In this month’s issue...Introducing IIED's new director, a new paper on low carbon resilient development, and we ask why don't we make the loggers pay?
Rural-urban migration continues to attract much interest, but also growing concern. Migrants are often blamed for increasing urban poverty, but not all migrants are poor. In many cities, however, migrants form a large proportion of the urban poor with whom they share income and non-income disadvantages, including difficulties in finding adequate housing and in accessing services. Read our latest working paper on, Urbanisation, rural–urban migration and urban poverty.
Stumpage fees due from the timber industry are a key component of forest communities' welfare and contribute to the cost of forest management and timber regulation. Why don't we make the loggers pay? is a new country report which highlights that the Forest Commission’s failure to review stumpage in Ghana has led to millions of dollars of lost revenue from stumpage fees over the period 2003-12.
Read our latest issue paper focusing onlow carbon resilient development and gender equality in the least developed countries. The paper examines how Least Developed Countries are meeting the challenge of integrating multiple agendas and how gender considerations have been incorporated into different aspects of low carbon resilient development planning.
Briefings
Sustainable intensification is receiving growing attention as a way to address the challenge of feeding an increasingly populous and resource-constrained world. But are we asking too much of it? Nearly 20 years after the concept was developed, a new briefing paper revisits the term and asks what sustainable intensification is — a useful guiding framework for raising agricultural productivity on existing arable land in a sustainable manner; and what it is not — a paradigm for achieving food security overall.
The environmental impacts of China's agricultural production affect not just China, but also the global environment. IIED and China Agricultural University hosted a workshop to explore examples and models that could help promote sustainable agricultural practices in China. The workshop brought together 30 practitioners, researchers, government officials and NGO staff working on sustainable agriculture. The results of eight case studies on sustainable agriculture were shared and the feedback gathered on the case studies will be incorporated into a research report due out later this year.
Job vacancy: Researcher – forest and biodiversity teams
The Natural Resources Group is seeking a researcher to provide support to the forest and biodiversity team, particularly on food, forests and equity, and on ecosystem-based adaptation.