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Inland waterway management is complex and faces unique challenges as inland waterways have a variety of users. The mixture and overlap of local, regional, national and at times international regulations exacerbate the problem of managing inland waterways. In this context, the regional conference ‘River habitat restoration for inland fisheries in the Danube River basin and adjacent Black Sea areas’ was held on 13-15 November 2018 in Bucharest, Romania. This event was organised by the FAO Regional office for Europe and Central Asia in partnership with the International Organisation for the Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Europe (EUROFISH) and EIFAAC [...]

The Arab region needs a new generation of policies and investments in agricultural water. Agricultural water management has always posed challenges and opportunities in the Arab world. However, unprecedented and accelerating drivers such as climate change, population growth, and land degradation make agricultural water management a more urgent priority than ever before. In addition, as part of the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, Arab countries have committed to work towards an ambitious set of development targets, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unless the right policies and investments are put in place, it will be difficult to achieve the SDGs, [...]

Cette brochure se concentre sur l'analyse et la présentation de la première évaluation de la mise en œuvre, de l’opérationnalisation et des résultats obtenus par les plateformes locales multi-acteurs sur la gouvernance foncière, créées avec le soutien du programme des Directives volontaires dans la vallée du fleuve Sénégal. Available in French only  

 Agriculture is the backbone of Afghan economy. However, its agriculture sector is highly dependent on irrigation water management. Given that the productivity of rainfedcultivation is very low, most of the production comes from irrigated agriculture. The rehabilitation and modernization of irrigation systems and improvement of their efficiency was deemed crucial for sustainable development and the stability of the country. The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), through its Irrigation Directorate (ID), plays a key role in this process. The project, which was part of a bigger project called Capacity Development and Institutional Strengthening (CDIS) funded by Japan International Cooperation [...]

Agriculture is the most important sector for the economy of Ghana, and for its continued growth, the use and management of agricultural inputs, such as pesticides, had to be improved. Since 2009, obsolete pesticides have been stored in the temporary storage facility at the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate office, close to a water body that provides water for the surrounding communities. The poor storage of stockpiles posed a severe risk to people's health and the environment. Therefore, this project was implemented to dispose of the hazardous chemicals and build the institutional capacity to manage them in the future, [...]

The Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) is an appraisal system developed by FAO providing estimates of the impact of agriculture and forestry development projects, programmes and policies on the carbon-balance. The carbon-balance is defined as the net balance from all greenhouse gases (GHGs) expressed in CO2 equivalent that were emitted or sequestered due to project implementation as compared to a business-as-usual scenario. EX-ACT is a land-based accounting system, estimating C stock changes (i.e. emissions or sinks of CO2) as well as GHG emissions per unit of land, expressed in equivalent tonnes of CO2 per hectare and year. The tool helps project designers [...]

There is growing interest in water accounting, why it is needed, what benefits it brings, and equally important, how it can be put into practice. Water accounting is about quantifying water resources and uses of water, much like financial accounts provide information on income and expenditure. Interest in water accounting is based on the premise that ‘We cannot plan and manage what we do not measure’ – a statement that few would disagree with.Society needs more accurate information and answers to the key questions about water supply and demand. More data are needed but simply doing water measurements and assessments [...]

The FAO Global Perspectives Studies (GPS) Team has combined data from various hydrological models that simulate water availability at the pixel level and generated projections at the country level. They created the dataset by calculating relative changes in internal and inflowing water resources by country, resulting from different climate change scenarios. Relative changes were used to re-scale reported values in FAO AQUASTAT. The dataset disseminates projections of of water availability to support foresight analyses of food and agricultural systems.    

This sourcebook provides an overview of the second, digital edition of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Sourcebook. The new edition includes new findings, case studies and lessons learned. It also takes into account the changes in the landscape of international climate action since the original edition was published in 2013. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – which encompasses the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – provides an international framework for strong national actions and collective efforts to achieve sustainable development. Climate-smart agriculture, as an approach to achieve sustainable food and agriculture, [...]

There is a growing awareness to the role that natural resources, such as water, land, forests and environmental amenities, play in our lives. There are many competing uses for natural resources, and society is challenged to manage them for improving social well-being. Furthermore, there may be dire consequences to natural resources mismanagement. Renewable resources, such as water, land and the environment are linked, and decisions made with regard to one may affect the others. Policy and management of natural resources now require interdisciplinary approaches including natural and social sciences to correctly address our society preferences.  This series provides a collection of works containing most recent findings on economics, [...]