Managing natural resources sustainably and preserving biodiversity in a changing climate

FAO Regional Initiative 3

Regional Initiative 3 supports Member Nations in strengthening national capacities and enhancing processes for sustainable natural resources management; adapting and mitigating climate change and reducing disaster risks in agriculture, forestry and fisheries; preserving biodiversity through natural capital investment, innovation and public–private partnerships; and reducing the environmental impacts of agrifood systems – including pollution and chemical and plastic wastes – through bioeconomy and socially inclusive and equitable approaches.

The Regional Initiative promotes achievement of the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals, especially goals 1, 2, 6, 12, 13 and 15. It also contributes to the FAO Strategic Framework 2022–31 and its four betters.

The Regional Initiative offers a regional mechanism to assist countries in accessing climate finance, such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), including tools and thematic support to formulate interventions at the nexus of climate change, food security, gender and rural poverty.

The Initiative works through three main components:

Climate change and disaster risk reduction	Biodiversity and nature-positive production	Environmental sustainability

The Initiative leverages four FAO accelerators:

Technology: The Regional Initiative promotes the most appropriate climate technologies, green technology and local knowledge to enhance evidence-based decision-making and help increase the efficiency and climate-resilience of agrifood systems.

Innovation: The Regional Initiative promotes the most appropriate climate technologies, green technology and local knowledge to enhance evidence-based decision-making and help increase the efficiency and climate-resilience of agrifood systems.

Data: To support the uptake of innovative, climate-smart technologies and policies, it is important that disaggregated data related to climate and environmental impacts be available at the national level. Data collection and dissemination are important for the deliverance of the Initiative’s goals across varied subjects, linking to the Hand-in-Hand Initiative’s geospatial platform.

Complements: The Regional Initiative contributes to strengthening national and institutional capacities to develop and assess trade-offs and implement and sustain evidence-based policies and strategies for climate action, natural resources management, biodiversity and bioeconomy.

Embedding cross-cutting themes:

Inclusion of Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, and poor and vulnerable communities
Regional Technical Platform on Green Agriculture

Regional Initiative 3 also contributes to the promotion of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), supporting the acknowledgment of traditional, highly valuable agricultural systems in the region that are examples of heritage to be preserved. The GIAHS programme recognizes these systems as outstanding landscapes of aesthetic beauty that combine agricultural biodiversity, resilient ecosystems, and valuable cultural heritage. Located in specific sites around the world, these systems sustainably provide multiple goods and services, food, and livelihood security for millions of small-scale farmers.