Blog for People, Food and Nature

Secure land tenure and resource rights is often cited as an important foundation for long-term sustainable land management, and can provide the incentive needed to maintain multiple ecosystem and livelihood benefits on the land. In order to get a better sense of where the challenges are and what their nature is, the World Resources Institute […] ...

Smallholders in Africa often look to clear trees on their land to make way for more crops. Around the world, from subsistence farmers to giant agriculture operations, clearing trees from land is a common response to increasing pressure to produce more food for more mouths. But for a farmer with hungry children, those fallen trees […] ...

Water is a resource on which we all rely, and yet continues to face increasing scarcity and degradation. Particularly for agriculture, which is one of the primary consumers of water, this problem is of growing concern both in terms of production and human livelihoods. A new book edited by Eline Boelee, Managing Water and Agroecosystems […] ...

A new infographic captures some of the motivations, outcomes, and recommendations of the Global Landscapes Forum held between the two weeks of the UNFCCC 19th Convention of the Parties in Warsaw. It links adaptation and mitigation and suggests landscape principles be applied both in REDD+ activities and the sustainable development goals under formation. This and […] ...

As we saw on Monday, the measuring, valuing, and mapping of ecosystem services has progressed in recent years, and new tools are emerging that can help decision makers account for the benefits landscapes provide and target areas that are most important to ecosystem function. In the United States context, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is […] ...

By Ken Bagstad, U.S. Geological Survey, Geosciences & Environmental Change Science Center, Denver, Colorado, USA Healthy ecosystems provide many benefits – from food and clean water to flood management and climate mitigation – and we’ve seen previously on the blog how both the human-modified and natural elements of landscapes can contribute. Our guest author t ...

As the date to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) nears, with 2015 in rapid approach, discussion around a new set of ‘Sustainable Development Goals‘ (SDGs) has been building. Where the MDGs set forward specific targets for hunger, health, environment, and other development priorities, there is growing interest in finding ways in which the SDGs [… ...

By Gabriel Sarasin (Project Manager B-ADAPT, African Model Forest Network), Marie-Eve Landry (Program Development and Innovation Agent, Cuso International), Mariam Faye (Project Management Assistant, Cuso International) Community focused management of reforestation and restoration efforts concluded last week’s blog posts. Our guest post today once more draws attention to ...

‘Local’ plays a critical role in long-term sustainable management of land and resources. On Wednesday, we explored the devolution of smallholder carbon project ownership to local institutions. Issues of land tenure and secure land rights also hold serious implications for local people and can shape best management and conservation efforts across Africa. Focus on Lan ...

Getting the details of agricultural carbon projects right requires paying close attention to local institutions. These entities—including community groups, local NGOs and local governments—are  pivotal in encouraging the participation in carbon projects and adoption of carbon-sequestering farm-based activities. They contribute to the monitoring and tracking of results and ...