Latest news and updates from the partnership
Efforts to safeguard biodiversity receive welcome boost
25/08/2023
The newly established fund will facilitate financing for developing countries — which are often the most biodiverse — to enhance their ability to protect, restore and ensure the sustainable use of natural resources, as established through The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by 196 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at COP15 in December 2022.
FAO @ 7th GEF Assembly
21/08/2023
Environmental leaders from 185 countries will gather at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada for the Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility from August 22-26. Building on recent diplomatic breakthroughs on biodiversity loss, toxic chemicals, and the high seas, the GEF...
Water reservoirs bounce green life back
10/08/2023
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and in collaboration with the communities in Asmar and Manogi districts, is supporting the rural societies by constructing 73 water reservoirs with different capacities to cu...
The Coastal Fisheries Initiative: Teaching communities to fish sustainably
24/07/2023
Teaching a man – or woman – to fish may once have been enough to feed them for life. Now they must learn how to fish sustainably. Since 2017, the Global Environment Facility-funded Coastal Fisheries Initiative has been hard at work on three continents and on multiple tracks to do just that.
In Ecuador, learning about Land Degradation Neutrality in practice
21/07/2023
To foster adoption of Land Degradation Neutrality as a policy priority, and to facilitate the exchange of information about challenges and lessons learned in this area, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the GEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Water and Ecol...
FAO and partner agencies tasked with leading $115 million Clean and Healthy Oceans Program
29/06/2023
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), along with four partner agencies, has been tasked with leading the Clean and Healthy Oceans Integrated Program, a source-to-sea initiative that will direct up to $115 million in grants to help countries curb land-based pollu...
Cerró proyecto de FAO, MINEC, comunidad indígena y GEF con buenas prácticas a replicar
28/06/2023
“Este ha sido uno de los proyectos más importantes que ha llevado a cabo la FAO en Venezuela. Existe un antes y un después con él. En los 7 años que duró, contó con un aporte de USD 8 millones, con lo que se obtuvieron grandes logros”
26 FAO-GEF projects to transform agrifood systems into solutions for environmental challenges
27/06/2023
The projects total $174.7 million in GEF funding and leverage $1.2 billion in co-financing. With these new projects, FAO’s partnership with the GEF will have helped countries access over $1.4 billion in financing and leverage over $9 billion in co-financing to transform agrifood systems into solu...
New USD 42.4 million programme set to boost primary forest conservation in Asia’s Indo-Malaya subregion
27/06/2023
The Indo-Malaya Critical Forest Biomes Integrated Programme will improve management of nearly 3.2 million hectares of protected areas, restore 8 500 hectares of ecosystems, improve practices on 7.1 million hectares of landscapes, and mitigate about 190 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. ...
Turning banana waste into sustainable textiles in Pakistan
27/06/2023
In a major endorsement of FAO’s bioeconomy work, the GEF has approved a new project in Pakistan that will turn waste from the banana value chain into sustainable bio-based textiles. The project, announced in Brasilia during the
FAO set to support implementation of landmark treaty for conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity on high seas
21/06/2023
FAO is set to support its Members in implementing the accord, often referred to as the “High Seas Treaty”, on safeguarding Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
Forests for people: traveling to the remotest province to visit forestation efforts in Afghanistan
09/06/2023
In between rolling green hills in Badghis are pistachio sites – both manmade by FAO that has just started to germinate, and further down, as seen through the binoculars, the centuries-old forest that is protected by FAO through the Forest Management Association (FMA) with funds from the Global E...
Fisherfolk in Peru preserve mangroves and ocean resources through co-management
08/06/2023
Communities in Peru work with local authorities to manage the unique marine ecosystems on which their environment and livelihoods depend. The Global Environment Facility-funded, FAO Coastal Fisheries Initiative has built the capacity of the community to ensure that they can oversee their ecosyste...
Breaking the plastic cycle in agriculture
05/06/2023
Sustainable and circular bioeconomy — built on responsible and efficient use of renewable biological resources such as plants, algae, fungi and bacteria — offers promising solutions to improve the sustainability of plastics used in agriculture.
Agriculture on the agenda for plastic treaty
02/06/2023
Any new legally binding instrument on plastic pollution will need to take account of how plastics are used in different sub-sectors and what options there are to reduce their negative impacts. For FAO, as a specialized agency of the United Nations leading global discussions on food and agricultur...
Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program launches the Regional Exchange Mechanism for Southern Africa
29/05/2023
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 its first Regional Workshop in Southern Africa on 22-26 May, bringing together ove...
Common Oceans Program and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA)
24/05/2023
A side event at the 2023 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement Review Conference showcased positive contributions of the Common Oceans Program to more effective and sustainable fisheries management
The Restoration Initiative: 2022 Year in Review
23/05/2023
Great results in ecosystem restoration can be achieved when different stakeholders, local communities and decision-makers join forces to deliver impact. The Restoration Initiative unites three Global Environment Facility agencies – the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IU...
Countries drive forward GEF-7 Drylands Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program
22/05/2023
Representatives of eight countries and partners contributing to the Drylands Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program (DSL-IP), Regional Cluster in Southern Africa meet in Harare to acc...
Empowering women from forest-dependent communities in Uzbekistan
18/05/2023
Since 2019, under the GEF-funded sustainable forest management program in Uzbekistan, more than 400 women residing in pilot project sites have learned how to produce environmentally friendly non-wood handicrafts for sale. Thanks to their new or improved skills, these women have increased their in...