News

A lack of progress in forest-tenure reform is hindering action to stop deforestation and alleviate poverty among some of the world's poorest rural peoples. The failure to ensure land rights for local communities-particularly indigenous peoples and women-in the forests of Central and West Africa will impede efforts to stop deforestation.

The Belpasso International Summer School on Environmental and Resource Economics is targeted to doctoral and post-doctoral students. This year’s summer school will be held September 12-18 in Belpasso, Sicily, Italy. Admission is conditional on the presentation by each student of his/her doctoral work; therefore applicants normally need to be advanced in their PhD to have produced at least one substantive chapter, but not to have completely finished their thesis. [more information]

Deadline: May 1, 2010

Tags: calls, training

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) is pleased to announce the fourth Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change to be held in London on April 6, 2010. The Dialogue series is designed to foster critical reflection and learning on forest governance, the rights of forest communities and Indigenous Peoples, and forest tenure in the context of global action to combat climate change. REDD+ emerged as one of the rare points of consensus from the confusion in Copenhagen. The draft decision document made some progress on the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and environmental and social safeguards and six developed country governments also pledged 3.5 USD billion in quick-start finance for REDD+. While the UNFCCC process has yet to finalize the overall architecture and safeguard frameworks, interested governments are gathering outside of the UN process - in Paris (March 11) and then again in Oslo (May 27) to begin operationalizing elements of the Copenhagen Accord on REDD+, and concerns are growing over the transparency of the process outside the UNFCCC, as well as over the fate of safeguards, standards and consultations. [more information]

Tags: events, forests, climate

Rothamsted International (RI) is a non-profit-making charity working towards sustainable agriculture in developing and emerging countries. They aim to share research excellence in agricultural and environmental sciences for the benefit of world-wide agricultural and environmental sustainability. Visiting RI Fellows make use of the current, state-of-the art, facilites and expertise at Rothamsted Research, the oldest agricultural research station in the world.

RI offers two Fellowship schemes. Both Fellowship schemes are directed towards mid-career researchers in agricultural sciences. The Rothamsted International Fellowship Scheme (RIFS) is open to scientists from all developing countries and successful applicants spend their placements with Research groups at Rothamsted Research. The African Fellows Programme (AFP) is specifically for scientists from sub-saharan Africa and Fellowships are spent at European Research Institutes. Our Project management services aim to assist in agricultural capacity building, and we expect these and the Fellowships to lead to long-term partnerships, collaborations and capacity building with and in the Fellow's home countries.

The Deadline for the RIFS is May 7, 2010. Although the January deadline for the AFP has already passed, the website notes that pre-proposals can be submitted at any time and will be considered at the next closing date.

Tags: fellowships, funding, agriculture

• EMPLOYMENT: New Opportunities at ILRI
  • Deadline: see individual posts
• EMPLOYMENT: Development Research Economist positions at African Development Bank
  • Deadline: March 31, 2010
• EMPLOYMENT: Research Economist, IWMI
  • Deadline: April 4, 2010
• FELLOWSHIP: Research Fellow Partnership Programme for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources (RFPP)
  • Deadline: March 31, 2010
• SCHOLARSHIP: Governance of Natural Resources by Smallholders in the Brazilian Amazon
  • Deadline: March 31, 2010
• SCHOLARSHIP: Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program (JJ/WBGSP), Regular Program
  • Deadline: March 31, 2010
• CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Reminder, IASC Conference: Sustaining Commons: Sustaining our Future
  • Deadline: March 31, 2010
• CALL FOR PAPERS: The Economics of Food, Food Choice and Health
  • Deadline for abstracts: March 31, 2010
• CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: Women's World Summit Foundation Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life
  • Deadline: March 31, 2010
• CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: The Yara Prize for a Green Revolution in Africa
  • Deadline: April 1, 2010
• CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: The ATSE Crawford Fund Fellowship
  • Deadline: April 12, 2010
• TRAINING: BIARI 2010: Climate Change and Its Impacts: Resilience and Adaptation to Changes in Precipitation
  • Deadline: April 1, 2010

