Sustainability is a broadly used term that is said to encompass three dimensions of the environment, economics and social sustainability. Although sustainable development is often presented within the theory of systems analysis, at present, there are no tools that provide a practical approach to assessing sustainability outcomes. This paper identified issues, targets and performance indicators for sustainability. It represents an initial effort by FAO and ISEAL to define a universally agreed framework for sustainability which is intended to be further elaborated through the Rio+20 consultative process.

Preparation is underway for the June 2011 release of the first issue of the State of Land and Water (SOLAW) Flagship publication. The flagship publication will report on and analyze the global status of land and water resources. A new SOLAW website has been launched to highlight news and information related to the ongoing preparation work.

The threat of global climate change has caused concern among scientists as crop growth could be severely affected by changes in key climatic variables and agricultural production and food security could be affected both globally and locally. However, farmers living in harsh environments in the regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America are constantly coping with extreme weather events and climatic variability. This has led them to develop and/or inherit complex farming systems that have the potential to bring solutions to many uncertainties facing humanity in an era of climate change. These systems have been managed in ingenious ways, allowing small farming families to meet their subsistence needs in the midst of environmental variability, and without depending much on modern agricultural technologies.