Below I am attaching an abridged version of President Obama’s speech at the United Nations yesterday, during the occasion of the MDGs Summit. I also append a couple of paragraphs from a World Bank blog posting submitted by Axel van Trotsenburg (Vice President for Concessional Finance and Global Partnerships), who co-chaired with Monique Barbut the replenishment negotiations for the GEF-5 cycle.

A commentary in Nature last week redirects the spotlight to a central question for the environment and development agendas: can efforts to conserve biodiversity also benefit the poor?

There is growing social and ecological evidence suggesting that a large number of opportunities exist globally for projects that protect ecosystems to also benefit people's livelihoods. For example, research by Will Turner and this colleagues at Conservation International shows that water conservation projects could aid poverty alleviation. But not all agree.