News archive 2011

FAO and the German Max Planck Institute are joining forces to study species-swapping diseases that move back and forth between wild animals and domestic livestock and, in some cases, jump to human victims.

FAO is calling on countries affected by African Swine Fever in the Caucasus region and Russian Federation to step up precautionary measures. It is also urging a concerted international effort to prevent the disease spreading more widely across the Northern Hemisphere.

The national Delegates of Members of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) declared today that rinderpest, one of the deadliest diseases of cattle and of several other animal species, is now eradicated from the surface of the earth.

FAO is stepping in to assist farmers in Iraq and Syria battle with silverleaf nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium), an invasive alien weed, that sucks nutrients from the soil, starves crops of valuable water and whose berries can poison livestock if ingested.

FAO and the World Bank have unveiled a new guidance framework which can help countries assess the governance of their forest resources. The ability to demonstrate good governance in forestry is becoming increasingly important for countries wishing to participate in emerging climate change mitigation schemes.

FAO works together with ten countries to reinforce cooperation and disseminate know-how and management skills for the fight against locusts.

As interest in bioenergy production continues to grow, FAO is promoting the use of a new methodology designed to help policymakers weigh the pros and cons of investing in the sector. The UN agency developed its "Bioenergy and Food Security Analytical Framework" to help governments evaluate the potential of bioenergy as well as assess its possible food security impacts.

Supporting countries to take the lead in their own sustainable development and food security by putting greater emphasis on capacity development has become a renewed priority for FAO. Capacity development is now recognized as a core function of the organization.

Sustainable foreign investments in least-developed countries should make a real contribution to their growth through technology transfer, job creation and added income, according to FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said today. Such investments could become a source of conflict unless they were reached and implemented equitably.

Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted, according to "Global Food Losses and Food Waste", an FAO-commissioned study.