This Climate Policy Brief highlights critical issues raised in the Cities and Resilience Dialogue held in Bangkok, Thailand September 28-29, 2009. The Dialogue reviewed the progress of cities in addressing the consequences of climate change with city representatives from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam; their respective national climate change negotiators; and key supporting institutions active in the region.

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http://www.proventionconsortium.org

Copenhagen, Denmark was the venue for the 15th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as the 15th Conference of the Parties — or COP 15.

As with previous conferences, thousands of politicians (including head of states), diplomats, journalists, lobbyists and NGOs attended hoping the summit would finalize a post-Kyoto international agreement on climate change to take effect in 2013.

This article provides a very brief summary of the outcome and related issues, as much has been said in the mainstream media and the Internet.

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http://www.globalissues.org

The World Agroforestry Centre supports the development of incentives for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), and a REDD-plus agreement that opens the door to future emissions reductions from all land uses. Promoting land uses which store carbon - such as agroforestry - and reducing emissions from all land uses will provide reliable options to achieve global climate goals while enabling low carbon development pathways.

This page provides a resource for materials relating to the World Agroforestry Centre's involvement in the UN Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark 2009 including:

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http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org

Agriculture can drive growth and development. The way it contributes – or not – to poverty reduction depends on many factors.  Investment in agriculture can help promote food security, bring more work to the area, and reduce the proportion of their budget families spend on food. Governments can help by directing investments in ways that prioritize those benefits.

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http://www.oxfam.org

The outcome of new indicators developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) are a series of maps which portray the geographic distribution of various environmental threats to health. These maps suggest both the level and type of environmental risks individual countries face. Because environmental threats to health emanate from many sources and vary dramatically by region and level of economic development, WRI calculated risks to health separately for developed and developing countries.

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http://www.wri.org

Catches of some key fish stocks have been falling sharply off the west coast of Africa with the decline being linked to over-fishing by foreign fleets.

A preliminary study of Mauritania, where European Union, Japanese and Chinese boats have been given access to fishing grounds, has found that catches of octopus have halved in the past four years and that some species, such as sawfish, have completely disappeared.

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http://www.grida.no

Many fishers are well aware of the need to safeguard fish populations and the marine environment. However, the greed and waste of some large commercial fleets combined with modern developments in fishing technology have had an enormous effect on fishing worldwide.

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http://www.panda.org

Many poor rural people rely on inland fisheries and aquaculture (IF/A) as their primary livelihood strategy – especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). By providing direct and indirect employment opportunities (in particular for women), income and nutrition, IF/A contributes to increased household resilience and reduced vulnerability to natural hazards and economic uncertainty.

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http://www.ifad.org

Plenty has been written about the economic rationale of investing in environmental management in order to help reduce poverty. But for the investments to be made at the scale that is needed, the relevant question now is whether there is also a financial rationale for investing in the sustainable management of natural resources?

An interesting answer is provided by the Dutch pension fund giant ABP, which recently took a 60 per cent share in the USD 100 million Global Solidarity Forest Fund (GSFF), a body which aims at the reforestation, restoration and responsible management of a total of about 450,000 hectares of forests in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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http://www.grida.no

In many of the world’s dry, agricultural areas, including much of Africa, it is traditionally women who devote time and effort to the land. This fact sheet draws attention to the complex and evolving nature of gender issues pertaining to drylands women.

Download the fact sheet (509 KB, PDF)
http://www.unccd.int

Women’s traditional roles such as collecting water, fuel and fodder, raising small livestock or growing food are particularly crucial in drylands in terms of natural resource management and food security. Men have usually been responsible for decision-making and planning of farming activities, but they increasingly leave the degraded areas to look for jobs in urban areas, leaving women to assume new roles and responsibilities on the farm.

Download the sheet (97 KB, PDF)
http://www.fao.org

It’s a fact: climate change affects women and men differently. This is important information for governments across the globe as they develop policies to reduce emissions (mitigate) and cope with (adapt to) the impacts of climate change. Policies that are gender-sensitive—in other words, that consider the particular needs and capacities of both women and men—are more likely to be effective.

Download the document (1.27 MB, PDF)
http://www.unfpa.org

This paper briefly outlines basic strategies and methods that can be used to organize natural resource management within coastal zones. It describes the main economic activities of coastal zones based on living and non-living natural resources and suggests ways to organize their management within a holistic framework.

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http://www.unesco.org

This Opinion points out that REDD is attractive in three ways: the potential for mitigation of climate change, the conservation of  biodiversity and from a development perspective. However,  the Opinion concludes that REDD readiness requires an understanding first the social, institutional and political conditions that drive land use change and that often operate beyond the forest sector at local, national and international scales.

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http://www.odi.org.uk

Website providing information about the Climate Investment Funds, a unique pair of financing instruments designed to support low-carbon and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channeled through the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, and World Bank Group.

http://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/cif/

The UNFCCC has estimated that by 2030 we will need more than $200 billion per year invested in changing the way we produce, transport, consume and dispose of goods and services, over and above the baseline levels of investment and finance, if we are to lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions to the highest level estimated as safe by the IPCC. Equally massive investments will be needed to adapt to climate change—to reduce our vulnerability to unavoidable climate change-driven impacts.

