April 10, 2015
How and where to restore tropical forest: a bird’s eye view
Leighton Reid
Missouri Botanical Garden
Great Tinamous are surprisingly light-footed for being rather awkwardly shaped. They wander delicately on the rainforest floor and call to one another in haunting tones at dawn and dusk. When approached by people, they disappear nervously into the underbrush. This shy, sun-dappled lifestyle works well in endless forest, but it complicates the task of restoring […] ...
Read the Whole Story
March 19, 2015
Potential for Nutrition Gains in Nepal through its Agriculture Sector
Jess Fanzo
Columbia University
Agricultural and food systems around the world have evolved to become more complex and globalized. The nutritional quality of food production, processing, and consumption – as determined by the food system – is intrinsically related to the World Summit goal for all people to have the opportunity to lead a healthy and active life. Nutrition-sensitive […] ...
Read the Whole Story
March 13, 2015
Management of stingless bees in the Balsas River Basin, Michoacán, Mexico
Octavio Reyes Salas
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Arturo Argueta Villamar
Alejandro Casas
Andrés Camou-Guerrero
Alejandro Reyes González
Stingless bees belong to the order of insects called Hymenoptera and are globally recognized as a very large group of bees, between 400 and 500 species. Tropical regions of the American Continent are considered a center of diversification of stingless bees. In the case of Mexico, there are 46 species of stingless bees, and 26 […] ...
Read the Whole Story
March 6, 2015
Creating a Sustainable Future Requires the Empowerment of Women
Laurie Benson
1% For Women
Women constitute half of our global population, and the timing is crucial for us to invest in women as agents of change. The link between natural resource depletion, gender inequality, conflict and peace building can no longer be ignored. It is a lack of access to natural resources that ultimately leads to the destabilization of […] ...
Read the Whole Story
February 25, 2015
Changing the face of agriculture
Kevi Mace
University of California, Berkeley
Lauren Ponisio
Agricultural landscapes in the United States, from the Central Valley of California to the Corn Belt of the Midwest, are largely similar in that the lands encompass expanses of single crops. Whether it is almonds or grapes or tomatoes or a fallow field, the one thing they have in common is their imposing homogeneity. This […] ...
Read the Whole Story
February 18, 2015
Winter forage and other ways crop-livestock integration improves resilience
Alan Franzluebbers
USDA – Agricultural Research Service
On a bright sunny day in late March, Steven Knapp walks his cropland fields inspecting the lush growth of rye cover crop that has become an oasis of winter forage for his cattle. Across the road, a neighbor drives by another field – likely in astonishment that the previous night’s rain has washed away so […] ...
Read the Whole Story
January 2, 2015
Understanding the relationship between Forests and Agriculture: the need for a landscape approach
Richard McNally
SNV, the Netherlands Development Organisation
The agriculture sector sustains the livelihoods of millions of smallholder families and is at the center of national policies to alleviate rural poverty. However, this need for land for agriculture is also the main driver of deforestation and land degradation. A major challenge is how to encourage pro-poor agricultural development while mitigating deforestation and associated [ ...
Read the Whole Story
December 29, 2014
Key to climate adaptation in the Greater Mekong: Practical and participatory vulnerability assessments
Ornsaran Pomme Manuamorn
The Greater Mekong Subregion Core Environment Program
How to make science inform policy and actions? This is probably one of the most common questions development organizations are grappling with. This question is particularly relevant for those of us working on climate change adaptation. To make a difference, global and regional climate projections must complement local knowledge to transform local actions. Promoting climate [&he ...
Read the Whole Story
December 23, 2014
Advancing the role of natural regeneration in large-scale forest restoration
Robin Chazdon
PARTNERS
The global restoration movement is rapidly galvanizing widespread support from multiple sectors of society. As discussed in a recent blog by Peter Besseau, the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration is leading the way forward with national and subnational assessments of cost-effective restoration opportunities. Agricultural productivity, rural livelihoods, bio ...
Read the Whole Story
December 19, 2014
Getting everyone to invest in integrated landscape initiatives
Gabrielle Kissinger
Lexeme Consulting
In the Lake Naivasha, Kenya region, lake water levels reached an all-time low in 2009, stirring a crisis and motivating a range of stakeholders to take action. The stress on local ecosystem services was nothing new—water scarcity, deforestation, degraded pastures, and pollution from poor agricultural practices was increasingly apparent, due in part to the population [… ...
Read the Whole Story
