This year’s UN World Day to Combat Desertification will be celebrated on 17 June and the UN has launched a programme to combat land degradation to help create jobs and boost food security. Africa has some of the most degraded lands in the world, and is only second to Asia in land degradation…

Introducing landscape connectivity and its benefits, the report identifies policy gaps and outlines the roles that stakeholders can play in promoting and implementing supporting actions. With measures improving landscape connectivity also supporting several Sustainable Development Goals and helping…

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) today launched the CEO Guide to the SDGs - a new resource aimed at galvanizing engagement from global business leaders in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The CEO Guide to the SDGs sets out clear actions that CEOs…

Far below the Dead Sea, between Israel, Jordan and Palestinian territory, researchers have found evidence of a drought that has no precedent in human experience. From depths of 300 metres below the landlocked basin, drillers brought to the surface a core that contained 30 metres of thick…

The Role of Tenure in Reducing Land Degradation session from the Land and Poverty Conference 2017: Responsible Land Governance—Towards an Evidence-Based Approach March 20-24, 2017Washington, DC

This report is the final publication of the European Union–funded Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy (MECLEP) project. The comparative report builds on desk reviews, household surveys and qualitative interviews conducted in the six project countries (Dominican Republic…

Our assessments show that climate change has wide-ranging impacts in Europe on ecosystems, the economy, human health and well-being. The scale of future climate change and its impacts will depend on the effectiveness of implementing global agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but also…

The coming year will be a crucial time for science that impacts forests and people. Following consensus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement in 2015, and the ratification of the climate agreement in 2016, this year will call for research and evidence to support policies…

In this white paper, IDEAA scientifically explains and justifies the need to give absolute priority to the regeneration of soils and ecosystems. The sustainability concept has driven positive changes but has failed on two levels: it has been easy to manipulate because of its inherent laxness, and…

New research "Trees, forests and water: Cool insights for a hot world" has revealed a multitude of ways in which forests create rain and cool local climates, urging a closer look at forests’ capabilities beyond just climate change mitigation.

As population estimates for 2050 reach over 9 billion, issues of food security and nutrition have been dominating academic and policy debates, especially in relation to the global development agenda beyond 2015.1 A total of 805 million people are undernourished worldwide, even though the trend…

Vital groundwater depleted faster than ever. Global use of irreplaceable groundwater is exhausting the supply so fast that researchers say it will drive up food prices and hit international trade.

The importance of transforming the land sector to help meet the 2 degree C goal cannot be overstated. Today, emissions from agriculture and land use change account for nearly a quarter of all human-caused emissions. At the same time, forests soak up one-third of the fossil fuel emissions we emit…

The special report, titled ‘Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems,’ will document existing scientific knowledge on the linkages between climate change and land, of relevance…

he third edition of the GTF provides an evidence-based look at progress at the regional, country, and international level toward ensuring universal access to modern energy services, doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix, and doubling the global rate of improvement in energy…

Humankind has always relied on clues from the environment to survive, to plant seeds when the rains come, to harness wind power to grind grain. It is only in the last few decades that we have the tools to observe the entire planet. Technology and scientific collaboration allow us to measure the full…

2017 Atlas of the Human Planet will focus on Global Exposure to Natural Hazards. This years’ edition of the Human Planet Atlas will be released at the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, to be held in Cancun from 22 to 26 of May. The Atlas addresses the change in global exposure to six…

This enlightening book brings together the work of gender and forestry specialists from various backgrounds and fields of research and action to analyse global gender conditions as related to forests. Using a variety of methods and approaches, they build on a spectrum of theoretical perspectives to…