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Land and agriculture: From UNCED, Rio de Janeiro 1992 to WSSD, Johannesburg 2002

A compendium of recent sustainable development initiatives n the field of agriculture and land management









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    Book (stand-alone)
    Enabling institutional environments conducive to livelihood improvement and adapted investments in sustainable land and water uses
    SOLAW21 Technical background report
    2022
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    This report reviews the main global trends in land and water uses, policies and investments that have taken place over the last decade and identifies the institutional arrangements that have been the most conducive to sustainable and equitable use of these resources. The report focuses particularly on family farmers, who have limited access to key resources (land, water, credit and infrastructure). It pays special attention to their common challenges and needs, but also to their diverse conditions. It provides evidence-based information on the institutional conditions needed to ensure inclusive land and water programmes, and to upscale such programmes at local levels. It is based on a systematic review of official documents and academic papers and on detailed case studies, often grounded in the authors’ own significant knowledge. The report is organized in three main parts. The first section begins with a review of the main global trends affecting land and water uses over the last decade, and links them to the public policies and types of private investment that encouraged such trends. The main structural drivers of growing pressures on water resources and land availability are discussed, including population growth, diet changes, climate change, urbanization and biofuel development. The report discusses the direct effects of these drivers, including water scarcity, increased global competition for land use and the degradation of existing resources, on land and water availability. It then examines the main types of private investments and public policies that drive these trends: large-scale land acquisition, reassertion of large-scale infrastructure programmes for surface water irrigation, public subsidies and private initiatives that stimulate access to groundwater. The second section of the report focuses on the impacts of global changes, policies and investments on farmers’ livelihoods and water use. It reviews the numerous beneficial impacts of irrigation on poverty reduction emphasizing that they are highly contextual and unequally shared across social groups. It documents the widening gap between irrigated and rainfed areas, and the risks of a medium-term crisis for agricultural economies that are based on groundwater irrigation. It emphasizes that existing policies are poorly tailored to farmers’ needs. Lastly, the section documents the complex relationship between migration and increased pressures on land and water. The third section of the report charts the way forward for more sustainable and equitable management of land and water. It takes stock of policies inspired by the principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM).
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    Recarbonizing global soils – A technical manual of recommended management practices
    Volume 4 - Cropland, grassland, integrated systems and farming approaches - Case studies
    2021
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    During the last decades, soil organic carbon (SOC) attracted the attention of a much wider array of specialists beyond agriculture and soil science, as it was proven to be one of the most crucial components of the earth’s climate system, which has a great potential to be managed by humans. Soils as a carbon pool are one of the key factors in several Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 15, “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” with the SOC stock being explicitly cited in Indicator 15.3.1. This technical manual is the first attempt to gather, in a standardized format, the existing data on the impacts of the main soil management practices on SOC content in a wide array of environments, including the advantages, drawbacks and constraints. This manual presents different sustainable soil management (SSM) practices at different scales and in different contexts, supported by case studies that have been shown with quantitative data to have a positive effect on SOC stocks and successful experiences of SOC sequestration in practical field applications. Volume 4 includes 51 case studies dealing with cropland, grassland, integrated systems and farming approaches.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Integrated land use management systems in Uzbekistan – Part 2
    Literature review, case studies and business recommendations
    2024
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    The aim of this report is to describe and analyse the economic and business aspects of agroforestry implementation in Uzbekistan. This information is presented with the goal of enabling the development of detailed and specific suggestions for land use contract development. First, the report presents an in-depth literature review of studies that have examined the economic structure and viability of agroforestry and other agricultural practices in the region. Specifically, this review focuses on developing a nuanced understanding of relevant business structures, economic relationships between various land users and local forestry officials, and existing co-management agreements and contracts that affect the economic viability of land use activities. Current employment structure and land tenure conditions are also examined. Second, the report presents the findings of several field visits to pilot sites in Uzbekistan. These field trips were organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and carried out by national experts Sirojiddin Eshmatov and Sobir Azizov. Based on interviews and visits to farmers, the study team collected information about the current economic situation of smallholder farmers and other land users. These visits aimed in part to understand the specific economic and business considerations faced by agroforestry practitioners or interested land users in the pilot sites. Together, the two components form the empirical basis for a set of specific recommendations for land users and policymakers interested in developing agroforestry as an economically viable activity in the context of agriculture in Uzbekistan.

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