Forests provide fresh water, soil protection, carbon sequestration, and other valuable resources that forest-dependent communities have relied on for millennia. Quantifying these goods and services has been the focus of considerable attention in recent years.

The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report aims to deepen understanding of regional trends and developments in trade and investment; emerging issues in trade, investment and trade facilitation policies; and impacts of these policies on countries’ abilities to meet the challenges of achieving inclusive and sustainable development.

This assessment report presents an overview of the energy access situation in the Asia-Pacific region, including prevalent policies and programmes to address them, with the view to identify common challenges that could be addressed through regional cooperation.

Falling demand in the developed world has led to a broad-based economic slowdown in Asia and the Pacific, lowering economic growth forecasts. The impact of slowdown will challenge regional inclusive and sustainable development with job growth and household income predicted to decline.

In the 14 years since the first Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study was completed in 1998, the region has experienced tremendous change in nearly every aspect. These changes have been particularly profound in the forestry sector, especially in the context of increasing demands and expectations of society on forests and forestry.

The Secretariat for the UNISDR has released a report outlining the contributions from children to disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts in Asia titled “Children’s Action for DRR: Views From Children in Asia.” The report was released on the sidelines of the 5th Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR, which is convening in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, fr

The ESCAP/UNISDR Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2012, Reducing Vulnerability and Exposure to Disasters provides an analysis of the impact of disasters on Asian and Pacific countries between 1970 to 2011, and discusses the twin challenge faced by the region of increasing exposure of its people and economic assets, and heightened vulnerabilities exp

The forestry sector’s contribution to poverty alleviation in Asia and the Pacific is of great importance owing to the high prevalence of poverty in forested areas. Obstacles to reducing poverty through forestry are many.

A regional colloquium on sharing lessons in mangrove restoration on August 30-31, 2012 in Chennai, India examines the various experiences from MFF countries where mangrove projects have been carried out.

As cities are growing in terms of population and physical size, their contributions to national GDP are also increasing due to increased economic activities in urban areas. Now in many countries the contribution of cities to national GDP is 80 percent or more of the total GDP.