Глобальный форум по продовольственной безопасности и питанию (Форум FSN)

To prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021-2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. When the strategy guiding this UN Decade was launched in September 2020, it was accompanied by a general survey, designed to assess what individuals already knew about restoration – and how they would like to be involved in the movement.

However, to accomplish the world’s ambitious restoration goals by 2030, individual and voluntary action is not enough. There is a need to strategically strengthen capacities of those stakeholders already involved in restoration. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration has launched a new online survey “Taking Stock of Global Capacity for Ecosystems Restoration” to identify what and whose capacities need to be enhanced to achieve the goals of the Decade.

The survey was jointly developed by a coalition of 38 organizations, under FAO’s leadership, and aims to: 1) provide a baseline of existing capacities; 2) help identify strengths, gaps, needs and barriers to achieving global restoration goals, and 3) guide the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’s system-wide capacity development efforts, to the benefit of all involved. 

You are encouraged to take this survey regardless of whether you have or have not participated in the previous general survey. This survey is aimed at everyone involved in ecosystem restoration. 

The survey is available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian, and will take about 15 minutes to complete.

The survey will remain open until 15 April 2021 and can be accessed here. 

Global food commodity prices rose sharply in November to their highest level in nearly six years, according to a benchmark United Nations report released on 3 December 2020.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 105.0 points during the month, up 3.9 percent from October and 6.5 percent higher than its value a year earlier. The monthly increase was the sharpest since July 2012, putting the index at its highest level since December 2014, the Food and Agriculture Organization said.

A key pillar of the Paris Agreement is the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF), which aims to raise ambitions for climate action through transparent country reporting. The development of National Forest Monitoring Systems with open and transparent data can enable action for forest and climate. In light of the climate emergency, it is time to scale up efforts toward accurate, open and transparent forest data, to catalyze higher ambitions under the Paris Agreement.

The FAO webinar “Open and Transparent Forest data: Innovation and Technology for Climate Action” will highlight global and national efforts in the field of forest monitoring that support the implementation of the ETF under the Paris Agreement.

Specifically, the webinar aims to:   

• present the “Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector" (CBIT-Forest)” project and its contribution to the ETF under the Paris Agreement;
• present latest digital data sources and related dissemination innovations contributing to the Paris Agreement by promoting transparency and open data, and
• share experience from Bangladesh on data management and transparency.        

The webinar will take place on Wednesday 11 November 2020, 14:30 – 16:00 CEST.

To join the webinar session on Zoom, kindly register here.

Please access further information on the webinar here.  

FAO has launched The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2020 (SOCO 2020). The report aims to discuss policies and mechanisms that promote sustainable outcomes – economic, social and environmental – in agricultural and food markets, both global and domestic.

The analysis is organized along the trends and challenges that lie at the heart of global discussions on trade and development. These include the evolution of trade and markets; the emergence of global value chains in food and agriculture; the extent to which smallholder farmers in developing countries participate in value chains and markets; and the transformative impacts of digital technology on markets.

Along these themes, SOCO 2020 discusses policies and institutions that can promote inclusive economic growth and also harness markets to contribute towards the realization of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

The report also looks at policy responses to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food value chains, both nationally and globally.

The report is available in all six UN languages and can be downloaded here.

FAO/GIEWS has released the latest issue of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation quarterly report, which highlights that food assistance needs grow as the COVID-19 pandemic hits incomes. Globally, 45 countries, including 34 in Africa, are in need of external assistance for food. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly through the loss of income and jobs related to containment measures, have severely aggravated global food security conditions, as well as increasing the number of people in need of assistance. Conflicts and weather shocks remained critical factors affecting the current high levels of severe food insecurity.

HIGHLIGHTS

Africa

Larger harvests are estimated in Southern Africa and East Africa, despite floods and outbreaks of desert locusts; although pest damages have been largely contained, serious concerns remain in some countries. Adverse weather reduced wheat outputs in North African countries, while cereal production in West Africa is foreseen at a slightly above-average level. Protracted conflicts continue to limit growth in agricultural production in Central Africa.

Asia

Widespread floods caused damage in several countries in Far East Asia, but rains across the subregion were also beneficial for paddy production and the output in 2020 is forecast at a record high. In the Near East, reflecting improved security conditions and favourable weather, production upturns were estimated in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq in 2020. Rainfall shortages generally kept wheat outputs in CIS countries at below-average levels, but barley production increased driven by larger plantings.

Latin America and the Caribbean

In South America, cereal production is forecast to reach a new record high in 2020 underpinned by large maize plantings in Brazil and Argentina, as weak currencies boosted export demand and incentivized farmers. In Central America and the Caribbean, overall favourable weather conditions supported good yields, and cereal production in 2020 is expected at a slightly above-average level.

Please download the full report here: http://www.fao.org/3/cb1101en/CB1101EN.pdf