The growing challenges of population growth, demands on limited resources by diverse actors, land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change require the rational use of resources to sustain and enhance productivity and maintain resilient ecosystems. The availability of suitable planning tools and information to support the decision-makers at different scales and across sectors is limited.

Les Directives volontaires pour une gestion durable des sols ont été élaborées dans le cadre d’un processus ouvert, au sein du Partenariat mondial sur les sols. Elles visent à servir de référence et à fournir à un vaste éventail de parties prenantes engagées des recommandations générales d’ordre technique et stratégique concernant la gestion durable des sols.

The Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM) were adopted by the 4th GSP Plenary Assembly (Rome, 25 May 2016), approved by the 25th session of the FAO Committee on Agriculture (Rome, 28 September 2016) and finally endorsed by the 155th session of the FAO Council (Rome, 5 December 2016). These guidelines provide technical and policy recommendations on how sustainable soil management can be achieved. The successful implementation of these guidelines should pave the way to boost ing soil health

The zero-deforestation movement has gained considerable momentum as governments and companies enter into commitments to curb deforestation. The most innovative are multi-stakeholder initiatives, where governments and international organi- zations have joined with the private sector and civil society organizations in making commit- ments to reduce deforestation. These pledges have created opportunities for improved forest governance by envisaging the private sector at the centre of the movement.

FAO INFO est un bulletin trimestriel d’informations générales sur les activités de la FAO au Burkina Faso. C’est un bulletin qui récapitule au cours du trimestre, toutes activités phares menées par la FAO en appui au Gouvernement du Burkina Faso dans le secteur agro-sylvo-pastoral à travers les différents projets et programmes misent en œuvre. On y trouve des articles sur des ateliers nationaux, sous-régionaux et régionaux, également des articles sur les activités terrain à savoir des visite terrain des partenaires techniques et financiers mais surtout des articles sur de success stories.

The manual provides information on the procedures followed by field brigades for the establishment of conglomerates and permanent plots of the National Forest Inventory (IFN). It also provides information about the planning and execution of each of the phases contemplated by the operation, describes the methods, techniques and instruments used in the data collection, and details the process of filling out the formats created by IDEAM to record the data and field information.

The massive increase in demand for woodfuel for cooking caused by sudden influxes of refugees and other displaced people is usually the main driver of forest degradation and deforestation in displacement settings. It places enormous pressure on nearby forests and woodlands and is often a source of tension between the host and displaced communities. A lack of sufficient cooking fuel also has an impact on the nutrition and health of vulnerable people in such settings.

Participatory land-use planning (PLUP) refers to a bottom-up method of analyzing land and water resources. In its current form, PLUP integrates inputs about climate change and sea level rise to help the community utilize the resources within its vicinities. In utilizing its resources, the community will be able to improve the people’s livelihoods and help them sustain such resources for the benefit of the next generations. This publication in implementing PLUP focused on climate-smart adaptation in Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs).

Understanding the impact of commercial agriculture in the face of global change is critical to support strategies that ensure food security and alleviate poverty among households. We assessed the contribution of commercial sugarcane cultivation to household-level food security among smallholder farmers in Busoga sub-region, eastern Uganda. Land use changes are motivated by quick commercial gains rather than sustained food production; a situation that influences food security.

The paper investigates whether farm dwellers in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa are subject to a “double exposure”: vulnerable both to the impacts of post-apartheid agrarian dynamics and to the risks of climate change. The evidence is drawn from a 2017 survey that was undertaken by the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA), which is a land rights Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), of 843 farm dweller households. Data on the current living conditions and livelihoods was collected on 15.3% of the farm dweller population in the area.

From a Mongolian ‘super mine’ to China’s One Belt One Road, rapid infrastructural development is reforging Central Asia as an economic pivot of the future. Such development offers enticing economic benefits, but threatens fragile environments and local livelihoods. Due to the weakness of the state, the emphasis will be on citizens to hold developers accountable to their social and environmental pledges. Reports of political elites influencing the demands of popular protests call into question the ability of citizens to fulfil this function.