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Pastoral systems have evolved to function with the natural environment and therefore with variability. By identifying variability as an entry point, this paper aims at (i) engaging FAO in the mainstreaming of pastoralism by establishing the understanding of pastoralism, and its systematic inclusion in the normal operations of FAO, and at (ii) presenting an evidence based narrative on pastoralism to a specialists’ audience. Two main points are made in this document: First, pastoral systems are emblematic of farming with nature. Second, pastoral systems make use of variability in inputs (the environment) by matching it with variability in their own operational [...]

The Corregidor Justice Forum is an initiative concerning Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure. This publication highlights its successful application in four Brazilian states and how it has changed the local scenario of land regularization.

This report on lessons learnt, best practices, challenges, and emerging issues on improving responsible governance tenure using the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) and the African Union’s Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa (F&G), related to the European Union Land Governance Programme is based on in-country project progress reports and minutes of transversal capitalization meetings carried out throughout the project phases.

This policy brief is intended to inform decision-makers of nine transformational actions to sustain dryland production systems under the impact of climate change. It highlights the relevance of the local context for interventions and the importance of traditional and tested adaptive agrosilvopastoral strategies for building resilience. In addition, it emphasizes the potential for scaling up and using complementary technologies over wider areas. In particular, the roles of both women and men should not be neglected in terms of maintaining, creating and restoring dryland sustainable landscape.

With climate change impacts already felt in the world’s drylands, there is an urgent need for action, at various scales and initiated by different stakeholders, to ensure the sustainability of food production and livelihoods in these regions in the coming decades. There is also the need to rapidly establish baselines, assess and start monitoring progress on sustainability, emerging as result of the action taken.To aid in this effort, this paper provides a short list of expected transformations (under each of the three sustainability pillars) for guiding the planning and implementation of policy, governance and practice-level actions. Gender and indigenous people’s [...]

Applying the Degree of Urbanisation — A methodological manual to define cities, towns and rural areas for international comparisons has been produced in close collaboration by six organisations — the European Commission, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and The World Bank.This manual develops a harmonised methodology to facilitate international statistical comparisons and to classify the entire territory of a country along an urban-rural continuum. The degree of urbanisation classification defines cities, towns and semi-dense areas, [...]

The FAOSTAT emissions database is composed of several data domains covering the categories of the IPCC Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector of the national GHG inventory. Energy use in agriculture is additionally included as relevant to emissions from agriculture as an economic production sector under the ISIC A statistical classification, though recognizing that, in terms of IPCC, they are instead part of the Energy sector of the national GHG inventory.FAO emissions estimates are available over the period 1961–2018 for agriculture production processes from crop and livestock activities. Land use emissions and removals are generally available only for [...]

Uncertainties related to the impacts of COVID-19 on daily life are increasingly growing. Inherent effects have grown beyond the well-defined spear of health risks and have shocked the livelihood and food security in several countries. Particularly in the poorest countries, the impact is more devastating due to the limited availability of resources to slow down the spread of the disease. These countries require immediate actions to safeguard food security and human health. Irrigation has a great role in improving crop productivity and ensuring food security. However, expanding irrigation could impact the availability of water for sanitation and hygiene which has a central role in slowing down the spread of the disease. [...]

There are 476 million indigenous peoples around the world, constituting 6.2 percent of the global population and, according to different sources, representing more than 19% of the extreme poor (ILO, 2019) of the world. Half of this population are women (approximately 240 million).Even though indigenous peoples represent 19 percent of the global poor population (ILO, 2019), it is important to highlight that indigenous peoples and indigenous women are not vulnerable populations per se.For thousands of years, indigenous women have played a fundamental role in preserving their livelihoods, languages, culture, cosmogony and territory. However, the systemic lack of recognition of their [...]

This paper presents a sector-specific framework for better understanding the role of the AFOLU sector in the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) at the country and aggregate level. It is designed to facilitate the stocktaking and analysis of national climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities, barriers to implementation and support needs specific to the AFOLU sector in order to inform country programming and guide the flow of external support. It can also be used at the country-level to facilitate NDC enhancement and encourage compliance with the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) of the Paris Agreement. As such, it is directed at national [...]