If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy or review by the BRIDGES staff to Malena Sell.
WORLD INVESTMENT REPORT 2006. By the UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), October 2006. This year’s report focuses on the rise of foreign direct investment (FDI) by transnational corporations (TNCs) from developing and transition economies. This phenomenon has been particularly marked in the past ten years, and a growing number of TNCs from these economies are emerging as major regional — or sometimes even global — players. For low-income countries, FDI from developing countries can be of great importance. In some of them, it accounts for a significant share of all FDI flows. The report discusses the development implications of the rise of these new sources of FDI, along with policy responses, for both home and host developing countries. It presents the latest data on FDI and traces the global and regional trends of FDI and international production by TNCs. Global FDI inflows rose substantially in 2005. A major contributing factor to this strong growth was the marked increase in the inflows to developed countries. Rising global demand for commodities was reflected in the steep increase in natural resource-related FDI, although the services sector continued to be the major recipient of FDI. Among developing regions, Asia remained the main magnet for FDI flows, followed by Latin America, where re-invested earnings have played a major role. Africa’s share in world FDI inflows was still small, but its FDI growth rate has nonetheless surpassed those of other developing regions.
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS, BIODIVERSITY AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE. By Tejaswini Apte (2006). The aim of this book is to demystify the subject of intellectual property rights (IPRs) for a wide audience. The handbook introduces the world of IPRs, biodiversity and biodiversity-related traditional knowledge in clear, simple language. Presented in a Question & Answer format, it begins with the most basic questions and progresses to more complex issues, making it easily accessible to laypersons as well as those who are already familiar with the subject. The Jargon Buster section breaks through the complicated language commonly used in IPR-related writing, and is designed to be a handy reference. The publication is part of the Biodiversity Information Pack, produced by Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group (Pune/Delhi, India), GRAIN (Delhi, India) and the International Institute of Environment and Development (London, UK). For further information and to order the book contact Swati Arjunwadkar, tel: (91 20) 25654239; e-mail: kvbooks@vsnl.net; internet: http://www.kalpavriksh.org.
AGRICULTURAL POLICIES IN OECD COUNTRIES: AT A GLANCE. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, July 2006. This book provides up-to-date estimates of support to agriculture. It outlines and evaluates agricultural support developments in OECD member countries and provides a summary of agricultural policy developments in Brazil, China and South Africa.
OECD-FAO AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK 2006-2015. June 2006. This is the second occasion that the Agricultural Outlook has been prepared jointly by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). This annual report analyses world commodity market trends and medium term prospects for the main agricultural products. It shows how these markets are influenced by economic developments and government policies and highlights some of the risks and uncertainties that may influence market outcomes. In addition to OECD countries, the market projections in the report cover a large number of other countries and regions including the agricultural giants of India, China, Brazil and Russia as well as Argentina, South Africa and several least developed countries.
"The Environmental Consequences of Trade: Evidence From Subnational Trade Flows" in the JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT 52 (1) 2006. By Pandej Chintrakarn and Daniel L. Millimet. The debate over the environmental consequences of free trade is not only quite heated, but also entails significant policy ramifications. Recently, cross-sectional analysis at the country level has made use of exogenous determinants of trade to identify the causal effect of trade on the environment, finding moderate evidence of a beneficial impact of expanded trade on environmental quality. Given the stakes involved, the authors revisit this finding using subnational data on trade flows across US states and several measures of pollution. Not only does the analysis shed further light on the debate at the international level, but also addresses a heretofore unexamined question: does greater inter-regional commerce at the subnational level harm the environment? The findings provide further evidence against a negative environmental impact of trade for the majority of measures analysed.
"Managing the Environment for Development and to Sustain Pro-Poor Growth" in the IDS BULLETIN 37(3) 2006. By Stephen Bass and Paul Steele. Environmental resources have made a substantial contribution to economic growth and poverty reduction in Asia. Natural assets, such as fertile soils, rivers and forests, are often critical for the livelihoods of poor people. This article shows how resource-intensive development in Asia has been achieved at significant environmental cost. Environmental problems such as deforestation, pressure on water supplies, and pollution from industry place real limits on further economic growth and increase the region’s already high vulnerability to natural disasters. The challenge for governments and policy makers is to use natural wealth to generate growth and enable poor people to benefit from this growth, while at the same time sustaining its capacity to produce these benefits in the future. The article argues that progress can be advanced through international partnerships which build on existing initiatives in a number of areas including climate change, sustainable forestry and fishing, disaster preparedness and pro-poor conservation.
"No-Take Marine Reserves and Reef Fisheries Management in the Philippines: A New People Power Revolution" in AMBIO 35(5) 2006. By Angel Alcala and Gerry R. Russ. The Sumilon and Apo islands have produced some of the best evidence available that no-take reserves, protected and managed by local communities, can play a key role in biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. Perhaps more importantly, they served as models for an extraordinary expansion of no-take reserves nationally in the Philippines in the past two decades. This expansion contributed substantially to a major shift in national policy of management of marine resources.
Call For Participation
GLOBAL CONSULTATION ON THE BIOTRADE STANDARD. The BioTrade Initiative is in the process of assisting the Ethical Certification and Labelling Authentication Project Secretariat in the global consultation on the "BioTrade verification framework for Natural Ingredients", the standard that will guide all companies in this sector working towards compliance with the BioTrade Principles and Criteria. On behalf of the Union for Ethical BioTrade, The BioTrade Initiative would like to extend an invitation to those involved in biotrade activities to register and offer inputs into this document. It is very important that as many biotrade actors as possible participate in this process. This will help to shape the present document, as well as give international legitimacy to the BioTrade Standard. The consultation period for the first draft will be open until 29 October 2006.
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