Blog for People, Food and Nature

July 24, 2015

Keynote illustrates value of investment in landscape approaches in Ethiopia

Sertse Sebuh Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy

At the Financing for Development Conference (FfD3), Mr. Sertse Sebuh addressed world leaders about the many benefits that the landscape approach has granted Ethiopia. Among the many world leaders present in the meetings for the Financing for Development Conference (FfD3) was Mr. Sertse Sebuh, Unit Coordinator of Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Program. In ...
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July 23, 2015

Financing for Development Must Include Finance for Integrated Landscape Initiatives

Louis Wertz EcoAgriculture Partners

As world leaders planned finance strategies for executing the Sustainable Development Goals, we highlighted the many advantages of Integrated Landscape Initiatives. From July 13-16th world leaders and national delegations from more than 150 countries convened in Africa’s diplomatic capital to hammer out the logistics of paying for the post 2015 development agenda. The Fin ...
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July 16, 2015

Catalyzing the uptake of the Landscape Approach

This past April, a team of ecosystem management practitioners came together in Nairobi, Kenya. Their mission? To put the Ecosystem Management of Productive Landscapes project on the map. Demand for food, energy, and fiber is projected to increase 40-60%, a strain on industry and agriculture that will also be exacerbated by stresses from climate change. Considering the futur ...
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June 19, 2015

Finance Leaders Pioneer Investment Coordination for Sustainable Landscapes

Seth Shames EcoAgriculture Partners

How can private investors help dairy farmers, mushroom growers, and AIDS orphans lift themselves out of poverty and protect their environment? In a sense, this question was at the center of two LPFN-organized events at the Global Landscapes Forum: the Investment Case event in London last week. Each of these groups, small-scale dairy farmers, mushroom growers, […] ...
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June 8, 2015

East African landscape leaders gather to launch new learning network

Isaiah Esipisu

A recent knowledge and experience exchange workshop in Nairobi, which brought together landscape leaders from 15 different landscapes in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia, laid the foundation for a regional landscape learning network.   Despite some successes in East Africa with integrated approaches to landscape management, there are still many barriers and challenges ...
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May 4, 2015

Our Soil-ution: increasing important organic matter in soil

Rhiannon Davis Soil Association

Soil is always at the forefront of the Soil Association’s work, but especially so during 2015’s International Year of Soils: a year designated by the United Nations to highlight how soil – full of life and frequently overlooked – is essential to all human life. The health of soil is being rapidly degraded, which will […] ...
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May 1, 2015

Technology to Help Us Deal with Drought

Dennis O’Brien Agricultural Research Service

With droughts becoming more severe, water tables getting lower and an increasing demand for water from growing suburbs and cities, farmers know they need to use water more sparingly. That’s why recently patented technology developed by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Texas is so important. Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the [& ...
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April 29, 2015

Mapping Restoration Opportunities through Soil Surveying

Stephanie J. Connolly USDA Forest Service

Recent collaborative research by West Virginia University (WVU), the USDA-NRCS and USDA-Forest Service has linked spodic soil properties to the historical range of red spruce (Picea rubens) in the Central Appalachians. The data collected has allowed researchers to map the occurrence of these properties to help project the historical extent of red spruce before railroad [&hellip ...
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April 24, 2015

An Old but Still Pertinent Soil-ution from West Sumatra

Carol J. Pierce Colfer Cornell University CIFOR

In 1983, our team (from the University of Hawaii, North Carolina State and the Indonesian Center for Soils Research) began a multi-year program in Sitiung, West Sumatra. We began our work using a Farming Systems approach, living in a village and working collaboratively with local farmers. The Indonesian policy at the time called for food […] ...
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April 22, 2015

The sustainable solutions at our feet: Top five reasons you should “root” for soil health farmers on Earth Day 2015

Ron Nichols USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service

To meet the growing sustainability challenges of the 21st Century, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is reminding people that many of the solutions are right at our feet — in the soil. Here are the top five reasons NRCS says why on Earth Day, you should “root” for soil health farmers: A lot of people […] ...
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