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Wood for Good
The report argues that tropical wood production can be sustainable if shifted away from primary forest logging toward high-yield plantations on degraded lands. It highlights the role of certification programs like FSC and PEFC, though it notes low adoption rates in high-deforestation regions. The document provides specific recommendations for producers, businesses, consumers, and governments to reduce the environmental impact of wood and paper products.
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Document type: Report
Towards a Comprehensive Approach to Quantifying and Mapping Ecosystem Services Flows
The authors introduce Service Path Attribution Networks (SPANs), developed as part of the Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) project, to address the 'spatial mismatch' between where ecosystem services are produced and where they are used. The framework distinguishes between provisioning services (beneficial carriers) and preventive services (detrimental carriers), utilizing agent-based modeling to track 'carrier agents' across the landscape. By identifying source, sink, and use locations, the model generates five types of maps—theoretical, possible, actual, inaccessible, and blocked—to help decision-makers identify where service delivery is efficient or impaired. The paper demonstrates the application of SPANs to five service types: aesthetic viewsheds, riverine flood regulation, subsistence fisheries, recreation, and carbon sequestration, arguing that this flow-based approach enables more accurate valuation and targeted conservation planning.
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Document type: Research paper
Mainstreaming climate resilience into goverment: The Philippines’ Climate Change Act
The Philippines' Climate Change Act of 2009 created a centralized governance structure led by the Climate Change Commission, which reports directly to the President. This framework is supported by a National Framework Strategy (2010) and a National Climate Change Action Plan (2011) that prioritize seven key areas, including food security and sustainable energy. Implementation is devolved to local government units (LGUs) through Local Climate Change Action Plans (LCCAPs), supported by various funding mechanisms such as preferential loans and the proposed People's Survival Fund. While the Act promotes integrated adaptation and mitigation—exemplified by 'ecotowns' like Surigao del Norte—civil society organizations have raised concerns regarding the inclusivity of consultations and contradictions with other government policies, such as the promotion of coal and large-scale mining.
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Document type: Policy brief
Environment and wellbeing: a false dichotomy
The document argues against the perceived dichotomy between the climate change movement and traditional environmentalism, stating that human well-being is inextricably linked to the health of natural systems.
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Document type: Statement
Chapter 3: Land
The document analyzes how population growth, economic development, and globalization intensify pressures on land resources, leading to ecosystem degradation and resource depletion. It highlights the conflict between perpetual economic growth and biophysical limits, noting that land-use decisions often ignore non-economic ecosystem functions. The text identifies competing demands for food, feed, fuel, and fiber as primary drivers of land conversion and degradation, exacerbated by climate change. It argues that sustainable land management requires improved governance, capacity building, and the engagement of local communities, mentioning strategies such as REDD and community-based resource management.
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Document type: Report
External Review of the World Resources Institute (WRI) – Looking Back, Looking Forward: the current Strategic Plan (2008- 2012), building on a 30 year legacy, and the next Strategic Plan
The external review assesses WRI's transition toward a more global presence, specifically its expansion into China, India, and Brazil, and its shift toward a 'do-tank' model. While praising WRI's analytical excellence, reputation, and successful engagement with the business sector, the review identifies needs for better program focus, increased attention to poverty and gender, and a more systematic approach to partnership management. It recommends that WRI refine its balance between strategic research and tactical implementation to maintain its comparative advantage as a high-impact global think tank.
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Document type: Report
RACER Rapid assessment of CiRCum-aRCtiC eCosystem ResilienCe
The RACER method shifts Arctic conservation from focusing on current vulnerabilities to identifying 'key features'—areas of exceptional biological productivity and diversity—that act as sources of ecological strength. By analyzing these features and the drivers that fuel them, RACER predicts whether these sources of resilience will persist through the 21st century using General Circulation Models (GCMs). The guide provides a framework for mapping these features and includes pilot case studies for the Beaufort Continental Coast and Shelf (marine) and Eastern Chukotka (terrestrial) to illustrate how the tool can be used to safeguard ecosystem services and biodiversity in a rapidly warming region.
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Document type: Guide
Will second wave environmentalism learn from the errors of the first wave?
The author argues that first-wave environmentalism failed because it lacked a convincing narrative on economic growth, failed to establish relative urgency against immediate poverty and debt crises, and remained isolated within environmental ministries. He evaluates the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability's report as a successful attempt to address these gaps through recommendations on green jobs, carbon pricing, and private sector engagement. However, he warns that the 'zero draft' for the Rio+20 outcome document remains largely aspirational and risks falling back into the 'environmental trap'.
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Document type: Report
Exploitation of soil biota ecosystem services in agriculture: a bioeconomic approach
The paper investigates the trade-offs farmers face between immediate agricultural yields and the long-term maintenance of soil biota. Using optimal control theory, it identifies six bioeconomic states based on ecological interactions (normal vs. nuisance), farmer expectations (sustainable vs. non-sustainable), and technical orientations (natural resource oriented vs. agricultural effort oriented). The analysis reveals that secure property rights and long-term preferences do not automatically lead to conservation; instead, their effect is ambiguous and depends on the specific bioeconomic state of the agroecosystem.
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Document type: Research paper
Training Module - Achieving National and Sectoral Development Priorities: The use of integrated environmental assessment tools for improved MEA implementation
The document outlines a training module designed to overcome challenges in the Caribbean regarding the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). It introduces six working sessions using integrated environmental assessment (IEA) tools—including mapping and stress testing tools—to demonstrate the relevance of MEAs to national development and identify synergies between different agreements. The module specifically references the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and Caribbean-specific protocols on wildlife and land-based pollution.
