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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) have cooperated over several decades to develop and implement the Agro-Ecological Zones (AEZ) modelling framework and databases. AEZ relies on well-established land evaluation principles to assess natural resources for finding suitable agricultural land utilization options. It identifies resource limitations and opportunities based on plant eco-physiological characteristics, climatic and edaphic requirements of crops and it uses these to evaluate suitability and production potentials for individual crop types under specific input and management conditions. Managing the constraints imposed by agro-ecological conditions and knowing what [...]

Achieving Food Security in the future while using water resources in a sustainable manner is a major challenge for us and the next generations. Agriculture is a key water user. A careful monitoring of water productivity in agriculture and exploring opportunities to increase it are required. But how can we monitor the performance of water use in agriculture? FAO has developed a publicly accessible near real time database using satellite data that allows monitoring of agricultural water productivity.

Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are essential to sustainable agriculture and food security.  They are the raw materials to meet the current and future needs of crop improvement and adaptation programmes. It is therefore very important to conserve and sustainably use them.WIEWS is the information system used by FAO for the preparation of periodic, country-driven global assessments of the status of conservation and use of PGRFA. WIEWS also monitors, on the basis of country reports, the implementation of the Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, adopted in 2011. National Focal [...]

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC) led a land-use data collection and analysis between 2018 and 2020. With the support of the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall (GGW), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and 30 African countries, FAO and the AUC coordinated the data collection operation on a scale unseen before in agriculture, environment, and land use. The Africa Open D.E.A.L (Data for Environment, Agriculture and Land) initiative has made Africa the first continent to complete the collection of accurate, comprehensive, and harmonized digital land use and [...]

The purpose of this report is to assess the current implementation of forest and landscape restoration (FLR) in Africa. It presents the context for FLR on the African continent, highlights major FLR initiatives, and provides an overview of FLR in Africa at the start of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). It identifies key challenges, opportunities, actors and processes, illustrated with some case studies. Data collection was both primary (interviews) and secondary (extensive desk research).The report contributes to tracking progress on the implementation of AFR100 and other FLR initiatives in Africa on the ground. It provides a baseline for [...]

Due to the economic dominance of the agriculture sector, Mali is extremely dependent on natural resources and also vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. The deterioration of ecosystems has strongly affected rural populations, resulting in a very poor performance in environmental governance. Gender inequalities are also present at all social levels and help create or exacerbate tensions between different social groups. In addition to the social tensions, the security situation in Mali is precarious due to the presence of non-state armed groups. The conflict analysis was carried out to take stock of the current situation regarding conflicts over natural [...]

Se proponen cinco mensajes claves relativos a ámbitos de mejora de la gobernanza del agua en territorios agrícolas, a partir de un análisis de contexto (FAO, otras agencias ONU, otras fuentes), el desarrollo de los planteamientos sobre las oportunidades de mejora, la síntesis de los aprendizajes de los casos de estudio en Chile, Perú y Bolivia, así como el resumen de las intervenciones de representantes de instituciones gubernamentales, ONGs, la academia y la FAO en el diálogo subregional de septiembre 2020 sobre los casos de estudio:     La profundización de los ajustes en la institucionalidad     La adaptación de los instrumentos de [...]

In order to achieve robust community-based sustainable wildlife management, six key components are needed. These focus on understanding the environments and the resources they contain, community rights, governance, management, and reducing rural dependency on unsustainable natural resource use. These components represent the minimum prerequisites for sustainable wildlife management actions. If one of these is missing, sustainable use is unlikely to be achieved. These components are as follows:     devolution of exclusionary rights     local-level management by a competent authority     social cohesion to manage as a community     effective governance systems     sustainable solutions for growth and increasing aspirations.     understanding the environment and its use The [...]

Many people worldwide lack adequate access to clean water to meet basic needs, and many important economic activities, such as energy production and agriculture, also require water. Climate change is likely to aggravate water stress. As temperatures rise, ecosystems and the human, plant, and animal communities that depend on them will need more water to maintain their health and to thrive.Forests and trees are integral to the global water cycle and therefore vital for water security – they regulate water quantity, quality, and timing and provide protective functions against (for example) soil and coastal erosion, flooding, and avalanches. Forested watersheds [...]

This brief analyses the development flows to agriculture (DFA) dataset latest update. The objective of the DFA database is to provide readily available data to enable analysis on aid flows and the purposes they serve, with an emphasis on agriculture, its components, and environmental protection.