Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the international community has recognized the need for an approach to development that considers the interdependence of human and natural systems. Single-sector approaches to development challenges are insufficient to produce sustainable...

Unlocking Nature-Smart Development: An Approach Paper on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is part of a series of papers by the World Bank Group that outlines the development challenges and opportunities associated with blue and green biodiversity and ecosystem services. The paper makes the...

Mangroves provide essential ecosystem functions and services that support coastal communities. Despite their importance, they have been degraded and removed globally resulting in loss of resilience of coastlines, their communities, and economies. Myanmar in particular has suffered from high...

The primary objective of the Southern Gobi Regional Environmental Assessment (REA) is to provide guidance for sustainable management of environmental resources in the future development of the Southern Gobi Region (SGR), development that will be led by rapid expansion of mining. The REA defines...

This study seeks to identify potential sources of co-financing to meet the additional costs of energy efficiency (EE) and climate mitigation benefits associated with the hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) phase-out supported by the Multilateral fund of the montreal protocol (MLF). As it stands, the...

Plastic waste negatively impacts ecosystems, public health, and local economies in Tanzania. For example, marine plastic and microplastic wastes contaminate beaches, sea grass areas and coral reef habitats, lower the quality of marine ecosystems and biodiversity, and endanger bird and marine...

The Kingdom of Morocco is endowed with a wealth of marine resources, characterized by high biodiversity with at least 600 identified fish species. In total, Morocco's coastal areas contribute 59 percent of the country's GDP and provide 52 percent of jobs. There is an even greater untapped...

The Economic Case for Nature is part of a series of papers by the World Bank that lays out the economic rationale for investing in nature and recognizes how economies rely on nature for services that are largely underpriced. This report presents a first-of-its-kind global integrated...

In response to a challenge from members of the Carbon Pricing Panel for the world to expand carbon pricing to cover 25 percent of global emissions by 2020, Ethiopia commissioned a carbon pricing study to obtain recommendations on the role and possible forms of carbon pricing policies in...

This report presents a framework for strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of regulation of forestry and related sectors. It strives to identify and reduce regulatory burdens on private firms active in the forestry sector, while not compromising the objectives of government regulation....