International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development 

About: International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Sustainable development & Sustainability. It has an ISSN identifier of 1474-6778. Over the lifetime, 436 publications have been published receiving 3595 citations.

A decade of sustainability reporting: developments and significance

Abstract: Since the publication of the first separate environmental reports in 1989, the number of companies that has started to publish information on its environmental, social or sustainability policies and/or impacts has increased substantially. This article gives an overview of worldwide trends in the frequencies of reporting in the past decade, based on surveys carried out since the early 1990s. Although clear differences between countries and sectors can be noted, reporting continues to rise, and there is a clear tendency towards the inclusion of societal, and sometimes also financial, issues. The article also analyses the latest developments with regard to the contents of these sustainability reports, focusing on economic aspects and business drivers, stakeholder dialogue and feedback, and benchmarking of performance. The final section discusses the significance of reporting, introducing the concept of 'implementation likelihood', and the components of an analytical scheme to assess this for sustainability reports.

Concept and practice: the case of UNESCO biosphere reserves

Abstract: Sustainable development is a globally endorsed principle whose practice is multidimensional and complex. The biosphere reserve as a concept and a tool of UNESCO has an origin in the protected areas domain but has now evolved into an international designation that allows context-specific conservation and development relationships to be developed in land and seascapes where more than 80% of the designated area lies outside of legally protected core zones. As such, each biosphere reserve could be a context-specific experiment in sustainable development at varying scales. The origin and evolution of the concept and practice of biosphere reserves have lessons to offer for future efforts to track changes in the principle and practices of sustainable development. The emphasis, over the next 5-10 years on biosphere reserves as learning laboratories for sustainable development provides interesting opportunities to track such changes in site-specific application of the principle and practices of sustainable development.

People in the forest: community forestry experiences from Southeast Asia

Abstract: This paper documents experiences of community forest management in five Southeast Asian nations. It briefly describes the historical and political context that frames contemporary forest sector changes, examining important shifts occurring in the forest policy sector in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, following the decline of industrial forest management paradigms over the last two decades and the emergence of a new generation of environmentally and socially oriented policies and legislation. The paper explores how these new policies, laws and national programmes are affecting forest-dependent people across the region in an effort to track the transition in forest management on the ground. The paper also examines how community forestry systems are affecting forest cover, biodiversity and rural livelihoods.

Urbanisation and environmental degradation in Dhaka Metropolitan Area of Bangladesh

Abstract: Using available data on relevant issues and onsite field visits, this paper documented the environmental problems associated with the unprecedented urbanization in Dhaka Metropolitan Area of Bangladesh. Analyses revealed that a rapid spatial expansion of the city has been taking place alongside the remarkable rise in urban population, simultaneously putting immense pressure on natural resource-base. Substantial changes that were observed in land use and cover are believed to be a significant factor in elevating the risk of natural hazards, particularly flooding during monsoon. In addition, air, water, and noise quality, have all become acute, and are subsequently posing uncertain liabilities to the inhabitants’ health of the area. Rapid uncoordinated urbanisation gives rise to a spectacular growth of slums and squatters, making 3.4 million slum dwellers in 2006 from only 1.5 million in 1996. Achieving sustainable urban development in the DMA therefore, requires tackling the environmental problems in a rational manner.

Green synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles from Mimosa pudica root extract

Abstract: An aqueous root extract of Mimosa pudica was used to synthesise iron oxide nanoparticles. The formation of iron oxide nanoparticles was observed on exposure of the aqueous root extract with the ferrous sulphate solution. The iron oxide nanoparticles were characterised using UV-Visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), particle size analyser (PDA) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). UV-Vis is a spectrum of iron oxide nanoparticles showed a sharp peak at 294 nm due to the surface plasmon resonance. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the attachment of bioactive molecules of plant on the iron oxide nanoparticle surfaces. The phase and crystal structure were determined through XRD. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) illustrated that the iron oxide nanoparticles were spherical in shape with 67 nm of surface volume mean diameter. Magnetisation measurements indicates that the synthesised iron oxide nanoparticles exhibited superparamagnetic behaviour at room temperature.