If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy for review by the Bridges staff to Malena Sell at msell@ictsd.ch.
GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2008: MDGS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: AGENDA FOR INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. The World Bank, April 2008. Global Monitoring Report 2008, the fifth in an annual series, is essential reading for those who wish to follow the global development agenda and debate in 2008. The year marks the midpoint toward the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is also an important year to work toward a consensus on how the world is going to respond to the challenge of climate change, building on the foundation laid at the Bali climate change conference in December 2007. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of progress toward the MDGs and related policies and actions. It addresses the challenge of climate change and environmental sustainability and assesses its implications for development. The book can be ordered through the website at http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=8045372.
SMALL BOATS, BIG PROBLEMS. World Wildlife Fund, 5 May 2008. This paper argues the WWF view that small boats can cause as much damage in fisheries around the world as the big trawlers. While most governments say they want to halt subsidies that contribute to overfishing and over capacity, many demand the right to continue subsidising ’small’ vessels. WWF argues that relaxing WTO rules for ’small boats’ has no basis in sound policy and runs the risk of introducing a dangerous loophole in WTO fisheries subsidies rules. The paper is available at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/wwf__small_boats_big_problems_1.pdf.
STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR POLICIES: AN INSTRUMENT FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE. Edited by Kulsum Ahmed and Ernesto Sanchez-Triana. The World Bank, May 2008. Environmentally and socially sustainable policies are essential for good governance. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is the key tool for integrating environmental considerations into policies, programmes and plans. This book focuses on SEA applied to policies. Through lessons learned from previous use of SEA on policies, it draws lessons on the strengths and weaknesses of current SEA methodology. It then analyses how policies are formulated and implemented and proposes a new conceptual framework for conducting SEA of policies that potentially could be more useful in influencing decision makers to integrate environmental sustainability considerations into policy formulation and implementation. For more information, please refer to http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=5990301.
DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBALIZATION: FACTS AND FIGURES 2008. UNCTAD, April 2008. This second issue of UN Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Development and Globalization: Facts and Figures is more than an update of the 2004 edition. With economic globalisation challenging much of our traditional wisdom, the 2008 edition is meant to enhance the analytical emphasis and to offer some explanations for new and emerging economic trends. The report provides a synopsis of UNCTAD’s independent research in the areas of trade and development, and related issues in the fields of finance, technology, investment and sustainable development. The report can be accessed at http://www.unwater.org/downloads/UNW_Status_Report_IWRM.pdf.
INTERLINKAGES AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MULTILATERAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS. United Nations University, April 2008. This book seeks to fill the existing gaps in knowledge and policy-making with regard to the need for greater coordination and synergies among environmental institutions, policies and legal instruments, particularly focusing on international law. It also provides a framework for measuring the effectiveness of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and shows how the effectiveness of MEAs can be improved by interlinkages. The report is available online at http://www.unu.edu/unupress/sample-chapters/1149-InterlinkagesAndEffectivenessOfMultilateralEnvironmentalAgreements.pdf.
RISING FOOD PRICES, POVERTY, AND THE DOHA ROUND. By Sandra Polaski. Carnegie Endowment Policy Outlook, May 2008. Sandra Polaski examines the role of a Doha agreement in light of rising food prices and their impact on global poverty. Polaski points out that all sophisticated models of the Doha Round conclude that it would raise food prices modestly, but she argues that a carefully crafted agreement could nonetheless play a positive role in improving global food security and reducing future hunger and poverty. Although many poor households will require urgent assistance because of rising food prices, more are likely to gain than lose. However, proper diagnosis of the problem will be required to avoid counterproductive measures that could have disastrous results. For further information and access to the policy paper, please refer to http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=20144&prog=zgp&proj=zted.
EUROPEAN FINANCING OF AGROFUEL PRODUCTION IN LATIN AMERICA. By Jan Willem van Gelder and Hassel Kroes (Friends of the Earth, May 2008). This report aims to provide a first overview of the involvement of private European financial institutions in the financing of companies producing and trading palm oil, soybeans and sugar in Latin America, as well as companies processing these feedstocks into agrofuels in Latin America. Thirteen companies involved in this sector were found to have linkages with 44 European financial institutions from ten European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). Most companies only have links with a limited number of European financial institutions, but Bunge has links with 31 European financial institutions, Agrenco with 19 and Tereos with 13. Download at http://www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels/financers_report_May08.pdf.
“Assessing the Implementation Effects of the Biosafety Protocol’s Proposed Stringent Information Requirements for Genetically Modified Commodities in Countries of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation” in the REVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS. By Guillaume P. Gruère and Mark W. Rosegrant, 2008. This article analyses the potential effects of a generalised implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety’s proposed stringent information requirements on countries, members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). This rule would request all traded shipments containing living modified organisms intended for food, feed, or processing to carry a label with the list of precise genetically modified (GM) events in the shipments. We find that the benefits of such requirements are largely debatable and that this regulation would add significant implementation costs for importers of GM crops, for Protocol members adopting new GM crops, and for countries ratifying the Protocol. Download at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9353.2008.00401.x.
INTRODUCING A GENETICALLY MODIFIED BANANA IN UGANDA: SOCIAL BENEFITS, COSTS, AND CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS. By Enoch Kikulwe, Justus Wesseler, and José Falck-Zepeda (IFPRI, May 2008). The purpose of this paper is to examine potential social welfare impacts of adopting a GM banana in Uganda. The study has three objectives. First, suggest and apply an approach to calculate reversible and irreversible benefits and costs of introducing a GM banana. The study applies a real option approach to estimate, ex ante, the maximum incremental social tolerable irreversible costs (MISTICs) that would justify immediate introduction of the technology. Second, suggest an approach for assessing producer/consumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for introducing a GM banana. Finally, the paper discusses main implications for biosafety decision making for GM crops in Uganda. Available online at http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/ifpridp00767.asp.
AGAINST THE GRAIN. By Seren Boyd(Progressio, 2008). The practice of seed-saving and seed sharing is at the very heart of small-scale farming and central to the livelihoods of 1.4 billion people in the developing world. But its future - and the food security of those who rely on it - is now under serious threat. Terminator technology - which uses genetic engineering to make plants produce sterile seeds - could destroy age-old farming practices. These so-called ’suicide seeds’ could push millions deeper into poverty and dependence on multinational seed companies competing for a share of a global seed market worth about US$19.6 billion. Terminator technology is not simply ‘another form of GM’ as some have tried to argue. If commercialised, it would put even greater pressure on natural habitats and local environments which are already threatened by the risks of climate change. Progressio is sounding a wake-up call to policy-makers in the UK and the EU attending COP9 in Bonn. It is urging them to recognise the very real threats to the CBD moratorium and to speak out at COP9 to uphold the ban. And it is calling on them to speak out against the EC’s funding for Transcontainer - before it is too late. Download at http://www.progressio.org.uk/shared_asp_files/GFSR.asp?NodeID=96159.