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

The new environment strategy for the
World Bank Group lays out an ambitious action agenda that
seeks to respond to calls from our client countries for a
new kind of development path, one that supports growth while
focusing more on sustainability and ensuring that the
environment is a key enabler for green, more-inclusive
growth. This strategy recognizes the importance of our
convening power, access to policy makers, analytical work,

This year's edition of the little green data book includes a focus story on oceans and its ecosystem services, as well as estimates of global marine fisheries wealth accounts, a first step in capturing the value of this important resource stock. A new set of ocean-related indicators are also introduced, highlighting the role of oceans in economic development and providing policy makers the information to make better decisions for the sustainable management of oceans.

A Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) was
undertaken to assess the returns to land management
practices of major land use types, namely forests,
rangelands, and selected crops (rice, maize, cotton, and
millet). Also the public expenditure on SLM was reviewed
and an assessment carried out how the expenditure is aligned
to land policies and how it is targeted to land degradation
hotspots. The results show that, without some form of

A Kosovo 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. Kosovo is landlocked and possesses many
mineral resources, mainly coal, lead, zinc, chromium, and

Many experts believe that low-cost
mitigation opportunities in agriculture are abundant and
comparable in scale to those found in the energy sector.
They are mostly located in developing countries and have to
do with how land is used. By investing in projects under the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), countries can tap these
opportunities to meet their own Kyoto Protocol obligations.
The CDM has been successful in financing some types of

These report overviews recent
developments in the consumption and production of bioenergy.
It examines the main issues and possible economic
implications of these developments and assesses their
potential impact on land use and the environment, especially
with respect to forests. The report examines both solid
biomass and liquid biofuels, identifying opportunities and
challenges at the regional and country levels. The

Over the past few years there has been a
growing interest in the role that forests play in supporting
the poor, in reducing their vulnerability to economic and
environmental shocks, and in reducing poverty itself.
International workshops in Italy, Scotland, Finland and
Germany have focused on the contribution of forests to
livelihoods and the policies needed to strengthen that
contribution. At the same time, Forestry Ministries, though

Using the Agricultural Census 2003 and
the Rice Household Survey 2008 for Indonesia, this paper
analyzes the distribution of benefits from fertilizer
subsidies and their impact on rice production. The findings
suggest that most farmers benefit from fertilizer subsidies;
however, the 40 percent largest farmers capture up to 60
percent of the subsidy. The regressive nature of the
fertilizer subsidies is in line with research carried out in

This overview paper positions the
question of benefit sharing in the context of REDD plus. It
shares findings from a cursory review of a sample of
Readiness Preparation Proposals (RPP) for REDD plus
submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF).
It deconstructs the concept of benefit sharing. It also
provides a summary of the main findings from three recent
studies on benefit sharing that were financed by the Program

Half of humanity about 3 billion people
are still relying on solid fuels for cooking and heating. Of
that, about 2.5 billion people depend on traditional biomass
fuels (wood, charcoal, agricultural waste, and animal dung),
while about 400 million people use coal as their primary
cooking and heating fuel (UNDP and WHO 2009). The majority
of the population relying on solid fuels lives in
Sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia. In some countries in

This country note for Georgia is part of
a series of country briefs that summarize information
relevant to climate change and agriculture for three
countries in the Southern Caucasus Region, with a particular
focus on climate and crop projections, adaptation options,
policy development and institutional involvement. The note
series has been developed to provide a baseline of knowledge
on climate change and agriculture for the countries