Asia and the Pacific is a dynamic region. Regional megatrends, such as urbanization, economic and trade integration and rising incomes and changing consumption patterns, are transforming its societies and economies while multiplying the environmental challenges.

These environmental challenges range from growing greenhouse gas emissions, poor air quality, land use change, pressure on marine ecosystems, biodiversity loss and increasing demand for resources, such as energy and water. These megatrends are already shaping the future patterns of resource use and defining who benefits the most and who loses. A basic premise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is that trade-offs between environmental protection, shared prosperity and social progress can no longer be viewed as acceptable.

Aligning these trends with sustainable development requires political will and action to reshape the relationships between the economy, society and the environment. This report examines four critical determinants of the relationships between these three dimensions of sustainable development as targets for fundamental transformations—in social justice, resource efficiency, investment flows and economic structures.

The international community has an unprecedented chance to support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence across the world, but to do so, they need to get political.

A long-term strategy based on accountability with pressure from the global community should inform the peace talks & the ceasefire.

Law reform is popular, but has had limited success. How insights from political settlements and adaptive development could improve the efficacy of rule of law reform.

Teak has the highest capacity for carbon sequestration among trees in India. This is the finding of a study conducted by the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) to prepare a hierarchy of local

With more than half the world's population now living in cities, urban areas will play a key role in SDGs implementation.

Zhuhai, China: There is huge potential for an increase in urban forests, trees and green areas to counteract the negative effects of rapid urbanization and improve livelihoods in the major cities of Asia and the Pacific, a regional meeting on urban forestry heard today.

The First Asia-Pacific Urban Forestry Meeting is co-convened by FAO in Zhuhai, China, where experts from 20 countries have gathered to consider ways to improve the lives and livelihoods of millions of urban inhabitants through the greening of cities.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to 53 percent of the world’s urban population and is projected to have one of the largest urban growth rates during the next 20 years, especially in developing countries.

Campaign For Survival Dignity convenor Gopinath Majhi had filed a petition with the Centre The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has cautioned the Odisha government not to erode the authority of the

Major percentage ruled out as per FSI stand. Hyderabad: The actual forest cover of the country might be half of what the Ministry of Environment and Forests spurns out annually in its Forest Survey

Published each year since 1947, the FAO Yearbook of Forest Products is a compilation of statistical data on basic forest products from over 100 countries and territories of the world.

The 68th edition of the Yearbook is published in 6 languages and contains annual data on the production and trade in forest products for the years 2010-2014 and on direction of trade in 2013 and 2014.

This report is an output of the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP). The aim of this report is to present downscaled climate scenarios in a relevant, understandable and illustrative manner for a diverse group of end-users and stakeholders, including other HICAP research components decision-makers at different levels. This report is based on dynamically downscaled temperature and precipitation projections for 8 different domains in the Hindu-Kush Himalayas. It uses the HICAP model (the WRF model, driven by the NorESM GCM model) for the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. Comparing model results with local observations for a reference period (1996-2005, the output was corrected for various under- and overestimations. For each domain, projections for periods 1996-2005, 2010-2030, 2030-2050 and 2050-2080 are presented a) in figures relevant for local users and decision makers, b) in a simplified text summing up the projections, and briefly discussing them in relation to potential impacts. This report provides highly relevant, locally specific results for the HICAP region, and relates these to geographical variations within each domain across the Himalayas. No other models and projections have been used in this report, and the HICAP model results should be compared with other sources of information for a final assessment of local climate change and impacts. The usability of the report extends beyond the HICAP project: the model-adjustment method, aimed at showing how to make projections realistic and relevant at the local level, the ease of the calculations and the guided interpretations of the figures and projections can serve as a guide to model use and presentations anywhere, provided the availability of a minimal amount of observations to compare and adjust larger scale model outputs to local climate observations for a certain reference period.

First of 200 wells drilled close to controversial block of forest known to have two of the last tribes living in isolation Ecuador has started drilling for oil on the edge of a controversial block of

The Amazon has it bad, but the Cerrado may have it even worse. After all, at least you’ve actually heard of the Amazon. The Cerrado isn’t as big, but it is still one of the largest and most important

A senior official said there were various difficulties that led to mangroves not being included in the census. THE ONGOING tree census by the BMC will not include mangroves. The BMC had been in the

Experts are discussing the restoration of Latin America’s forests and other ecosystems this week at a meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, co-organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI) and FAO. The capacity-building workshop will identify ways to help countries achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which aims to restore 15 percent of degraded ecosystems by 2020 worldwide. Globally, more than 2 billion hectares of land – an area the size of South America – are currently degraded, with a resulting loss of fertile soils, biodiversity and carbon stock that threatens the livelihoods, wellbeing, food, water, energy security and resilience of millions of people. Topics under discussion at this week's workshop will include monitoring and reporting tools, resource mobilization and private sector engagement, and representatives from Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador and Guatemala will share their experiences on national planning for forest restoration. For more information on FAO’s work on forest and landscape restoration, please visit www.fao.org/forestry/flrm.

The environment ministry used to be the reason behind most project delays. This seems to have changed, according to a government study of over 1,000 projects. ONLINE WINDOW Forest & wildlife clearances

NAGPUR: PTI The Centre has planned to introduce tree farming in India to increase the forest cover in the country, Union environment and forests minister Prakash Javdekar said here on Sunday. Chairing

Satellite maps show tiger habitat is being lost but still adequate for meeting international goal of doubling tiger numbers by 2022 Forests that harbour tigers are being lost but are still large enough

Bialowieza Forest is the kind of place you imagine from the Grimm fairy tales. Huge firs, oaks, and ashes tower over you, woodpeckers and other birds call all around you and the guides who work there know

As forest fires raged like never before across Indonesia last year, President Joko Widodo announced he was setting up a special agency to tackle the annual scourge that shrouds parts of Southeast Asia