A decade ago, the contribution of
greenhouse gases (GHGs) from reservoirs was estimated to be
up to 7 percent of global GHG emissions from all sources.
Much research on GHG emissions from reservoirs has
subsequently been conducted and recent studies have
indicated corresponding global estimate to be less than 1
percent. However, these studies still have a limited
coverage of ecosystems and geographic areas, and, more

The Amazon Rainforest is a global public
good. As such, and given that 15 percent of the original
Amazon forest area has already been lost, households
worldwide might be willing to pay to reduce or avoid
additional losses. A full elicitation of global preferences
for valuing preservation of the current forest, using
stated-preference population surveys, would be costly and
time consuming. Alternatively, this paper uses a Delphi

This paper reviews Pakistan's
agriculture performance and analyzes its agriculture and
water policies. It discusses the nature of rural poverty and
emphasizes the reasons why agricultural growth is a critical
component to any pro-poor growth strategy for Pakistan. It
supports these arguments by summarizing key results from
recent empirical analysis where the relative benefits of
agricultural versus non-agricultural led growth are

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC)
region has a unique mix of qualities and challenges when it
comes to the environment. It is exceptionally endowed with
natural assets, with globally significant biodiversity and
valuable crops, and also harbors the world s greatest carbon
sink in the Amazon. The purpose of the series is to
contribute to the global knowledge exchange on innovation in
environmental and water resources management and the pursuit

Sustainable forest management (SFM)
certification emerged in the 1980s and 1990s as a mechanism
to promote responsible forest use and as an alternative to
boycotts of forest products amid growing concerns about
forest degradation and destruction. Since then, forest
certification has evolved into a multifaceted market-based
mechanism to promote compliance with sets of ecological,
social, and economic criteria to enhance sustainability.

This workbook is intended to help policy
makers in developing countries plan for a safer future in
urban areas in the face of natural disasters and the
consequences of climate change. It is based on the
experiences of three cities in Vietnam, Can Tho, Dong Hoi,
and Hanoi, that worked with international and local experts
under World Bank supervision to develop local resilience
action plans (LRAPs) in 2009-10. An LRAP is a detailed

Agricultural growth rates in the Latin
America and the Caribbean (LAC) region have been much slower
than the rest of the developing world. In the regions of
East Asia, South Asia and Middle East and North Africa, the
annual growth of agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
in 1980-2004 exceeded 3 percent, while growth in Sub-
Saharan Africa averaged almost 3 percent. This paper
attempts to present an overview of the agricultural sector

"Getting the prices right" is
a good starting point but is not sufficient for achieving
environmentally efficient outcomes. Other policy
interventions are often necessary to complement pricing
policies. Moreover, when pricing is not at all feasible,
regulatory and command-and-control policies must be used
instead. This paper focuses on three interrelated themes at
the core of the pricing problem. First, there is the

The global dialogue surrounding the
United Nations framework convention for climate change has
focused on two strategies for addressing challenges
associated with climate change: (1) mitigation (reducing the
accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere);
and (2) adaptation (reducing the vulnerability of societies
and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change). Forests
feature in both of these strategies. The role of forests as

Much of the rural poor -- who are
growing in number -- are concentrated in ecologically
fragile and remote areas. The key ecological scarcity
problem facing such poor households is a vicious cycle of
declining livelihoods, increased ecological degradation and
loss of resource commons, and declining ecosystem services
on which the poor depend. In addition, developing economies
with high concentrations of their populations on fragile

Developing countries are faced with the
dual challenge of reducing poverty while improving
management of natural capital and mitigating the emission of
greenhouse gases (GHGs) and local pollutants. The challenge
is particularly acute for large, rapidly growing economies,
such as India, China, and Brazil. In response to this
challenge, Energy Sector Management assistance Program
(ESMAP) and the World Bank began in 2007 to provide support

Reducing emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation and enhancing carbon stocks (REDD+)
has raised the profile of benefit sharing in the forest
sector. Sharing benefits, however, is not a new concept.
Previous work on benefit sharing (associated with
intellectual property, forest and agriculture concessions,
mining, and so forth) has focused on clarifying the concept
and examining how benefit sharing could feed into broader