Upland watersheds in the tropics provide a range of crucial ecosystem goods and services. How they are governed can be crucial to human well-being and environmental sustainability. Communities, governments and firms have taken many different approaches to sharing these benefits, negotiating trade-offs between them, and allocating the risks and burdens if services are degraded or lost.
In 2008, the global urban population exceeded the nonrural population for the first time in history, and it is estimated that by 2050, 70% of the world population will live in urban areas, with more than half of them concentrated in Asia.
One way of mitigating global climate change is protecting and enhancing biosphere carbon stocks. The success of mitigation initiatives depends on the long-term net balance between carbon gains and losses. The biodiversity of ecological communities, including composition and variability of traits of plants and soil organisms, can alter this balance in several ways.
The food price spike in the first half of 2008 has increased concerns about the global supply of food in the future. Technically it seems possible to feed the nine billion people who are expected two or three times over by mid-century.
China's system of environmental governance is changing rapidly, resulting in new environmental institutions and practices. State authorities rule increasingly via laws and decentralise environmental policymaking and implementation. Non-state actors
Climate change is emerging as one of the major challenges facing scientific and policy communities.
Planned adaptation to climate change requires information about what is happening and why. While a long-term trend is for global warming, short-term periods of cooling can occur and have physical causes associated with natural variability. However, such natural variability means that energy is rearranged or changed within the climate system, and should be traceable.
The stability of the Amazon forest
Access to modern forms of energy continues to elude the majority of households in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and only about 30% of the population has access to electricity while 90% relies on traditional fuels for cooking and heating. The central question addressed in this review is whether or not SSA can provide access to modern energy services for its entire population by 2030.