IISD's work in this area has focused on trying to determine what governments might do to help catalyze the huge flows of private investment that will be needed.

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http://www.iisd.org

Developing countries need massive amounts of investment to support a shift to low carbon and climate resilient growth and development. According to the World Development Report 2010, mitigation in developing countries could cost between $140 to 175 billion per year over the next 20 years, with adaptation investments rising to an average of $30 to $100 billion a year between 2010 and 2050. Yet efforts to raise funding for mitigation and adaptation have been inadequate, and, to date, amount to less than 5% of projected needs. Given the scale of investment needed, the international community needs to give careful thought to options that could generate funding, and financial instruments that will deliver that funding at country level.

Download the article (117 KB, PDF)
http://www.odi.org.uk

Photos from the Orangutan Foundation's reforestation program in Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.

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http://orangutanfoundation.wildlifedirect.org

Pro-poor tourism development is still in its initial stages, but Kenya can boast of a few projects that have been able to demostrate tourism's potential to empower hundreds of poor communities. With the incentives the locals have been able to diversify their economic base, as described in this webpage.

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http://www.propoortourism-kenya.org

This brochure demonstrates how measures and policies can be shaped to simultaneously address climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty. It identifies opportunities for synergies and mutual enhancement of the objectives of international agreements.

Download the brochure (2.34 MB, PDF)
http://www.cbd.int

Where Central and South America come together, grows a rainforest that is one of the richest ecological regions of tropical America. The Indigenous peoples who live there depend on this forest for food, medicine, building materials and much more. But parts of the rainforest are being cut by outsiders, the pressure on natural resources is increasing, and the livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples are threatened.

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http://www.idrc.ca

In the global context, particularly for many rural economies, poverty alleviation is entangled with the sustainable use and development of biologically diverse resources. In such settings local people rely on these resources for their livelihoods.

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http://www.hivos.nl

“At least 40% of the world’s economy and 80% of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources…the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change.” What is biodiversity and why does it matter?

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http://www.hivos.nl

Biodiversity is part of the solution to climate change. For men and women in developing countries, particularly in the least developed countries, biodiversity is vital for their survival and the survival of their families. Biodiversity is also part of their belief system and their cultural and spiritual values.

Download the brief (216 KB, PDF)
http://www.cbd.int

LEAD Pakistan has been working on the promotion of environmentally sensitive development since 1997 and has recently initiated a process of capacity building and program planning in Climate Change (CC) in Pakistan. LEAD firmly believes that serious and immediate actions need to be taken by various stakeholders to fully understand and respond to the grave impacts of climate change, requiring a realignment of Pakistan’s commitment towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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http://www.lead.org.pk

Designed as a component of the World Bank-supported Metro Manila Urban Transport Integration Project (MMURTRIP) aimed at improving the efficiency and safety of Metro Manila’s transport system, Marikina’s bikeways program has demonstrated that indeed bicycles could be an important means of transportation for residents in an urbanizing community.

Marikina, known also as the Philippines’ “shoe capital” owing to the concentration of small enterprises making shoes in the city, has so far laid down a network of 52 kilometers of bikeways that connect the city’s residential areas, particularly those of people with low incomes, to employment sites such as factories or construction areas in the city.

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http://www.worldbank.org

Namibia is one of the most sought after tourist destinations in Africa, owing to its vast wildlife and natural resources. This is because the country’s parks and game reserves have enjoyed a long spell of no serious poaching, thanks to strong measures by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

A number of countries in Southern Africa have recently seen an escalation in poaching. Recent cases have shown that those involved have become more sophisticated in the way they carry out these illegal activities. In anticipation of an escalation of poaching, the Namibian Government has introduced a number of activities to counter the possible increase in illegal hunting.

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http://www.undp.org

The potential to create a booming organic agriculture sector across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia is the focus of a study announced today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEP is partnering with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) to examine the economic, employment, poverty reduction and environmental benefits that could be achieved through greater investment in sustainable agriculture in the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) region.

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http://www.unep.org

Environmental degradation is causing serious detrimental health impacts for humans, but protecting natural habitats can reverse this and supply positive health benefits, according to a new WWF report.

“Our research confirms what we know instinctively: Human health is inextricably linked to the health of the planet,” says Chris Elliot, WWF’s Executive Director of Conservation.

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http://www.panda.org

Just a few years ago, people living miles from the coastline of southern Viet Nam didn’t get their feet wet when the tide came in. But the changing climate has brought with it rising sea levels and more frequent storms. ‘Viet Nam and in particular its south coast are especially hard hit by climate change,’ explains GTZ climate expert Ilona Porsché. Much of the protective mangrove forest in the Mekong Delta has been cleared to make way for shrimp farms, while the remaining forest has been so severely decimated by overuse that it offers the hinterland very little protection. The poor residents who gather food and wood in the mangrove forest are finding less and less to live on.

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http://www.gtz.de