However, they predict that non-native plants, animals and microbes will increasingly threaten developing countries with some of the last remaining biodiversity hotspots, due to increased air travel and the expansion of agriculture.
Food prices are soaring to record levels, threatening many developing countries with mass hunger and political instability.
No country has reported progress since 1990, and the need to produce more food and materials for a rapidly increasing global population is threatening most developing countries' habitats.
Ironically, many of the best monitored volcanoes, such as Mount Etna in Sicily or Kilauea on Hawaii, offer little or no serious threat to the people living on their flanks, while those volcanoes that threaten millions in developing countries are barely studied.
Lack of clean water and adequate sanitation services, unhygienic practices, and poor living conditions remain the prevailing environmental issues threatening children in developing countries.
During the first few weeks after contracting measles, a child's immune system will be compromised, and a normal cold or diarrhoea can become a life threatening disease in developing countries where children have limited or no access to medical treatment.
The chief of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that rising food prices around the world have threatened social unrest in developing countries.
And an investor exodus from developing countries threatened to undercut the buying power of some of Europe's most important customers.
It was commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change.
Its prevalence is constantly increasing throughout the world [1, 2], and it threatens to overwhelm both developed and developing countries.
