The diverse aquaculture sector makes important contributions toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)/Agenda 2030, and can increasingly do so in the future. Its important role for food security, nutrition, livelihoods, economies, and cultures is not clearly visible in the Agenda 21 declaration. This may partly reflect the state of development of policies for aquaculture compared with its terrestrial counterpart, agriculture, and possibly also because aquaculture production has historically originated from a few key hotspot regions/countries.

A third of the land on the Earth is composed of grasslands, mainly used for forage. Much effort is being conducted to develop tools to estimate grassland productivity (GP) at different extents, concentrating on spatial and seasonal variability pertaining to climate change. GP is a reliable indicator of how well an ecosystem works because of its close connection to the ecological system equilibrium. The most commonly used proxies of GP in ecological studies are aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf area index (LAI), canopy storage capacity (CSC), and chlorophyll and nitrogen content.

International food prices have become increasingly volatile in recent decades, with “global food crises” in 2008, 2011 and most recently in 2022. The 2008 crisis prompted international agencies to ambitiously extend their monitoring of domestic food prices in developing countries to strengthen early warning systems and food and nutrition surveillance. However, food inflation by itself is not sufficient for measuring disposable income or food affordability; for that, one must measure either changes in income or changes in an income proxy.

This chapter by Yuliani et al. begins with a brief description of the Adaptive Collaborative Management process that occurred in the early 2000s in the village of Baru Pelepat in Jambi province, Indonesia – a process facilitated by these authors. After a brief introduction to the community itself, Yuliani et al. launch into a description of the bottom-up process that resulted in local communities getting legal rights to manage a special forest area near their community, an area that had been part of Indonesia’s forest estate.

In less than one year the Niger Basin Authority, an intergovernmental body tasked with the sustainable development of the Niger waters and associated resources, passed the first ever nexus policy in a transboundary river basin, contributing to a true acceleration of change for improved water and associated development in the Niger River Basin. The guidelines were developed in close collaboration with the nine basin countries and complemented by a large capacity building program.

Access to sufficient and clean freshwater is essential for all life. Water is also essential for the functioning of food systems: as a key input into food production, but also in processing and preparation, and as a food itself. Water scarcity and pollution are growing, affecting poorer populations most, and particularly food producers. Malnutrition levels are also on the rise, and this is closely linked to water scarcity. The achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 and 6 are co-dependent.

Reliable and seasonally updated information on the effective rice cultivated area, forecasted, harvested yield and climate change impacts are essential requirements for governments to support decision-making related to food security, management of natural resources, agricultural productivity, and insurance.

The Enhancing the Science-Policy-Investment Linkages and Decision Support for Climate-Smart Agriculture Planning learning materials highlights and expands upon key methods, tools, and actions to actively strengthen decision contexts in scaling climate-smart agriculture in Africa. These learning materials and content are built to include both technical skill building resources as well as process and approach guidance to help uncover more equitable, holistic, and resilient pathways to increase climate-resilience in our food and agricultural systems.

The field monitoring activities within the partner network play a crucial role in understanding the territory, production systems, and socio-economic conditions in communities. This knowledge enables effective support for partners, facilitating better interventions. The close relationship between technicians and producers, backed by a supportive team, fosters shared interventions, considering both local knowledge and technical expertise. Identifying production issues and leveraging community experiences with crops, yields, pests, and diseases further enhances collaboration.

Soil salinization is a significant form of land degradation in agricultural areas. Remote sensing is a better way to assess soil salinity than traditional methods, as it provides non-destructive and repetitive informative assessment for monitoring and mapping soil salinity. Different sensors can identify soil salinity in remote sensing data through direct and indirect indicators. A Brief review of the major soil salinity mapping studies is presented here.

Mangroves are highly productive ecosystems that provide important ecosystem services, are strategic allies in carbon capture and storage, conserve different plant and wildlife species, are producers of aquatic species such as crabs and shrimp, and local communities have developed strong economic, cultural and identity ties. Despite their great ecological, economic, and social importance, mangroves are threatened by natural and anthropogenic factors, hence the importance of their constant monitoring.

Worldwide, the large majority of migration occurs internally, with people relocating domestically within their country of origin. From a policy perspective, anticipating such migration decisions can be useful for targeting development programs and interventions, or as a monitoring tool, to capture the migration ‘sentiment’ among specific groups of interest. This paper describes the construction of an internal Migration Propensity Index (i-MPI) for Guatemala and Honduras, building on the existing MPI to predict external or cross-border migration available for these countries.