In this paper I will first consider a central premise of the idea of a poverty trap that there is a mutual and spiralling relationship between poverty and environmental degradation. The argument maintains that, mainly due to inherent short time horizons and risk, poverty encourages over-exploitation of the physical environment which results in further impoverishment. Using both conceptual and e...

A modified version of the model Opus was applied to measurements of soil water dynamics and atrazine (6-chloro-N2-ethyl-N4-isopropyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine) persistence in a Bruntwood silt loam soil (Haplic Andosol, FAO system) in Hamilton, New Zealand. The modified model, Opus2, is briefly described and parameter estimation for the simulations is discussed. Soil water dynamics were more ac...

The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) interest in emerging diseases caused by foodborne pathogens derives from its role as the leading United Nations agency with a mandate for food quality and safety matters. The Food Quality and Standards Service of FAO's Food and Nutrition Division is active in all areas related to food safety and implements the FAO/World Health Organization Food Stan...

In the late 1990s, the author conducted research entitled ―Modeling the demand and supply structure for food in Asia‖. The research was based on a system dynamics method and, using time series datasets up to 1998 to estimate the parameters, tried to figure out the demand and supply structure for food until the year 2010. In this paper, the author introduces an overall research structure and com...

1. The Nature of Resources 2. Major Factors Determining Resource Use 2.1 The Quest for Control 2.2 Productivity of Living Systems 2.3 The Productivity Paradigm 2.4 The Doctrine of Systemology 3. Major Factors Affecting Natural Resource Use 3.1 The Anthropic Revolution 3.2 Technology 3.3 Culture 4. Organization for Resource Use 5. Special Resources: Energy, Food, and Water 5.1 Energy as a Resour...

Tropical forests have been recognized to play a multi-functional role by providing both goods (timber, food, medicine, etc.) and services, including recreational and spiritual benefits and climate regulation, making human life better [1,2]. The international debate has paid high attention to the potential of NTFPs in supporting livelihoods and forest conservation. The article by Peters et al. [...

Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 90187 Umeå, Sweden Woods and Wayside International, Princeton, NJ, USA Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia d Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Kibale, Uganda e Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Yaounde, Cameroon f Technical Training and Research Centre for Development...

Capacity development is not a simple process which can be just described as a result of imparting knowledge or experience. It is definitely the result of interconnected factors which optimise synergies in the three dimensions of the country capacity system: policy/enabling environment, institutions, and individuals. The review of FAO good practices in capacity building attempted to contribute t...

Preventing the spread of disease through international movements is one of the key objectives of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). One of the ways it seeks to achieve this is by publishing international standards and guidelines aimed at, inter alia, preventing the importation of pathogens that are dangerous for animals and humans and strengthening Veterinary Services so that they ...

Since the demonstration, in 1998, of the phenomenon now widely known as 'fishing down marine food webs', and the publication of a critical rejoinder by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) staff, a number of studies have been conducted in different parts of the world, based on more detailed data than the global FAO fisheries statistics originally used, which established the validity and ubi...