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Agricultural certification schemes are increasingly requiring concession holders to prevent deforestation when they develop plantations but do not sufficiently address forest restoration, which is necessary to prevent further biodiversity loss. This policy brief recommends, by focusing on palm oil, that agricultural certification schemes strengthen...

On 1 May 2020, the National Institute of Urban Affairs, NIUA, (autonomous body under India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs) and the National Mission for Clean Ganga, NMCG, (under India’s Ministry of Jal Shakti) organized an Ideathon on “The Future of River Management”. The purpose of this Ideathon was to use the current COVID-19 crisis as a...

Groundwater can provide irrigation for rural communities where surface water is absent or unreliable. Technical, institutional and capacity limits have prevented rural communities from using groundwater for irrigation, and researchers have not demonstrated how to extract and use groundwater effectively for agriculture. A recent Australian-funded...

先進国を中心とする木材需要の高まりに応じて、人工林の総面積は過去20年で10倍に拡大した。荒廃地等における人工林の増加は、天然林に対する伐採圧力を緩和し、気候変動の抑制、住民の生計への支援、国家の開発政策への寄与など、極めて重要な役割を担っている。 現在、世界の人工林の60％以上はアジアに存在している。近年におけるアジアの人工林面積の急激な拡大は、特に中国、ベトナム、インドなどにおいて大規模な造林プログラムが実施されてきた結果である。しかし、農村地帯における企業又は政府主導の人工造林は、地域住民を彼らの生活の重要な基盤となっている土地から排除する結果となることが多く、しばしば地域の社会紛争を引き起こしてきた。造林プログラムに地域住民が参加している場合でも、土地利用が制限されるため...

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...

Many Asian cities have greatly relied on groundwater in the course of their development. Large populations and concentrations of industrial activity in urban areas intensified the stress on groundwater. Such stress has resulted in environmental problems, such as the drawdown of water tables, land subsidence and saltwater intrusion, which interfered...