All publications and documents

The study "Valuing, restoring and managing presumed drylands: Cerrado, Miombo–Mopane woodlands and the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau" confirms the existence of 1 075 million hectares of presumed drylands that are under threat from unsustainable use and climate change. This is in addition to the 6.1 billion hectares of official drylands that already cover 41 percent of the planet’s land surface and are…

This report presents an updated estimate of the effects of pollution on health, made on the basis of the GBD 2019 data, and also makes an assessment of trends since 2000. These data show that the situation has not improved, and that pollution remains a major global threat to health and prosperity, particularly in LMICs. Since 2000, the steady decline in the number of deaths from the ancient…

The policy debate on urbanisation in Africa has long suffered from a paucity of robust evidence. This report provides a new perspective on the economy of African cities, based on the most comprehensive analysis of data on African cities to date. It uses information from more than 4 million individuals and firms in 2 600 cities across 34 African countries to describe the economic…

Farming with Biodiversity: Towards nature-positive production at scale" presents the food production conditions that will help us secure a nature-positive world by 2030, specifically exploring the merits of agroecological approaches. This new WWF report outlines changes that are needed to create food systems that support rather than exploit nature, with a focus on agricultural…

Agriculture is the largest single source of environmental degradation, responsible for over 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 70% of freshwater use and 80% of land conversion: it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss (Foley et al. 2011, 2005; IPBES 2019; Willett et al. 2019). Agriculture also underpins poor human health, contributing to 11 million premature…

Despite commitments to build resilience, tackle climate change and create sustainable development pathways, current societal, political and economic choices are doing the reverse. This jeopardizes not only achievement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, but also hinders progress towards the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out in the…