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As the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011–2020 comes to a close and countries prepare to adopt a post-2020 global biodiversity framework, this edition of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) examines the contributions of forests, and of the people who use and manage them, to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.Forests cover just over 30 percent of the global land area, yet they provide habitat for the vast majority of the terrestrial plant and animal species known to science. Unfortunately, forests and the biodiversity they contain continue to be under threat from actions to convert the land [...]

The sustainable utilization of natural resources is a major element of rural livelihoods and economic development in Brazil. From 2011 to 2019, FAO implemented the project “Strengthening the national knowledge and information framework to foster sustainable forest resources management policies". This project helped to establish and consolidate a National Forest Inventory (NFI) model approved by, and agreed with, different partners and stakeholders in the forest sector. The focus given to institutional strengthening and data collection was strategic to achieve an unprecedented level of qualified knowledge on the topic. To date, there is some evidence on the use of NFI results [...]

Uganda is currently hosting over 1.3 million refugees making it the largest refugee host country in Africa. The inflow of refugees is reported to have exacerbated a range of ongoing environmental impacts and associated challenges, including land degradation and woodland loss, resulting in inadequate access to energy for cooking and competition with local people for water and other natural resources. Supporting more sustainable use of those resources, especially forests and other woodlands, could help address environmental degradation and improve energy access. Building on a 2018 assessment of natural resource degradation in the refugee-hosting areas of northern Uganda, FAO, in collaboration with [...]

The project's specific objective is to “evaluate, adapt, and implement relevant best practices derived from the successful management of Huangshan National Scenic Reserve to strengthen and upgrade the existing municipal system of protected areas (PAs).” This is to be achieved by adopting a tiered, sequential approach applied to different classes of Nature Reserves (NR) grouped to best benefit from project-supported activities in a cost-effective manner. This MTE is being conducted for the purposes of both accountability and learning of GEF, GCU, FAO, and other participating institutions. This MTE documents important lessons to guide the remaining phase of the project and [...]

Bioeconomy is the production, utilization and conservation of biological resources, including related knowledge, science, technology, and innovation, to provide information, products, processes and services across all economic sectors aiming toward a sustainable economy’. Its cross-cutting nature offers a unique opportunity to comprehensively address interconnected societal challenges such as food and nutrition security, fossil-resource dependence, natural resource scarcity and climate change, while achieving sustainable economic development.However, developing bioeconomy as such is not sustainable per se. The development of an economy that is based on biomass resources faces several trade-offs. It is crucial that bioeconomy development does not hamper but rather strengthens [...]

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is the first international initiative to tackle the wild meat challenge by addressing both wildlife conservation and food security. This African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) initiative is funded by the European Union through the 11th European Development Fund (EUR 45 Million). The SWM Programme mobilizes an international group of partner organizations with strong expertise and experience in wildlife conservation, food security and policy development. It is implemented through a consortium partnership, which includes the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Wildlife [...]

Unhealthy diets now pose a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than unsafe sex, alcohol, and drug and tobacco use combined. They are at the root of the global obesity and diet-related non-communicable disease (NCD) pandemic. The ways of food production that lead to these unhealthy diets also pose a major threat to climate stability and ecosystem resilience, and constitute the most important driver of environmental degradation and natural resources depletion.In the short term, there is little that we can do to curb the global demand for food and other products that depend on biological resources. Demand will continue to [...]

The content of this guide is twofold: to describe the most important weather and agroclimatic products that are available by the National Meteorological Service (NMS) and to identify the most important needs of farmers concerning climate information. Special consideration will be given to the local knowledge used by rural farmers, too often neglected, but a key factor to their ability to cope with climate variability and change.An additional objective of this guide is to improve communication among the NMS staff, in particular, meteorologists and agrometeorologists and to encourage Agro-Pastoral Field School (APFS) trainers and facilitators to be more aware of [...]

The cultivation of diverse farmers’ varieties/landraces, which tend to be well-adapted and suited to local production systems, confers increased resilience for crop production. Farmers’ varieties/landraces are also potential sources of traits for crop improvement, especially for developing varieties tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses and for incorporating farmer-preferred traits. Unfortunately, many of these genetic resources have been replaced by modern cultivars in recent decades, resulting in a reduction in the total number of different varieties grown and/or loss of heterogeneity. Such losses make farming systems less resilient, especially to shocks from abiotic and biotic stresses. These guidelines, intended as reference [...]

A single-stop shop for good practices for sustainable banana production and trade. This portal has been provided in response to high demand from the industry stakeholders.