In the aftermath of the destructive monsoon, plans were put forward for various flood-prevention schemes across Bangkok. These ranged from building dams and reservoirs to developing huge new artificial waterways. The owners of one flooded industrial estate began building a 77km concrete wall around the factories, to help keep out future floodwaters. Now, a new idea has been put forward that seeks to harness natural processes to turn the menace of floodwater into an opportunity. Less costly to implement that some of the grand schemes outlined thus far, it could nonetheless save billions of dollars. It involves providing incentives to farmers to allow parts of their land to percolate floodwaters and storing that water below ground for times of drought.

Read more: http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/News_Room/Archives/Below_ground_storage_could_...

Valuable mangrove forests that protect coastlines, sustain sealife and help slow climate change are being wrecked by the spread of shrimp and fish farms, a U.N.-backed study showed on Wednesday.

About a fifth of mangroves worldwide have been lost since 1980, mostly because of clearance to make way for the farms which often get choked with waste, antibiotics and fertilisers, according to the study.

Read more: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/mangroves-under-threat-from-shrimp-fa...

A new study found that bicycle use as a means of transportation is growing 20 percent a year in Santiago. The study’s authors argued that, if public policies existed to guarantee the safety of and parking for cyclists, the numbers would grow even more.

Read more: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amaxwell/latin_america_green_news_chil...

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and internationally known singer and activist Bono discussed obstacles, solutions, and actions needed to end world poverty in a special dialogue at World Bank Headquarters on November 14.

Mainstreaming adaptation into development planning has been promoted as an effective way to respond to climate change. The expected benefits include avoided policy conflicts, reduced risks and vulnerability, greater efficiency compared with managing adaptation separately, and leveraging the much larger financial flows in sectors affected by climate risks than the amounts available for financing adaptation separately. This report reviews the main approaches proposed and lessons learned from relevant experiences in the Asia-Pacific region. A regional forum convened by the Adaptation Knowledge Platform and its partners, held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok in 2010, provided the starting point for this analysis.

Download the report: http://weadapt.org/knowledge-base/adaptation-knowledge-platform-for-asia...

Found mostly in the tropics straddling the land and sea, mangroves make up less than half of one percent of forests of all kinds worldwide. Taken together, some 70 species of mangroves are found in 123 tropical and sub-tropical nations and territories but occupy just 152,000 square km in total -- an area slightly larger than Nepal. Experts are urging policy makers to preserve mangroves and their essential services to nature and humanity alike, saying their replacement with shrimp farms and other forms of development is a bad economic tradeoff both short and long-term.

Read more: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-mangrovesearth-invaluable-coastal-forests-e...

Every year around March 3, the villagers of Lukolela were prepared. They did what they could to protect their houses, stayed indoors, and waited.

Every year, the "3/3" or "third of the third" wind would come roaring up the Congo River on cue, batter the village for a day or two, and then disappear.

But things are changing. The 3/3 wind is no longer living up to its name. It's becoming unpredictable. This year, it came in February and blew ferociously for a week. People weren't ready; crops and buildings were destroyed, and two children were killed by falling trees.

Read more: http://blog.cifor.org/11459/up-the-river-and-paddling-hard-linking-clima...

“Why Tackling Climate Change Matters for Development”
Lecture by Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator and UNDG Chair

In my lecture today, I will talk about key issues at stake in the negotiations, and why concerted international action to tackle global warming matters so much to poor people and poor countries on the front lines of climate change.

My hypothesis is that unless there is more co-ordinated global action to tackle climate change soon, it will be increasingly hard to reduce poverty, in all its dimensions, particularly in the world’s poorest countries. The costs of adaptation will also rise steeply everywhere.

Read more http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2012/11/08...

ADB's third Transport Forum this November 2012 is focusing on the theme "Inclusive and Sustainable Transport." Featuring the world's leading transport experts, key developing member country officials and ADB transport staff, the forum provides the opportunity to discuss and debate the most critical issues facing transport today in the Asia Pacific region.

Read more: http://www.adb.org/features/adb-transport-forum-2012

By 2050, the Earth will need to feed 9 billion people with the same amount of land and water used today. In practice, this means agricultural production must increase by 70 percent.

The urgency of meeting that challenge is becoming increasingly clear as global food prices remain high and volatile. So is the need for better solutions. Agriculture already accounts for more than two-thirds of the world’s freshwater use, and it is contributing to deforestation. A 70 percent expansion in agriculture production cannot follow the practices of the past and still be sustainable.

The answer lies in pursuing a landscape approach – recognizing that agriculture, water, forests, and food security are all connected.

Read more: http://go.worldbank.org/HEDGG3JSA0