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Beyond fixes that fail: identifying sustainable improvements to tree seed supply and farmer participation in forest and landscape restoration

December, 2019
Global

Growing evidence suggests that constraints to the availability and quality of tree seed can undermine the success of forest
and landscape restoration efforts and the delivery of associated benefits such as mitigating climate change and halting biodiversity loss.
Past experiences to promote tree seed supply have frequently shown limited outcomes over time, partly because of unexpected, deleterious

Biodiversity, food and nutrition: A new agenda for sustainable food systems

December, 2019
Global

This book examines the challenges and impacts of poor diets and nutrition from current food systems and the potential contribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services in addressing these problems. It also presents a multi-country, cross-sectoral analysis of initiatives that have promoted local food biodiversity in four countries: Brazil, Kenya, Turkey and Sri Lanka.

Global guidelines for the sustainable use of non-native trees to prevent tree invasions and mitigate their negative impacts

December, 2019
Global

Sustainably managed non-native trees deliver economic and societal benefits with limited risk of spread to adjoining areas. However, some plantations have launched invasions that cause substantial damage to biodiversity and ecosystem services, while others pose substantial threats of causing such impacts. The challenge is to maximise the benefits of non-native trees, while minimising negative impacts and preserving future benefits and options.

Soil health and ecosystem services: Lessons from sub-Sahara Africa (SSA)

December, 2019
Global

Management practices to improve soil health influence several ecosystem services including regulation of water
flows, changes in soil biodiversity and greenhouse gases that are important at local, regional and global levels.
Unfortunately, the primary focus in soil health management over the years has been increasing crop productivity
and to some extent the associated economics and use efficiencies of inputs. There are now efforts to study the

Participatory exploration of the heterogeneity in household socioeconomic, food and nutrition security status for the identification of nutrition-sensitive interventions in the Rwandan Highlands

December, 2019
Global

Food insecurity and malnutrition are challenges in rural Rwanda that are presumed to be affected by differential household socioeconomic status, but the relationship between food and nutrition security and socioeconomic status is not well-understood.

Wild food plants and trends in their use: from knowledge and perceptions to drivers of change in West Sumatra, Indonesia

December, 2019
Indonesia

Wild food plants (WFPs) are often highly nutritious but under-consumed at the same time. This study aimed to document the diversity of WFPs, and assess perceptions, attitudes, and drivers of change in their consumption among Minangkabau and Mandailing women farmers in West Sumatra. We applied a mixed-method approach consisting of interviews with 200 women and focus group discussions with 68 participants. The study documented 106 WFPs (85 species), and Minangkabau were found to steward richer traditional knowledge than Mandailing.

Vulnérabilité des ptéridophytes au changement climatique et implications pour leur conservation au Togo (Afrique de l’Ouest)

December, 2019
Global

Contexte et objectifs –
La conservation durable de la biodiversité requiert une bonne compréhension des causes de son déclin. Mis à part les activités humaines, les changements climatiques se révèlent comme la principale menace qui pèse sur la biodiversité au 21ème siècle. Notre étude vise à déterminer l’impact du changement climatique sur les Ptéridophytes au Togo.
Méthodologie –

Revitalizing cultivation and strengthening the seed systems of fonio and Bambara groundnut in Mali through a community biodiversity management approach

December, 2019
Mali

Fonio (Digitaria exilis(Kippist)Stapf) and Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea(L.)Verdc.) are native crops grown at a small scale in Mali that have potential to support agricultural productivity under climate change. A community biodiversity management approach was explored in this study as a means to reinforce the cultivation of these crops by increasing farmers’ access to intraspecific diversity and developing capacities of community institutions for their management. The research involved six communities in Ségou and Sikasso regions.

Documenting museum records of west African Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) in Benin and Senegal

December, 2019

This work provides a preliminary inventory of West African Coccinellidae.
This was based on the West African Coccinellidae (WAC) specimens in the holdings of insect collections at the Laboratoire de Zoologie des Invertébrés Terrestres at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop (IFAN), Senegal and the Biodiversity Center at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITAB), Benin.

Creating an Enabling Environment for Land Degradation Neutrality and its potential contribution to enhancing well-being, livelihoods and the environment

Reports & Research
December, 2019
Global

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 include a target on land degradation neutrality (LDN) (SDG 15.3). Attaining and maintaining LDN requires addressing a land governance challenge to steer land management towards avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation.

Voices from the Land: Restoring Soils and Enriching Lives

Journal Articles & Books
November, 2019
Global

When the UN Convention to Combat Desertification was created at the Rio Earth Summit over 25 years ago, it became the only international convention dedicated to protecting, managing and restoring our land. The environmental benefits of that work are already well documented, particularly when it comes to the inextricablelinks with climate change and biodiversity. But this book goes much further by highlighting the impact on the wellbeing of over three billion people – nearly half the world’s population – who are directly affected by land degradation.

Singapore’s Lost Coast: Land Reclamation, National Development and the Erasure of Human and Ecological Communities, 1822–Present

Journal Articles & Books
August, 2019
Singapore

Beginning during the colonial period, and greatly accelerating following independence in 1965, Singapore has used land reclamation to increase its national domain by nearly 25 per cent. The construction of new land was a key component of the nation’s celebrated rise from ‘third world’ to ‘first world’ in the postcolonial period. But the economic benefits of remaking Singapore’s coastline came at significant ecological and social costs. Nearly all of the original shore, and its attendant mangrove forests and natural beaches, were lost. So too were two-thirds of Singapore’s coral reefs.