Land Use

This 2021 Report Card on Ecosystem Health provides an in-depth look at the region’s efforts in moving toward a more resilient environment and community for people and native wildlife. A healthy and improved ecosystem requires protecting and restoring high-quality habitats and native biodiversity; reducing ecosystem threats like wildfire and invasive species; and ensuring every Angeleno has access to nature and its benefits such as clean water, shade, and respite through policy solutions that address the region’s inequities.
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Kenya is experiencing rapid urbanization. In 2016, about 14 million people (25 percent of the country’s population) were living in urban areas, but by 2030 that number is expected to increase to over 22 million, and by 2050 to 40 million—over 50 percent of the population (World Bank 2016). A lack of inclusive growth in Kenya’s cities has led to the proliferation of informal settlements and unequal access to services.
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Disputes over land access and control often escalate into violence and conflict leading to dispossession and forced displacement within and across borders. Estimates indicate that 56 percent of conflicts are related to land and that most conflicts take place in developing countries. At the end of 2015, 95 percent of the 65 million refugees and internally displaced people were living in developing countries.
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The West Bank and Gaza suffer from severe environmental degradation, including deterioration of groundwater and uncontrolled dumping of solid waste. These problems have been addressed in Gaza with the assistance of bilateral donors, but until the design of the Solid Waste and Environment Management Project (SWEMP) in 2000, they were largely neglected in the West Bank. Solid waste management practices in the West Bank are characterized by infrequent and inadequate waste collection services, improper disposal at open dump sites, and open air burning.
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The overall amount of mercury in the mercury containing lamps (MCL) market in Sub-Saharan Africa is low compared to other sources of mercury, yet it can be further reduced up-stream by improving lamp lifetime and mercury content. One of the main objectives of this report is to provide policy-makers with the knowledge and tools they need when confronted with a potentially significant flow of end of life mercury containing lamps and the potential mercury pollution it could generate, either airborne or by seeping through the ground to water bodies.
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Melaka State in Malaysia has strong sustainability aspirations and is an important member of the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC). To inform the next update to Melaka’s State Structure Plan, GPSC performed a sustainability outlook diagnostic to holistically consider six dimensions of the state’s urban sustainability.
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The guidebook takes a new approach to environmental governance by focusing on identifying the social capital of actors within the landscapes. It centers on two main approaches: 1) mapping actors’ resource flows and 2) mapping actors’ priorities and values. Co-written by WRI international offices, this methodology has been tested in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, and Rwanda. The guidebook focuses primarily on restoration, but the same methodologies can be adapted to broader analysis of natural resource governance.

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