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This report presents the results of IGES research on public timber procurement policy to date. It includes a comparative analysis between Japan’s policy and those of several European countries. In addition to providing recommendations for further strengthening Japan’s policy, the report identifies a generic set of elements that public timber...

Asian cities have faced problems caused by rapid urbanization for decades. While urbanization can bring economic development to the cities, it also produces decrease of natural resources or environmental deterioration. From the perspective of fresh water related issues, Asian cities are suffering from scarcity of water resources and water...

This book documents the environmental, technological and policy aspects for establishing industrial clusters in the urban-rural fringe areas of India, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam as a strategic approach for integrated economic and environmental planning.

Partly due to the worldwide upsurge in industrial demand for timber, the number of planted forests has increased ten-fold in the last 20 years. These planted forests currently comprise only about 5% of the world’s forest area, but supply 35% of industrial logs and have critical roles to play in releasing pressure on natural forests, mitigating...

The objective of this project is to answer the question of "how business/industry can realise a sustainable society". To attain this objective, two goals were set: (1) to identify promising business models for realising a sustainable society and develop relevant methods to quantify their potential while proposing masures to promote such businesses...

No natural disaster in recent history has affected so many people’s lives as the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The world’s response in the wake of the tsunami seems so far to have revolved around recognition of the need for early warning systems linking countries and regions that are likely to be affected by the same tsunami or similar...

The focus of the Urban Environmental Management Project of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in 2005-2007 was on the opportunities and barriers for integration of global environmental concerns into local planning and management, taking greenhouse gas emission reduction as a distant but ultimate goal. Accordingly, the project builds...

This study examines two major transitions in forest governance - decentralisation and state-sponsored (formal) community forestry - with respect to whether they are opening spaces for communities to contribute to sustainable forest management. Our main thesis is that there is a need for democratic decentralisation in order to effectively re-engage...