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

This paper reviews recent developments
in biofuel markets and their economic, social and
environmental impacts. Several countries have introduced
mandates and targets for biofuel expansion. Production,
international trade and investment have increased sharply in
the past few years. However, several existing studies have
blamed biofuels as one of the key factors behind the
2007-2008 global food crisis, although the magnitudes of

There are two common problems in flood
hydrology: 1) estimate the return period for a given flood;
and 2) estimate the flood for a given return period. A
commonly used procedure to solve these problems is to fit a
probability density function such as the Gumbel, Pearson
type three or the generalized extreme value distributions to
the historical data. The Pearson probability distribution
was named after the statistician Pearson, it is also called

In Africa, most development strategies
include efforts to improve the productivity of staple crops
grown on smallholder farms. An underlying premise is that
small farms are productive in the African context and that
smallholders do not forgo economies of scale -- a premise
supported by the often observed phenomenon that staple
cereal yields decline as the scale of production increases.
This paper explores a research design conundrum that

The Latin America and Caribbean Region
has been at the forefront of global biodiversity
conservation, dedicating 20 percent of its land to protected
areas compared to 13 percent in the rest of the developing
world. This progress has stretched available budgets for
conservation with estimates indicating that a twofold
increase would be necessary to achieve optimal management of
existing protected areas based on 2008 data. Recognizing the

This paper reviews the challenges and
opportunities raised by international trade for developing
countries considering a green growth strategy. A key concern
is the effect of environmental policies on international
competitiveness. For production-generated pollution, there
is evidence that stringent environmental policy reduces some
indicators of competitiveness, but the effect is small in
most sectors. However, tightening up environmental standards

Interest in farmland is rising. And,
given commodity price volatility, growing human and
environmental pressures, and worries about food security,
this interest will increase, especially in the developing
world. One of the highest development priorities in the
world must be to improve smallholder agricultural
productivity, especially in Africa. Smallholder productivity
is essential for reducing poverty and hunger, and more and

Woodfuels (firewood and charcoal) are
the dominant energy source and the leading forest product
for most developing countries. Representing 60 to 80 percent
of total wood consumption in these nations, woodfuels often
account for 50 to 90 percent of all energy used. Although
woodfuels are widely perceived as cheap and primitive
sources of energy, commercial woodfuel markets are
frequently very large, involve significant levels of

A Country Environmental Analysis (CEA)
is a World Bank analytical tool used to integrate
environmental issues into development assistance strategies,
programs, and projects. To that end, the CEA synthesizes
environmental issues, highlights the environmental and
economic implications of development policies, and evaluates
the country's environmental management capacity. It is
composed of three analytical building blocks: the

This is a Regional Program Review (RPR)
of the World Bank's support for the MBC. The review is
framed around an assessment of five Global Environment
Facility (GEF)-financed World Bank implemented projects in
Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama that had
the common objective of consolidating the Mesoamerican
Biological Corridor (MBC). It also reports on the
achievements of trust fund activities, financed by the Bank