FAO has released a new Explanatory Note on the Guidelines for Developing Harmonized Food Safety Legislation for the CCAFRICA Region (CXG 98-2022).  These Guidelines were adopted in 2022 by the FAO/World Health Organization (WHO) Coordinating Committee for Africa (CCAFRICA). This Committee is mandated to exercise general coordination in the preparation of standards relating to the region of Africa.

As FAO celebrates its 80th anniversary, this special edition of the LEGN Magazine reflects on the Organization’s enduring commitment to support its Members in a changing world. From its earliest days, FAO recognised the importance of law in shaping food and agriculture. What began in the early 1950s as the collection and dissemination of national legislative texts on agriculture has, over subsequent decades, grown into a digitalised repository of general and thematic, freely accessible and searchable databases of legislation.

During the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, wildlife hunting became a popular pastime among European royals and colonial elites.  As a result, early wildlife laws in the 20th century were primarily designed to regulate sport hunting, and this legacy has endured in national legislation, particularly in several African countries. These laws, however, often overlook the fact that hunting is also a vital means of subsistence and livelihoods for many Indigenous Peoples and rural communities, and that their needs require distinct and appropriate regulations.

In line with global post-war trends, FAO promoted the increase in agricultural production in order to feed a heavily damaged and hungry world after WWII. Maximum yield levels were the main goal of policy makers and agricultural experts, and national legislation was aimed at supporting this paradigm. In this process, traditional food systems, local and small-scale, were usually overlooked and often damaged as a result of progressive substitution with imported genotypes favoured by industrial agriculture and pervasive monoculture of exotic crops for export and increasingly standardized diets.

Samarkand, Uzbekistan – On 26 November 2025, FAO and the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) co-hosted the side event titled “Making LAFs: requirements and best practices” during the 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP20). The event brought together representatives from the delegations of Brazil, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, and Lao PDR to discuss challenges and share good practices in the making of LAFs, a core requirement for issuing CITES export permits.

Development Law Service's innovative work on the SWM Legal Hub is showcased at an event in the FAO Liaison Office in Brussels, together with the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, European Commission’s DG INTPA, and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS). The event highlighted the SWM Programme’s achievements and its global scaling-up strategy for 2026–2028. 

Mahé, Seychelles. In collaboration with the FAO Development Law Service and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Seychelles Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources organized a hybrid workshop aimed at building capacity on the governance of biosafety, in line with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CPB) and the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress (NKLSP).

On 11 September 2025, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Right to Food Observatory (ODA), Costa Rica Chapter, joined forces for a seminar on “The Right to Adequate Food: Actions and Challenges from the Municipal Experience”. The event, held at the Technology Transference Center (CeTT) of the Technology Institute of Costa Rica (TEC) located in Zapote, brought together municipal authorities, representatives from public institutions, academia, civil society, and the private sector.

In a joint effort with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been supporting the Chilean government in advancing the implementation of the Food Systems Agenda in Chile through two main initiatives. 

Rome, 12 November 2025. Today, the Development Law Service (LEGN) held an unprecedented and impactful global event at FAO headquarters – “Youth at the Decision Table: Shaping the future of agrifood systems through the law”. Hybrid participation brought  together over 300 people, including professionals, experts, activists, students and academics from different disciplines and areas of the globe, to participate in inter-generational discussions around youth, the law and their contributions to support FAO’s mandate, the four betters and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Baku, 20-22 October 2025. The Development Law Service (LEGN) of FAO contributed to the National Policy Dialogue for Agricultural Cooperative Development in Azerbaijan organized by the FAO Partnership and Liaison Office in Azerbaijan, under project TCP/AZE/3903 - Promote agricultural cooperatives for increased market competitiveness.

LEGN participated in the Joint FAO/ICARS Regional Workshop, Leaving no one behind in AMR research, policy and practice: integrating gender and equity in AMR One Health solutions. Convened under the FAO–WHO–WOAH Regional Tripartite AMR Project and in collaboration with the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS), the workshop gathered over 100 participants from 24 countries, including experts on One Health, AMR, gender and inclusion, and community-based management.

“Developing an enabling environment for low emission and climate smart and resilient agriculture in Palau” is an FAO project that was created following the approval of a GCF Readiness proposal, which was initiated by LEGN and developed in collaboration with the FAO Subregional Office for the Pacific (SAP) and the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP).

On 2 September 2025, FAO’s Development Law Service (LEGN), with the support of FAO Forestry Team, hosted the online side event “Strengthening Forest Legislation in Latin America and the Caribbean: ForestLEX+”, as part of the Session of the Latin American and Caribbean Forestry Commission, held in Panama City. 

The FAO-led Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, of which the Development Law Service is an integral partner, supports countries with policy and legal reform regarding sustainable management of wildlife and related sectors. An analysis of the entire policy and legal framework in Namibia for SWM was presented to government and industry stakeholders during a workshop held on 22 May 2025 in Windhoek, Namibia. 

FAO is renewing and strengthening its efforts to meet the global climate emergency with its new Strategy on Climate Change and related action plan, which are expected to be endorsed by the FAO Council in June 2022.  The Strategy will provide FAO with a vision and a shared accountability framework for positioning agrifood systems and FAO’s work at the forefront of global efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change.

Transforming agri-food systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable is key to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 “Hunger Zero”. FAO acknowledges this through its Strategic Framework 2022-2031 which includes a better environment as an aspirational goal. One way to achieve a better environment is through its global legal protection and global recognition of the human right to a healthy environment.

The One Health approach recognizes the interface between human, animal and environmental health, and the urgent need to address these issues in a holistic manner. By developing knowledge and foresight on emerging threats to health and their consequences, as well as on resilience to disease and health improvement, the intrinsic value of this approach is being increasingly recognized as a multi-faceted lens through which to achieve sustainable agricultural production and global health.