Blog for People, Food and Nature

Every two years the Equator Initiative partnership awards the prestigious Equator Prize to outstanding local and indigenous community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.  The Equator Initiative is dedicated to celebrating successful local initiatives at the poverty-biodiversity nexus, creating opportunities for sharing  ...

The Partnership Forum at Rio+20 consists of a series of events designed to highlight and promote some of the best partnerships currently contributing to the implementation of sustainable development. The Forum culminates this Friday, June 22, with a session for “forward-looking reflection” and “visionary perspectives” on the future of partnerships and ho ...

In an event yesterday, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) released the report Avoiding Future Famines: Strengthening the Ecological Foundation of Food Security through Sustainable Food Systems. Launched at Rio+20, the report challenges the business as usual methods for growing food, and argues for a more integrated and holistic approach in transitioning to a Gree ...

Yesterday, the Rome-based United Nations agencies – Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – along with the CGIAR’s Bioversity International held an event on ‘Aiming for a Food Secure Future.’ This event served to engage stakeholders in a dialogue on steps ...

Yesterday marked the fourth Agriculture and Rural Development Day, and the first outside of a UNFCCC meeting. From the very beginning, it had a slightly different flavor: landscapes featured prominently on the agenda. Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President of Sustainable Development, kicked off the day arguing that “we can’t achieve food security, we can’t [&h ...

With Rio+20 UNCSD taking place this week, the issues of development and sustainability continue to garner attention. The Landscapes Blog has been highlighting relevant reports, which discuss various approaches to economic growth and poverty alleviation, while addressing multiple environmental concerns.  The Africa Human Development Report, published by the UNDP, discusses the ...

Increasing food production, boosting rural incomes, improving human health, and restoring degraded land, rivers and habitats – these are critical needs that must be addressed in the upcoming Rio+20 UNCSD. The Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative has released a new report presenting an innovative approach involving building alliances between groups competing for l ...

The Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations (FAO), one of the ten co-organizers for the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, recently released a publication entitled Towards the Future We Want: End hunger and make the transition to sustainable agricultural and food systems. The priorities highlighted in the report reflect the need to consider [&he ...

Tomorrow marks World Oceans Day, the idea for which was originally conceived 20 years ago at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. With the UNCSD Rio+20 just weeks away, the issue is of particular importance in the context of building a ‘Green Economy,’ as well as for food and nutrition security. While the […] ...

Land tenure has been increasingly implicated in the preservation of natural capital and local rural livelihoods. A new report by the Rights and Resources Institute examines the current state of land tenure and resource rights, and what progress has been made in the twenty years since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. According […] ...