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Downtown Dar es Salaam: the largest city in Tanzania is on track to have a population over 50 million (Photo: Babak Fakhamzadeh, Creative Commons, via Flickr)
The shifting power of cities
… ameliorate environmental impacts and risks such as the Zika virus and climate change. Benefiting future populations The paper illustrates how the … find more powerful action than building more sustainable cities, at home and abroad.  Daniel Hoornweg ([email protected]) is associate …
Insight, 05 October 2016
Clearing forest for a palm oil plantation in Borneo (Photo: Rainforest Action Network, Creative Commons via Flickr)
Commodity cycles, economic treaties and pressures on land rights
… are changing, for three reasons. 1 ‘Land grabbing’ starts at home Recent research from SOAS reminds us that endemic land conflict in … and prices will remain higher than before 2007-08.  Socioeconomic change at both national and global levels is driving this trend: … urbanisation drives dependence on agricultural commodities, and climate change can exacerbate bottlenecks in agricultural supplies.  In …
Insight, 25 May 2016
When infrastructure is not provided, or not affordable, the urban poor find their own way around the problem, as in Delhi, India, where electricity is tapped
Urban crisis response needs a humanitarian sector shake-up
… action with long-term development. Given the likely impact of climate change on cities, approaches that combine crisis preparedness and crisis response with climate resilience will have more far-reaching effects than keeping the …
Insight, 15 December 2017
Deforestation and fire ravage a forest area in Uganda (Photo: Paul Hatanga)
Random trials in Uganda to show if payments for ecosystems services really work
… a variety of goods and services, from regulating water flow and the climate to providing food, medicines and other useful products. The forests are also home to many wild species, including a chimpanzee population that will … afford school fees and emergency health care. The farmers can only change if they have an alternative. So, in 2010, the Chimpanzee …
Insight, 10 March 2014
Delegates at the 4th Session of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in West Africa (Photo: GWI West Africa)
ECOWAS water ministers agree to build fairer dams
… resources their populations rely on to survive. In the context of climate change, energy and food production were high on the international agenda … and complex dam and irrigation projects – West Africa is already home to 150 dams and there are 40 more in planning or construction.  But …
News, 16 December 2015
Harvesting paddy fields
Ensuring small holders aren't squeezed out of agricultural investments
… play a particularly important role in producing food for both home consumption and for domestic and global markets. Today, Oxfam and … is on business and economic justice issues, particularly related to climate change and natural resources, food security and livelihoods. Prior to …
Insight, 06 December 2012
Fishermen along the Meghna Rover (Photo: Essam Mohammed/IIED)
Want to know how to save a fish species? Ask a fisher
… livelihoods, but overfishing, habitat destruction and, arguably, climate change threaten the species.  In 2003, the government established " … permits many factories in the capital to produce them. 2. A Hilsa's home must be clean and deep. "Hilsa are quite beautiful and wise …
Insight, 08 June 2014
Chinese supermarket. Photo: Simon Lim
Reflections on ten years of rating big brands for sustainability
… the brands under seven themes -- land, women, farmers, workers, climate, transparency and water -- and calculates each score according … to drive transparency across the sector, the involved parties took home some important lessons (see the final report [PDF] ), many of which … in measures of what companies aspire to, rather than of observable change, for example in the health of trading relations, or the welfare …
Insight, 27 February 2013
New Community Forest Instructions give communities rights to commercially sell timber and non-timber forest products, such as such as rattan and honey (Photo: Duncan Macqueen/IIED)
Forest rights create new livelihoods in Myanmar
… a more enabling policy environment for community forest businesses at home, by pointing to progress elsewhere.  A vision for the way forward … up FFPOs business to implement Sustainable Development Goals in climate resilient landscapes', delivered an outcome statement comprising …
Insight, 05 December 2017
Two women sitting in a field
No room for manoeuvre: debt prevents investing in the future
… average 1 to 1.5 acres per household. The main crops are maize (for home consumption), and groundnuts, soy beans, pigeon peas and tobacco … combined with low productivity because of pests and diseases and climate change impacts, means that many farmers end up in debt. They cannot farm …
Article, 26 April 2020