SciDev.Net

Written by former director of India's National Remote Sensing Agency, D. P. Rao, this article reviews the role of space technology in disaster mitigation.

Rao offers examples of how remote sensing can feed into prevention, preparedness and relief strategies for a number of disasters. He identifies the areas where these applications are operational, and those that need more research and development.

For drought, cyclones, floods, fires, earthquakes and other disasters in India, Rao outlines the status of relevant remote sensing projects. He outlines the extent of the problem posed by each disaster, and how Indian government and nongovernment organisations use remote sensing to improve risk assessment and early warning.

This factsheet from The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) aims to answer common questions about the role of reducing forest emissions in tackling climate change.

This includes explaining why reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is important and identifying the four key challenges facing REDD projects — measuring carbon, making payments, accountability and funding. The authors summarise ongoing global initiatives to implement REDD, including the UN REDD Programme Fund and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

A glossary of terms used in the debate is included as well as a list of facts and figures on key variables such as forest cover and forest loss. Contact details for some of the key people involved in CIFOR research are provided.

The third IPCC assessment report, Climate Change 2001, includes this section on the links between climate change and health. It offers a detailed look at how variations in climate, such as temperature or rainfall, could affect vector-borne disease. In particular, it evaluates computer models that predict climate impact on dengue fever and malaria. The assessment also looks at specific diseases such as leishmaniasis or schistosomiasis, explaining how the disease is spread and how changes in the environment might alter that spread.

The authors take a holistic look at the various factors involved. For example, in assessing schistosomiasis, they also consider the irrigation systems that will likely be needed to cope with expected water shortages resulting from climate change. The schistosomiasis parasite uses water snails as an intermediate host, so irrigation systems will need to be designed in such a way that they do not cause snail populations to multiply.

An update to the research on climate and vector-borne disease is also included in the fourth IPCC assessment report[796kB] although not in as much detail.

This feature article, published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal, uses the Cordillera Azul national park in Peru as an example to introduce mechanisms for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) that are under global discussion. 

The author discusses both the potential importance of and challenges associated with REDD projects. For example, although Cordillera Azul has been established as a national park by the Peruvian Government, funds for conserving it are still needed.

The article outlines some important milestones in progressing to an international framework for REDD, but notes that important details are yet to be resolved, such as how to ensure that beneficiaries of REDD funds deploy them effectively to protect forests.

The article suggests that active forest management is important and concludes with a brief introduction to the principle of proactive investment in natural capital (PINC) — the idea, promoted by the Global Canopy Programme, that forests should be regarded not only as a source of emissions, but rather as a public utility providing global ecosystem services that should be paid for.

This book, written by researchers at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), poses several critical questions that must be addressed in designing a global framework for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to be implemented after 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol runs out.

The authors frame their discussion within the 3E criteria, first proposed in the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, of carbon effectiveness, cost efficiency and equity/co-benefits. Questions posed include how to set scales and baselines, deal with leakage, ensure permanence, and achieve co-benefits.

They examine various technical solutions for monitoring, reporting and verifying REDD projects, including remote sensing techniques and forest inventories. The political implications of implementing different technical options to distribute REDD income across different countries are also addressed.

The book highlights the need for flexibility in REDD strategies due to differences between countries and the need to allow for room to adapt to changes to the mechanisms as lessons are learned from initial implementation.

This guide to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), published by the Global Canopy Programme, reviews many of the REDD proposals under discussion in global climate change negotiations.

The authors highlight why strategies for REDD are needed, then outline and compare the 32 government and nongovernmental proposals being considered by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They frame their analysis by examining the proposals in terms of scope, reference level, distribution mechanisms and financing options.

Visual comparisons are included to show where proposals agree and differ, and highlight areas with emerging consensus. For example, the proposals generally agree that reference levels should be set at a national level, and that a phased approach using a combination of different financing approaches could be most appropriate. Some challenges for reaching agreement on REDD measures and areas of current research are also highlighted.

The book includes a chapter summarising key research on REDD, including the Meridian Institute's Options Assessment Report, written for the Norwegian government, and several papers published by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

This report, written for the Meridian Institute by a team of scientists from South Africa and Sri Lanka, describes the general issues facing projects aimed at improving access to clean water in the developing world, as well as the specific challenges facing nano-based projects.

