The World Resources Report (WRR) provides policymakers around the world - government, civil society, and business - with analysis and insight about major environmental and development issues. It is the product of a unique 20-year partnership among the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the World Resources Institute.

Recent editions of the World Resources Report have explored key issues at the nexus of environment, poverty, governance and sustainable development, providing analysis and insight that has helped to catalyze action by governments and others.

Past Volumes of the World Resources Report

The WRR, in its most recent volumes, has addressed the important linkages between development, the environment and governance.

• World Resources Report 2008, Roots of Resilience: Growing the Wealth of the Poor continues the focus on poverty and the environment. The reality of global poverty is that it is rural and it is persistent: three-quarters of the 2.6 billion people living on less than $2 per day - almost 2 billion - live in rural areas; that number is virtually unchanged in 20 years. World Resources 2008 argues that successfully scaling up environmental income for the poor requires three elements: ownership, capacity, and adaptive, connected networks. The result is communities with increased resilience: economic, social and environmental. Such outcomes take on added import as it becomes increasingly clear that the impacts of climate change are likely to have their biggest effect on those areas where most of the world's poor live: drylands, low-latitude geographies and high-stress watersheds.
• World Resources 2005, The Wealth of the Poor: Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty argued that poverty and the environment are inextricably linked, that the world's rural poor could enhance their livelihoods by capturing greater value from ecosystems. The unavoidable reality is that three quarters of the poorest in the world, numbering almost one billion, live in rural areas; they are dependent on their natural resources for their livelihood, whatever their condition. Our thesis was that income from sustainably managed ecosystems can act as a stepping stone in the economic empowerment of the poor. But this can only happen when poor households are able to reap the benefits of their good ecosystem stewardship.
• World Resources 2002-2004, Decisions for the Earth: Balance, Voice and Power argued that better environmental governance, based on greater participation and access to information, leads to fairer and more sustainable use of natural resources.
• World Resources 2000-2001, People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life examined the essential role played by natural resources in 20th century human existence. The Report provided the impetus behind the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment completed in 2005.