Worlds 1st comprehensive evidence-based assessment report on land degradation will be launched in March 2018 ▪ Best-available evidence for decision makers to make informed decisions to halt & reverse land degradation ▪ Prepared by more than 100 leading international experts from 45 countries over 3…

This synthesis report provides an overview of where Africa, as a region, stands in terms of transitioning to an inclusive green economy. It draws on studies to summarise the prospective gains and challenges associated with investing in a green economy and outlines a way forward to prioritise policy…

Tourism - in terms of its contribution to GDP, employment and trade - is a critical sector for many African economies, and its growth is increasingly driven by tourists originating from the continent itself. However, most African countries still face significant challenges and constraints in…

According to the Economic Report on Africa 2017, half of Africa's population will live in urban areas by 2035. The rapid urbanization presents high demands for jobs, services and infrastructure, while creating enormous opportunities for Africa’s economic growth.

The report lists the existing soil protection policies and measures at the EU and Member State level and identifies key gaps in protection with respect to soil threats and functions of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. The report developed an inventory of existing and upcoming policy…

This review summarizes the influences of pyrolysis conditions and feedstock types on biochar properties, and how biochar properties in turn affect soil properties. Mechanistic evidence of biochar's potential for enhancing crop productivity, carbon sequestration, and nutrient use efficiency are also…

Making Europe’s production, consumption and trade in food environmentally sustainable is possible, but it will require a major shift in public attitudes, policies and knowledge and seizing current opportunities for change, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) report published today.

Building stronger links between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction experts is more important than ever in wake of recent devastating and extreme weather events across Europe and elsewhere.

Rising temperatures could cause soils to release carbon on a scale that has the potential to accelerate climate change, reports 26-year study. As the world’s soils warm, they may surrender potentially dangerous amounts of carbon to the atmosphere. Rising temperatures could mean rising levels of…

This document summarises the proceedings of The Fifth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which took place from 24 to 26 May 2017 in Cancún, Mexico, including the Chair's Summary and records of discussions conducted throughout the conference. The 2017 Global Platform was the…

As the consequences of climate change accumulate, many experts expect to see migration away from the world’s most impacted regions as people seek a climate and an economy that better sustains human life. This will add to migratory movements caused by other more traditional reasons: civil wars…

Policy making on climate change and migration has become a routine agenda point of global climate change politics. In particular, the period between the Cancun climate negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010 and the Paris negotiations in 2015 was…

Findings will lead to better agriculture choices and water management decisions

GEFwould like to announce that after nine years, Climate-Eval is evolving to better incorporate a broader environmental scope which reflects the complexities in the changing environment. As the scope of Climate-Eval is expanding, GEF is changing its name to capture this broader subject. They would…

The Agrifood business (production, processing, transportation, and commercialization to final consumers) has changed dramatically in the last fifty years. Rather than being carried out via linear supply chains, agrifood business is now conducted in complex networks spanning the globe. It can, in…

This working paper explores how land tenure systems in different ecosystems and bio-cultural regions around the world are linked to land degradation or sustainable land management. It is against this backdrop that five major issues surrounding land tenure, and rights for improved land management and…

Integrated landscape management (ILM) has emerged as an innovative approach to land management that reduces land use conflicts, empowers communities, and achieves development objectives at the landscape scale. ILM is built on the principles of participation, negotiation, and cooperation; as such, it…

This paper will discuss emerging trends in gender dimensions of land degradation, making an argument for the importance of taking gender roles into account when making policies and laws to promote land degradation neutrality. Women comprise 43% of the world’s agricultural labor force, rising to 70%…

This paper identifies and compares the land impact of all terrestrial energy forms. It also focuses on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use and supply of energy, as well as the maintenance and enhancement of terrestrial carbon sinks that are essential to mitigating climate…

Joining a high-yield pepper plant sapling to the roots of a strong and resistant variety could help pepper farmers cope with lower rainfall, a study has found. Peppers grown in many developing countries Grafter plants yield 40 per cent more, tests show Helps increase resilience against drought An…

Long seen as poverty traps, rural areas are in fact key to economic growth in developing countries when pegged to food production, according to a new United Nations agriculture agency report released Monday. With 'sweeping transformations' that can unlock the potential of rural areas to help feed…

After steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger appears to be on the rise once more, with multiple forms of malnutrition threatening the health of millions. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World warns that the greater number of conflicts, whose impacts are often exacerbated…

The food security–climate change nexus rapidly gains momentum. Soil degradation plays an important role in this context while dealing with, for example, the productive capacity of our soil resources or carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation. However, little has been done to assess the…

Land Degradation Neutrality is one of the Sustainable Development Goal targets, requiring on-going degradation to be balanced by restoration and sustainable land management. However, restoration and efforts to prevent degradation have often failed to deliver expected benefits, despite enormous…

Global drylands face a host of urgent human and environmental challenges with far-reaching impacts. Improving smallholder agriculture remains a key development pathway to tackle these challenges. The dryland development paradigm (DDP), introduced in 2007, presented a highly influential framework for…