Natural resource management blogs
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Food Systems Summit: implications for global food governance
30 September 2021Last week's Food Systems Summit raised questions about global governance models in a policy area fundamental to everyone’s lives. Lorenzo Cotula argues that, without clear decision-making rules and effective structures to manage power differentials, bringing diverse actors together produces ‘capture’ rather than inclusion
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Zambia’s chiefs champion gender equality in land and natural resource governance
6 September 2021Guest blogger Zenebech Mesfin describes the efforts of Zambian traditional leaders to promote gender equality in the management of land and natural resources at the national level
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Indigenous food systems prove highly resilient during COVID-19
26 August 2021Indigenous Peoples’ local agroecological food systems bring valuable lessons of resilience for policymakers heading to next month’s UN Food Systems Summit
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Here's why Indigenous economics is the key to saving nature
13 April 2021Mainstream Western economics is destroying the environment - and the Indigenous knowledge that has conserved nature for millennia
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Charting a “path to recovery and wellbeing” on 2021’s International Day of Forests
19 March 2021Guest blogger David Kaimowitz explains why global ambition to restore the world’s forests will only be achieved if the huge potential of forest and farm producers is realised.
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Secure land rights are now more important than ever
29 January 2021In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many low-income countries are looking to their untapped natural resources as a way to deliver a swift economic boost. But there are concerns that the drive for urgent solutions could impinge on vital governance safeguards. Nathaniah Jacobs and Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye describe an important new initiative that aims to ensure good governance of land-based investments
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Unpacking regulatory chill: the case of mining in the Santurbán páramo in Colombia
21 December 2020Do international investment treaties put a 'chill' on environmental policy? To answer this question, we need to see the state as a complex web of actors, not a unitary whole
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Making natural capital accounting an institution in Uganda
11 December 2020After joining a workshop to hear about some of Uganda’s recently completed natural capital accounts, Rosalind Goodrich reflects on what it takes to make this approach a fixture in government policy and process
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CBA14: explore with us how nature-based solutions support local action for adaptation
21 August 2020The ‘nature-based solutions’ track at next month’s 14th CBA event will explore how nature’s ‘services’ can support local communities to manage the impacts of climate change
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Sustaining coffee producers’ agency in the context of COVID-19
4 August 2020Vava Coffee is social enterprise seeking to create positive social and economic change in Kenya’s coffee industry, the implications of COVID-19 and possible solutions for sustaining progress
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“Public officers are also human beings”: trust and environmental governance
8 July 2020Turning legal frameworks into real agents for environmental change can depend on understanding complex human stories. Guest blogger Paula Ungar reports from Colombia
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Truly transformative change is key to combating the biodiversity crisis
30 June 2020For the Convention on Biological Diversity’s new post-2020 framework to be effective – and not more empty rhetoric – governance needs more attention
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Foreign investment, knowledge and international arbitration: inside a research trip
22 June 2020International investment law and investor dispute arbitration too often fail to notice the concerns of local actors. Guest blogger Nicolás Perrone argues that governance of these international mechanisms needs to take a more holistic, development-based view of the issues
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Finding solutions in nature for climate change
29 May 2020On the International Day of Biological Diversity, IIED hosted a multi-stakeholder webinar on how to work with nature to mitigate and adapt to climate change and halt biodiversity loss. IIED senior researcher Xiaoting Hou Jones chaired the event, and here she shares some highlights from the discussions
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Will COVID-19 leave fuel-rich African countries gasping for breath?
27 April 2020As coronavirus takes its toll on Africa’s oil and gas-reliant economies, Dr Fatima Denton asks if recovery could herald an era of bold new thinking on economic diversification to reduce reliance on natural resources
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Mining reforms have left Colombia’s artisanal miners behind
15 April 2020Following a recent visit to California, Colombia, Jimena Sierra and Brendan Schwartz discuss the impact of the government’s push to promote large-scale mining on artisanal and small-scale gold miners
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Despite COVID-19, using wild species may still be the best way to save them
1 April 2020As the content of the post-2020 biodiversity framework is being developed, Dilys Roe discusses the role of sustainable use in reducing biodiversity loss and saving wild species, and some of the potential implications of COVID-19
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A tale of two villages: community perspectives on the impact of Botswana’s trophy hunting ban
24 January 2020How does a trophy hunting ban affect people who live alongside wildlife? Helen Muller reports on her conversations with local people in Botswana
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Information value chains – from data to research communication
15 November 2019What’s needed to sustain the flow of information from field data to policy communication? Rosalind Goodrich reports from a meeting in Durban that considered how to get biodiversity information to the heart of government decision-making
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Who’s listening? Community voices on illegal wildlife trade
6 November 2019To effectively fight poaching and illegal wildlife trade (IWT), governments, NGOs and their partners across Latin America must listen to, engage with and provide incentives for the communities that live alongside wildlife
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Mali’s new mining law: an improvement, but fails artisanal miners
8 October 2019Mali’s long-awaited mining reforms are here. A mix of progressive and outdated measures, the code must pass parliamentary review before entering into law. We assess the significance of three aspects of the legislation
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Rebalancing power in the Kenya-UK green bean value chain
9 September 2019Farmers and workers often struggle to influence decision-making and trading patterns within global value chains. A recent IIED webinar discussed an initiative to overcome hurdles for farmers and workers to secure a stronger voice and influence trading arrangements within the Kenya-UK green bean value chain
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Why procurement should be the "next frontier" in transparency for mining
1 July 2019Mine sites often spend more on obtaining goods and services – hundreds of millions of dollars a year – than anything else. Jeff Geipel says this procurement needs better data and transparency, but it has the potential to become a lever for economic and social development.
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China’s investments, Africa’s forests: from raw deals to mutual gains?
19 June 2019The grand-scale Belt and Road Initiative is driving ever greater Chinese investment in Africa’s forests. But will the benefits of this ‘development’ reach local people? And will it be sustainable? A recent IIED project in Cameroon highlights both the potential and the pitfalls of surging investment.
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Time to turn the PAGE?
17 January 2019The Partnership for Action on Green Economy is an international alliance of UN agencies, partner organisations and governments working together for a transition to a green and sustainable economy. The alliance's third ministerial conference aimed to showcase innovation and experience, but IIED's Laura Kelly felt a key ingredient was missing