The Fifth GEF Assembly comes at a critical but exciting juncture of the Facility. In two decades, the GEF partnership has made demonstrable contributions to delivering global environmental benefits (GEBs) in accord with its mandate as the financial mechanism for the Rio Conventions. Yet threats to the global commons continue to grow – driven by human activities and lifestyle choices – resulting in pollution, biodiversity loss, degradation of land and water, fragmentation of ecosystems, and climate change. Responses to manage common... Read More

The trends towards urbanization, and the opportunities for introducing sustainability into the process, are complex technically, sociologically and financially. From a technical standpoint, understanding long term, multidisciplinary impacts of improper or delayed action requires uncommon knowledge and experience in all of the technical areas germane to cities. Sociologically, people do not, as a general rule, embrace complexity in today’s world, nor do they accept being forced to change. Instead, they need an agent to... Read More

Establishing protected areas (PAs) has been one of the most common and successful interventions since the very beginning of the conservation movement. The process of protecting areas from threats posed by human activities will, by definition, inhibit some of these activities and therefore potentially have adverse impacts on the well-being of people living in or near PAs. However, these impacts could be balanced through the maintenance of valuable ecosystem services or the introduction of new livelihood options.... Read More