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Document type: Guide
CLIMATE AND DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH REVIEW
The Climate and Development Research Review meta-synthesizes 572 research papers to inform policy-makers on climate compatible development. It identifies four critical themes: decision-making under uncertainty, natural resource management, climate finance, and the low-carbon transition. The review emphasizes that top-down adaptation policies often fail if not grounded in local realities, leading to 'maladaptation'. It highlights the lack of a universal definition for climate finance as a barrier to fund mobilization and argues that one-off technological breakthroughs are insufficient for a systems-level energy transition. Finally, it warns that without ambitious global mitigation, human society may exceed the limits of adaptation, shifting the focus toward managing loss and damage.
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Document type: Executive summary
ECOHEALTH AND WATERSHEDS
The report examines how Canadian watershed organizations interact with the determinants of human health. Through self-assessments of five organizations—the Fraser Basin Council, Cowichan Watershed Board, Save Our Seine River Environment Inc., Otonabee Region Conservation Authority, and Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority—the study finds that while watershed activities often have implicit health benefits, there is a significant lack of explicit integration and capacity to collaborate with the public health sector. The authors argue that watersheds can serve as integrative mechanisms for intersectoral action, potentially delivering a "double dividend" of improved environmental and human health.
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Document type: Research paper
ÖKOSÜSTEEMITEENUSED ÜLEVAADE LOODUSE PAKUTAVATEST HÜVEDEST JA NENDE RAHALISEST VÄÄRTUSEST
The document provides a comprehensive overview of ecosystem services, categorizing them into supporting, regulating, provisioning, and cultural services. It discusses the economic valuation of these services, contrasting market-based and non-market valuation methods, and argues that assigning monetary value is essential for sustainable policy-making and corporate risk management. The report also introduces 'ecosystem disservices'—negative impacts of nature on human well-being—and provides practical frameworks for local governments and businesses to integrate natural capital into their strategic planning.
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Document type: Report
The Common Agricultural Policy post-2013: a Pathway to Regional Cohesion? Lessons Learned in Implementing Agri-Environmental Measures in the Baltic Sea Region
The report analyzes the challenges of implementing agri-environmental measures under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) within the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). It finds that a lack of coordination between agricultural and environmental sectors, insufficient stakeholder involvement, and an 'uneven playing field' in funding and entitlements have hindered the achievement of environmental boundary conditions. The authors argue that the CAP's national focus often undermines transboundary cooperation and regional cohesion. To address this, they recommend consolidating CAP Pillars 1 and 2 to treat environmental services as a core value of farming and introducing 'soft measures' to support stakeholder dialogue and regional nutrient reduction targets.
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Document type: Report
Living Planet Report 2012
The Living Planet Report 2012 documents a significant global decline in biodiversity and a growing ecological overshoot, where human demand exceeds the Earth's regenerative capacity. It highlights the disproportionate impact of biodiversity loss in tropical and low-income regions and the role of carbon emissions in driving ecological deficits. The report advocates for a paradigm shift toward managing natural capital within planetary limits through 16 priority actions focused on preserving natural capital, producing better, consuming more wisely, and redirecting financial flows and governance.
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Document type: Report
Living Planet Report 2012
The Living Planet Report 2012 documents a significant global decline in biodiversity and a state of 'ecological overshoot,' where human consumption exceeds the Earth's regenerative capacity. It highlights the disproportionate impact of high-income countries on natural resources and proposes a framework for preserving natural capital through better production, wiser consumption, and equitable governance.
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Document type: Executive summary
Scenarios for InVEST: A Primer
The document explains how scenarios—depicted as maps of land cover or marine habitats—are used in InVEST to compare the delivery of ecosystem services under alternative futures. It outlines characteristics of effective scenarios, such as being plausible, legitimate, and scientifically credible, and provides a framework for converting narrative storylines into quantitative maps. Through case studies in Hawaii, Borneo, Tanzania, and Canada, the primer demonstrates how scenarios can inform integrated spatial plans, green economy policies, carbon project feasibility, and marine spatial planning.
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Document type: Guide
Arctic Resilience Report Scoping Workshop
The document details the outcomes of a September 2011 workshop designed to scope the Arctic Resilience Report (ARR). It defines resilience as the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while retaining its identity, and proposes a methodology to identify 'tipping points'—abrupt and potentially irreversible changes in social-ecological systems. The report outlines a preliminary assessment of Arctic drivers (such as climate change and resource demand), sources of general resilience (including biodiversity and governance), and potential regime shifts across local, regional, and pan-arctic scales. It concludes with a formal proposal to the Arctic Council to implement the ARR project between 2012 and 2015, emphasizing the integration of indigenous knowledge and the need for policy-relevant outputs.
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Document type: Report
Landuse change, biofuels and rural development in the La Plata Basin
The provided text is a publication list for a project titled 'Landuse change, biofuels and rural development in the La Plata Basin'. It enumerates various academic papers, theses, and reports published between 2006 and 2011. The listed works focus on ecohydrology, satellite monitoring of land use, the environmental and social impacts of biofuels in South America, and the ecological footprint of agricultural expansion, particularly in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Community Sharing Circle Briefing Note
The document details a community workshop with the Bloodvein First Nation to explore the links between the boreal environment and human well-being. Participants identified critical ecosystem services provided by muskeg (peatlands), reported significant declines in the availability of traditional foods and water quality, and suggested adaptation measures focused on intergenerational knowledge transfer and government communication.
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Document type: Briefing