Activating Critical Thinking to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals in Tourism Systems focuses on the role of critical thinking and inquiry in the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in tourism systems. The impetus for the development of this book emerged from the declaration by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. This declaration purposely positions tourism as a tool to advance the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 SDGs, thus mutually serving as an opportunity and responsibility to appraise from a critical lens what the SDGs signify and how they can be understood from multiple perspectives. The chapters in the book foster the next phase of sustainable tourism scholarship that actively considers the interconnections of the UN’s SDGs to tourism theory and praxis, and activates critical thinking to analyze and advance sustainability in tourism systems. It articulates the need for the academy to be more intrinsically involved in ongoing iterations of multilateral accords and decrees, to ensure they embody more critical and inclusive transitions toward sustainability, as opposed to market-driven, neoliberal directives. The contributions in this book encourage various worldviews challenging, shaping, and more critically reflecting the realities of global communities as related to, and impacted by, sustainable tourism development. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development makes the case that greening growth is necessary, efficient, and affordable. Yet spurring growth without ensuring equity will thwart efforts to reduce poverty and improve access to health, education, and infrastructure services.

This background note reviews current trends and projections of fish and seafood trade, and recent work undertaken to support implementation of the trade related activities of SDG 14, with a focus on the work of UNCTAD, FAO and UNEP. It flags the main issues encountered and sets the scene for the discussions of the Forum. It draws on the complementary experiences and mandates of UNCTAD, FAO and UNEPt to make recommendations to key stakeholders and propose innovative approaches and tools around the oceans/blue economy, value chain analysis, certification and eco-labelling to strengthen the capacity of developing countries in meeting the trade related targets of SDG 14.

For almost four decades, the partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) has generated advanced knowledge and expertise in support of achieving food security, sustainable agriculture, and rural development in the Mediterranean. Driven by these shared goals, FAO and CIHEAM have jointly contributed to policy dialogue, the implementation of programs and projects, awareness-raising, and the capacity development of different actors in the region. FAO- CIHEAM collaboration has helped to build important knowledge resources and technical networks, strengthen the focus on gender and youth in agriculture, and promote the sustainable development of rural and coastal areas and sustainable fisheries. In October 2015, both organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reinforcing their partnership. Under the framework of the partnership agreement, FAO and CIHEAM committed to developing a common strategic cooperation agenda to support agriculture, food, and sustainable rural development in the Mediterranean. In June 2019, based on the success of this collaboration the MoU was renewed for another four years. This brochure presents the highlights and successes of the partnership between FAO and CIHEAM.

A positive agenda for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 All 193 member nations of the United Nations agreed in September 2015 to adopt a set of seventeen "Sustainable Development Goals," to be achieved by 2030. Each of the goals—in such areas as education and health care —is laudable in and of itself, and governments and organizations are working hard on them. But so far there is no overall, positive agenda of what new things need to be done to ensure the goals are achieved across all nations. In a search of fresh approaches to the longstanding problems targeted by the Sustainable Development Goals, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings mounted a collaborative research effort to advance implementation of Agenda 2030. This edited volume is the product of that effort. The book approaches the UN's goals through three broad lenses. The first considers new approaches to capturing value. Examples include Nigeria's first green bonds, practical methods to expand women's economic opportunities, benchmarking to reflect business contributions to achieving the goals, new incentives for investment in infrastructure, and educational systems that promote cross-sector problem solving. The second lens entails new approaches to targeting places, including oceans, rural areas, fast-growing developing cities, and the interlocking challenge of data systems, including geospatial information generated by satellites. The third lens focuses on updating governance, broadly defined. Issues include how civil society can align with the SDG challenge; how an advanced economy like Canada can approach the goals at home and abroad; what needs to be done to foster new approaches for managing the global commons; and how can multilateral institutions for health and development finance evolve.

Sustainable development is a very prevalent concept of modern society. This concept has appeared as a critical force in combining a special focus on development and growth by maintaining a balance of using human resources and the ecosystem in which we are living. The development of new and advanced materials is one of the powerful examples in establishing this concept. Green and sustainable advanced materials are the newly synthesized material or existing modified material having superior and special properties. These fulfil today’s growing demand for equipment, machines and devices with better quality for an extensive range of applications in various sectors such as paper, biomedical, textile, and much more. Volume 2, provides chapters on the valorization of green and sustainable advanced materials from a biomedical perspective as well as the applications in textile technology, optoelectronics, energy materials systems, and the food and agriculture industry.

Principles of Sustainable Development is the component of Encyclopedia of Development and Economic Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Sustainable Development is a term of differing definitions. Standing alone, the term is abstract and ambiguous. The meaning most often cited is that adopted by the World Commission on Environment and Development: meeting today’s true needs and opportunities without jeopardizing the integrity of the planetary life-support base – the environment – and diminishing its ability to provide for needs, opportunities, and quality of life in the future. This definition may serve as a general principle, but for a guide to action its components sustainability and development must be given substance: what is to be sustained and what developed? Is development essentially economic or material growth, and is sustainability mostly a means to keep economic growth growing? Consequently, should development represent means toward ecologically sustainable ends? The concept of ecological sustainability has been advanced as a restriction on economic development. It follows therefore that principles of sustainable development depend upon how the term is understood and how it is put into practice. Even so the definition of the World Commission on Environment and Development, given the adequate definition of variable needs, provides the most reliable principle for testing the qualitative and ecological sustainability of development proposals. The Theme on Principles of Sustainable Development, in three volumes, deals with the diversity of points of view on this complex subject. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.