Blog for People, Food and Nature

April 25, 2018

Developing Analysis with the Decisionmaking Scale in Mind

Ann M. Bartuska, Vice President for Land, Water, and Nature, Resources for the Future

As environmental and resource challenges become more complex—think climate change—sensible land use policy will require sophisticated and integrated analyses, looking at the holistic level of the landscape, not just its individual components. This has important implications for the design of research efforts and the communication of their results. In February, I participate ...
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February 9, 2018

Landscapes, territories and the challenge of merging socio-ecological and socio-political strategies for sustainable development

Sara Scherr EcoAgriculture Partners

Reflections from my trip to Montpellier, France, in late January for the ‘Living Territories’ conference. I joined more than 250 others at the event, organized by CIRAD, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, to debate and take stock of territorial approaches. Though my work at EcoAgriculture Partners in the past 15 years has […] ...
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April 11, 2015

Can we meet future global food demand without causing any further environmental damage?

Insa Flachsbarth Technical University of Madrid Bárbara Willaarts

One would wish to have a direct and simple answer to this big question: Yes we can!  But unfortunately there are no free lunches, and whatever strategy we will adopt to satisfy global food demand, food production will inevitably have adverse impacts on our environment. Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the Agriculture and Ecosystems […] ...
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March 2, 2015

De-commodifying Food: the last frontier in the civic claim of the commons

Jose Luis Vivero Pol Université catholique de Louvain

The socially constructed nature of food as a private good is being necessarily re-conceived as a commons, a crucial narrative for the transition from the dominating industrial food system towards a more sustainable system that is fairer to food producers and consumers. Food is a natural resource that is essential for human existence and has […] ...
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February 28, 2015

SDGs fail to address interlinkages between goals and targets

In a recently released review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), my colleagues and I find that the goal on food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture is a vast improvement over the Millennium Development Goals, which did not consider agriculture at all. But, the SDGs fail to address important complementarities and tradeoffs among goals and ...
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December 22, 2014

Global agriculture and carbon trade-offs

Krista Heiner EcoAgriculture Partners

By 2050, the United Nations estimates the global population will exceed 9 billion people and world food demand will grow by about 70% from 2000. Agricultural production can be increased through intensification, which reduces the spread of agriculture to new land through increased use of fertilizer, pesticide and water inputs, shorter fallow periods, and improved […] ...
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October 18, 2014

Landscape Democracy: Inconsistent or Lacking Altogether?

Editor’s note: Democracy in landscape policy and planning appears to be lacking. It is imperative to understand the roles and values of those cultivating the land when deciding the future of agriculture in a particular region. However, as Andrew Butler argues in this post that originally appeared on AgriCultures Network, in today’s dialogue there is an inconsistency [ ...
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October 6, 2014

The True Tradeoff: Continually Rising Human Populations or Healthy Biodiversity and Ecosystems

J. Hal Michael Jr. Sustainable Fisheries Foundation

Tension between human population growth and natural resources is not sustainable Sustainability in the long term requires explicitly dealing with the conflict between a growing human population and natural resources. I have encountered this throughout my 34-year career in cold water fish research, natural resource management, ecosystem assessment, habitat restoration, and aquac ...
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October 3, 2014

Four Things I Learned From the Equator Prize Award Ceremony

Margie Miller EcoAgriculture Partners

Last month, I blogged about the Equator Prize, which honors community-based groups for achievements in “advancing local sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities.” Today I’m going to share four things I learned at the award ceremony, which took place September 20th.  Jane Goodall hasn’t heard of the landscape approach…but ...
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September 29, 2014

Unraveling the ‘Landscape Approach’—Are We on the Right Track?

Roderick Zagt Tropenbos International Nick Pasiecznik

“We know what needs to done, and how, but we are not sure how to explain it”—this was the predominant sentiment that lingered after the seminar ‘Unraveling the landscape approach – are we on the right track?‘ held in Wageningen, the Netherlands on 17 September 2014. Four presenters and three panelists tried their hand at […] ...
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