The tourism sector, a vital driver of job-creation and growth, is under pressure. Facing an increasingly competitive landscape, tourism in many OECD countries has started to lag, in both growth rate and productivity. This book defines the major trends and challenges facing tourism in the next decade ? from globalisation to environmental issues. To address these challenges, the book then provides specific policy guidance and recommendations for making tourism more competitive and environmentally sustainable. Tourism data from 42 countries are presented and analysed including all OECD countries, and fast-growing tourism centres such as Brazil, Chile, China and India.

This report is a unique source of up-to-date estimates of support to agriculture. It provides an overview of agricultural support in the OECD area, complemented by individual chapters on agricultural policy developments in all OECD countries. This edition finds that overall support to farmers in OECD countries has been declining. It shows that the decline has largely been due to a narrowing of the gap between domestic and world agricultural commodity prices.

The report also focuses on the impacts of the current financial and economic crisis on agriculture, and the policy responses. Agriculture is expected to fare better than many other sectors. It has a relatively smaller financial exposure, demand is less sensitive to income falls, and the existing set of support policies in many countries can dampen the impact of the crisis. Governments are facing tighter fiscal conditions, which is likely to prompt further review of support policies, including for agriculture.

The 2008 United States Farm Act, the Health Check of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy and the new Growing Forward policy framework in Canada are also reviewed in the report. A special feature in the report focuses on agri-environmental policies in OECD countries.

The OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030 provides analyses of economic and environmental trends to 2030, and simulations of policy actions to address the key challenges. Without new policies, we risk irreversibly damaging the environment and the natural resource base needed to support economic growth and well-being. The costs of policy inaction are high.

But the Outlook shows that tackling the key environmental problems we face today — including climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and the health impacts of pollution — is both achievable and affordable. It highlights a mix of policies that can address these challenges in a cost-effective way. The focus of this Outlook is expanded from the 2001 edition to reflect developments in both OECD countries and Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, South Africa (BRIICS), and how they might better co-operate on global and local environmental problem-solving.