56 Articles found
World Resources Institute WRI Articles
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Why land rights should be on the Rio+20 agenda
As government leaders prepare for next month’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil, one issue is conspicuously absent from the agenda: land rights. Strong property rights—the rights for people to access, control, ...
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How to Identify Degraded Land for Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia
Palm oil production in Indonesia has the potential to generate local benefits if oil palm cultivation expansion follows sustainable planning and management practices, including respect for local interests and rights. Potential benefits include ...
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Indonesia`s moratorium on new forest concessions: Key findings and next steps
The Indonesian moratorium on the award of new licenses in primary natural forests and peat lands, announced in May 2011, is an important step for improving management of forest resources by “pausing” business-as-usual and allowing time ...
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Insights from the field: forests for water
In the Neuse River Basin in North Carolina, WRI is working with partners to identify beneficiaries and their water-related dependencies. We learned that clear documentation of the risks that beneficiaries face from water pollution, drought, and ...
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Inside stories on climate compatible development: Zambia
Production of staple crops, such as maize, is under increasing risk in Africa because of climate change and depleting soil fertility. The potential consequences for food security are dire. Climate change and food security must be tackled ...
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How can we create jobs, reduce food prices and boost economies?
The fate of heads of state across the globe is tied in large part to their ability to ensure employment, economic growth, and access to cheap food and clean water. Rising food prices have helped topple dictators across the Middle East. Europe, the ...
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Gaining Ground: Increasing conservation easements in the U.S. South
A “conservation easement” is a voluntary, legally enforceable land preservation agreement between two parties wherein a landowner sells or donates the development rights to a tract of land to a qualified holding organization, such as a ...
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Current use valuation programs: property tax incentives for preserving local benefits of forests
Summary This paper explores current use valuation programs as one tool for conserving and fostering sustainable management of southern U.S. forests under private ownership. The brief identifies key constraints on existing programs and suggests ...
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Funding for forests: the potential of public ballot measures
A variety of measures exist to prevent deforestation or forest conversion to other land uses. Some of these measures, such as purchasing land outright for conservation or purchasing conservation easements, are designed to permanently protect ...
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Forests at work: A new model for local land protection
To date, traditional public land acquisition programs have played a relatively small role in the conservation and sustainable management of southern U.S. forests. The South trails behind other U.S. regions in both the percent of the land base and ...
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Forests at work: A new model for local land protection
To date, traditional public land acquisition programs have played a relatively small role in the conservation and sustainable management of southern U.S. forests. The South trails behind other U.S. regions in both the percent of the land base and ...
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Legally REDD: Building readiness for REDD by supporting developing countries in the fight against illegal logging
If reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is to work effectively, developing countries will need support to build the capacities required for enforcing their own laws and regulations. At present, timber production that ...
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Ready or not? A review of the world bank forest carbon partnership r-plans and the un redd joint program documents
This paper reviews documentation detailing national REDD initiatives that have emerged from both the FCPF and UN-REDD, in order to assess how these efforts are dealing with fundamental issues of governance in the forest sector that underpin ...
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Governance of forests initiative indicator framework (Version 1)
Competing demands for food, fuel and profit are driving the loss and degradation of the world’s remaining forests. Governments, the private sector, and citizens are struggling to manage the conflicts between these priorities. The Governance of ...
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Watering Scarcity: Private investment opportunities in agricultural water use efficiency
This report was prepared by Rabobank in collaboration with the World Resources Institute. In many regions around the world, demand for fresh water now outstrips renewable supplies. Water scarcity is projected to worsen considerably due to a ...
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Trees in the greenhouse: why climate change is transforming the forest products business
While there are risks for the forest products industry, it largely stands to gain from efforts to address global warming due to new opportunities for sustainable forestry. The world is entering an era when natural resource constraints, ...