September 2, 2015
Sustainable Agriculture in China, Then and Now
Seth Cook
IIED
The environmental impacts of China’s agricultural production affect not just China, but also the global environment. Editor’s note: In the last few decades, East and Southeast Asia used rapid agriculture expansion to grow national economies. This strategy initially paid off big, but overexploitation of key natural resources quickly threatened profitability, and caused ...
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August 31, 2015
Making WAVES in greening land use in the Philippines
Evan Romanko
EcoAgriculture Partners
By assuming a combination of specific roles, governments can institutionalize environmental protections through practical and applicable strategies that improve the management of natural resources. In a forthcoming book Steps Toward Green: Policy Responses to the Environmental Footprint of Commodity Agriculture in East and Southeast Asia, experts from The World Bank, EcoAgricu ...
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August 26, 2015
LUMENS is illuminating land-use planning for sustainable landscapes
Robert Finlayson
World Agroforestry Centre
Involving all levels of government in achieving environmental goals is key to creating green economies. Editor’s Note: In the forthcoming book, Steps Toward Green: Policy Responses to the Environmental Footprint of Commodity Agriculture in East and Southeast Asia, the authors call for policymakers to formulate national strategies to upscale the work of innovative civic s ...
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June 10, 2015
Harvesting Under Fear
Anne-Sophie Gindroz
Rights and Resources Initiative
A new measure by the Indonesian Government to give some state protected areas back to communities for management seeks to change local farmers’ lives. But how permanent is it? They harvested their coffee during the dead of the night, using the faint light from their mobile phones to guide them, trying not to get caught […] ...
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March 4, 2015
Forests a Food Security Blanket for Communities in India
Salome Yesudas
Rukmini Rao
Gramya Resource Centre for Women
Debal Deb
Kavitha Kuruganti
Countries like India, which claim to have reduced poverty yet have had no reductions in hunger and malnutrition, present quite a paradox that must be addressed. The food sovereignty framework, introduced by the Sustainable Development Goals debate, is promising because it addresses the fact that hunger and malnutrition are not just a supply problem, but […] ...
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January 28, 2015
Sacred village forests: a kind of natural reserve and support to traditional eco-agriculture
Yinxian Shi
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Sacred natural forests are common in many inhabited areas in China, and have historically been protected and worshipped by several groups of people. There are two major kinds of sacred natural forests: those belonging to regional areas and those belonging to local areas. The first kind of sacred natural forest is held by people from […] ...
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December 29, 2014
Key to climate adaptation in the Greater Mekong: Practical and participatory vulnerability assessments
Ornsaran Pomme Manuamorn
The Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program
How to make science inform policy and actions? This is probably one of the most common questions development organizations are grappling with. This question is particularly relevant for those of us working on climate change adaptation. To make a difference, global and regional climate projections must complement local knowledge to transform local actions. Promoting climate [&he ...
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December 1, 2014
Transforming Lands, Transforming Lives: Hope for Millions Living on the Edge of Mighty Rivers in Bangladesh
AZM Nazmul Islam Chowdhury
Practical Action Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the mighty rivers of the Ganges and Brahmaputra are both vital and threatening to nearby inhabitants. Monsoon rains cause the rivers to swell, often flooding villages and fields. However, during the other months, drought leaves crops, livestock and communities praying for water. Land is scarce, population density is high and poverty and food […] ...
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November 17, 2014
Sacred Forests as Bioreserves: Conserving Natural Resources & Protecting Livelihoods
Elise Ursin
EcoAgriculture Partners
Jes Walton
The Siliserh Chhind Landscape encompasses 30 villages in Rajasthan, India and is characterized by Siliserh Lake and the flat-topped Aravalli hills, one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. Water scarcity and low rain falls (with the exception of monsoon season) leave much of this area somewhat infertile, and therefore, growing crops is not […] ...
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November 14, 2014
Developing Resilient Farming Systems: A Case From Chitikhola, Nepal
Sandesh Timilsina
Karnali Technical School
Basu Raj Kadariya, a progressive farmer from the Chitikhola village in the Tanahun district of Nepal, has faced many ups and downs in farming. Kadariya and other farmers once cultivated their lands to produce a handful of grains, limited to feeding their families for a few months out of the year. However, limited irrigation, poor […] ...
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