All publications and documents

Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem. Looking to the future, no country—however wealthy or…

Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) are important instruments for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. CEPA provides the link from science and ecology to people's social and economic reality. It supplies the oil for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. CEPA deals with the processes that motivate and mobilize individual and collective action…

With a view to catalysing action to address key environmental problems in the country, the Government of National Unity and the Government of Southern Sudan requested UNEP to conduct a comprehensive assessment of Sudan's environment. This report presents the findings of the Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment of Sudan and provides detailed recommendations for follow-up action. The sectors…

National Security and the Threat of Climate Change report articulates the concept of climate change acting as a “threat multiplier” for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world and identifies key challenges that must be planned for now if they are to be met effectively in the future.

Scientific research in arid areas For a long time, agronomic research has been focused on basic and technical subjects, in view of a linear transfer to the farming world. The model was based on results obtained in station that were communicated to farmers via agents of extension services. This model failed for various reasons that may be attributed to investigators as well as to the…

An ecological and socio-economic need For the last one and a half centuries, humanity has been wantonly eating away at its natural reserves. This situation has lead to two world crises that are intricately connected: An ecological crisis that entails losses in biodiversity and in ecosystem functions at the local, regional and global scales, as well as the shrinking…