Blog for People, Food and Nature

If you are reading this, chances are that you’re already aware of the detrimental effects of climate change. You’ve read the research, you know the rhetoric: we are deep in a cycle of emitting harmful greenhouse gasses, degrading the land and depleting natural resources, which negatively affects not only our own li…

Next Monday, on the eve of the United Nations Climate Summit, as high level government officials from around the world check into their hotels, a different kind of UN gathering will be taking place in New York City—one that brings people who are far from the seats of power. The Equator Prize Award Ceremony, which tak…

With the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food and Nutrition Security just around the corner, a colleague of mine was recently asked by a peer to explain the difference between agroecology and ecoagriculture. “Funny you should ask,” she replied, “we have a blog coming out on that in a few weeks.” Both…

Many contemporary environmental scientists and land managers are adopting a refined perspective for addressing complex, interdisciplinary problems that acknowledges humans as an integral part of the natural world. This approach builds on the observation that functioning of human societies and nature are inseparably lin…

Editor's note: The payments for ecosystem services (PES) strategy is a fairly controversial one: though it does provide strong incentive for sustainable practices, it also means monetizing natural features and linking the environment to an often unstable economy. Alvaro Umaña, Costa Rica's first minister of environme…

Today is the United Nation’s Day for South-South Cooperation, which highlights the need for cooperation between developing countries to complement the international development efforts of industrialized nations. Edmundo Barrios of the World Agroforestry Center writes about a specific case of South-South cooperation b…