The interrelations of human beings with ecosystems experience rising importance in sustainable land use planning and lead to the concept of socio-ecological system. Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) include both, a bio-geo-physical component and the related local to regional actors. Their system…

The concept of ecosystem services has gained a strong political profile during the last 15 years. However, there is no specific EU policy devoted to governing ecosystem services. This article shows that the ecosystem services concept is already embedded in recent EU (environmentally-related)…

Droughts of the twenty-first century are characterized by hotter temperatures, longer duration, and greater spatial extent, and are increasingly exacerbated by human demands for water. This situation increases the vulnerability of ecosystems to drought, including a rise in drought-driven tree…

Even though ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is recognised to hold considerable potential to strengthen climate adaption, it is still yet to be fully mainstreamed into development policy and practice. Valuation can provide convincing – and usually much-needed – evidence of the benefits of investing…

League of Arab States, World Meteorological Organization, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and UN Environment organized the Regional Training Workshop on Sand and Dust Storms in the Arab Region in Cairo, Egypt from 10 to 12 February 2018. The workshop was hosted by the…

The international community has, for good reason, sought to emphasize the importance of migration as a global public policy issue. With heightened awareness of the multiple implications of poorly managed migration, and with the international community focused on developing a new global compact to…

Biodiversity is vanishing at an alarming rate across most of the world, find the most comprehensive assessments of global ecosystem health to be done in decades. The five reports, published in the past week, are the culmination of three years’ work by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on…

This brief was produced by EcoAgriculture Partners and the FAO Liaison Office for North America following the presentations and discussion at the first in our newest event series for policymakers and conservation and development professionals in Washington, D.C. and beyond, “Towards Sustainable…

Most power generation consumes water, whether to cool steam in thermoelectric plants or power turbines for hydropower. And the global demand for both water and electricity will continue to increase substantially in the coming decades. Although growth is generally a good thing for the economy, it…

A new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), Renewable Energy Policies in a Time of Transition, is an unprecedented collaboration that sheds new light on the policy…

The report — Mechanized: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture Value Chains—summarizes the findings of a systematic analysis of what countries at the forefront of progress in mechanization have done right. It analyzes which policy decisions were taken and which interventions were implemented to…

This publication provides facts, figures and key messages to encourage more investments in forest and landscape restoration, leading to more restoration action. The GPFLR outlines how we can reach the 2020 and 2030 targets, and how we can best collaborate, using regional and global platforms. The…

Without dramatic reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions, most of the planet's land-based ecosystems -- from its forests and grasslands to the deserts and tundra -- are at high risk of 'major transformation' due to climate change.

We live in an urbanizing world. Since 2008, more than half of humanity lives in cities, both large and small, and old and new. We also live in a world that is becoming even more urbanized, it is expected that by 2050, 66 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities [1]. The process of…

FAO Side event at COP24 in Katowice looks into NBS via land, soil and water management

By 2050, nearly 10 billion people will live on the planet. Can we produce enough food sustainably? The synthesis report of the World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future shows that it is possible – but there is no silver bullet. This report offers a five-course menu of solutions to…

This report describes an assessment of the projected future impacts of climate change, land use change and changes in water consumption on Europe’s water resources, as obtained using JRC’s LISFLOOD water resources model. This assessment is done within the framework of the PESETA III climate project…

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report that shares insights from a regional stocktake on SDG implementation in the region. The report also aims to present a compendium of tools to help developing countries implement the environmental dimensions of…

The International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy is a book series that discusses central questions in law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land – at the international, national and regional level. Volume 3 of the International Yearbook of Soil Law…

A new report developed by GIZ highlights success factors and 7 practical entry points for mainstreaming Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) into policies and planning, based on 16 case studies from Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Philippines and Vietnam

A new study, The ecology and economics of restoration: when, what, where, and how to restore ecosystems, surveys the history of land restoration efforts and highlights best practices

Erosion by wind is one of the principal processes associated with land degradation in drylands and is a significant concern to land managers and policymakers globally. In the drylands of North America, millions of tons of soil are lost to wind erosion annually. Of the 60 million ha in the United…

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) released a brief presenting a practical approach to prioritize action on SDG targets. The approach enables decision-makers to identify how interactions between different SDG targets shapes policy outcomes, and promises to help users generate shared…

People living in mountain areas have long used migration as a strategy to make optimal use of natural resources, ensure food security, strengthen their social and economic networks, and fulfil personal aspirations. Even today, migration continues to be an adaptive response to environmental, societal…

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) has been highly successful in securing the supply of food from Europe’s agricultural land. However, new expectations have emerged from society on the functions that agricultural land should deliver, including the expectations that land…