The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 22 May opened a two day series of events and immersive experiences, highlighting the key role of its programme of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in preserving biodiversity and livelihoods and strengthening the nexus between humans and the environment which nurtures us and produces our food.

Pollination is one of nature’s most important processes contributing to biodiversity. It helps us to produce a wide variety of plants many of which are also food crops. An estimated 90 percent of the world’s flowering plants depend on pollination for reproduction. And though often overlooked, bees and forest beekeeping also help sustain forest ecosystems as pollination helps the regeneration of trees which in turn helps to conserve forest biodiversity.

Changing the fate of an extraordinary bee species for the benefit of all: FAO, the Moroccan government and local beekeepers are making it their mission to save the Saharan yellow bee whose importance to the region’s ecosystems and biodiversity cannot be understated.

In its 18th Session, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF18) convened from UN headquarters in New York from 8 to 12 May, with the FAO delegation at UNFF18 led by Zhimin Wu, Director of the FAO Forestry Division and Chair of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF).

Biodiversity includes organisms that can help farmers grow crops successfully, such as bees and birds that pollinate crops,  earthworms that keep soils healthy and microorganisms that are capable of acting as biological control agents. The indiscriminate and inappropriate use of pe...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with support from the European Union (EU), moved a collection of unique genetic samples from Kharkiv in the east of Ukraine to a safe location in the west of the country. At a time when the world is facing an unprecedented loss of agricultural biodiversity in farmers’ fields, it is more important than ever to ensure that crop diversity is safeguarded, including the diversity that is held in genebanks.

Picture patches of tropical, dry forest separated by agricultural land stretched across the surface of six countries at the heart of the American continent. This is the Central American Dry Corridor, a 1 600-kilometre-long expanse through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama – home to 11.5 million rural people, who largely depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Sayad village is one of the most ancient settlements nestled on the Caspian Sea coast of Azerbaijan’s Khachmaz district. It’s long been famous for its numerous varieties of succulent tomatoes thanks to the farmers’ careful cultivation of the crop and the sunny climate. But something new and transformative is happening. Farmers are reviving and building on their region’s traditional agricultural techniques, such as crop rotation, with the help of training and support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union.

Brussels, Geneva and New York – The rethinking of food and agriculture and the necessary sector transformations we need moving forward must take into consideration the implementation of the closely interlinked climate change and biodiversity outcomes from COP27 and COP15, respectivel...

The high seas comprise nearly two-thirds of the world's ocean and are filled with a variety of fish species, which are essential for the ocean's biodiversity. They are part of flourishing ecosystems that regulate our climate, provide vital habitats for hundreds of thousands of species and support crucial fisheries.

But high seas ecosystems are facing new challenges: climate change, pollution, and unsustainable practices are threatening their fragile balance. Rising water temperatures are forcing many species to find new habitats, while unsustainable practices, such as overfishing, are impacting fish stocks and biodiversity.