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Promotional videos
 Innovation is unlocking the forests’ long-kept secrets and allowing us to use trees in ways we never imagined possible. Materials derived from forests and trees are being developed as sustainable substitutes for plastics, building materials, fabrics, medicines and many other everyday items. At the same time, rapidly evolving drone and satellite technology is helping us to monitor and manage our forests, detect and fight fires and safeguard ecosystems. Innovation can help us restore, protect, manage and use our forests sustainably. [more] |
 Healthy forests are vital for all aspects of a healthy planet, from livelihoods and nutrition to biodiversity and the environment, but they are under threat. Ten million hectares of forest were lost every year to deforestation between 2015 and 2020. Insects damage around 35 million hectares of forest annually, and fire affected approximately 98 million hectares of forest globally in 2015. It’s up to us to safeguard these precious natural resources. [more] |
 Forests stand as a vital defense against climate change and biodiversity loss, while also providing livelihoods for millions of people across the world. [more] |
 FAO’s latest State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) report identifies three pathways that can conserve forests while supporting environmental and economic recovery: halting deforestation, restoring degraded forests, and sustainably using forests to build resilient local economies. [more] |
Biodiversity
 Meet Godlop, a community scout in Botswana working to promote co-existence between livestock and wildlife with support from the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme. [more] |
 Experience a typical day in the life of Chipo, a young community natural resource monitor who is working in the planned Mucheni Community Conservancy in the northwest of Zimbabwe. The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is supporting Chipo, and Community Conservancies in this region to improve livelihoods and the sustainable management of wildlife. [more] |
 Experimental cultivation of water lily in the Senegal River delta is one of the RESSOURCE Project flagship initiatives. This nature-friendly activity benefits and involves the local communities, such as rice-farmers, women cooperatives and restaurant owners. Water lily production can help the local economy as well as wetlands and waterbirds conservation. [more] |
Cities
 A growing population means more buildings to fit everyone. By 2030, we will have to house an additional 3 billion people. Using wood from sustainably managed forests means we can create homes that don’t cost us the Earth. [more] |
 Built with wood, cities could become extensions of our forests, helping to combat climate change and keep the planet healthy. Wood is renewable and stores carbon for its lifetime, helping to keep it locked away from the atmosphere. Buildings and the construction sector currently emit almost 40% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions globally. [more] |
 More people live in cities than ever before and by 2050, 6 billion people or as much as 70% of the global population is expected to live in urban areas. But rapid urbanization does not need to result in polluted urban sprawl. Trees and urban forests can make our cities greener, healthier and happier places to live. [more] |
Climate change
| #image($pageItem, $entry) Built with wood, cities could become extensions of our forests, helping to combat climate change and keep the planet healthy. Wood is renewable and stores carbon for its lifetime, helping to keep it locked away from the atmosphere. Buildings and the construction sector currently emit almost 40% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions globally. [#print("more")] |
 Climate change is subjecting our planet to unsustainable pressures. Forests and trees trap and store carbon as they grow – standing at the frontline against climate change. [more] |
 In Senegal, the Acacia project has involved the planting and managing of Acacia forests in arid lands helping combat desertification while providing life-changing benefits to local communities. [more] |
Desertification
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Energy
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Food security
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Mountains
 An experimental documentary-performance hybrid video by the ‘A Common Future’ artistic collective, produced by UNIT9, raises awareness around desertification and the Great Green Wall. Restoring mountain ecosystems is the theme of International Mountain Day in 2023. This theme was selected to fully include mountains in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030, co-led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and the UN Environment Programme. [more] |
 Mountain women in Kyrgyzstan are working together with fashion designer Stella Jean to bring their traditional felt designs to the international market, thanks to a collaboration between the Mountain Partnership Products initiative, Topchu artisan group, FAO Women's Committee and Stella Jean. [more] |
 The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 11 December the International Day of Mountains. From 2003, the day is observed each year to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of mountains. [more] |
Sustainable forest management
 Forest pathways have the potential to provide decentralized solutions that are highly cost-effective and can be implemented comparatively rapidly and at scale. In this graphic animation, the fictional character of Geya, who works as scientific policy advisor to the prime minister of her country, explores ways how to implement forest-based pathways (protect – restore – sustainable use) as a basis for green recovery. [more] |
 A growing population means more buildings to fit everyone. By 2030, we will have to house an additional 3 billion people. Using wood from sustainably managed forests means we can create homes that don’t cost us the Earth. [more] |
 Built with wood, cities could become extensions of our forests, helping to combat climate change and keep the planet healthy. Wood is renewable and stores carbon for its lifetime, helping to keep it locked away from the atmosphere. Buildings and the construction sector currently emit almost 40% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions globally. [more] |
Watershed management
 Forests are vital to our water supply. They influence how and where rain falls, and they filter and clean our water. By protecting the world’s forests, we are also protecting the clean water that we depend upon for our survival. [more] |
