Several multilateral environmental agreements include ecosystem restoration. These include Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)’s Aichi Biodiversity Targets 1431 and 15,32 the Sustainable Development Goals,33 and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s land degradation…

Forests are vitally important for sustaining life on Earth, and play a major role in the fight against climate change

This publication, prepared by the FAO Statistics Division, offers a synthesis of the major factors at play in the global food and agricultural landscape. Statistics are presented in four thematic chapters, covering the economic importance of agricultural activities, inputs, outputs and factors of…

Built on the first volume of this series of the “Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development” launched in 2016 and the second volume in 2018, this year the third volume continues to showcase and expand on how South-South and triangular cooperation is being…

Scientists call for urgent protection of ecologically valuable roadless areas as map shows that roads lead to loss of biodiversity and damage to ecosystems. European, Brazilian and US scientists have delivered a new map of humanity’s mark on the world. Roads now fragment the terrestrial landscape…

Extreme weather events and climate variability threaten millions of livelihoods. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is developing a new tool that helps attenuate the impact of disasters before they occur.

Twenty years have passed since the last atlas of desertification was published. Within that short period enormous global changes have taken place in terms of human expansion and the impact that had on the environment. Equally significant progress has been made in understanding the fundamentals of…

This commentary explores the social and economic benefits that climate action can deliver and uses real world examples to show how these benefits can be used to further equity and ensure a just transition to a new climate economy.

At the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, this 60th issue of ETFRN News is very timely, with the preface signed by UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, reflecting a focus on drylands that cover some 40% of the world’s land area and contain some of the most severely degraded…

This paper explores the role of the global food system as the principal driver of accelerating biodiversity loss. It explains how food production is degrading or destroying natural habitats and contributing to species extinction. The paper outlines the challenges and trade-offs involved in…

What links climate change, poverty and migration? The Global Landscapes Forum addresses how land-use is central to global challenges that are more interconnected than many of us realize

The UNFCCC Secretariat and partners issued a report titled, ‘From Needs to Implementation: Stories From the Technology Needs Assessments,’ presenting success stories of implementation of climate technology projects based on the outcomes of countries’ technology needs assessments (TNAs). The National…

Droughts are extreme events that have major impacts on communities, ecosystems and economies due to slow onset and complex processes. Land and ecosystem degradation increase the risks of loss and damage during droughts, whereas well-adapted practices and policies can enable society to (re)build…

The annual Report provides UN system-wide data on the environmental impact areas and management functions identified in the Strategy for Sustainability Management in the United Nations System 2020-2030, Phase I: Environmental Sustainability in the Area of Management. The SUN team are excited to…

With growing awareness of the economic costs of land degradation, political leaders are adopting ambitious targets to restore degraded forests and agricultural land. Building on the interest in forest landscape restoration generated by the Bonn Challenge, in 2014, countries adopted the New York…

The vegetable world – the original consumer society – is responding to climate change. As the supply of carbon dioxide goes up, so does demand from plants, according to new research. Foliage now is currently removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it did two centuries ago − and the…

The global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration represents a strategic and significant opportunity for the international community to progress in terms of international migration governance and offers a timely opportunity to account for environmental, natural disaster and climatic…

Over the last decades, food security has come to the fore as a relevant issue both for scholars and for policy-makers. The so-called “Arab Spring” revealed the strong linkage between food security, political instability and migration. The European Union’s food security policy has set up solid…

Call for Papers! Climate Change and Land Degradation Call for Papers! Challenges and Opportunities of Global Land Restoration During the UN-Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)

The year 2021 will see the kick-off of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration — a culmination of growing global attention, agreements and ambitions for restoration and improved land management. Measures that help to restore land and improve its management can offer multiple benefits to…

At the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, this 60th issue of ETFRN News is very timely, with the preface signed by UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, reflecting a focus on drylands that cover some 40% of the world’s land area and contain some of the most severely degraded…

Agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. From a development challenge to a business opportunity . Job creation is one of SSA’s top challenges and agriculture accounts for over half of total employment.(January 15 )

Drylands cover 40 percent of the Earth’s land surface and are home to more than 2 billion people. Despite climatic and environmental limitations, cultivable drylands play a critical role in ensuring food and nutrition security for these people, and for the rest of the world. One-third of all the…

When more than 1,200 land rights experts converge on the World Bank’s Washington, DC headquarters today for the 18th Annual Land and Poverty Conference, participants from government, civil society groups, private sector and donor agencies will focus on how they can use data and other evidence to…

By Carlos Pérez García-Pando and Sara Basart Over the last month, parts of Europe were hit by intense dust storms. First, a massive dust plume that originated in northeast Algeria caused reddish skies in large parts of Europe. Then, dust deposits tinted the snow-covered Pyrenees and the Alps brown…