'Avoiding controversy is crucial for the GEF'

Mostafa K Tolba , has been an influential figure in the global environmental arena, and has monitored the state of the world's environment. …

Needed: a new yardstick

Gross National Product may be an inadequate measure of economic activity when environmental damage occurs

A thought for food

Experience shows that agriculture benefits far more from overall macro-economic reforms

Wisdom from an obscure archipelago

In Down To Earth's first Country Report, ANIL AGARWAL and SUNITA NARAIN look at Papua New Guinea, its short but volatile transition to the market …

How should tribal owners profit from forest wealth?

The gross tribal produce of Bastar is in excess of Rs 1,000 crore a year. Tribals, 'owners' of the minor forest produce -- in terms of the …

Ivan Illich (1926-2002)

"His thought leads out of the prison of routinized, sterile, preconceived notions"

The far side

If the world is serious about addressing climate change it will have to immediately start moving out of fossil fuel technologies.

‘India budget weak in public participation; limited in transparency’

The country’s performance in terms of public participation and budget oversight by the legislature was rated “weak” in the survey

Growing burden

Our fanatical pursuit of GDP as the sole measure of development is only throwing up more catastrophic nightmares

Stumbling along on the road to green

A documentary telecast on Rajiv Gandhi's 50th birth anniversary examines the late Prime Minister's environmental initiatives, but finds the …

Incorporating social welfare in national planning

FOUNDATIONS OF INDIA'S POLITICAL ECONOMY: TOWARDS AN AGENDA FOR THE 1990S Edited by Subroto Roy and William James . Publisher: Sage Publications,…

The utopian trap

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT: A CASE STUDY OF INDIA Edited by Kartik C Roy, Clement A Tisdell and Raj Kumar Sen Publisher: Oxford …

Future in the past

FUTURE OF PROGRESS: REFLECTIONS ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT Edited by Vandana Shiva, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Edward Goldsmith and Martin Khor …

Waste is being dumped in Russia

Galina Sdasyuk is a researcher at the Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, and is formulating a sustainable model of …

Health of developing nations

Ecofriendly lubricants

Book notice: Hope in sight

Improving People's Lives: Lessons in Empowerment from Asia, edited by Mukul Sharma

A safety valve!

Alarmed by super rapid industrialisation in Asia and the Pacific, the Asian Development Bank suggests urgent corporate 'voluntary' action and …

Seeds of ruin

Indian farmers grapple with debt as economy grows

LEARNING THE VALUE OF T R E E S

NAME - Mangilal Rawat AGE - 45 CASTE - Bhil FATHER'S NAME - Sur Singh VILLAGE - Ojhad BLOCK - Sondwa DISTRICT - Jhabua

Talking about air

A tale of two districts

Why is Jhabua, and not kalahandi, a success story?

The Rural Sector Opportunities and challenges

To deal with 'economic poverty', it is necessary to deal with 'ecological poverty'. And people's participation is necessary to undertake …

SOME HOPES AND LOTS OF FEAR

THE message of the citizens' fifth report on the state of india's environment

Global resource use must be careful and fair

Environmental stress has resulted mainly from unsustainable consumption levels in poor nations because of bad land-use and degraded village …