Big river basins are complex systems of people and nature. This article explores the resilience of nine case studies of big river basins. A system description and generic conceptual model suggests that resilience to changes in water quantity is critical. When water becomes limiting, the social-ecological system must adapt rapidly if key elements (for example, communities, biodiversity) are to be maintained. Water limitation imposes a water economy and alters political and institutional links between actors.

This article summarizes the results of water productivity assessment in 10 river basins across Asia, Africa and South America, representing a range of agro-climatic and socio-economic conditions. Intensive farming in the Asian basins gives much greater agricultural outputs and higher water productivity. Largely subsistence agriculture in Africa has significantly lower water productivity. There is very high intra-basin variability, which is attributed mainly to lack of inputs, and poor water and crop management.

To assess the effect of using stunting versus underweight as the indicator of child undernutrition for determining whether countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are on track to meet the component of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 pertaining to the eradication of hunger, namely to reduce undernutrition by half between 1990 and 2015.

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) generate sizeable magnitudes of income and employment in different parts of the world for the tribal and poor people. The evidence is based on the review of past studies across different continents. The study presents a collective evidence for the role of NTFPs in development in low and underdeveloped sectors of the world.

Although ecological restoration is widely used to combat environmental degradation, very few studies have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of this approach. We examine the potential impact of forest restoration on the value of multiple ecosystem services across four dryland areas in Latin America, by estimating the net value of ecosystem service benefits under different reforestation scenarios. The values of selected ecosystem services were mapped under each scenario, supported by the use of a spatially explicit model of forest dynamics.