Blog for People, Food and Nature

March 31, 2014

Time is Now to Demand an Integrated Sustainable Development Agenda

Louis Wertz EcoAgriculture Partners

The Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals’ tenth session opens today to deliberate and negotiate the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. It is not hyperbole to say that their recommendations to the UN General Assembly, set to be delivered in September, will have an enormous impact on the future of all life on earth. […] ...
Read the Whole Story
March 26, 2014

What Exactly Is Climate-Smart Agriculture?

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) acknowledges the fact that climate change is a crosscutting issue with the need for an integrated approach to food security, environmental quality, human welfare and other development goals. Agriculture is uniquely situated between climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, because it is both a major contributor to the world’s changin ...
Read the Whole Story
March 24, 2014

Agroforestry Intensification: A Long-term Solution to Perennial Food Shortages in Africa

The United Nation’s International Day of Forests and the Tree brings attention to these aspects of our landscapes. Forests and trees fill many roles, ranging from cultural and spiritual importance to sustenance, livelihoods, watershed protection and important carbon sinks in the face of climate change. Despite the many purposes and capacities of forests, we are destroyin ...
Read the Whole Story
March 22, 2014

A Shimmering Example of Watershed Management on World Water Day

Productive agricultural landscapes, healthy communities and resilient livelihoods are all dependent on the sound management of freshwater resources. 2014 World Water Day gives us the opportunity to recall that integrated watershed management is an important factor in realizing sustainable ecological and social systems. The Pokhara Valley of Nepal holds Rupa Lake, where an agric ...
Read the Whole Story
March 21, 2014

Finding a Place for REDD+ in Sustainable Landscapes

The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) initiative has a potentially large role to play in international actions to combat climate change. Sustainable management of forests and forest carbon stocks does more than just preserve the world’s forests and sequester atmospheric carbon – it provides long-term sustainability and economic develop ...
Read the Whole Story
March 19, 2014

How Does Restoration Influence Reptiles, Beetles and Landholder Decisions?

By Sacha Jellinek, University of Melbourne’s Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions Agricultural landscapes in south-eastern Australia are largely cleared of native vegetation, with whatever remains surviving in small, isolated remnants surrounded by a sea of livestock grazing and/or industrial cropping. To explore the effectiveness of replanted areas for maintaini ...
Read the Whole Story
March 17, 2014

Spotting and Characterizing Smart Landscapes Managed by Smart Farmers

By Emmanuel Torquebiau, French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) Multipurpose mosaic landscapes can simultaneously serve the objectives of biodiversity conservation and agricultural production. This beautiful vision is also a formidable challenge because conservation of natural resources has historically been at odds with the development paradig ...
Read the Whole Story
March 14, 2014

Policies for Nutrition-Sensitive Landscapes are Needed to Combat Hunger

The year 2013 saw record high numbers for agricultural production and more stable commodity prices than the previous several years, but findings from the International Food Policy Research Institute’s 2013 Global Food Policy Report suggest that the state of global nutrition and food security is still fragile. The report focuses on major food policy developments […] ...
Read the Whole Story
March 12, 2014

Envisioning Ways Forward for the Ecosystem Services Debate

By Emma van der Zanden/Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam; Alexander van Oudenhoven/Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University; Matthias Schröter/Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University Ecosystem services are a contested but useful concept for highlighting the benefits that humans get from healthy ecosystems and la ...
Read the Whole Story
March 10, 2014

Reimagining the Urban and Rural as Integrated City Region Landscapes

Thomas Forster The New School

Editor’s note: Originally posted on FoodTank.com, this piece by a co-author of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative’s new report, City Regions as Landscapes for People, Food and Nature urges people who care about sustainable development to break down the divide between urban and rural. In the past few years, there has been […] ...
Read the Whole Story