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Dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral systems 

WeCaN members in climate diplomacy: Building skills, raising voices at COP 30
30/11/2025
As the world intensifies efforts to address the climate crisis, one truth stands out: women, especially those from climate-vulnerable regions, must be central to decision-making processes. Strenghtening women’s leadership in global climate governance is not only a matter of fairness; it is essential for shaping solutions that work for all.
New report identifies key learning needs for a successful Great Green Wall implementation
11/12/2024

The « Knowledge for Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA) » project supports the implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) in combating desertification, restoring degraded land, and improving livelihoods across the Sahara and Sahel. 

Science, Technology and Innovations in support of the implementation of the Great Green Wall
04/10/2024
This Special Edition No. 2 of the Echoes of the Great Green Wall is devoted to the state of progress in key areas and concrete scientific, technological and innovative contributions in support of implementation and delivery of actions towards achieving the GGW objectives. The publication shares and disseminates knowledge including research results, effective and efficient innovations, successful approaches and technical itineraries and offers options for scaling up.
Advanced regional training on Collect Earth and biophysical data collections on the Great Green Wall and the Sahel
23/09/2024
As part of its support to member countries and institutions for the implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW), FAO’s Action Against Desertification (AAD) convenes an advanced training on Collect Earth and biophysical data collections in the GGW and the Sahel. More than 30 experts from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal met on 23-27 September 2024 in Bamako, to advance the review and assessment of over 78,000 sample plots, contributing to FAO's continued efforts to monitor land restoration and land use change in Africa and in the GGW.
FAO presents large-scale restoration success in Senegal to wider Great Green Wall stakeholders
13/09/2024
FAO, CIFOR-ICRAF, Great Green Wall (GGW) institutions and partners convened for a Second Week on GGW in Senegal, as part of the EU-funded Knowledge for Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA) project. The event brought together more than 50 stakeholders and partners from GGW national entities (focal points and monitoring representatives) and the Panafrican Agency of GGW, as well as civil society representatives and networks, private sector actors and entrepreneurs, international organizations, NGOs and financial partners.
FAO and other international partners set to launch 2nd Drylands Summer School in Kenya
08/05/2024
Sharing a common vision over rangelands, FAO and several key partners have promoted the celebration of the Second Drylands Summer School, aiming to build resilient drylands by training experts to...
From Dubai to the world: WeCaN member's impactful journey through UNFCCC COP28
22/12/2023
Significant progress was made during COP28, but the pace of improvement on the gender balance front remained slow. In fact, unfortunately, only 38 percent of party delegations were women –...
MEV-CAM announces new Toolkit on Participatory Video
28/11/2023
The "Making Every Voice Count for Adaptive Management" (MEV-CAM) Initiative was created in 2020 and alters the way South-South knowledge management is approached by using local and indigenous knowledge to...
FAO provides insights at CRIC 21 on achieving land degradation neutrality
21/11/2023
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) co-organized a series of side-events on the margins of the Twenty-First session of the Committee for the Review of the...
FAO-JP GTA training explores gender and climate change in agricultural value chains
16/11/2023
The JP GTA collaborated with FAO’s Gender Team and the WeCaN community of Knowledge Practice for the Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL-IP) to build the capacity of...
South-South cooperation between Iran and China enhances dryland forest rehabilitation
25/10/2023
The Islamic Republic of Iran's National Resource and Watershed Organization (NRWO) has just concluded a dynamic week-long study tour to China, returning with invaluable insights and a fervent commitment to...
First Drylands Summer School ignites global collaboration in combatting dryland challenges
26/09/2023
The inaugural Drylands Summer School, organized by the Committee on Forestry Working Group (COFO WG) in partnership with prestigious institutions worldwide, brought together participants from across the world to address...
Looking for good practices? Look no further than MEV-CAM’s new Knowledge Bank!
20/06/2023
MEV-CAM has launched its long-awaited Knowledge Bank, a database of good practices on sustainable land management and restoration documented by communities taking part in the initiative. The Knowledge Bank is free...
Five key outputs from WeCaN’s first Global Gathering
30/05/2023
The WeCaN initiative held its first Global Gathering from 24 - 26 May, bringing together 20 members from across the world to meet in person for the first time. The...
Drylands matter – Experts unite to accelerate a trailblazing Global Environment Facility impact program to transform Dryland landscapes in harmony with its people and nature
27/05/2023
The Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program (DSL-IP), led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and financed with support from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), organized...
MEV-CAM reaches Latin America!
03/04/2023
The FAO Dryland team’s MEV-CAM initiative kicked off its expansion into Latin America with a four-day training course on process documentation methods, its first-ever workshop held virtually. Eleven participants from six...
FAO launches first e-Learning course to transform dryland management
29/03/2023
FAO has launched a new e-learning course that will inspire practitioners to champion transformational dryland forest management strategies, spearheaded by the Committee on Forestry’s Working Group on Dryland Forests and...
Two promising cases of digital entrepreneurship empowering women in the forest sector
10/03/2023
Traditionally women play a vital role in the forest sector, often carrying out the lion’s share of foraging for food in forests and firewood collection. Now, women entrepreneurs are using...
COFO Working Group and International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026 collaborate on new Drylands Summer School
20/02/2023
The Committee on Forestry (COFO) Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems (WG) has announced the dates of the first Drylands Summer School, in collaboration with the International Year...
Three things the FAO Jordan office learned from MEV-CAM – and how these skills can be applied
31/01/2023
In November 2022, the ‘Making Every Voice Count for Adaptive Management’ (MEV-CAM) initiative kicked off its regional knowledge exchange with a visit to Amman, Jordan.  MEV-CAM conducted a 10-day training...
Twelve misconceptions about agrosilvopastoral systems – and how to overcome them
14/08/2026

