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Biodiversidad, ecosistemas de humedal y riesgo de inundación: Implicaciones de la expansión hidroeléctrica en la cuenca del río Magdalena
The document evaluates the impact of planned hydroelectric expansion in Colombia's Magdalena River basin on the Mompox Depression, one of the world's largest wetland systems. Using an enhanced Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model, the study finds that while new dams may not prevent extreme floods, they could significantly alter seasonal and low flows, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services. It also warns that reducing connectivity through flood-control structures like dikes could increase peak flow magnitudes downstream, potentially raising flood risks for urban areas like Barranquilla.
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Document type: Fact sheet
climate change adaptation in swedish forestry: driving forces, risks and opportunities
The report examines how stakeholders in Swedish forestry perceive climate change risks and opportunities. It finds that while some anticipate increased growth, others fear storm damage and pests. Adaptation is driven by personal experience of extreme weather and trust in advisers, but hindered by distrust of climate science and conflicting views on effective management strategies. The document emphasizes the need for user-oriented, interactive communication between researchers and practitioners to foster adaptation.
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Document type: Report
Den svenska bioekonomin: definitioner, nulägesanalys och möjliga framtider
The report defines the bioeconomy as the part of the business sector based on biomass resources, estimating its 2013 value at approximately 5% of Sweden's GDP. It explores four future scenarios for 2050—ranging from global circular welfare to regional self-sufficiency—concluding that while biomass demand will likely increase, sustainable growth requires strong public-private cooperation, investment in biorefineries, and a shift toward circular material flows.
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Document type: Report
BHUTAN THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSERVATION STORY YOU’VE NEVER HEARD
Bhutan has a constitutional mandate to maintain 60% forest cover and manages a connected network of 10 protected areas covering 5 million acres. However, this system faces threats from poaching, illegal logging, human-wildlife conflict, and a declining youth population in rural areas. Additionally, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change, experiencing melting glaciers and intense rainstorms. To address these challenges and a decrease in foreign aid, WWF and the Bhutanese government have launched 'Bhutan for Life', a funding initiative with a goal of $35 million to $45 million. This fund uses a project finance model to support enforcement, wildlife monitoring, and community job creation, transitioning the country toward a self-sustaining conservation business plan over 15 years.
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Document type: Guide
ORINOCO REPORT CARD RIVER BASIN 2016 COLOMBIA
The 2016 Orinoco River Basin Report Card evaluates the health of various sub-basins in Colombia, assigning an overall grade of B- (63%). The assessment reveals a strong west-east gradient, with Andean headwaters in the west facing severe degradation from mining, oil and gas, and agro-industry, while eastern sub-basins like the Matavén (Grade A) remain more intact. Key concerns include poor human nutrition in the Inírida basin and significant data gaps in water quality monitoring and biodiversity surveys across several tributaries.
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Document type: Report
PLOWPRINT REPORT 2016
The Plowprint report by WWF International tracks the gross conversion of intact grasslands to cropland in the US and Canada from 2008/2009 to 2015. Unlike net conversion studies, the Plowprint counts land as converted even if it later reverts to grass, arguing that the initial plow-up causes significant, long-term ecological loss. The analysis uses federal satellite-derived data to identify conversion hotspots and emphasizes the loss of ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and water filtration. While noting that nearly half of the Plowprint area had reverted to perennial cover by 2015, WWF maintains that such restoration may not fully recover biological diversity or soil capacity. The document also outlines WWF's broader efforts to reduce grassland and forest conversion globally, specifically targeting soy, beef, and palm oil supply chains in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
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Document type: Fact sheet
The Genesis of ‘Coywolves:’ A Story of Survival
The text describes the evolution of the 'coywolf'—a hybrid of the eastern gray wolf and western coyote—which emerged as a survival mechanism following European settlement, deforestation, and hunting in North America. It uses this example of hybridization to warn that current legislative efforts to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act in Wyoming, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota could lead to the extinction of pure-bred wolf populations due to unregulated killing.
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Document type: Statement
Agroecology and Climate Justice: A People’s Guide to Paris and Beyond
The document critiques industrial agriculture as a primary driver of climate change and social inequality, while presenting agroecology as a viable, small-scale alternative. It specifically attacks 'Climate Smart Agriculture' (CSA) as a corporate-led 'false solution' designed to greenwash industrial practices. The text advocates for a transition toward food sovereignty and the relocalisation of food systems, highlighting the role of women and traditional knowledge in building climate resilience.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Agroecología y justicia climática: Guía popular hacia París y más allá
The document contrasts industrial agribusiness with agroecology, asserting that the former is a primary driver of climate change and social inequality. It dismisses 'climate-smart agriculture' as a marketing tool for corporations to maintain power structures without addressing the root causes of the climate crisis. Instead, it advocates for a transition to agroecology, which supports small-scale producers, protects biodiversity, and enhances climate resilience. The text highlights the role of women and traditional knowledge in this transition and calls for public policies that shift resources away from industrial meat and crop production toward food sovereignty.
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Document type: Fact sheet
BRAZIL’S NEW FOREST CODE
The 2012 Forest Code governs private land use in Brazil through Permanent Preservation Areas (APP) and Legal Forest Reserves, utilizing the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) for monitoring. It includes a special regime for landowners who illegally deforested prior to July 2008, offering leniency and offsetting options via the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA). Implementation faces hurdles including state-level legislative delays, legal challenges regarding constitutionality, and a lack of capacity among landholders.
