While almost 85 percent of people from developing countries are struggling to cope with natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruption, typhoons, floods and droughts, funding for risk reduction, including preparedness, is insufficient with only $3.7 billion (1 percent) out of $363-billion total aid spent on disaster reduction in the poorest countries, according to United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster-Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlstrom.

Read more: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/top-news/26114-funding-for-disaste...

Subsistence agriculture is the mainstay of the local communities, where peasant farmers grow corn and beans on infertile hillsides, and the harvests are steadily declining, due to climate phenomena.

El Salvador, and Central America in general, suffers heavy rain in winter - the rainy season - which almost inevitably leaves a trail of pain and destruction. In October, for example, the rains claimed 43 lives in the country and flooded 10 percent of the national territory.

Read more: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/energy-forests-the-feminine-art-of-re...

Living at the edge of Kenya’s massive Mau forest complex, Emmanuel Kosen, has been around long enough to see some dramatic changes in the local climate.

“There is a very big difference today compared to those (old) days,” says Kosen, a grey-haired resident of Eor-Enkitok village. “It is too hot nowadays, unlike those days when it used to be very cold.”

Read more: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/as-rains-change-kenyans-turn-to-plant...

Ensuring that forest dwellers have rights over their land is vital for slowing the deforestation that may be causing up to a fifth of the world's emissions of greenhouse gases, according to a report released Wednesday.

The report by the Washington-based NGO Rights and Resources Initiative is aimed at encouraging next month's U.N. summit in Rio de Janeiro to tackle the politically contentious issue of land reforms.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2012/05/30/studies_show_land_rig...

The biggest UN summit on sustainable development in a decade approved a strategy to haul more than a billion people out poverty and cure the sickness of the biosphere.

Read more: http://news.ph.msn.com/top-stories/un-summit-approves-strategy-on-povert...

A public survey has shown that 93.4 percent of the Chinese public understands the idea behind climate change, and 77.7 percent of Chinese citizens have expressed concern, according to the newly released China Public Awareness Survey Report on Climate Change and Climate Communication at a press conference on Thursday in Beijing.

Read more: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2012-11/01/content_26979813.htm

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...

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...

Transportation in Jakarta is paralyzed by floodwaters on January 17th. Days of flooding left tens of thousands homeless and caused 32 deaths. In the midst of catastrophe, many Jakartans volunteered to help, donating time, money and goods.

The floods that ravaged Jakarta in mid-January changed many lives – often in tragic ways. Yet, like other disasters, they set the stage for life-changing experiences of helping others.

Days of flooding in the city of over ten million caused at least 32 deaths and at its peak on January 17th forced 46,000 people from their homes, according to the latest figures quoted by AFP. The Jakarta government estimates the flood caused the city a Rp. 20 trillion ($2 billion) loss.

Read more: http://khabarsouthasia.com/en_GB/articles/apwi/articles/features/2013/02...

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), the company at the center of a decades-long campaign against its logging activities, committed to end all deforestation of natural forests on Tuesday.
The company published a new "Forest Conservation Policy" on Tuesday committing it to end development of all natural forested areas, including peat forests, improve its peatland management to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and work more closely with local communities and other stakeholders.

Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2013/02/06/asia-pulp-paper-commits-end-rain...

Gazi's two sons are in Dhaka with their families. Gazi is clinging to village life the way he did the palm tree. It is the only existence he knows, but he realizes he soon may not have a choice but to leave. "Climate change has wrecked everything," he says. "Our people are living in other towns and cities, like refugees."

Climate change means higher temperatures, more rain, stronger winds. It will trigger a migration unlike anything the world has seen.

As it gradually render parts of Asia and Africa uninhabitable, as many as 250 million people - seven times the population of Canada - will be forced to move by 2050, experts predict.
They will go from deserts to places where water is less scarce, the land not so arid; from coasts, they will move inland, where they are safe from cyclones and tidal waves. They will move from flatlands to higher ground, where sudden storm surges don't flood their villages and destroy farmland with salt water.