Tags: CAPRi, contents

Brown University is accepting applications to participate in its unique professional development initiative: the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI). This new program is designed to provide needed professional development opportunities for young faculty in the early stages of their research and teaching careers. BIARI 2010 will be held from June 13th to June 26th, and will convene 30-40 young scholars. The theme of this year’s event is “Climate Change and Its Impacts: Resilience and Adaptation to Changes in Precipitation”. [more information]

Deadline: April 1, 2010

Tags: training, climate

The Africa-based, globally-networked International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) helps reduce poverty, hunger and environmental degradation by enhancing livestock agriculture in developing countries. ILRI positions its work at the dynamic interface of poverty alleviation and sustainable livestock livelihoods. Our staff work in partnerships and alliances with hundreds of organisations in developed and developing countries, including some of the finest universities and research institutes in the world. ILRI’s headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, with a second principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our staff are also based in 7 partner institutions in other parts of Africa and in Asia and Latin America. We employ more than 700 staff from about 40 countries and are one of 15 centres sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

ILRI currently has vacancies for the following positions:

• Project monitoring and evaluation specialist (closing Wednesday, 24 March 2010)
• Science Officer: Diagnosing vulnerability and analysing opportunities (closing Wednesday, 31 March 2010)
• Scientist – Innovation in livestock systems (closing Tuesday, 20 April 2010)
• PhD Student (closing Saturday, 08 May 2010)
• Post doctoral scientist – Agricultural economist (closing Sunday, 04 April 2010)

Tags: employment, fellowships, Africa

Abstracts for papers, panels, posters, and videos for the 13th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) are due by March 31st, 2010. The conference will be held in Hyderabad, India from January 10th to 14th, 2011 on the theme of “Sustaining Commons: Sustaining our Future". See the original post for more detail.

Tags: calls, SouthAsia, events, commons

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) seeks to recruit a highly qualified scientist in the field of research economist to be based in IWMI East Africa and Nile Basin Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and report to the Head of Office. The purpose of this job is to provide economic expertise, contributing to research projects pertaining to land, water, agriculture, and livelihoods in East Africa and the Nile Basin. More information available here.

Deadline: April 4, 2010

Tags: employment, Africa, CGIAR, water

Source: UN Mission in Nepal

Source: Department for International Development

Amritsar: The SGPC authorities will plant over one lakh saplings of shady, ornamental and trees of other genres in and around its 54 gurdwaras and educational institutes across Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh on March 14 to commemorate Gurta Gaddi Diwas of Guru Har Rai.

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Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government is considering declaring banyan and peepal (Ficus Religiosa) trees as reserved trees as an attempt to conserve environment, stated, principal secretary, forest & environment department, SK Nanda during a seminar on ‘Combating Environmental Degradation – A Roadmap for Gujarat’ here on Wednesday.

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Assam has topped the list of States in terms of encroachment in forest land, with about 4,85,674 hectares of area being occupied, the Government told the Lok Sabha today, reports PTI.

Replying to a query, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said that Andhra Pradesh is in the second place with 2,68,853 hectares of forest land under encroachment.

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Bhamy Shenoy - Fuel subsidies are frequently used to assist disadvantaged groups such as the poor or regional communities. India’s long-standing subsidy on residential kerosene is a good example of such a policy. Initially established as a distribution scheme during World War II, the subsidy has been maintained to provide poor households with fuel for cooking and lighting. Today, however, at least one third of the subsidized kerosene is diverted to the black market for use as a transport fuel—a lucrative business for corrupt fuel distributors who, in turn, bribe government officials to obtain licenses to distribute or blend the fuel and to maintain the subsidies. India has tried to reform the subsidy by targeting access to the poor more efficiently, tracking the subsidized kerosene and liberalizing fuel prices. These reforms have failed because of the strong political pressure to maintain the subsidies by the poor and the participants in the black market.

Source: UN Mission in Nepal

Source: UN Human Rights Council

State now produces a quarter of the country's pulp yield.

This initiative has helped create green cover for carbon sequestration, ground water recharge, regeneration of biomass and in nurturing of depleted soils.

V Rishi Kumar

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Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

SHILLONG: Amrit Cements Industries Limited located at Jaintia Hills District has been accused of violating the Forest Conservation Act at Umlaper village.

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