This book provides examples of possible triple-win solutions for simultaneously reducing poverty, raising the quality of the environment, and adapting to climate change. The book provides empirical evidence and observations from sixteen case studies in Southeast and East Asia, and from the Pacific. It argues that a spatial approach focussing on the environments in which the poor and vulnerable live, would trigger changes for development policies and implementation that better balance environmental and social concerns. In line with the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda, emphasizing integrated development approaches for the slum poor, the upland poor, the dryland poor, the coastal poor, and the flood-affected wetland poor, would also bring the environment and poverty agenda closer. The book emerged from a cooperation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in partnership with experts from research institutes and think-tanks in the Asian region.

This title was first published in 2003. This three-volume set examines the relationship between government and civil society in their efforts to define and pursue security. Including the results of an extensive research program, each volume is organized around one of the three principal themes - environment, people and globalization, supplying compelling evidence of the tension between economic change and human well-being. Challenging the conventional wisdom about the beneficial results of economically induced change, this first volume suggests that too often the mismanagement of development jeopardizes the security of individuals, families, communities, and possibly the state, by harming the very environment which is required to sustain both people and their economic existence. Bringing together an international group of scholars from a variety of disciplines, this volume is particularly relevant for academic and general research communities in the areas of social, economic, political and security matters of Southeast Asia.

In recent years, initiatives by the international community to address the links between poverty and environmental degradation have been increasing. These initiatives range from policy reform and top-down approaches to local, bottom-up actions by communities. This publication focuses on local actions, and provides a background to the present situation of increasing environmental poverty and degraded environments. It shows how local actions, with support from governments and development partners, can turn this situation around to reduce poverty and bring about environmental benefits. These benefits are illustrated through case studies of successful local actions in Asia and the Pacific that can be scaled-up to produce substantial national or regional benefits. Most of the studies are from the Asian Development Bank's Poverty and Environment Program, which promotes targeted environmental interventions that reduce poverty and improve the environment through pilot interventions, analytical studies, and information dissemination.

Among the themes discussed in this text are: European and indigenous perceptions of the environment; historical processes of environmental change; the politics of resource use; ecotourism and development; deforestation and smallholding.

This book started with an objective to understand the impact of high inflation on poverty and food security in Southeast Asia. However, the global economy moved quickly into recession in 2008. Anticipating that the impact of global recession would be more severe than that of high inflation in Southeast Asia, we re-focused the title of the book to Poverty, Food, and Global Recession in Southeast Asia. By early 2010, people were already optimistic that the global recession was over or would be over soon. However, the evidence was mounting that the poor had suffered and were still suffering from the current global crisis, even if the richer individuals may have recovered. Therefore, an important question arises, Is the crisis really over for the poor? This then became the sub-title of this book. This book aims to contribute a better understanding on poverty and food security in Southeast Asia during the recent global recession considering both recent developments and the previous major crisis of 1997-98.

This important book explores the interaction of global environmental discourses and local traditions and practices in twelve countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Based upon two parallel groups of studies, reviewing cultural influences in individual countries, and the attitudes of young people across the region, it has important implications for environmental policy and education.

"Co-publication of the Asian Development Bank and Oxford University Press India."

This joint publication from the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank Institute features selected papers from the September 2009 conference on the social and environmental impact of the global economic crisis on Asia and the Pacific, especially on the poor and vulnerable. The publication is designed with the needs of policy makers in mind, utilizing field, country, and thematic background studies to cover a large number of countries and cases. This publication suggests that the crisis is an opportunity to rethink the model of development in Asia for growth to become more inclusive and sustainable. Issues that need to be more carefully considered include: closing the gap of dualistic labor markets, building up social protection systems, rationalizing social expenditures, addressing urban poverty through slum upgrading, promoting rural development through food security programs in pro-poor growth potential areas, and concentrating climate change interventions on generating direct benefits for the environments of the poor.