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Civil society perspectives -- Land Tenure Working Paper 8. This paper articulates the views and demands of marginalised groups regarding the tenure of land and other natural resources. It points out the importance of adopting human rights framework when developing Voluntary Guidelines. Such framework means addressing the unequal relationships of power and corruption within and behind prevailing land tenure structures. It makes the governance of tenure of land and other natural resources more accountable, transparent, democratic and participatory. [more...]
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An analysis of existing forest financing mechanisms in Latin America, a region that has become the leader in thedevelopment and implementation of innovative forest financing mechanisms. The analysis led to a better understanding of the range of existing resources and mechanisms available for the financing of SFM, the possibilities of finding alternative forms of financing and the steps to be taken in order to maximize the effectiveness ofexisting ones. The present study provides a synthesis of the information and experience obtained, followed by a resulting series of key messages. [more...]
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The assessment of energy and greenhouse gas balances is part of a larger effort by UN-Energy to provide decision making tools and aids to Governments and others involved in the planning and implementation of bioenergy development. The report’s choice of tools is based on the international state of discussions at the time of writing and presents a building block to the Environmental Assessment Framework currently under development at FAO. The study focuses on three main topics: a) The energy and greenhouse gas balances of different Sweet Sorghum pathways, b) Additional environmental impacts from the cultivation of Sweet Sorghum are examined qualitatively, c) Sweet Sorghum is compared to other biofuel crops. [more...]
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FAO has included traditional and local knowledge and activities in policies, programmes and projects related to a wide range of issues, including farmers’ rights, poverty alleviation, nutrition and health, and gender equity, among many others. More recently, it has used traditional knowledge to tackle the emerging problems of soaring food prices and climate change. Traditional farming, fishing, pastoralism/herding, foraging and forestry are based on longestablished knowledge and practices that help to ensure food and agricultural diversity, valuable landscape and seascape features, livelihoods and food security. However, traditional livelihoods and indigenous plant varieties, landraces and animal breeds are now increasingly endangered by large-scale commercialization of agriculture, population dynamics, land-use/cover changes and the impacts of climate change. FAO is developing innovative projects that support the use of traditional knowledge to promote rural development, gender equity, conservation of biocultural diversity, and sustainable management of agro-ecosystems, among others. At the same time, the projects seek to manage the risks to food and agriculture that result from natural and human-induced disasters, climate change impacts, soaring food prices and other emerging issues. FAO is also promoting international and interdisciplinary collaboration to strengthen the interface between traditional knowledge and cutting-edge science and technology, to help maintain and enhance the world’s food and agricultural diversity and sustainability. [more...]
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Is low greenhouse gas emission (GHG) agriculture possible? Is it, in fact, desirable? In seeking answers to these two basic but extremely relevant questions, this study examines current farming practices and incorporates scientific databases from long‑term field experiments as case studies for low GHG agriculture. Further, the study examines the changes that will be needed for low greenhouse gas agriculture systems to become a reality. It also elucidates the adaptive capacity of agro-ecological farming system approaches, using organic system case studies from the scientific literature. [more...]
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This report is based on a series of 15 international case studies conducted between September and November 2008 under a joint initiative of FAO and the Policy Innovation Systems for Clean Energy Security (PISCES) Energy Research Programme Consortium funded by DFID. The case studies focussed on developing an improved understanding of the linkages between Livelihoods and Small-Scale Bioenergy Initiatives. The study was developed in consultation with the PISCES Consortium Advisory Group. This is made up of leading international participants in the field of energy and development, including members from the IEA, UNEP, ENERGIA, DFID and FAO, as well as policymakers and research organisations in the PISCES target countries of India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The focus of the study was on the impacts that different types of local level Bioenergy initiatives can have on Rural Livelihoods in different contexts in the developing world. Livelihoods are understood as the enhancement of the full range of natural, financial, human, social and physical capitals on a sustainable ongoing basis. [more...]
