This report presents policy, market, and
agriculture transition in the Northern Uplands of Lao
People's Democratic Republic aims to contribute to such
a dialogue by providing: (a) a policy-relevant typology of
the structural characteristics and transition patterns of
the principal small-holder agriculture systems in the
Northern Uplands; and (b) recommendations to strengthen
Government's facilitation of a more sustainable and

Four years have passed since the
Millennium Development Goals sharpened the focus on
measuring the results of development-not the number of
projects undertaken or the dollars spent, but the
improvements in people's lives. The emphasis on
quantitative targets and the requirement for monitoring
progress on country poverty reduction strategies have
increased the demand for statistics. And that showed us how

It is now widely recognized that
low-income countries in tropical and sub-tropical regions
will be disproportionally affected by the adverse impacts of
climate change. The combination of already fragile
environments, dominance of climate-sensitive sectors in
economic activity, and low autonomous adaptive capacity in
these regions implies a high vulnerability to the harmful
effects of global warming on agricultural production and

Haiti suffers from a serious
deterioration of its natural environment and, in particular,
from a heavy pressure on its natural resources. The reasons
for this deterioration are multiple (poverty level,
demographic pressure, agricultural techniques and insecurity
regarding land tenure) and, therefore, go beyond the strict
scope of energy. However, the wood-fuel consumption is one
of the main factors of this deterioration. On a national

The study's objective was to
support the socio-economic development program of the
Government of Orissa by helping to analyze and formulate
practical strategies for strengthening an institutional and
regulatory framework with respect to managing the
environmental and social impacts of investments in the
mining and industry sectors. This study, conducted for about
a year, focused on two sets of issues: (i) the need to

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Guatemala, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like
most countries in Latin America, Guatemala has submitted one
national communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Land use change and
forestry are by far the largest contributors to greenhouse

This report seeks to present micro
evidence on how environmental changes affect poor
households. It focuses primarily on environmental resources
that are outside the private sphere, particularly commonly
held and managed resources such as forests, fisheries, and
wildlife. The objectives for this volume are three-fold. It
is first interested in using an empirical data-driven
approach to examine the dependence of the poor on natural

Carbon accounting and labeling for
products are new instruments of supply chain management that
may affect developing country export opportunities. Most
instruments in use today are private business management
tools, although the underlying science and methodologies may
spread to issues subject to public regulation. This note
seeks to inform stakeholders involved in the design of
carbon labeling schemes and in the making of carbon emission

Based on a literature review and expert
interviews, this paper analyzes the most important climate
impacts on development goals and explores relevant
institutions in the context of mainstreaming climate
adaptation into development assistance in Mozambique.
Climate variability and change can significantly hinder
progress toward attaining the Millennium Development Goals
and poverty aggravates the country's climate

The environment and security literature
has argued that freshwater scarcity often leads to
inter-state conflict, and possibly acute violence. The
contention, however, ignores the long history of
hydro-political cooperation exemplified by hundreds of
documented agreements. Building on a theory that considers
the relationship between scarcity and hydro-political
cooperation, this paper empirically investigates why

Costa Rica's Program of Payments
for Environmental Services (Pago de Servicios Ambientales,
PSA) provides a unique opportunity to evaluate direct
payments as a conservation policy tool. This paper reports
evidence on how much more forest has been conserved in Costa
Rica as a result of PSA contracts with landowners. Such
evidence requires estimating a counterfactual outcome: how
much forest would have been preserved if there had been no

Using a comprehensive geo-referenced
database of indicators relating to global change and energy,
the paper assesses countries' likely attitudes with
respect to international treaties that regulate carbon
emissions. The authors distinguish between source and impact
vulnerability and classify countries according to these
dimensions. The findings show clear differences in the
factors that determine likely negotiating positions. This