 Kenya's Mau Forest stretches over the hills between the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria. Rain falls every day here for at least six months of the year, and water trapped by the Mau feeds 12 important rivers and five major lakes. [#print("more")] |
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Mediterranean and the Near East
 Grass charcoal production in Ghana In the run up to the first International Day of Forests on the 21st March 2013, the countries of the Mediterranean are meeting to discuss the state of Mediterranean forests and what can be done to safeguard them. [more] |
Asia Pacific
 Mountain women in Kyrgyzstan are working together with fashion designer Stella Jean to bring their traditional felt designs to the international market, thanks to a collaboration between the Mountain Partnership Products initiative, Topchu artisan group, FAO Women's Committee and Stella Jean. [more] |
| #image($pageItem, $entry) Globally, agriculture remains the most significant driver of global deforestation. Yet in Viet Nam, food security and forest cover have both increased significantly in the last 25 years thanks to economic and agricultural reforms. [more] |
 Papua New Guinea is embarking on its first national forest inventory (NFI) under the arrangements for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)+. [more] |
 The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has officially launched new software that is expected to help significantly in the fight against climate change. [more] |
Africa
 In Ghana, small producers are revolutionizing the production of charcoal. By using savanna grasses to make charcoal briquettes producers promote renewable energy and green jobs. It burns slower, making it ideal for cooking. The Ghana Federation of Forest and Farm Producers and the Millar Institute for Transdisciplinary and Development Studies with Forest and Farm Facility support trained five forest and farm producer organizations on the production of grass charcoal. [more] |
 Meet Godlop, a community scout in Botswana working to promote co-existence between livestock and wildlife with support from the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme. [more] |
 In northern Tanzania, recurring drought in recent years has put pressure on communities who make their livelihoods by keeping cattle. A group of Maasai women have turned to producing honey from beehives in the forest to generate additional income. This has enabled them to pay for their children’s education, buy more livestock and is helping to regenerate the forest around their hives. [more] |
 Action Against Desertification is an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) to restore drylands and degraded lands in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to tackle the detrimental social, economic and environmental impact of land degradation and desertification. It is a key partner of the Great Green Wall initiative, Africa's flagship programme to combat the effects of climate change and desertification across North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. Watch this video to experience a typical day in the life of Chipo, a young community natural resource monitor who is working in the planned Mucheni Community Conservancy in the northwest of Zimbabwe. Find out how the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is supporting Chipo, and Community Conservancies in this region to improve livelihoods and the sustainable management of wildlife. [more] |
 Action Against Desertification is an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) to restore drylands and degraded lands in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to tackle the detrimental social, economic and environmental impact of land degradation and desertification. It is a key partner of the Great Green Wall initiative, Africa's flagship programme to combat the effects of climate change and desertification across North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. [more] |
 Alongside large scale restoration of 1,000 ha of degraded land with selected local species planted over three years, Action Against Desertifcation is also supporting wildlife conservation in Khoily Alpha's village nature reserve through the reintroduction of the Sahel scimitar oryx (Oryx dammah) in support of the Great Green Wall in Senegal. An exclusive video shows the release of the first oryx. [more] |
 Experimental cultivation of water lily in the Senegal River delta is one of the RESSOURCE Project flagship initiatives. This nature-friendly activity benefits and involves the local communities, such as rice-farmers, women cooperatives and restaurant owners. Water lily production can help the local economy as well as wetlands and waterbirds conservation. [more] |
 Action Against Desertification supports local communities, government and civil society in six African countries - Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal – as well as in Fiji and Haiti to restore degraded land and to manage fragile ecosystems in a sustainable way. [more] |
 For many households in developing countries, forests and trees are indispensable and some 2.4 billion people rely on wood for cooking. [more] |
 A nationwide programme to transfer government-owned forest land to local communities is changing lives in The Gambia while promoting the sustainable management of its forests. [more] |
 Land restoration in northern Niger is making degraded areas productive again, providing economic opportunities in a region where migration has become a tradition. [more] |
Europe
 The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has officially launched new software that is expected to help significantly in the fight against climate change. Wood can be a material of the future, helping to build a bio-economy for the planet's health and economic recovery. Durable “cross-laminated timber” panels (CLT) are replacing concrete and steel in building construction, helping build carbon-neutral homes, offices and schools. Artificial leather, biomedical devices, and even electronics are now also made from wood. [more] |
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Latin America and the Caribbean
 After decades of clear-cutting forests for cattle pastures and commodity crops, Costa Rica’s forest cover has now increased to 54 percent, thanks to more sustainable agriculture practices, stronger legal controls over land use, and funding for forest protection. [more] |
 The Ministries of Agriculture and Environment of Peru, with technical support from FAO and financial support from the Government of Finland, launched the "National Forest Inventory and Sustainable Forest Management in a Changing Climate" programme. [more] |
 Almost half of Panama is covered by rich forests. By sustainably managing these forests the opportunities for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) are huge. [more] |
last updated: Thursday, June 22, 2023