this are not self-evident, and hence this paper reviews the methods to investigate Himalayan springs. The review reveals that chemical and isotope analyses – mostly water dating and stable isotope (e.g., d18O) analyses – could be an appropriate entry point to commence field investigations, because of their potential to map complex spring pathways, including linkages between aquifers.

Media Tool Kit 1: Natural hazards are “naturally occurring physical phenomena” or risk elements inherent in the natural environment; an inevitable part of life on earth

This paper highlights the need in South Asia for basin-wide water allocation plans that include environmental requirements. This paper also describes the application of a basin planning model (i.e., Water Evaluation and Planning model or WEAP) to assess present and alternative water management options which incorporate environmental flows in the Upper Ganges River in India (total area: 87000 km2). The paper summarizes the environmental flow assessment methodology which was conducted through a multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach (Building Blocks Methodology or BBM).

The once beautiful foothills of Mount Elgon, in eastern Uganda are today seriously degraded, with excessive water run-offs and landslides becoming regular occurrences. Restoring the health and productive potential of the agroecosystem had become a dire need of those, mostly women, who stayed to farm it. By challenging the status quo and doing things differently, the Kapchorwa District Landcare Chapter (KADLACC) has been helping this farming community over the past fifteen years to manage its natural resources more sustainably, as well as more profitably.