Blog for People, Food and Nature

Only around 30 plants account for more than 85% of global crop production. The majority of the planet’s food comes from a very small number of crops: out of approximately 380,000 plant species known to exist, fewer than 20% are eaten, and only about 150 are domesticated for farming. Despite providing a key input into […] ...

A recent article in the open-source journal Solutions describes an integrated approach to the provision of public ecosystem services. Authors Joshua Farley, Abdon Schmitt F., Juan Alvez, and Norton Ribeiro de Freitas Jr. present an example of Management-Intensive Grazing (MIG) as a case study for how an incentivescheme could support agroecology. In this system riparian zones [ ...

Local Governance and Empowerment for Improved Wetland Management By Winrock International Staff, Edited by Gelsey Bennett, Senior Program Associate Winrock International, Arlington, Virginia, USA The Management of Aquatic Ecosystems through Community Husbandry (MACH) project in Bangladesh (implemented 1998-2009) developed an innovative approach to watershed management which cen ...

Earning from Nature to Pay for its Upkeep (रुप फेर्दै रुपा) from Mahesh Shrestha on Vimeo. Farmers in the Kaski district of Nepal have formed the Rupa Lake Rehabilitation and Fisheries Cooperatives Limited to help protect the watershed. Increased siltation from upstream degradation was threatening the lake ecosystem upon which local people relied. In o ...

The Center for Global Development has compiled a map of vulnerability to climate change, illustrating four primary dimensions: extreme weather events, sea level rise,  agricultural productivity loss, and overall vulnerability. Documenting the rankings of 169 countries, the maps are based off of a dataset and publication intended to help prioritize adaptation assistance. Above ...

Tree crops play an important role in securing the incomes and food security of rural communities in West and Central Africa. The work of the World Agroforestry Centre on “participatory tree domestication” is striving to employ techniques to strengthen and augment the contribution of such plants. Put simply, participatory tree domestication refers to the means […] ...

Ecosystem management has been defined by the United Nations Environment Programme as “an approach to natural resource management that focuses on sustaining ecosystems to meet both ecological and human needs in the future … integrating social, environmental and economic perspectives to managing geographically defined natural ecological systems.” UNEP’s l ...

Safeguarding World Agricultural Heritage Systems By Jean Gault, Senior Officer of Natural Resources Management and Payment for Environmental Services Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy Worldwide, specific agricultural systems and landscapes have been created, shaped, and maintained by generations of farmers and herders based on diverse na ...

By Dr. David Molden, Director General and Dr. Eklabya Sharma, Director of Programmes International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal Most readers browsing posts on this blog need no long introduction about the importance or value of mountain ecosystems or the many challenges facing mountain environments and people in mountain communities. But ...

Facilitated by the International Land Coalition, a new initiative called the Land Portal is providing an interface in which to aggregate land information and facilitate collaboration. While still in its infancy, the tool is expected to contribute to monitoring and filling information gaps in order to improve land governance. Such venue for sharing resources and data […] ...