OpenForests ( https://openforests.com ), an innovative German forest consulting and tech company, has officially launched the explorer.land platform on the 1st of November. The interactive map-based platform is designed to present forest and landscape projects and tell their stories while connecting…

North Africa was the birthplace of the Arab uprisings in late 2010. This movement affected all the countries in the region, albeit to varying degrees. And while protestors asked in unison for deep political and economic changes, the various governments in North Africa responded differently to their…

The Senior Officials of the UN have agreed at EMG SOM 24 in the margins of UNGA to form a Coalition to Combat Sand and Dust Storms. Major tasks of this coalition will include raising awareness, convening stakeholders and raising the proper amount of funds to help combat this phenomenon. A few other…

The trick to boosting crops in drought-prone, food-insecure areas of West Africa could be a ubiquitous native shrub that persists in the toughest of growing conditions. Growing these shrubs side-by-side with the food crop millet increased millet production by more than 900 percent, according to a…

The biannual Living Planet Report published this week shows a 60% decline in wildlife populations over the past 40 years driven largely by the pressure placed on habitats by the food system and in particular western diets high in meat and processed foods. The report, produced for WWF by the…

This report evaluates total disaster-related economic losses and fatalities between 1998 and 2017. The report finds that between 1998 and 2017, climate-related and geophysical disasters killed 1.3 million people and left a further 4.4 billion injured, homeless, displaced or in need of emergency…

A ground-breaking report by the University of Texas for USAID points out how climate hazards like cyclones, floods, wildfires, rainfall anomalies and chronic water scarcity relate to state fragility. Climate hazards put an enormous strain on the effectiveness and legitimacy in economics, politics,…

Land use and city planners will increasingly have to address the cost of occupying productive agricultural land or the conversion of natural habitats. Landscape designs and urban planning should aim for the preservation of agricultural land and the integrated management of land resources by closing…

Calls on institutional investors to increase their allocation of capital towards the SDGs, and to drive the demand for a diverse set of SDG investments ranging from sovereign bonds to corporate bonds and equity.

The world population is expected to approach 10 billion people by 2050. With this projected increase in population and shifts to higher-meat diets, agriculture alone could account for the majority of the emissions budget for limiting global warming below 2°C (3.6°F). This level of agricultural…

Ph.D. student Robbin Bastiaansen applies mathematics to get insight in practical problems. By comparing mathematical models with developments in existing ecosystems, he hopes to demystify the process of desertification. His research has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of…

Climate Change is a global phenomenon that affects the world in diverse ways, based on the fluctuations in your area and your geography. Problems range the spectrum in extremes, include drought, flooding, crop destruction, dangerously high temperatures, larger and more powerful storms, refugees,…

Agroforestry is an integrated land use management that combines a woody component with a lower story agricultural production recognized as one of the most important tools to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

International donors and advisory bodies, governments and non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) are actively promoting conservation agriculture (CA) to improve agricultural productivity and resilience to climate change impacts. However, many smallholder farmers continue to dis‐adopt (abandon) the…

To meet the future food demand, supply should be increased. Crop production in Africa is projected to increase in the future. However, can the crop production trends guarantee future food security? For illustrative analyses, cereal was used on the assumption, following a recent study, that the…

A major challenge of our time is to produce sufficient nutrient‐rich food for the ever‐growing human population with limited land resources. There is a huge gap between current yields and genetic potential in many crops, which can be narrowed by enhancing land productivity. High‐input cropping…

Global warming is increasing the chances of worldwide harvest failure on the scale of the tragic 19th-century drought and famine that claimed 50 million lives.

Land Degradation Neutrality: Will Africa Achieve It? Institutional Solutions to Land Degradation and Restoration in Africa, chapter 5 from the recently published: "Climate Change and Multi-Dimensional Sustainability in African Agriculture"

The report aims to improve the understanding of the causes, costs and benefits of migration to support integrated policies. It shows that migration is an important part of rural development that should be managed rather than prevented. Policies should aim to ensure that migration is a choice and to…

An EEA briefing published today proposes an analytical framework that aims at developing a strategy for monitoring and integrated assessment of the state of land and its key resources

The well-fed world scientists say is possible by 2050 could also halve global warming emissions. But it would have to lose its appetite for meat.

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has released a new guide for government actors involved in implementing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as they relate to migration. Migration and the 2030 Agenda: A Guide for Practitioners, published today 9 October, aims to help policymakers…

Even if nations do limit global warming, fire and drought will remain threats, ravaging more harvests in China and setting more of Europe ablaze.

The world can achieve slower climate warming, preventing temperatures from rising by more than 1.5˚C, a global scientific panel says. But time is short.

In 2015, the UN formulated seventeen global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), among them ending poverty, eliminating hunger, protecting the planet and ensuring peace and prosperity. Although judicious management of soils is critical to advancing most of these goals, the word soil is not once…