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La réponse à la demande accrue de produits alimentaires accentue la pression exercée au niveau mondial sur les ressources que sont les eaux, les terres et les sols. L’agriculture a un rôle à jouer dans l’allégement de cette pression et dans la concrétisation des objectifs en matière de climat et de développement. Des pratiques agricoles durables peuvent déboucher sur des améliorations directes de l’état des terres, des sols et de l’eau, mais elles peuvent aussi être bénéfiques aux écosystèmes et réduire les émissions issues de la terre. Tout cela nécessite que nous disposions d’informations précises et que nous révisions radicalement [...]

Food system demands have increased exponentially in recent decades and are estimated to continue growing as global populations increase and economic affluence expands. However, the very foundation of a productive system – healthy lands and soils and clean water supply – is already under immense pressure. In fact, by the most credible estimates, up to 52% of global agricultural lands are now moderately to severely degraded, with millions of hectares per year degrading to the point they are abandoned by the land manager. The loss of productive land, coupled with increased food demand, pushes agriculture to be the primary driver [...]

This document was prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and inputs from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as an input for the discussions of the 2020 G20 Saudi Presidency.

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Soil pollution is invisible to the human eye, but it compromises the quality of the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe and puts human and environmental health at risk. Most contaminants originate from human activities such as industrial processes and mining, poor waste management, unsustainable farming practices, accidents ranging from small chemical spills to accidents at nuclear power plants, and the many effects of armed conflicts. Pollution knows no borders: contaminants are spread throughout terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and many are distributed globally by atmospheric transport. In addition, they are redistributed through the global [...]

In many areas of the world, including the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region and Lebanon, sustainable and reliable delivery of water for irrigation and municipal use has become increasingly complex. This issue also extends to affect the protection of the ecosystems from water pollution. The issue is more often related to the governance of the resources to manage and protect them from pollution and over-abstraction, resolve conflicts over water, and ensure rights to water are respected. It is also about understanding water flow pathways in complex river basin systems. This is where water monitoring and accounting can play [...]

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 [...]