Integrating Environment into Agriculture and Forestry: Progress and Prospects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

In the transition countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, environmental considerations are lagging behind other factors in the agriculture and forestry sectors. The cost of increasing soil salinity in one country is estimated at $1 billion per year, the cost of soil erosion in another at $40 million per year. Agriculture and forestry will also be highly sensitive to changes in climate. There is therefore a critical need for the countries in this region to proactively integrate environmental concerns into policies, programs, and investments in the agriculture and forestry sectors. According to a World Bank study, this critical need has arisen from inadequate policy incentives, insufficient human and institutional capacities, and lack of funding. Integrating Environment into Agriculture and Forestry: Progress and Prospects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia presents 10 recommendations for local and international stakeholders on how to address these problems. Among the recommendations are the need to advance to full-scale implementation of strategic documents, the imperative of using economic cost-benefit analysis as a basis for decision making, and the urgency of scaling up successful pilot projects. Included with the book is a CD containing a compilation of 21 in-depth reviews of environmental integration in agriculture and forestry in Eastern European and Central Asian countries.