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Document type: Policy brief
Por qué el Manejo Comunitario de Bosques es importante
The briefing advocates for Community Forest Management (CFM) as a superior model for protecting biodiversity and mitigating climate change compared to industrial forestry and absolute protection regimes. It highlights that CFM can reduce deforestation rates and enhance carbon storage while securing the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The document warns against 'false solutions' like REDD+ and the 'financialization of nature,' which it claims risk land grabbing and the erosion of traditional governance. It recommends that governments recognize collective land tenure and that international frameworks, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, prioritize CFM over traditional Protected Areas to meet conservation goals.
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Document type: Briefing
Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests – An Assessment Framework and Initial Report: Technical Annexes
The report evaluates global natural forest loss using two proxy indicators: annual gross tree cover loss (Hansen/GFW) and annual net natural forest change (FAO FRA). While FAO data suggests a declining trend in net loss that could meet the 2020 target, Hansen/GFW data indicates that gross tree cover loss has remained high and actually increased by 9% between 2010 and 2014 compared to the 2001-2010 baseline. The document highlights the critical difference between gross and net loss, noting that net accounting can mask the loss of primary forests if they are replaced by regenerated forests, which have lower carbon storage and biodiversity value.
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Document type: Report
Putting REDD+ environmental safeguards into practice: recommendations for effective and country-specific implementation
The document examines the implementation of REDD+ environmental safeguards, noting that while the 2013 Warsaw Framework makes safeguard information a condition for results-based payments, the broad nature of these guidelines allows for significant national discretion. It proposes using systematic gap analyses of national policies, laws, and regulations to improve the effectiveness of safeguards for protecting natural forests and biodiversity.
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Document type: Research paper
Legal briefing: Complying with Art 2(2) of the CFP basic regulation when setting TACs and quotas
The document outlines the legal obligations under Article 2(2) of the CFP basic regulation to manage fish stocks to achieve maximum sustainable yield (MSY). It asserts that to meet this objective, exploitation levels must be set below FMSY, as fishing at the average FMSY point only leads to biomass being above BMSY 50% of the time. The briefing emphasizes a timeline where MSY-based exploitation rates should have been achieved by 2015 where possible, and must be achieved on a progressive basis by 2020 at the latest. It argues that any derogation or delay in achieving these rates requires concrete, evidence-based explanations. While Recital 7 suggests delays may be justified if MSY rates would "seriously jeopardise the social and economic sustainability of the fishing fleets involved", the document clarifies that this requires a significant risk to the fleet's future rather than mere fluctuations in economic conditions. The author recommends that the Commission issue clear guidelines on what constitutes a justifiable delay and who must provide the supporting evidence.
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Document type: Briefing
The Mining Policy Framework: Assessing the implementation readiness of member states of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development
The report assesses three IGF member states—the Dominican Republic, Uganda, and Madagascar—against the six pillars of the Mining Policy Framework (MPF). While these countries show medium readiness in legal environments, financial benefit optimization, and environmental management, they exhibit low readiness in socioeconomic benefit optimization, mine closure, and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). A critical systemic barrier across all three nations is the lack of financial and human resources to enforce existing laws.
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Document type: Report
Community-Based Eco-cultural Tourism in Timor Leste
The document details how FoE Timor Leste/Haburas partnered with local communities to establish eco-lodges and tourism operations. The Tutuala project has hosted over 4,000 tourists and generated funds for education and living standards. This model has since been replicated in Maubisse and Laloran, promoting skill acquisition in areas such as financial management and environmental management. The author recommends that the government prioritize community-based ecotourism as a non-fossil fuel sector in its national strategic development plan.
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Document type: Case study
Exploring the links between post-industrial landscape history and ecology through participatory methods
The study demonstrates that integrating local knowledge through participatory GIS reveals how both planned interventions and informal community activities—ranging from the active protection of flower-rich habitats to disturbances like motorbike use—contribute to habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity in post-industrial landscapes.
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Document type: Research paper
Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil
The report argues that Brazil's historical land abundance led to a misallocation of resources and land-intensive agricultural models. However, it demonstrates that productivity gains can be achieved without further deforestation by converting degraded pastures to crops and improving technology dissemination, credit access, and infrastructure. It highlights the success of the PPCDAm and DETER system in reducing Amazon deforestation but warns of new challenges, such as smaller-scale clearings and deforestation shifting to areas outside the Amazon and around protected zones.
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Document type: Report
Sustainable Development Goals for Sweden
The report examines the applicability of the 169 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets to Sweden's domestic context. Through a rapid screening and detailed interpretation of selected targets, the authors find that the majority of SDGs are relevant to Sweden, challenging the notion that they apply only to developing nations. The paper highlights significant gaps in areas such as youth unemployment, income inequality, and sustainable consumption. It argues that national implementation requires a political, government-led process to translate vague global targets into specific, measurable national goals, emphasizing the need for policy coherence and cross-sectoral coordination.
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Document type: Research paper
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE CONSUMERS UNION OF UNITED STATES, INC., VERMONT BUSINESSES FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, and BEN & JERRYS HOMEMADE, INC.
The brief, submitted by Consumers Union of United States, Inc., Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, and Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc., supports the denial of a preliminary injunction against Vermont's Act 120. It contends that GE food labeling is a global norm, adopted by over 60 countries and sanctioned by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The authors argue that the law serves substantial state interests, including public health and environmental protection, and that compliance costs—specifically through nationwide relabeling—are minimal, one-time expenses that do not constitute irreparable harm.
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Document type: Legal commentary