Read more: http://thenewnationbd.com/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=65703

Environmental resource conflict – or the potential for it – is never far away in the Himalayas.

In the west of the region, arguments between Pakistan and India over vital water resources in areas bordering the two countries continue. In the east tensions are rising as India expresses concerns about a spate of planned dam-building projects by China on rivers flowing into Indian territory, particularly on the mighty Brahmaputra. Meanwhile Nepal and the north Indian state of Bihar accuse each other of mismanaging water resources that straddle the border.

Read more: http://www.eco-business.com/features/nepalis-respond-to-changing-climate...

Flash floods and landslides caused by tropical storm Shanshan have forced school closures and inundated several communities across parts of the lower South.

Downpours have lashed five districts of Phatthalung for several days, triggering heavy run-off that flooded more than 2,000 homes and damaged more than 10,000 rai of farmland. The districts are Kong Ra, Si Nakharin, Khuan Khanun, Khao Chaison and Muang.

Read more: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/337822/shanshan-floods-cripple-sou...

The United Nations Environment Programme, launched green economy initiative in late 2008. The green economy initiative is one of the nine United Nations based Joint Crisis Initiatives launched by its Chief Executive Board in early 2009.

Its green economy report-2011, firstly, makes an economic case for shifting both public and private investment to transform key sectors that are critical to greening the global economy. It illustrates through examples how added employment through green jobs offsets job losses in a transition to green economy.

Read more: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=268378

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says millions of people could escape poverty, hunger and environmental degradation if countries put more effort into promoting agro-forestry, an integrated approach combining trees with crop or livestock production.

The agro-forestry sector is a significant source both of local commodities such as fuel wood, timber, fruit and fodder for livestock as well as global ones such as coconut, coffee, tea, rubber and gum.

Read more: http://www.spyghana.com/agro-forestry-must-be-encouraged-to-reduce-pover...

Countries that move from fueled lighting systems to solar power could save billions of dollars per year, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said from Kenya.

The U.N. Environment Program said the 1.3 billion people who don't have access to electric light pay a combined $23 billion per year on kerosene. More than 75 percent of the population in West Africa doesn't have access to a reliable source of electricity.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2013/02/25/UNEP-Solar-...

The rare ships that have ventured through the harsh, icebound Arctic Ocean require reinforced hulls and ice-breaking bows that allow them to plow through dense ice as much as two meters deep, and face hazardous conditions in remote locations for long periods of time. Arctic sea ice now is melting so rapidly each summer due to global warming, however, that ships without ice-breaking hulls will be able to cross previously inaccessible parts of the Arctic Ocean by 2050. And light-weight ships equipped to cut through one meter of ice will be able to travel over the North Pole regularly in late summer, according to a new study published March 4 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Plus.

Read more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=melting-arctic-sea-ice-...

The question of whether accepting and acting on climate change adaptation amounts to an admission of defeat for climate change mitigation was the most pressing topic discussed by climate experts on a panel this week at an event sponsored by The Earth Institute.

The debate around applying climate change science to urban environments has been reinvigorated in the wake of the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Sandy on New York City and its 500 miles of coastline in October 2012, as well as on the coastlines of neighbouring New Jersey and Long Island.

Read more: http://allafrica.com/stories/201303011497.html

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government of Vietnam on Thursday signed two loan agreements totaling 111.88 million U.S. dollars to help Vietnam enhance low carbon agriculture development, and strengthen the government's capacity to better startup, prepare and implement ADB-financed projects.

Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-03/08/c_132219309.htm

The international society says mercury pollution is a major threat to the environment and has helped place it on the agenda of environment protection bodies across the globe.

In 2009, the United Nations Environment Program's 25th council moved to formally begin a global effort in mercury pollution control, stipulating that the UNEP would host five meetings with various governments between 2010 and 2013 to formulate a global legal convention on a range of efforts to control the toxic metal.

