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Environmental protection --- Global environmental change --- International cooperation. --- Global Environment Facility.

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Wildlife brings significant ecological, cultural, and economic benefits to countries and regionsaround the world. In many developing countries, it is an engine for tourism, job creation,and sustainable development. Populations of some of the most iconic wildlife species areunder threat due to the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and other pressures. There is growing momentumin the international donor community to combat IWT and ensure the survival of these species and therealization of benefits to local communities that live with them.The goal of this portfolio review is to assess the current state of international donor funding to combat illegal wildlife trade and to identify trends in investment in this sector in Africa and Asia since 2010. Information on investments to combat IWT is not readily available-donor procedures, processes, and systems to collect and report on funding data are often complex and time-consuming. This portfolio review addresses these challenges by collecting and analyzing IWT funding information across international donors and fills the knowledge gap of international donor IWT funding trends. It collects data on the significant international donor funding committed between January 2010 and June 2016 to combat IWT in Africa and Asia, which totals over USD 1.3 billion and is equivalent to approximately USD 190 million per year. This analysis provides a baseline to track future donor funding commitments and can be used to support additional donor coordination efforts. The data collected, database created, online repository, and points of contact established with donors can be used to further understand funding processes, effectiveness, and impacts and to inform donor strategic planning efforts. This analysis can be built upon in consultation with recipient countries to establish a vision of how best to optimize IWT financing in terms of priority geographic and thematic areas. Finally, a global understanding of existing contributions, trends, and target investment areas can facilitate collaboration and the sharing of lessons learned.

Ecosystems and Natural Habitats --- Environment --- Environmental Protection --- Global Environment Facility --- Wildlife Resources

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Climate change mitigation. --- Climatic changes --- Environmental policy --- Economic aspects --- International cooperation. --- Government policy --- Global Environment Facility.

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Rural accessibility is the only metric used in the Sustainable Development Goals to track progress toward better transport services in low- and middle-income countries. This paper estimates the rural accessibility index, defined as the proportion of the rural population who live within 2 kilometers of an all-season road, in 166 countries using open data. It then explores the cost of increasing the rural accessibility index in 19 countries, using an algorithm that prioritizes rural roads investments based on their impact on rural access and connectivity. Investment costs quickly balloon as the rural accessibility index increases, questioning the affordability of universal access to paved roads for many countries by 2030. If countries spent 1 percent of their gross domestic product annually on the upgrade of rural roads, even under optimistic assumptions on growth of gross domestic product, rural accessibility would only increase from 39 to 52 percent by 2030 across all developing countries. Alternative solutions to rural integration must thus be implemented in the short run until countries can afford to increase significantly access to all weather roads. For example, drones that supply regular food and medicine supply to remote communities are much more affordable than roads in the short term.

Biodiversity --- Global Environment Facility --- Hazard Risk Management --- Rural Development --- Rural Roads and Transport --- Rural Transport --- Transport --- Urban Development

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The Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical rainforest and an important constituent of the global biosphere, continues degrading by rapid deforestation, which is expected to continue despite policies to prevent it. Current international funding to protect the Amazon rainforest focuses on benefits from reduced carbon emissions. This paper examines an additional rationale for Amazon protection: the valuation of its biodiversity and forests as natural heritage to the international community. To measure the economic value of this benefit, the paper examines U.S. and Canadian households' willingness to pay to help finance Amazon rainforest protection. The analysis finds that mean willingness to pay to avoid forest losses projected to occur by 2050 despite current protective policies is USD 92 per household per year. Aggregating across all households and considering the area protected, the analysis finds that preserving the Amazon rainforest is worth USD 3,168 per hectare (95-percent confidence interval USD 1,580-USD 4,756), on average, to households in the United States and Canada. Considering households in other developed countries would generate yet larger estimates of aggregate value, likely comparable to the carbon benefits from rainforest protection. The results reveal high values of the Amazon rainforest to people geographically distanced from it, lending support to international efforts to reduce deforestation in the Amazon.

Amazon --- Biodiversity --- Ecosystem Services --- Environment --- Environmental Disasters and Degradation --- Forestry --- Global Environment Facility --- Rainforest --- Rural Development --- Transport --- Valuation