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The provision of guidance for the quantitative assessment of biodiversity in live¬stock and other sectors is an emerging area of work. This document represents an initial step in which international experts with various backgrounds shared their views on biodiversity assessment. The general objective of this document was to de-velop principles applicable to different assessment methods in order to guarantee a minimum level of soundness, transparency, scientific relevance, and completeness. These principles can be used to identify crucial elements of livestock systems that affect biodiversity, to monitor changes and make improvements, and to produce assessment results for internal or external communication.

A version of the Self-evaluation and Holistic Assessment of climate Resilience of farmers and Pastoralists (SHARP) running on Android-based tablets, that allows conducting households surveys to assess climate resilience with particular reference to food security, nutrition and displacement issues.

Building resilience and benefiting livelihoods. The aim of the guidelines is to enhance restoration efforts in the world’s drylands. They provide specific guidance for policymakers and other decision-makers, and for practitioners. Well-informed policymakers and other higher-order decision-makers can be enablers in the design and implementation of effective restoration efforts by providing appropriate policies, governance mechanisms and financial and other incentives. Practitioners are the doers of restoration, and guidance is provided for them on the actions they should consider in any restoration initiative. Prior to taking action on the ground, they should support facilitated processes to formulate restoration goals and interventions that address the needs of all stakeholders. Effective monitoring is an essential element of adaptive management because it provides reliable feedback on restoration activities, results and management. By measuring progress over time, monitoring and evaluation provide the evidence base on which strategies can be built and adapted and therefore help build resilience. The publication also includes twenty-four case studies to demonstrate the breadth of experiences in dryland restoration and to illustrate the actions recommended in these guidelines.

FAO has been monitoring the world's forests at 5 to 10 year intervals since 1946. The Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) are now produced every five years in an attempt to provide a consistent approach to describing the world's forests and how they are changing. The Assessment is based on two primary sources of data: Country Reports prepared by National Correspondents and remote sensing that is conducted by FAO together with national focal points and regional partners. The scope of the FRA has changed regularly since the first assessment published in 1948. These assessments make an interesting history of global forest interests, both in terms of their substantive content, but also in their changing scope

The Self‑evaluation and Holistic Assessment of climate Resilience of farmers and Pastoralists (SHARP) tool was developed over two years with the participation of over 150 academics, practitioners and civil society. SHARP was also field tested in Angola, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Uganda with farmers and pastoralists. It has been recognized that there is a need to both provide a rigorous assessment of the resilience of farmers and pastoralists, while also incorporating the views and needs of those people. SHARP assesses resilience through a participatory survey to both measure resilience and to engender discussions on how to increase farmers’ and pastoralists’ resilience.