Although it is widely acknowledged that forests provide critical ecosystem services for human survival and well-being, in the Asia-Pacific region forests are being converted to other land uses and degraded at alarming rates. One underlying factor for this destruction of forests is market failure. Forests are cleared for other land uses or degraded...
Key Messages:
✓ The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest emitter of GHGs, and its cities account for a major share of these emissions. Out of the top 10 CO2 emitting cities globally, six are located in the region. Asia-Pacific cities have key roles to play in achieving the 1.5oC/2oC global climate targets.
✓ A total of 45 countries in...
Key messages
✓ Cities are home to over half of the world’s population and are centers of growing resource demand. In many cities, the immense demand for resources is driven by the conventional silo approach to resource management, inefficient production systems, and resource-intensive lifestyles. Efforts to improve efficiency in urban systems by...
Industry, in the context of this chapter, is mostly confined to the strict definition of the word: -“economic activity concerned with the processing of raw materials and manufacture of goods in factories”. Industry has a major impact on nature and its biodi- versity in Asia and the Pacific, as it does elsewhere in the world. Industry impacts...
The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) is a global network to promote collective efforts for sustainability in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS), and thereby to contribute to the realisation of “living in harmony with nature”. The Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) is a seed funding programme...
Socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) can contribute to global goals for biodiversity conservation and dealing with climate change, while also contributing locally to human security and wellbeing. SEPLS are, however, under threat around the world. SEPLS have been promoted under the Satoyama Initiative by the International...
Over the last 25 years, the global area of certified forests has grown rapidly and voluntary forest certification has become recognized as an effective tool to engage international markets in improving sustainability within forest management units. However, the bulk of this growth has occurred in North America, Northern Europe, Australia, and New...
Food production and productivity improvements have contributed to lifting millions of people out of poverty and reduced hunger and malnutrition, but are associated with patterns of land intensification that have degraded agricultural land and caused great environmental harm. Underlying drivers affecting land conversion to and from agriculture...
Key messages
- Inherent complexity in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a barrier to their application to land management. A better conceptual understanding can guide governments and other actors in the Asia-Pacific region to develop a coherent view of how the SDGs apply to land.
- Reorganisation of the SDGs and their targets related to...
The Asia-Pacific region faces a fundamental dilemma. Over recent decades the region has achieved tremendous economic growth that has lifted millions of its people out of poverty and raised living standards, but in many places the way land is being used to generate this growth is unsustainable. Land has been exploited – growing economies regardless...