It is an uphill task, but in the highlands and the lowlands, Rwanda is slowly but surely restoring the slopes of its thousand hills. Many of them are green once more, but still in poor condition due to environmental degradation, mainly caused by human activity and the ravages of the war and genocide of 1994.

Five years after the Second Congo War officially came to an end, peace remains precarious. Hundreds of thousands of people are still homeless, and undernutrition affects 70 percent of the population. Still, increasing numbers Congolese farmers are trying to get back to their fields. FAO is there to help.

With food prices hitting record highs world wide, FAO is helping implement urgent measures to increase food production in the most affected countries. In Swaziland Input trade fairs enable poor farmers boost their crops.

Young people from tsunami-affected fishing villages in Indonesia are being trained as "community motivators" to help FAO and the American Red Cross promote sound management of coastal fisheries.