The authors describe a number of water treatment devices that incorporate nanotechnology, including nanofiltration membranes, attapulgite clays and zeolites, nanocatalysts, magnetic nanoparticles and nanosensors. More importantly, they outline potential opportunities associated with these technologies, and possible risks.

The paper includes two case studies of projects designed to improve access to clean water — one in Bangladesh based on a conventional approach using sari cloth to remove cholera from water, and one in South Africa that incorporates a nanofiltration membrane.

This feature article from Nanowerk, written in collaboration with scientists, provides a short introduction to the role nanotechnology could play in resolving water shortage and quality issues.

The authors describe how nanotechnologies are being used in water filtration, especially nanotechnology membranes incorporating carbon nanotubes and dendrimers. They also examine how nanotechnologies and materials such as zeolites, carbon nanotubes and biopolymers can be used to remove, reduce or neutralise heavy metals and other contaminants that pose a threat to human health. And they briefly discuss the issue of using nanotechnology to develop water disinfectants.

This paper, prepared for the Global Urban Summit, proposes a framework for building climate change adaptation and mitigation measures into India's urban renewal programmes. This involves multiple government stakeholders at national, state and city levels.

The author begins with a description of the urbanisation trends in India and outlines the climate risks facing the subcontinent, including changing rainfall patterns and the potential for more drought, flooding and extreme weather events like cyclones.

The author outlines the vulnerability of urban populations and suggests that reducing it requires a public policy shift towards mainstreaming climate change risk assessment, adaptation and mitigation measures into ongoing national hazard mitigation programmes, and linking them to urban renewal in the largest cities.

Specific measures highlighted by the author include making building data public, building flood defences, strengthening existing infrastructure to withstand disasters and relocating highly vulnerable populations.

This annotated bibliography of mostly online resources covers the relationship between biofuels and climate change.

The bibliography is divided into ten sections: Biofuels; GM trees; carbon sinks and trading; land use change — effects on atmospheric carbon; deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions linked to biofuels; biofuels and food production; biofuels production — what's the energy balance?; bio-regional energy; food miles; and other oil crops — search facilities.

This document from Friends of the Earth is a partisan analysis challenging claims that genetically modified (GM) crops have brought significant benefits for the environment and poverty alleviation.

It nevertheless provides a useful summary of the key areas where the environmental movement takes issue with the GM movement. The authors are particularly critical of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, which they argue paints a misleadingly positive picture of the impacts of GM crops.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, they examine several GM crops in the United States, GM soybeans in South America and the international community's experience with GM cotton. They also review the current status and prospects for rice, wheat, pharmaceutical crops, biofuels, bentgrass, cassava, sweet potato and potato.

This article presents four years of field research into the commercialisation of genetically modified Bt cotton in Andhra Pradesh, India.

The author, Glenn Stone, challenges the assumption that the rapid spread of Bt cotton is due to farmers carefully assessing the technology on a small scale before adopting it more widely.

Instead, Stone likens the process to a "craze", arguing that Bt cotton technology has disrupted farmers' learning process, as they rely less on experimentation and observation and more on advertising and copying their neighbours.

The article includes critical commentaries by leading scholars from Europe and the United States.

This paper provides a helpful overview of the history, current status and potential value of biotechnology from an African perspective. The authors — three Nigerian scientists — review modern biotechnological tools and techniques, outline their applications, and discuss their benefits and risks.

They focus on the relevance of microbial techniques for fermentation and food processing in developing countries. They also discuss how technologies such as genetic modification can be used to enhance food products' nutritional quality and shelf-life, boost crop yields, develop disease and pest-resistant crop varieties, and diagnose plant diseases.

The authors discuss the key socio-economic, policy and legal issues surrounding biotechnology for developing countries, including intellectual property rights and the need for proper infrastructure.

This document is a three-tier summary of the 'Ecosystems and human well-being: desertification synthesis' report published by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) in 2005. It begins with nine questions and answers introducing the subject, defining desertification, its causes, effects and how it can be better understood.

Answers are then further developed, addressing sub-questions such as how vulnerable are affected populations? And what social, economic and policy factors contribute to desertification?

Finally, it uses extracts from the MA report itself to support the arguments made.