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Assistance to Improve Local Agricultural Emergency Preparedness in Caribbean Countries Highly Prone to Hurricane Related Disasters (TCP/ RLA/3101). The vulnerability of the Caribbean region to hydro- meteorological hazards such as hurricanes, floods, drought, high magnitude rainfall and related hazards such landslides is underscored. The recurrent impacts of these events have wreaked havoc on environment, economy and society throughout the region. Although the contribution of agriculture to Caribbean regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has steadily declined over the last two decades, this sector has remained a major employer of labour and as such a main player in the livelihood profile of the region. The extreme vulnerability of the agricultural sector to a variety of hazards/disaster has been a perpetual focus of hazard/disaster management and interventions in the Caribbean. Over the past decade, the FAO has regular responded to the relief/rehabilitation/reconstruction needs of the sector in the aftermath of hurricane-related disasters. [more...]
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The State of the World's Forests reports on the status of forests, recent major policy and institutional developments and key issues concerning the forest sector. It makes current, reliable and policy-relevant information widely available to facilitate informed discussion and decision-making with regard to the world's forests. [more...]
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The question of how forests and forest-dependent people will adapt to climate change is a growing area of research and has been at the heart of a number of recent conferences. One of these, the international conference on Adaptation of Forests and Forest Management to Changing Climate with Emphasis on Forest Health: A Review of Science, Policies and Practices (Umeå, Sweden, August 2008), spawned the contents of this special double issue of Unasylva. The conference, organized by FAO, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, brought together over 300 researchers, managers and decision-makers from 50 countries. [more...]
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GTOS 52 - Biennial Report Supplement. The 2007 IPCC assessment unequivocally states that humans have significantly changed the composition of the atmosphere and that, as a result, our climate is changing. To be able to attribute the causes of climate change, analyse the potential impacts, evaluate the adaptation options and enable characterization of extreme events such as floods, droughts and heat waves, globally consistent sets of observational data are needed. Without such baseline data it will not be possible develop the products needed by policy and other stakeholders [more...]
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With increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels and more frequent and intense extreme weather events, Pacific islands countries, especially those in warmer latitudes, are the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Their populations are expected to be among the first that will need to adapt to climate change or even abandon their traditional homeland and relocate. Unless we act now, climate change will constitute a major barrier to the achievement of sustainable development and viable food production goals for all Pacific island countries, while threatening the very existence of many of them. [more...]
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The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) has prepared this document to support theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, particularly theBali Action Plan, as well as the Non-Legally Binding Instrument on All Types of Forests ofthe United Nations Forum on Forests and other agreements, and in response to the need forconcerted action on forests and climate change. It lays the groundwork for a coordinatedresponse from the forest sector to climate change, notably through the widespread adoptionof sustainable forest management and its integration into broader development strategies. [more...]
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In 2005, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated a project at the requestof the Bangladesh government that was designed to improve the adaptive capacities of rural populations and their resilience to drought and other climate change impacts implemented under the Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Programme (CDMP), by the Department ofAgricultural Extension (DAE), and in collaboration with the Departments of Fisheries, Livestock and Forestry and national research institutes. This report provides a summary of the working approach developed and tested to promote community-based adaptation within agriculture. It presents lessons learned from the implementation process as well as the details of good practice options for drought risk management in the context of climate change. [more...]
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The implications of the recent rapid growth in production of biofuels based on agricultural commodities. The boom in liquid biofuels has been largely induced by policies in developed countries [more...]
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Until recently, most assessments of the impact of climate change on the food and agriculture sector have focused on the implications for production and global supply of food, with less consideration of other components of the food chain. This paper takes a broader view and explores the multiple effects that global warming and climate change could have on food systems and food security. It also suggests strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change in several key policy domains of importance for food security. [more...]
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The State of Food and Agriculture 2007 explores the potential for agriculture to provide enhanced levels of environmental services alongside the production of food and fibre. The report concludes that demand for environmental services from agriculture – including climate change mitigation, improved watershed management and biodiversity preservation – will increase in the future, but better incentives to farmers are needed if agriculture is to meet this demand. As one among several other possible policy tools, payments to farmers for environmental services hold promise as a flexible approach to enhancing farmer incentives to sustain and improve the ecosystems on which we all depend [more...]
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This document analyzes the implications for land tenure and land policy of climate change. It assesses the implications of ongoing anthropogenic climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions for land tenure and the role that land policy can play in climate change adaptation planning in the developing world; it also sets out a simple framework for tracing the linkages between climate change, impacts on land use systems, and the land tenure implications, including those which result from adaptation and mitigation responses to global warming. [more...]
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last updated: Monday, March 16, 2009