In the June issue of the Natural Resources and Environment newsletter, we examine the importance of the newly established Global Soil Partnership. Soil specialists, international organization staff, the donor community and academics discuss what such collaboration can achieve. We note the events of World Water Day, highlighting water and food security. Moreover, a new web site, Sustainability Pathways, focuses on greening the economy with agriculture and related ecosystem services.

Meeting Name: FAO Council
Meeting symbol/code: CL 146/7 A
Session: Sess. 146

Meeting symbol/code: CL 116 9

The purpose of the United Nations Challenge Badges is to raise awareness, educate and, most of all, motivate young people to change their behaviour and be active agents of change in their local communities. Challenge Badges are appropriate for use with school classes and youth groups, and are endorsed by WAGGGS and WOSM. They include a wide range of activities and ideas that can easily be adapted by teachers or leaders.

Ce numro d'Unasylva se concentre sur les aspects techniques, mais aussi politiques et sociaux, de la rcupration de sites spcifiques, par des activits forestires.

Historically, land improvement schemes were based on encouraging, through financial incentives, land users to adopt specific soil management and conservation measures. Insufficient attention was paid to the constraints faced by farmers or to the policy, biophysical and socio-economic environment. In many cases such approaches have failed in restoring the natural resources and in increasing productivity in sustainable manner. For too long farmers have been the passive recipients of externally derived research and extension recommendations for soil management and conservation.

Нормально функционирующие почвы играют ключевую роль в снабжении чистой водой и в обеспечении устойчивости к наводнениям и засухам. Благодаря своей водопроницаемости почва задерживает содержащиеся в воде загрязняющие вещества и препятствует их выщелачиванию в грунтовые воды. Кроме того, почва удерживает и сохраняет воду, обеспечивая ее доступность для сельскохозяйственных культур и, тем самым, сводит к минимуму испарение с поверхности и максимально повышает эффективность и производительность водопользования.

The impacts of natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis have been increasing steadily since the 1950’s, particularly for developing countries. According to a World Bank external evaluation report “natural disasters destroyed US$652 billion in property worldwide in the 1990s alone – an amount 15 times higher in real terms compared to the 1950s. Approximately 2.6 billion people were affected by natural disasters over the past ten years, compared to 1.6 billion in the previous decade.

In this issue, we will be looking at work underway on the Voluntary Guidelines on responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources. We will also look at work done in Thailand and lessons learned by the German-financed Bioenergy and Food Security project.

This report is the outcome of a study undertaken on men and women’s access to and control over land in seven districts of the Volta Region in Ghana. The study evolved out of a need for increased insight into gender differences in access to and control over land and the implications of insecure access to land for households within the Volta Region of Ghana. The objective of the study was to obtain an improved understanding of gender-specific constraints that exist in the Volta Region with regard to land tenure.