Did you evaluate that?

My view is not that there should be an impact evaluation of each and every project which an aid agency supports. (I also don’t believe that a doctor should conduct a randomised control trial every time she prescribes a medicine.  What I want to know is that every medicine that is generally prescribed has been [...]

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REDDoubtable concerns

There’s been a flurry of posts recently on that big new idea in international forest conservation, REDD+, which is struggling to be born, conjoined as it is with all the wrangling over a post-Kyoto settlement. Angela Dewan makes the oft-overlooked point that even if forests make a return for local communities that doesn’t change their [...]

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REDD Riposte

I’m a big believer in the principles behind REDD, namely: Globally, forests are massively undervalued. Carbon sequestration is one of those typically vital but undervalued services that forests perform for us. Now that at least some people are prepared to pay something to abate carbon emissions, it seems crazy to ignore this possibility to value [...]

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In case you missed them

Shotgun Shack hits about ten different nails on the head with her devastating exposé of the hypocrisy of BINGOs promoting gender issues in developing countries. The principles are easy, but the practice is far messier especially in culturally diverse international organisations. It brings to mind the age old conundrum of absolute human rights versus culturally [...]

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Ecocartoonery

Some great cartoons on Conservation Bytes (with bigger archive here). I can’t say I agree with all the points being made, but I do like some of  the humour!

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In case you missed them – the CdI edition

A few more things that caught my eye during my post-festive season catch-up on happenings in the blogosphere. Jina Moore gets out the dictionary on the current turmoil in Côte d’Ivoire – a must read. Charles Onyango-Obbo wonders whether we might be heading towards the inevitable in Côte d’Ivoire, and whether, in that respect, that [...]

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In case you missed them

I don’t normally post raw links to other posts, but 3 stories today struck me particularly, and I thought were worth sharing: Ranil Dissanayake explodes the myth of happy development, moving from an agrarian to industial economy ain’t pretty Richard Black points the finger at the musical instrument industry, see also the Sound & Fair [...]

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The Beautiful side of Conservation & Development

The by-line to this blog is “The ugly side of conservation and development”. But it doesn’t always have to be ugly. Check out these gorgeous pics. I don’t know anything about the proposed oil pipeline development that they are objecting to, though the whole tar sands project is about as bad as fossil fuels extraction [...]

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