The Eight Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Forest Genetic Resources will be held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy from 26 to 28 November 2024. The meeting will open on Tuesday, 26 November 2024 at 10:00 hours. The Session will be held in Arabic, Chinese,...

The revised – unedited – draft of The Second Report on the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources is now out for review (click here to download).

A first draft of the Second Report was presented to the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and...

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests in 2012. The Day celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests. On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities...

Ensuring the availability of seeds and seedlings from a range of tree species is crucial if we are to meet global targets on the restoration of degraded forests and landscapes, according to a new forestry working paper from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the...

In 2022, FAO made a worldwide call inviting stakeholders to submit abstracts of case studies where agricultural biotechnologies had been applied to solve the problems of smallholders in developing countries in the aquaculture, crop, forestry and livestock sectors. The 15 case studies selected here cover a wide range of different...

The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA), the only intergovernmental body that deals with all matters specifically related to biodiversity for food and agriculture, is marking its 40th anniversary, and the importance of its work was stressed today during a meeting in Rome.

The Seventh Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Forest Genetic Resources will be held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy from 7 to 9 March 2023. The meeting will open on Tuesday, 7 March 2023 at 10:00 hours. The Session will be held in Arabic, Chinese, English, French,...

Healthy and resilient forests are crucial for safeguarding biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services. Genetic diversity and integrated pest management are nature-based solutions for continued adaptation of forests to climate change. Moreover, genetic diversity provides both resilience and resistance to stress factors and forest disturbances, such as outbreaks of pests and...

FAO has just launched an open call for case studies of the use of agricultural biotechnologies to meet the needs of smallholders in developing countries. In 2012, FAO published Biotechnologies at Work for Smallholders, a collection of case studies of the applications of biotechnologies to serve the needs of smallholders...

Forests cover just over 30 percent of the global land area, yet they provide habitat for the vast majority of the terrestrial plant and animal species known to science. Unfortunately, forests and the biodiversity they contain continue to be under threat from actions to convert the land to agriculture...