In early December 2025, partners from around the world gathered in Panama City to advance a shared goal: reducing pollution from land that harms ocean and coastal ecosystems. Co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CAF – Developmen...

The GEF has approved eight projects led by the FAO worth nearly $60 million designed to help seven countries improve their management of agricultural landscapes, promote climate-friendly and biodiversity-positive livestock production, and restore forest, coastal, and marine ecosystems.

The last sprint toward 2030, the GEF-9 cycle will implementing the agenda for the world’s family of funds for the environment.

In the Small Island Developing State of Timor-Leste, where 42 percent of the population live below the national poverty line, communities that rely on aquatic resources face a harsh reality. 

With GEF support, two traditional agricultural systems rooted in the ancestral knowledge and practices of Indigenous Peoples in the northern Andean highlands and the southern mountain ranges of Chile have been recognized as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by the Food and ...

Over the past 60 years, the area of eroded land has increased 1.8 times in Moldova, mainly due to cultivation on sloping lands without the application of soil conservation practices. In response, FAO's land degradation neutrality strategy aims at improving soil health, enhancing sustainability and supporting long-term agricultural resilience in Moldova's districts of Orhei, Rezina and Șoldănești.

The Forestry Division honoured GEF among 24 distinguished nominees at the FAO Global Technical Recognition Ceremony, held on 15 October 2025 at FAO headquarters in Rome.

The United Nations (UN) has named the GEF, IUCN, FAO, and UNEP supported initiative as one of the four new World Restoration Flagships under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Recognizing global efforts to heal degraded ecosystems, boost community incomes and support food security, the announcement was made during a high-level side event at the World Food Forum in Rome, ahead of World Food Day.

The publication aims to strengthen understanding of source-to-sea management and the linkages between lands, rivers, lakes, aquifers, coasts, and the ocean. It promotes an integrated approach to natural resource management and supports the health and resilience of transboundary ecosystems.

The Global Environment Facility’s Food Systems Integrated Program, led by FAO and IFAD, channels $282 million in GEF financing and about $2 billion in co-financing to help countries transform food systems through shifting value chains, business models, finance, policies, institutions, and landscape management.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is set to support the implementation of a landmark United Nations (UN) treaty aimed at conserving and sustainably using marine biological diversity in waters beyond national jurisdiction. The agreement will come into force in Janua...

The forthcoming ratification by 60 countries of the BBNJ (Biodiversity ...

Morning light spills across Praia das Conchas Roça on the island of Sao Tome, as children walk hand in hand to school with their backpacks. Four of them are the children of Camila Varela De Carvalho, a 32-year-old cocoa farmer. Another four are her nephews, all of whom she is raising.

A...

Cambodia’s wet season is becoming unpredictable, but now improved flood-resistant seeds are helping Seuy Phok and other rice farmers have more reliable harvests. 

Ms. Laila, a 40-year-old mother of four children from Qarghayi district in Laghman province, faced challenges in providing food for her family. Her husband, a local farmer, earned very little, and they owned only two goats. With no personal income, Liala depended entirely on this limited liveliho...

When people in Gulrez, a small village in eastern Tajikistan, feel unwell, they don’t always travel to the nearest town for medical care. Instead, they often turn to Dzhamolov Mahmadali, a local healer in their community, who offers natural treatment using plants from the surrounding mountains.

“I’ve saved 20% on farming costs in the first year alone,” says Issa Ramadhan, a farmer in Southern Iraq. “Traditional tillage is expensive with all the ploughing, fertilizers, and water required. With Conservation Agriculture practices, I’ve reduced these costs significantly, and the results speak for themselves. I’ve been able to reinvest that money into improving my farm.”

Southern Iraq’s marshland, desert and rangeland ecosystems have long supported farming and grazing communities with water, food, grazing lands, and income for generations. By promoting sustainable land management through policy change and enhanced practices, FAO and the GEF are helping to mitigate the impacts of soil salinization and climate on these ecosystems.

To advance the transparency of forest data and strengthen the...

Representatives from national governments, development partners, research institutions, and youth networks from across Africa gathered in Nairobi for the meeting of the Food Systems Integrated Program (FSIP). Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the FSIP focuses on transforming global...