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The impacts of COVID-19 grow daily. The pandemic has unleashed a crisis not only in health but also in economics. In such a scenario - in which achieving economic, social and environmental sustainability is increasingly essential for the planet - the agri-food system needs urgent and innovative solutions. In this regard, digitization is a recommended way to go. Digitization has become a fundamental engine of rural transformation, creating new opportunities for farmers. The future of agri-food systems will depend, to a large extent, on how stakeholders in agriculture will be able to take advantage of digital transformation to improve inclusion, [...]

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 2020 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture has a particular focus on sustainability. This reflects a number of specific considerations. First, 2020 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (the Code). Second, several Sustainable Development Goal indicators mature in 2020. Third, FAO hosted the International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability in late 2019, and fourth, 2020 sees the finalization of specific FAO guidelines on sustainable aquaculture growth, and on social sustainability along value chains.While Part 1 retains the format of previous editions, the structure of the rest of the publication has been [...]

SponGES is a research and innovation project funded under the H2020 Blue Growth initiative. It aims at “Improving the preservation and sustainable exploitation of Atlantic marine ecosystems” and at developing an integrated ecosystem-based approach to preserve and sustainably use deep-sea sponge ecosystems of the North Atlantic. Reducing the impacts of deep-sea bottom fishing in the high seas on these ecosystems is an important element of an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management. States and Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) have implemented a variety of measures to avoid and mitigate impacts of deep-sea bottom fishing on sponges, and have established methods for [...]

This brief highlights some of the identified and perceived impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on development aspects interconnected with the forest sector, with a particular emphasis on the impacts on the production and trade of forest products. It proposes a series of recommendations as a basis for policy development in the aftermath of the crisis, and highlights potential opportunities to leverage the progress achieved so far, to ensure that decades of advances are not reversed. Although the forest sector is traditionally seen as more resilient (harvesting cycles are longer than other commodities), the multi-faceted contribution of the sector to broader development [...]

Countries have acknowledged the inter-dependency of land and water management and the multiple benefits of reversing land degradation for sustainable development, water security and resilience to natural hazards such as drought. Achieving LDN contributes towards the achievement of several SDGs, particularly SDG 6 on water. To ensure that countries reach their LDN objectives, improve synergies between LDN, water security and drought mitigation and achieve the SDGs through LDN approaches, this brifing note presents recommendations for countries, with the support of their national and international partners.

This book was prepared upon an initiative of the GEF/FAO project on “Sustainable Management of Mountainous Forest and Land Resources under Climate Change Conditions”. It is based on the international experience in implementing the principles of ecosys- tem services provision, the results of CAREC projects on the assessment of ecosystem services and PES, the report of the UNDP/UNEP Poverty and Environment Initiative on the assessment of ecosystem services of the Chon Kemin State Natural Park and the Karakol National Park, and other materials.

FAO has been working for many years on non-food biomass products (including sustainable bioenergy) and biotechnology, and it received a mandate to coordinate international work on ‘food first’ sustainable bioeconomy by 62 Ministers present at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) 2015. Moreover, FAO has received support from the Government of Germany to develop guidelines on sustainable bioeconomy development (Phase 1: 2016; Phase 2: 2017-mid 2020). This involves work on the bioeconomy monitoring, including the selection and use of indicators. The ultimate aim of FAO’s work on sustainability indicators is to provide technical assistance to countries and stakeholders [...]

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 purpose of these insurance guidelines is fourfold, i.e.:  to increase awareness about the needs of small-scale fishers for better risk management, disaster preparedness and insurance services;  to guide policy and decision makers to help introduce insurance services to small-scale fishers, with the ultimate objective to strengthen the sustainability and ecological and economic viability of these fisheries;  to build capacity among insurance providers, fisherfolk organizations, NGOs, and concerned government agencies, to design and implement insurance programmes that suit the needs of small-scale fishing communities and enhance social protection;  to promote insurance services that incentivize and reward a responsible and sustainable conduct of fishing operations [...]