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There is a growing awareness to the role that natural resources, such as water, land, forests and environmental amenities, play in our lives. There are many competing uses for natural resources, and society is challenged to manage them for improving social well-being. Furthermore, there may be dire consequences to natural resources mismanagement. Renewable resources, such as water, land and the environment are linked, and decisions made with regard to one may affect the others. Policy and management of natural resources now require interdisciplinary approaches including natural and social sciences to correctly address our society preferences.  This series provides a collection of works containing most recent findings on economics, [...]

The Karamoja region, in North East Uganda, is one of the least developed regions of the country, and is highly vulnerable to resource-based conflict and climate change variability. Addressing food insecurity of vulnerable people is a major challenge in the region. Measuring resilience provides more informed policies for withstanding shocks. For this reason, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) developed a Joint Resilience Strategy (JRS) launched in January 2016. The JRS is based on four main pillars: strengthening the productive sector to increase household income [...]

Part of a series of materials that raise awareness on the VGGT among indigenous peoples and local authorities in India, this booklet explains through simple cartoons how the Voluntary Guidelines can be implemented at national and local level. This guideline is only available in Hindi.

This fact sheet describes the course which introduces the CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (also known as the CFS-RAI), a set of ten principles that apply to all types and sizes of agricultural investment including fisheries, forests and livestock. The principles address all stakeholders and apply to all stages of the value chain. As a soft law instrument, they are globally applicable and include actions to address a range of environmental, social and economic issues.

We need a much better understanding of the causes and effects of agricultural water pollution as well as effective means to prevent and remedy the problem. In the existing literature, information on water pollution from agriculture is highly dispersed. This report is a comprehensive review and covers different agricultural sectors (including crops, livestock and aquaculture), and examines the drivers of water pollution in these sectors as well as the resulting pressures and changes in water bodies, the associated impacts on human health and the environment, and the responses needed to prevent pollution and mitigate its risks.

These guidelines are primarily directed towards decision-makers responsible for integrating the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into national policies and programmes. They will be of value to public and private actors, including investors, researchers and technical practitioners, involved in the broad area of food and agriculture, and rural development. Complementing FAO’s Common Vision for Sustainable Food and Agriculture and its five principles, this publication presents 20 practical and interconnected actions with the aim of transforming food and agriculture and driving achievement across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Sustainable wood products and their value chains can play a fundamental role in achieving the objectives stated in the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, delivering a wide range of benefits to populations in remote forest areas as well as to local, regional and global society. Generation of income and employment, disaster risk reduction, and reduction of the material and carbon footprint of the planet are some of the direct contributions sustainable forest products can provide to the SDGs and the climate change commitments. Furthermore, sustainable management of natural forests reduces forest degradation and forest production can increase the opportunity cost for deforestation, while generating revenues [...]

Together with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), FAO is hosting the Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on Biodiversity Mainstreaming across Agricultural Sectors, to be held at FAO headquarters in Rome from 29 to 31 May 2018.  This meeting is one of the first activities of the Biodiversity Mainstreaming Platform launched last year. The Dialogue will be an open-ended informal meeting bringing together experts and stakeholders from agriculture, forestry, fisheries and the environment sectors aiming at identifying areas of joint action in developing integrated approaches for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, in support of the SDGs, while increasing production to meet the [...]

The Conference of the Parties (COP) of UNFCCC is a prime opportunity to communicate FAO’s work on climate change and to liaise with potential partners, at the numerous side events and parallel events organized around the COP. This booklet seeks to raise awareness on the impacts of climate change on food security and nutrition and advocate for the importance of having the agricultural sectors properly considered in climate change mechanisms, policies and finances.

The Oilcrops Monthly Price and Policy Update (MPPU) complements FAO's bi-annual market reports. The oilcrops brief notes review the development of international prices for oilseeds, oils and meals as reflected by FAO's specific price indices and spot recent policy and market events - selected from a variety of sources - that are deemed important for the global oilseed economy. The oilcrop brief is issued on the second week of each month, for a total of 10 issues per year.  Policy archive All the information published in the second part of the MPPU (the section featuring policy developments and industry news) is now also available [...]