Ecuador is a country with exceptional natural resource and environmental advantages and challenges. It is strategically located and has considerable oil reserves in the interior and the coastal region. This document does not aim to describe the state of the environment in Ecuador. Rather, its...

This is the fifteenth in the annual series assessing major development issues. The World Development Report 1992 explores the links between economic development and the environment. The 1990 report on poverty, last year's report on development strategies, and this report constitute a trilogy on...

Valuing ecosystem services-the benefits humans obtain from earth's many life-support systems-is an important step in devising interventions to achieve sustainable livelihoods and climate resilience. The services provided by healthy ecosystems are essential for supporting life. Their loss would...

Global warming and changes in climate have already had observed impacts on natural ecosystems and species. Natural systems such as wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, cloud forests, and Arctic and high-latitude ecosystems are especially vulnerable to climate-induced disturbances. However, enhanced...

Tajikistan is a small mountainous land-locked Central Asian country with an economy that heavily depends, as a legacy of the soviet economy, on exports of cotton, aluminum and hydroelectricity that are three rather environmentally sensitive sectors, as well as on remittances from migrants living...

The country environmental safeguard review provides an overall assessment of Bhutan's environmental safeguard system. The study is not intended to be comprehensive or prescriptive. It is meant to provide a broad overview of some key legal, policy, and institutional challenges and highlight some...

The natural reserve of Ker Cupaam, is located along the Atlantic coast in Senegal, a fragment of a former national forest, basically for the protection of endangered species. Both the flora, and fauna had been severely damaged as a result of drought, grazing, and firewood harvest. Though...

The objective of the Functional Review of the Environment, Water and Forestry sector (FR-EWF) is to help the Government of Romania (GoR) develop an action plan for implementation over the short- and medium-term to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the sector administration, and...

The Chinese economy has experienced an unprecedented 30-year period of economic growth and development that has delivered enormous social and economic benefits to the people but has had seriously adverse and continuing effects on the state of the environment. The government is well aware of the...

In Japan, the sustainable development of cities and provinces has been vigorously pursued since the late 1990s under various programs through the initiative of the central government and local authorities. In 2009, the World Bank launched an urban development initiative called Eco2 Cities:...