News archive 2016

"Forestry for a low-carbon future: Integrating forests and wood products in climate change strategies" is a new FAO publication onw how to catalyse a “virtuous cycle” that exploits the life cycle of lumber products to enhance the ability of forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

The study's preliminary findings show that trees are present with hugely varying densities on almost one-third of the world's 6.1 billion hectares of drylands, which cover an area more than twice the size of Africa. Almost 18 percent of this area contains forests.

While agriculture remains the most significant driver of global deforestation, there is an urgent need to promote more positive interactions between agriculture and forestry to build sustainable agricultural systems and improve food security. This is the key message of the FAO's flagship publication The State of the World's Forests (SOFO), presented today at the opening of the 23d Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO).

Millions of people facing hunger in South Sudan will be driven to the brink of catastrophe if renewed flashes of violence derail the fragile peace process, FAO said today.

Laura Rance of Canada is the winner of the first IFAJ-FAO Award for Excellence in Global Food Security Reporting. The announcement was made at the 2016 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) congress in Bonn, Germany.

Countries across West and Central Africa are on alert as the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1continues to spread across the region, with Cameroon becoming the latest African country to detect the disease. The strain can infect and cause death in humans and kills poultry at a high rate.

The Port State Measures Agreement “marks the dawn of a new era in the effort to combat illegal fishing,” FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today at an event held to celebrate the world’s first international treaty specifically aimed at tackling Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The “Reffetto-Rio” project, an initiative presented in Rome today in the presence of Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Maurizio Martina, Italy’s minister of agricultural policies, will take surplus food from the Olympic Village and turn it into nutritious meals for distribution to the neediest.

Global per capita fish consumption has risen to above 20 kilograms a year for the first time, thanks to stronger aquaculture supply, record hauls for some key species and reduced wastage, according to FAO's new The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report.

The FAO Food Price Index, released today, rose 4.2 percent in June, its steepest monthly increase in four years. is now one percent below the level reached a year earlier. Sugar prices led the June rise, which affected all commodity categories except vegetable oils.