Forest resources directly contribute to
the livelihoods of 90 percent of the 1.2 billion people
living in extreme poverty and indirectly support the natural
environment that nourishes agriculture and the food supplies
of nearly half the population of the developing world.
Forests also are central to growth in many developing
countries through trade and industrial development. However,
mismanagement of this resource has cost governments revenues

The 2007 edition of the little green
data book includes a new focus section, four introductory
pages that focus on a specific issue related to development
and the environment in this edition, carbon dioxide
emissions. The reports deem human causation of climate
change to be very likely. Late 2006 saw the publication of
the Stern review on the economics of climate change, which
emphasizes the major economic costs of climate change under

The report highlights the GEF's
work with small island developing states (SIDS) on key
natural resource issues -climate change, biodiversity,
international waters, and land degradation. It also
describes the GEF's strategic priorities for SIDS over
the next five years, recognizing the interrelatedness of
SIDS' global environmental problems and their links to
economic and social development. The Global Environment

The Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project (FCMCPP) overall objective was developed in the early 2000s and aims at 'testing and demonstrating, through implementation, a comprehensive set of forest planning and management guidelines and control procedures and establishing an effective forest management compliance monitoring and enforcement capability'. According to the planning handbook a separate and specific document was supposed to be prepared with regard to the social issues of the forest concession planning process in order to complete the planning process.

This Policy Note discusses the status of
Forestry in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MNA) of
the Bank. The Policy Note is a product of the FAO Investment
Center in Rome, the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI) and the Bank. Experience in natural
resource management shows that to adequately address
sustainable development, solutions must go beyond any single
sector, and be cross-sectoral. They must also go beyond

The provision of public goods and the amelioration of market failure are the classical justifications for government intervention in the economy. In reality, (1) governments intervene in markets that are not affected by failure, and (2) a large share of the government resources is spent in private goods, not in public goods. In contrast to issue 1, issue 2 has received little attention in the literature, in spite of the potentially large efficiency and equity losses arising from misguided allocations of public expenditures.

This article focuses mainly on the five
primary case study countries. For forest impacts, the
concentration is on forest conversion to other land uses and
deforestation, defined as a (temporary or permanent) removal
of trees to less than 10 percent crown cover, which is
similar to the Food and Agricultural Organization's
(FAO's) definition. Selective logging is thus not
deforestation but may degrade forests and enable conversion.

The authors describe and analyze an unconventional approach to river basin management in a developing country undergoing rapid economic, political, and institutional change. The founding of the Brantas River Basin Management Corporation (Perum Jasa Tirta I - PJT 1), a national state-owned company for river basin management, initiated an emphasis on river basin management to operate and maintain existing infrastructure, plan and implement the allocation of water, and address problems that affect basin-level water resources.

This Policy Note is based on the Final
Report of the Environmental Energy Review (EER), prepared
over two years, with the full collaboration of the
Government of Iran, and the assistance of international, and
national consultants. The EER report comprises: an analysis
of the current situation with regards to energy generation,
and use; an evaluation of the growth prospects with regard
to energy generation, and use; the identification of the

A "forest-hydrology-poverty
nexus" hypothesis asserts that deforestation in poor
upland areas simultaneously threatens biodiversity and
increases the incidence of flooding, sedimentation, and
other damaging hydrological processes. The authors use rough
heuristics to assess the applicability of this hypothesis to
Central America. They do so by using a simple rule of thumb
to identify watersheds at greater risk of hydrologically

In line with one of the major themes in
the Bank's Environment Strategy, this 2005 annual
review is devoted to the theme of environmental health.
Viewpoint articles in this edition reflect several external
perspectives: the World Health Organization (WHO) lays out
the panorama of environmental risk factors; a successful
example of combating urban air pollution is provided by the
former mayor of Bogotá; successful strategies to enhance

A tradable development rights (TDR)
program focusing on biodiversity conservation faces a
crucial problem defining which areas of habitat should be
considered equivalent. Restricting the trading domain to a
narrow area could boost the range of biodiversity conserved
but could increase the opportunity cost of conservation. The
issue is relevant to Brazil, where TDR-like programs are
emerging. Current regulations require each rural property to