Blog for People, Food and Nature

March 31, 2016

On birds, agriculture, and European policy, a conversation with Trees Robijns

Trees Robijns BirdLife Europe Lucila Fernandez

The Common Agricultural Policy is one of the founding laws of the European Union. While it’s succeeded in feeding the European populace, what has been its impact on biodiversity? Since World War II, the Common Agricultural Policy is the prevailing legislation on how to manage farmlands in Europe. Originally, the policy was written to ensure […] ...
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March 29, 2016

Learning from the forests, a Latin American exchange of landscape knowledge

Josique Lorenzo CATIE Lucila Fernandez

Across Latin America, Model Forests are providing a natural laboratory for learning and experimentation about landscape governance. (Lea este aporte en español aquí) This post provides some insights on a recent Model Forest event, reporting on experiences of its application across Latin America and the Caribbean and how Model Forests, as a landscape approach, advance sustain ...
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March 29, 2016

Aprendiendo de los bosques, un intercambio latinoamericano de conocimiento en el manejo de paisajes

Josique Lorenzo CATIE Lucila Fernandez

A través de Latinoamérica, los bosques están proveyendo un laboratorio natural con que experimentar y crear conocimiento sobre iniciativas dirigidas por la comunidad que visualizan el desarrollo ecológico y socialmente justo. (Read this in English here) Lo siguiente relata las últimas experiencias y noticias de la Red Ibero-Americana de Bosques Modelos que tuvo lugar en [& ...
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March 22, 2016

Grazing can be a win for water quality, climate change, and farm economics

Kelly O’Neill Chesapeake Bay Foundation

The Chesapeake Bay watershed spans over 64,000 square miles and is home to 87,000 farms, many of which produce livestock. The byproduct of this livestock production is manure, both a potential pollutant (if not carefully managed) and a resource to fertilize crops. Without pollution controls, nutrients not used by crops may volatilize into the air, […] ...
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March 19, 2016

On Gender, with Kame Westerman of Conservation International

Kame Westerman Conservation International Mara Novak Louis Wertz

Gender equality is critical to the success of conservation and development projects. But how do we create it where it’s missing? A conservation research project was assessing bush meat use in a forest. They talked to the men, who were the hunters, about what species of animals, and how many, they were catching, killing and […] ...
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March 16, 2016

The Aynoka Landscape of Peru, where communities are protecting quinoa diversity

Alexander Wankel Pachakuti Foods Lindsey Hethcote

Before it was on the shelves of Whole Foods, quinoa was being abandoned in most parts of the Andes as an unwanted “food of the poor.” However, the Lake Titicaca region of Peru endured as a hotspot of quinoa cultivation and diversity. Why? According to the Food and Argiculture Organization of the United Nations, quinoa “continued […] ...
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March 15, 2016

Sandbar cropping in Bangladesh, an innovative technology solution for millions

AZM Nazmul Islam Chowdhury Practical Action Bangladesh

E.F. Schumacher, an economist who founded Practical Action, wanted to help expand aid programs through technology. Fueled by the idea of developing and promoting appropriate technology to reach a greater segment of the underprivileged population of the world, he published an article in The Observer, on August 29, 1965 titled “How to help them help themselves.” […] ...
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March 8, 2016

Initiative Partners Empower Women for Planet 50-50 by 2030

A wide range of Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative partners are celebrating International Women’s Day with powerful stories of women’s empowerment. We’ve gathered them all in one place here on the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Blog. Read on, and happy #IWD2016. Challenges to improving equity in the Gash Die – Thrive Abby Waldorf ...
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March 5, 2016

Farmers film their homegrown solutions

Katherine Snyder International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Juliet Braslow

In an unused school classroom in the dry, dusty village of Sekoti, Ghana, 11 community members gathered to learn how to make a video. Many of them had never even used a camera before, much less operated a microphone. Participatory video is an empowering and creative process that allows those who understand their local issues best […] ...
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March 2, 2016

Drawing the line on the landscape approach and climate-smart landscapes

Koen Kusters Tropenbos International

There is no consensus about the practical implications of the concepts “climate-smart landscapes” and the “landscape approach.” Global challenges of poverty, food security, environmental degradation, and climate change are in the limelight. Recent high-level conferences—the Global Landscapes Forum, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, the United Nations ...
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