The Caucasus ecoregion, between the Black and Caspian Seas, crosses 6 countries. Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia are fully contained in this ecoregion, while parts of the Russian Federation, Turkey and Iran are included in the Northern and Southern parts.

Significant loss of glaciers in Central Asia began around the 1930s, and become more dramatic in the second half of the 20th century and continue into the 21st century. Glacier area was reduced in the Tien Shan and in the Pamirs, including its largest Fedchenko Glacier. The debris-covered glacier tongue retreated by more than 1 km since 1933 and lowered by about 50 m since 1980.

In 2006, the Stara Planina Euroregion was established to foster trans-boundary cooperation between border municipalities in Serbia and Bulgaria, and assist governments with planning, and implementing cooperation and regional development policies.

A new glacier inventory based on satellite data shows that the glacier cover reduced by about 22 per cent between the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum extent and 2000. Changes in glacier area and volume are being used as indicators for climate change and global warming.

An ice-rock avalanche in the Kazbek region sheared off almost the entire Kolka Glacier and devastated the Genaldon valley. The satellite images show the region before (July 22, 2001) and after (October 6, 2002) the ice-rock avalanche of September 20, 2002.

The Arctic is extremely diverse in terms of landscapes, varying from pack and drift ice to rugged shores, flat coastal plains, rolling hills and mountains surpassing 6000 metres above sea level (Denali, 6,194 m asl, in sub-arctic and boreal Alaska). The region has rivers and lakes, tundra and the largest forests in the world (the Russian Taiga). This is a simple grayscale political map.

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna is a working group under the Arctic Council, for the countries of Russia, Denmark, USA, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland and indigenous peoples. Monitoring, assessment, protected areas and conservation strategies are all tasks under this working group. The area that the working group primarily addresses is presented in this map.

The political map and landscape in Europe has changed drastically in the period of 1957-2007. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the European Communities was formed in 1957 by the treaty of Rome, with six signatories. This was a time with considerable poltical tension between the Eastern Bloc (Warsaw pact, COMECON and associated countries) on one side, and NATO on the other. Through time, the communities expanded with the associated EFTA c...

This map represents the study area for the poverty mapping project for West Africa for generation of reliable statistical and cartographic products to communicate the relationship between rural poverty and land use potential in West Africa, in order to provide information to ensure optimal use of research investment.

Soils underpin the production of a wide range of agricultural and industrial goods and services. Soil productivity is essential to agricultural activities - for food security, cash income and supporting the livelihoods of the poor. Agriculture is the major engine of economic growth in a majority of developing countries – for instance low income developing countries have a high share of agriculture in gross domestic product. This map presents a ...

Where government officials are keen to keep an eye shut for a share of the profits, the more the forests suffer. About 5 billion USD per year is estimated to be lost due to uncollected taxes and royalties on legally sanctioned timber harvests due to corruption. Other forests are falling while the responsible officers look the other way. A majority of the illegal timber comes from Asia, with China and Indonesia as the main sources.

With our climate changes, we have to adapt our ways to a new environment – in most cases warmer and possibly wetter and drier. Projections on the climate in the future provide some guidance for us, but how can we create models for how the human society reacts? This map presents a rough idea of changes in agricultural output from increased temperatures, precipitation differences and also from carbon fertilization for plants. Projecting climate is ...

For Sub-Saharan Africa, patterns in economic growth follow precipitation patterns closely. As rainfall has decreased over the last 30 years, so has the financial development. Rainfed agriculture represents a major share of the economy of these countries, as well as for domestic food supply. Improved water resources management and a wider resource base are critical to the stability and security that is required for economic development.

To alleviate rural poverty, one way is to sustainably use the natural resources available to the people and the communities. By supporting and expanding fisheries, small-scale mining, forestry, ecosystem services and other similar activities and making it easier to run a businesses out of these, economic growth can be gained. This illustration symbolizes this in the form of a tree, with different natural resources as leaves and the trunk being ma...

The rural poor of the World, and the poor countries that they live in, do not have much in monetary wealth - but natural resources represents a possible source of income. With the right support, on both the national level as well as from the international community, the economical growth generated from these resources can alleviate poverty sustainably.

The trade in wild species can contribute significantly to rural incomes, and the effect upon local economies can be substantial. The high value of wildlife products and derivatives can also provide positive economic incentives to provide an alternative to other land use options for the local people - to protect wild species and their habitats, and to maintain the resource for sustainable and profitable use in the medium and long term. Consequent...

Marine fisheries represent a significant, but finite, natural resource for coastal countries. The majority of the catches in some of the areas of the coast are not primarily by the coastal countries, but rather as in this example, where countries from Europe and Asia (Japan and South Korea are in the ‘others’ group) represent the majority. According to this estimation Mauritania only landed about 10% of the total catch in 2002, with Netherlands a...

It is estimated that exported timber only represents 5 per cent of the wood cut in tropical forests. 10 per cent is timber used locally and the majority - 85 per cent- of wood is for fuel. While exports are generally the preserve of large scale enterprises, the domestic market is dominated by small forest enterprises. In many countries the forest sector constitutes mainly small forest enterprises - employing from 10 to 100 full-time employees. Th...

The amount of land area available per capita provides a rough measure on the current carrying capacity for food security and for the development of additional agricultural products for export – such as biofuels. The calculation presented in this figure show that most of Asia is very limited in this respect, especially since populations are expected to increase. Latin America and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa show more potential for the development ...

With increased globalization and a smaller world, money flows more easily and the flows have increased. Where aid once represented a majority of the funds from high income countries to developing countries, this has now been surpassed by investments and worker’s remittances, and these flows show no sign of slowing down – maybe pausing for an occasional downturn in the global economy. The question is when this will start show as a significant decr...