The document estimates that 10-20 per cent of drylands are degraded and identifies desertification as a major environmental challenge affecting some of the world's poorest populations. The MA report suggests prevention as the most effective way to cope with desertification but argues that reducing the pressure on dryland resources must be accompanied by efforts to reduce poverty, as the two are closely linked.

This paper outlines the arguments in favour of adopting transgenic insect-resistant maize, rice and cotton in developing countries.

Drawing on published studies, it reviews the characteristics of available insect-resistant crops and explains how they affect conventional cultivation practices. The authors argue that these crops can benefit smallholder farmers in terms of economics, human health and the environment.

To sustain these advantages, they say, genetically modified crop cultivation must include an effective resistance management strategy and incorporate integrated pest management techniques.

This article discusses herbicide-resistant transgenic crops (HRCs) and their relevance to Indian agriculture. The Delhi-based authors present their assessment of the key issues arising from herbicide-resistant (HR) technology.

Although the Indian government has not identified HR technology as a priority under its draft biotechnology policy, the authors discuss the potential contributions to weed control, and impacts on agricultural labour, crop breeding and the seed and pesticide industries. They also consider the emergence of herbicide resistance.

They conclude that HRCs may be useful in Indian weed-control regimes, but that technical issues and socio-economic and environmental implications need to be evaluated individually.

The discussions are relevant to other developing countries assessing whether to encourage the development and adoption of HRCs in their own agricultural systems.

This special supplement of Nature Biotechnology presents findings from a three-year study of biotechnology success stories from the South. The methods used in Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, India, South Africa and South Korea are examined.

The studies show that Brazil, with its rich biodiversity and strong commitment to scientific development, has great potential to expand its health biotechnology sector. China is said to be reorganising its research and development activities to promote biotech venture creation and move products from the laboratory to market. A study of Cuba shows that, despite the country's economic struggles since the 1961 US trade embargo, it has created a highly developed health biotechnology sector. Egypt is thought to have become one of the Arab world's leaders in science, with strong agri-biotech capabilities and a growing health biotechnology sector. A look at India shows substantial investments in biomedical research, leading to a strong research infrastructure and, in turn, an active private sector willing to invest in biotechnology ventures. An examination of South Africa says its strong scientific base, developed to support the apartheid regime, is now developing biotechnology in the country. The South Korean study claims biotechnology will be the next star industrial sector, following the successes of consumer electronics in the 1960s and information technology in the 1980s.

Aimed at an expert audience, this report is an authoritative and up-to-date assessment of the state of the world's deserts, written and edited by some of the leading names in desert science. The report defines deserts to include all arid and hyper-arid parts of the Earth — some 25 per cent of land surface.

In addition to assessing the future of deserts, the report also highlights the links between deserts and climate change. It shows, for example, that between 1976 and 2000, global climate change contributed to rising temperatures in nine out of the 12 deserts studied. With temperatures set to rise further still, the Sahara is predicted to become drier, according to the report. The Gobi desert, on the other hand, is likely to receive more rain.

The report calls for more enlightened policies to improve the quality of life in deserts. In particular, it advocates moving away from plans that are energy and water-intensive, and instead supporting those that combine traditional wisdom on coping with drought with modern science and technology for sustainable resource management.

The authors of this report use a "computable general equilibrium" model to assess current and future economic impacts of Bt cotton. The document argues that the potential advantages of Bt cotton adoption are likely to be greater in poorer countries — especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, it predicts that the benefits of Bt cotton adoption would be larger than the benefits of dismantling trade-distorting subsidies that rich countries use to support cotton cultivation and exports.

The econometric model used by the researchers does not measure environmental or human health effects, so cannot evaluate the impact of these effects on overall welfare. The paper is clearly presented and accessible to non-economists.

This article discusses two studies looking into agricultural biotechnology research in developing countries. The studies were conducted by researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The authors argue that regulations, insufficient collaboration between public and private sectors and inadequate information exchange between countries impede the commercial development of new agri-biotechnologies, particularly for genetically modified crops. The paper explores these problems and makes a set of recommendations.

The authors' conclusions may not persuade all readers. For example, are the regulatory frameworks themselves at fault, or do public sector research organisations lack the capacity to carry out necessary risk assessments and safety testing? Only 55 per cent of public sector research targets crops that are considered critical to poverty eradication and food security. This article provides a thought-provoking contribution to the debate.