Report released by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Water Management Institute, discussing a needed "radical overhaul" in agriculture for ecosystem protection.

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http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending $100 million to raise the productivity of orchards and natural forests to increase incomes in areas of northwest People's Republic of China (PRC) that suffer from some of the worst land degradation and poverty rates in the country.

The ADB Board of Directors approved the loan from ordinary capital resources for the Forestry and Ecological Restoration Project which will be carried out in the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi, as well as the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Along with planting thousands of hectares of fruit and nut trees, which will bring economic benefits to over 200,000 households, the project will reforest large areas of hilly and environmentally damaged land. It will also incorporate an innovative integrated ecosystem management approach and support carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation measures.

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ADB

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending $100 million to raise the productivity of orchards and natural forests to increase incomes in areas of northwest People's Republic of China (PRC) that suffer from some of the worst land degradation and poverty rates in the country.

The ADB Board of Directors approved the loan from ordinary capital resources for the Forestry and Ecological Restoration Project which will be carried out in the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi, as well as the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Along with planting thousands of hectares of fruit and nut trees, which will bring economic benefits to over 200,000 households, the project will reforest large areas of hilly and environmentally damaged land. It will also incorporate an innovative integrated ecosystem management approach and support carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation measures.

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ADB

The People's Republic of China (PRC) suffers from some large-scale land degradation problems, posing a significant threat to the lives of local residents and to the future economic welfare of the nation. The dryland areas of the western PRC, which cover approximately 40% of the country's land area, contain some of the most severely degraded land in the world. With only about 7% of the world's farmland and 6% of the world's annual water runoff, the PRC must feed 22% of the world's population.

The PRC government, with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has established the PRC-GEF Partnership on Land Degradation in Dryland Ecosystems in 2002 to address land degradation issues, reduce poverty, restore dryland ecosystems, and conserve biodiversity through an effective integrated ecosystem management (IEM) approach. The IEM provides an integrated planning approach within which the PRC government can develop legal, policy, institutional, and socioeconomic systems required to support the sustainable utilization of dryland ecosystem resources.

This publication prepared by the Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources Division of ADB's East Asia Department summarizes the lessons learned during the Partnership's establishment (2002-2009) as well as the Partnership's future directions.

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ADB

This paper is one of seven scoping studies prepared by the International Institute for Sustainable Development for the United Nations Environment Programme. This report sets out to provide a preliminary overview of ecosystem services in Kenya and the corresponding constituents and determinants of well-being related to the availability of these services.

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IISD

Indigenous People--estimated at more than 300 million worldwide--inhabit over 70 countries, covering almost every climatic zone. Once ignored, they are now seen as key players, especially in Latin America, in rural development programs and in management of fragile ecosystems.

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http://www.worldbank.org

The loss of ecosystems and the biodiversity underpinning them is a challenge to us all. But a particular challenge for the world’s poor and thus for the attainment of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. The report documents over 30 successful case studies referencing thousands of restoration projects ranging from deserts and rainforests to rivers and coasts.

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http://www.grida.no

Billions of dollars and thousands of lives can be saved if we address the loss of marine and coastal biodiversity and ecosystem services through improved governance. This is a key theme of World Oceans Day, celebrated on 8 June 2010 for the second year running.

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http://www.unep.org

This report highlights the service role played by healthy ecosystems in helping water managers meet their goal of maximising the economic and social welfare of all water users in an equitable manner. Healthy ecosystems simultaneously serve multiple aspects of human well-being, especially among poor communities living close to the land-water interface.

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http://www.siwi.org

Biodiversity conservation has traditionally been seen as problem of protecting genetic diversity. It has had two dimensions: ex situ germ plasm preservation in zoos, aquaria and arboreta (and by extension, seed banks, tissue cultures and genomic libraries), and in situ species preservation in refugia, especially in megadiversity areas involving high levels of endemism. Increasingly, however, biodiversity conservation is being taken out of zoos and protected areas. It is recognised that biodiversity is important for the functioning of all ecosystems, and that excessive loss of biodiversity imposes real costs on resource users (Heywood, 1995).

It is therefore interesting to consider the problem of biodiversity loss not just in refugia, but in managed ecosystems. These are ecosystems from which some species have been deleted in order to enhance the productivity of others. The problem of biodiversity conservation in such cases does not therefore involve preservation of all existing species. It involves maintenance of sufficient interspecific and intraspecific diversity to protect the productivity of the system. Put another way, the problem of biodiversity conservation in managed systems requires us to think about the optimal or efficient level of species deletion.

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http://www.worldbank.org