Small- and medium-sized forestry enterprises (SMFEs) make up a large proportion of the forest sector, accounting for over half the timber production and supporting hundreds of thousands of livelihoods in developing countries − over 50 per cent of the forest sector workforce. But they often operate outside the realms of the law – making them […]
A shift towards monoculture plantations and higher chemical use is of great concern to many in the Mekong region, particularly due to the impact this is having on food security and health. Farmers who have resisted monoculture cropping, and opted to maintain or create mixed-species agroforestry systems, are benefiting from income and food security and […]
President Obama’s trip to Cuba this week accelerated the warming of U.S.-Cuban relations. Many people in both countries believe that normalizing relations will spur investment that can help Cuba develop its economy and improve life for its citizens. But in agriculture, U.S. investment could cause harm instead. For the past 35 years I have studied […]
Laos has conceded a significant amount of land to foreign investors, with estimates placing 15% of the country’s land under foreign control. Such land concessions, or the granting of rights to land, are positioned by the government as critical to economic growth and poverty reduction. But what is the impact of land concessions on farmers? […]
Have you ever walked into a forest and felt its immediate cooling and calming effect? Have you ever marveled at a large and old tree and wondered how much longer than you it has been around? No wonder that forests are deeply intertwined with many nation’s history and mythologies, and trees crown the banknotes of […]
Imagine going through your day without ready access to clean water for drinking, cooking, washing or bathing. Around the world, 663 million people face that challenge every day. They get their water from sources that are considered unsafe because they are vulnerable to contamination, such as rivers, streams, ponds and unprotected wells. And the task […]
There is a sense of haunting to the roar of a lion veiled in darkness. The emphatic “ooooaa!” demands attention as it starts in the abdomen and reverberates through the night air. Its direction and distance are secondary to one’s primordial reaction – a sudden dilation of the pupils and a flare of prickles on […]
Coffee is the drink of choice for millions of us. But the world’s second-most traded commodity originates in Ethiopia – and its home is under threat. Ethiopia isn’t all dusty deserts – far from it. The country also contains rugged highlands and lush, tropical forests. Coffea arabica grows here in its original, wild form. The […]
Readers of this blog site will know that open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed – it’s legally open and technically open. Readers of this blog may not know that the $8.3 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF), are providing scaled-up financing through the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to initiate transformational […]
Selilah stares out over a landscape she has inhabited for 70 years. In the valley below, deep gullies scar the slopes where rains have carried away the soil. Living with three of her four sons, she is struggling to make ends meet in this part of Sidama Zone, Ethiopia, where, she says, there used to […]
In 2012, Brazil revised a key instrument of its environmental legislation – the Forest Code. When implemented, the Forest Code has the potential to enable Brazil to optimize the use of its vast territory, safeguarding areas for the conservation of native vegetation and agricultural use on private property. Food production with environmental conservation based on […]
Last year, fires burned 2 million hectares of peatlands in Indonesia, creating an acrid haze that affected several neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. As nations met in Paris late last year to agree a deal to limit global greenhouse gas emissions, the huge carbon pool stored in the peatlands was going up in smoke at an […]
Conservationists spend a lot of time talking about monitoring the impacts of our work. Historically, we’ve done a great job of monitoring ecological outcomes, but unfortunately the same is not true for measuring human well-being outcomes. As much as we might not want to admit it, we know little of the ways and mechanisms through […]
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 […]
It has taken a long time to admit it, but after two decades farming and sustainability projects, I realized landscape sustainability is no longer just a technical, scientific or even political problem. It has evolved into a so-called wicked problem of governance and economics. Not evil wicked, but wicked as an on-going social problem with […]