Read more: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-03/09/content_16293368.htm

The international society says mercury pollution is a major threat to the environment and has helped place it on the agenda of environment protection bodies across the globe.
In 2009, the United Nations Environment Program's 25th council moved to formally begin a global effort in mercury pollution control, stipulating that the UNEP would host five meetings with various governments between 2010 and 2013 to formulate a global legal convention on a range of efforts to control the toxic metal.

Read more: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-03/09/content_16293368.htm

The European commission on Wednesday called for merging the fight against poverty and environmental protection into a single framework for the future, casting itself as the "role model" for the world.

The commission's Decent Life for All by 2030 (pdf) communication outlines proposed negotiating positions on the successor to the UN millennium development goals (MDGs), the eight targets agreed in 2000 – with many likely to miss their 2015 target.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/27/eu-role-model-e...

In his village near Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nazeer Butt, 40, points to his ruined house on a steep mountainside.

“Three outer walls caved in and the roof was damaged when a torrent raced down the hill and hit it last month,” Butt told IRIN.

Read more: http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97606/Building-flash-flood-resilience-in-...

Dawn is a mere glimmer on the horizon and the city is still plunged in darkness. Its cobbled streets are menacingly dark.

But specks of light pierce the breaking day in villages in Alanganallur block, Madurai East, Madurai West and Melur blocks. The streets are unpaved but streetlights powered by solar energy burn bright, lighting up the dips and curves on the village roads.

Load shedding has now become a way of life in Madurai, but good news is emerging from hamlets – big and small - in rural Madurai.

When The Hindu correspondent visited villages in the interior of Madurai East and Alanganallur, the villagers proudly displayed the solar panels they had installed in their homes.

Read more: http://www.propoor.org/news/?n=68146

Khadija Mtungakoa, a 38-year-old mother of three, wears a broad smile as she prepares food on her energy-saving stove.

She explains joyfully how it has helped reduce her reliance on the firewood she gathers from the nearby Amani Nature Reserve in Tanzania's Muheza District.

The government established the reserve in 1997 to protect the unique forest ecosystem of the East Usambara Mountains, a range in the Eastern Arc Mountains.

Mtungakoa's stove, made of clay soil and cow dung, stays hot for much longer than a conventional model, which makes it more efficient when simmering and allows her to reheat cooked food. And it uses much less wood.

Read more: http://allafrica.com/stories/201304010042.html

European funding to help poor countries adapt to a changing climate is dropping remarkably at a time when it needs to be scaled up in line with UN commitments and people are dealing with increasing impacts of extreme weather events.

As part of an assessment that shows significant cuts in development aid to poor nations, the OECD has just revealed that funding for programs mainly focused on helping developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change fell globally from $3.1 billion in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2011. Although the OECD has not yet released climate finance figures for 2012, research by Oxfam suggests that levels of public climate finance did not improve last year.

Read more: http://oxfameu.blogactiv.eu/2013/04/08/staggering-55-cut-to-eu-funding-f...

In the face of unprecedented deforestation and biodiversity loss, policy makers are increasingly using financial incentives to encourage conservation.
However, a research team led by the National University of Singapore (NUS) revealed that in the long run, conservation incentives may struggle to compete with future agricultural yields.
Their findings were first published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 15 April 2013.

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423102330.htm

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has agreed with the Construction Ministry's proposals to expand the flood shelter pilot model across the northern central and central coastal regions.

Dung expressed his approval at a conference in the south-central province of Phu Yen yesterday, April 8, to review the implementation of a programme to help poor families in the two regions tackle floods.

The programme, which was implemented under the Prime Minister's Decision No 716/QD-TTg issued on June 14, 2012, targets 700 poor households in 14 flood-prone communes in Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Phu Yen provinces.

Read more: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/government/70999/pm-agrees-to-expand-su...

Ameth Diagne was asleep when the first waves lapped at his back door, the lukewarm, salty water seeping into his bedroom an impassive portent of the final days of his 650-year-old fishing community.

He had kept his two wives and many of his 16 children with him long after the neighbours had fled, in the vain hope that his once-bustling, tenacious west African village could survive the remorseless advance of the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gBhNlBSpAN3LaQgb5hhlE...