Agrosilvopastoral systems can contribute to food security, resilient livelihoods, biodiversity, climate adaptation and sustainable land management. Yet they are often reduced to simplified practice, such as grazing under trees or adding trees to livestock and farming landscapes; this brochure examines 12 common misconceptions about agrosilvopastoral systems and explains how evidence, policy and practice can overcome them

Advancing women's leadership in dryland regions through the three Rs: rights, representation and resources
30/10/2024

This WeCaN Nurturing Community of Knowledge Practice for Women policy brief focuses on advancing women's leadership in dryland regions through the three Rs: rights, representation and resources. It includes useful case studies collected from WeCaN members across many dryland areas, showcasing the benefits of strong women leadership on environments and communities.

Applying MEV-CAM tools: participatory video
30/01/2024

The Making Every Voice Count for Adaptive Management (MEV-CAM) toolkit provides process documentation facilitators with instruments for documenting change through participatory video to generate knowledge, monitor impact, and share practices.

Compost as solid waste management in Jordan
30/11/2023

This document aims to show the impact of good practices on local communities, from their own perspective.

Live fencing in Uganda
30/05/2023

This good practice, focusing on live fencing, comes from local communities in Uganda and provides a guide to restoring local ecosystems and farms through natural fencing methods.

Gabion baskets: A simple solution to a big problem
30/05/2023

This best practice, focusing on gabion baskets, comes from local communities in Malawi and provides a guide to the use of gabion baskets to improve landscape resilience.

From charcoal to honey in Malawi
30/05/2023

This best practice, focusing on beekeeping, comes from local communities in Malawi and provides a guide to implementing beekeeping as an alternative livelihood.

Farmer managed natural regeneration in Uganda
30/05/2023

This good practice, focusing on farmer managed natural regeneration, comes from local communities in Uganda and provides a guide to restoring local ecosystems through natural planting methods.

Theatre for development to engage local communities
30/04/2023

This best practice focuses on the use of Theatre for Development with local communities in Malawi.

Regenerative grazing for climate, ecosystem, and human health
30/11/2022

With regenerative grazing management, that is, the right management of livestock and wildlife for the right context, land degradation can be reversed, leading not only to a rapid regain of ecoystem function but to greater revenue for the women, men and youth drawing their livelihoods from these landscapes. This paper explores agroforestry, regenerative grazing management and silvopastoral systems.

