News archive 2011

A new partnership for Mediterranean forests has been established to address major threats to the region's forests triggered by climate change. The partnership involves twelve institutions and organizations, including FAO, and will focus primarily on six countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.

The Rotterdam Convention's Chemical Review Committee based its recommendation on a review of national regulatory actions taken by Benin, Canada, European Union, Japan, New Zealand, and Norway to ban or restrict the use of chemicals that pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.

"Potentially catastrophic" impacts on food production from slow-onset climate changes could hit the developing world in the future and action is needed now to prepare for those anticipated impacts, FAO warned today in a submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The FAO submission outlines steps that governments could consider to ensure that food security is not threatened.

A $54 million support package to agriculture in Pakistan looks set to produce a crop worth $190 million to be spread round half a million poor households. FAO will shortly distribute quality rice seeds to almost 25,000 families in Sindh for the upcoming planning season. Over 700,000 smallholder family farms will need help to get through the coming months.

Around a million dollars of equipment and vaccines are urgently required to help stem outbreaks of deadly Foot-and-Mouth disease in North Korea, followed by a more prolonged and concerted effort to modernize veterinary services in the country, according to a joint FAO and OIE mission sent to North Korea.

FAO, IAEA and WHO are committed to mobilizing their knowledge and expertise in support of the Japanese government's ongoing efforts to address food safety issues stemming from the events of 11 March.

FAO’s first forecast for world wheat production in 2011 stands at 676 million tonnes, representing a growth of 3.4 percent from 2010, the March 2011 edition of the Crop Prospects Food Situation report said today. This level would still be below the bumper harvests in 2008 and 2009.

As the world’s urban population continues to swell, the need to employ new and innovative approaches to ensuring safe and adequate water for city dwellers in developing countries is becoming increasingly pressing, FAO said today.

The global water situation is so precarious that by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may experience regular water shortages. Forests capture and store water and play an important role in providing drinking water for millions of people. International agencies involved in forest protection call upon countries to pay more attention to forest protection for the provision of clean water.

Bulgarian football star Hristo Stoitchkov, accompanied by a delegation of the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), led by its Chairman Sir David Richards, has spoken out in support of the EU and FAO’s efforts to rebuild the livelihoods of people affected by the 2010 food crisis in the Sahel during a two-day visit to Burkina Faso.