Acre State, in Brazil’s Amazon, is the country’s most Western state, bordering Peru and Bolivia. In the past 6 years, the State has suffered two severe droughts; the 2005 drought was considered a 100 year event. It was followed five years later by another one of equal severity but more widespread in its impacts.

The 3H Plain is a critical part of China’s agricultural economy. It contains 26% of the country’s arable land and represents almost one third (32.8%) of all the land under cultivation.

South Africa is one of 17 mega-diverse countries on the planet, home to three biodiversity hotspots and almost 15% of known coastal and marine species.

In 2003-04, Rwanda experienced a major electricity—and as a result, economic—crisis. This crisis was triggered by a steep decline in power generation at the Ntaruka hydropower station, attributed to a significant drop in the depth of Lake Bulera, the station’s reservoir.

Bangladesh is one of the most disaster-prone nations in the world. Every year, about 10 million Bangladeshi citizens are impacted by one or more natural hazards. In the past, the government of Bangladesh had a traditional reactive approach to addressing natural disasters that focused on relief and rehabilitation activities.

Located within the tropical monsoon belt, Vietnam is extremely vulnerable to climate change, particularly to increases in storm intensity and sea level rise. This case study examines Vietnam’s efforts to use mangroves as an adaptation approach, and illustrates how governance plays a crucial role in the success of such actions.

Uncontrolled spread of fires in peatlands poses a serious risk to public health, livelihoods, and conservation efforts in Indonesia, and contributes significantly to climate change.

In 1982, Mali’s national meteorological service initiated a project designed to provide farmers with seasonal climate information. The project responded to the critical link between climate and agricultural production, dramatically illustrated by a series of severe drought events that plagued the Sahelian region throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Glaciers in Nepal are shrinking due to warmer temperatures, forming glacial lakes which can burst and cause destructive glacial lake outburst floods (known as GLOFs) in downstream valleys. The Tsho Rolpa glacial lake is the largest of its kind in the Nepali Himalayas, and the threat of it flooding led the Government of Nepal to take proactive measures in the late 1990s.

Often described as “the land between two deserts”, Namibia is the most arid country south of the Sahel.