Grazing with trees - A silvopastoral approach to managing and restoring drylands with trees: Policy brief
30/11/2022

The Grazing with trees policy brief accompanies the Grazing with Trees publication, giving an overview of the positive role that optimized extensive grazing livestock farming can play in the management and restoration of drylands’ forests and lands. Trees in dryland forests and wooded areas provide key ecosystem services such as animal feed, timber, fruits and, regulation of soil and water cycles.

A turning point for drought management: upscaling the silvopastoral approach
15/11/2022

This white paper provides useful background for the GLF Climate Digital Conference: A turning point for drought management: Upscaling the silvopastoral approach in the Near East North Africa (NENA) region....

Grazing with trees - A silvopastoral approach to managing and restoring drylands
30/09/2022

The ‘Grazing with Trees’ report gives a thorough assessment of the positive role that optimized extensive grazing livestock farming can play in the management and restoration of drylands’ forests and lands with trees. It assesses and provides sound evidence on the benefits of applying an integrated landscape approach and utilizing farmers and pastoralists’ knowledge to halt desertification, increase resilience, and enhance food security under the actual changing scenario.

Doing no harm while doing good - Climate and conflict sensitivity in dryland humanitarian projects. Policy brief
30/08/2022

The Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus recognizes conflict as a threat multiplier to climate change and seeks to integrate conflict sensitivity into policies and actions around natural resources. Competition for natural resources in dryland areas often leads to conflict between host communities and displaced people.

Valuing, restoring and managing “presumed drylands”: Cerrado, Miombo–Mopane woodlands and the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau
26/05/2022

The study "Valuing, restoring and managing presumed drylands: Cerrado, Miombo–Mopane woodlands and the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau" confirms the existence of 1 075 million hectares of presumed drylands that are under threat...

Deploying a humanitarian-development-peace nexus approach: Exploring, strengthening and reviving dryland ecosystems
18/10/2021

The FAO-CARE- CGIAR joint technical working paper will contribute to developing an FAO position and improved understanding of the links between, and risks of, climate change and various kinds of conflict as related to FAO’s mandate, with particular attention to crisis contexts in dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral areas. More broadly, this will feed into UN system-level discussion and processes related to the multidimensional nature of Climate Security.

Building climate-resilient dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral production systems: An approach for context-dependent economic, social and environmentally sustainable transformations
30/03/2021

With climate change impacts already felt in the world’s drylands, there is an urgent need for action, at various scales and initiated by different stakeholders, to ensure the sustainability of food production and livelihoods in these regions in the coming decades. There is also the need to rapidly establish baselines, assess and start monitoring progress on sustainability, emerging as result of the action taken.

Blooming drylands – a practical approach for context-dependent economic, social and environmentally sustainable transformations
19/03/2021

This policy brief is intended to inform decision-makers of nine transformational actions to sustain dryland production systems under the impact of climate change. It highlights the relevance of the local...

Trees, forests and land use in drylands - The first global assessment. Full reposrt
05/12/2019

Drylands cover 41 percent of the Earth's land surface. This publication presents the results of the first global assessment of trees, forests and land use in these lands. The assessment...

The Dyland Restoration Initiative Platform (DRIP)
04/11/2017

The Dryland Restoration Initiative Platform (DRIP) is an interactive web portal with an online tool to support practitioners, project managers, policy-makers and decision-makers in compiling and analysing data and capturing...

Third Drylands Summer School

Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), 06/07/2025 - 10/07/2025

Third Drylands School, 2024. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

©FAO/Pedro Herrera Calvo

Call for applications now open

The Committee on Forestry Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems Dryland Schools explore transformative approaches to building climate-resilient drylands.

The third edition of the Drylands School will take place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and will focus on improving the governance of dryland forests, rangelands and agrosilvopastoral systems building on the experience of Mongolia, the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026, the Sustainable Forest Management Drylands Sustainable Landscapes Impact Programme and other neighbouring countries and partners.

Participants must have experience in dryland management and complete FAO's e-learning course on dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral systems. Each participant will work on their own case study during the school week.

Interested in participating?

Fill in our application form here.
Deadline for applications: 4 June 2025