"Top News" is a compilation of important environmental news topics selected by environmental experts from the Asia-Pacific region as well as by international organisations and research institutes from twenty countries in the region.

Recognizing the ever-increasing vulnerability of coastal urban cities in Asia due to climate change impacts and variability and also due to fast-growing urban development, this study focusing on climate disaster resilience is conducted in order to measure the existing level of climate disaster resilience of the targeted areas using a Climate Disaster Resilience Index.

The Programme of National 3R Strategy Development was initiated as one of the outcomes of the Ministerial Conference on the 3R Initiative held in Tokyo, Japan, in March 2005.

This report consists of four main sections. In the first part, it presents data from the national GHG inventories of a number of developing Asian countries, identifies the main sources of GHG emissions from the waste sector, and analyses the national climate strategies of selected countries. Secondly, the report presents data on the potential climate benefits of the 3Rs. It

This handbook is designed for media professionals who are interested in issues regarding disaster risk reduction. It aims to help conceptualize the risks, expand knowledge on how to incorporate disaster risk reduction in current programmes, and design and develop appropriate programmes to communicate the risk with relevant audiences.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the first international instrument to deal with issues of ethics and equity with regard to the sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources between those who have conserved them and those who exploit them.

This is the Summary Report of the International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP2009), organised by IGES in Hayama, Japan on 26-27 June 2009.

This report presents a case study of a UNDP GEF Small Grant Project entitled "Mitigation of the effects of the carbon dioxide and other GHG by controlling slash and burn practices," which was conducted in Nepal and which received the gold prize in the 2008 Ryutaro Hashimoto Asia-Pacific Forum for Environment and Development (APFED) Awards.

This thematic review report on urban risk reduction in Asia was prepared by the Asia Regional Task Force on Urban Risk Reduction (RTF-URR) in the context of progress review in the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action.

The Forest Conservation Project is researching forest certification as an instrument to assist communities to manage forests for multiple purposes, including timber production. This research has focused on innovative models that could suggest ways of increasing the accessibility of forest certification to community-based forest management.