Forests harbour a large proportion of the Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity, which continues to be lost at an alarming rate. Deforestation is the single most important driver of forest biodiversity loss with 10 million ha of forest converted every year to other land uses, primarily for agriculture. Up to 30 percent...

A partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Government of Japan is sustaining agricultural production and safeguarding food and nutrition security for highly vulnerable households in the Republic of Moldova, which is affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine and recent, extreme weather...

The Japan Coast Guard has provided its counterpart in the Pacific island country of Kiribati with technical support to crack down on illegal fishing boats. The move came following China's recent increased presence in the region. Japan sent three officers for the support program from June 19 to 26 in the...

The management of small-scale fishing in Hime-shima in Oita Prefecture in western Japan shows how collaboration on traditional knowledge and practices can help overcome external threats. Japan’s traditional ways for fishery resource management were developed more than 200 years ago. A document written in 1816, called the ‘Edo-Bay Protocol’ (Edo is...

What does digitalisation mean from the perspectives of a diversified, dairy family farm in rural Japan? For more than three generations, the Sudo Family has adapted their farm to the challenges and opportunities of working and living in the southern tip of the Bōsō Peninsula of Japan, Chiba Prefecture. As...

Two new sites in Japan - an inland fisheries and associated paddy farming system centred on the country’s largest lake and a traditional fruit-growing area  believed to have been the birthplace of Japanese grape cultivation - have been formally recognized as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). The two sites have been...

With its distinctive green colour and sharp, spicy flavour, wasabi (Eutrema japonicum) has been highly prized in Japan for centuries. There is evidence from written works that Buddhist monks ate “cold wasabi soup” from as early as the 12th century. By the 14th century, they began to eat sashimi topped with wasabi...

The practice of natural agriculture focuses on biodiversity preservation and promotes seed conservation.  This approach emphasizes the environment's fundamental characteristics and supports the Satoyama concept that integrates ecological compatibility among landscape and seascape management. In this session, part of the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2021 programme, Shumei Natural Agriculture presented a virtual tour of natural agriculture farms...

The Government of Japan boosts the Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations (FAO) emergency interventions in Yemen by contributing USD 2 090 909 allocated as part of its ongoing response in Yemen.The “Emergency Agricultural Livelihood Assistance to Conflict and COVID-19 Affected Populations” project enables FAO to provide emergency...

The exclusion of women from organizing bodies is a key challenge facing women in Japan’s coastal fisheries. In Japan, the Fishery Cooperative Associations (FCAs) are key entities in the effort to protect the environment in coastal fisheries. They manage traditional fishing rights with legal support from the government, and are embedded...

Bangkok, Thailand, FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), today re-affirmed their close collaboration on technical cooperation work in the region during an annual review of the programme. The annual review process was “a very valuable occasion that will...

For centuries, farmers, herders, fishers and foresters have developed diverse and locally adapted agricultural systems managed with time tested, ingenious techniques. These practices have resulted in a vital combination of social, cultural, ecological and economic services to humankind. “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems” (GIAHS) are outstanding landscapes of aesthetic beauty...

This study provides a comparative analysis of global agricultural policies aimed at drawing lessons for the future of the CAP. Against the background of the main trends in agricultural support as well as recent changes and new initiatives in global agricultural policies, an in depth analysis is made of selected...

Currently, 37 National Committees of Family Farming (NCFF) are actively working on political advocacy in their countries. In 2017, the network of National Committees for Family Farming expanded with the incorporation of new countries like Fiji, Macedonia, and Chad, while in Japan and Cameroon important efforts were made in the establishment...

The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme, launched as an initiative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2002, provides international recognition to important traditional agricultural systems (including forestry and fisheries) which conserve agrobiodiversity, indigenous knowledge, culture heritage and agricultural landscapes. Today (as of August 2017), there...

The Oshika peninsula is located within the Miyagi prefecture, one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, and has an extension of about 20 km of coastline, comprised of small bays dominated by rocky or sandy bottom environments. Rivers flow to the ocean from forests with an elevation of up to...

FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) today re-affirmed their close collaboration on technical cooperation work in the region during an annual review of the programme.

Four traditional farming systems in Bangladesh and Japan have been designated today by FAO as "Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems."

G20 Members (Turkey, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indıa, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the EU) represent 85% of the world’s economy, 70% of the global agricultural economy and the two thirds of...

In the past 50 years, about a quarter of Japan’s cultivated land has been lost, threatening food production, cultural landscapes and biodiversity. One of Japan’s most valued cultural landscapes includes rice terraces. In order to prevent them from abandonment, an innovative concept known as the Ownership System, was devised almost...