Shared Assets works with landowners and social and community enterprises to develop innovative ways of managing land for the common good, be it parks, farmland, woodlands, waterways, or other spaces. We also look for ways to create an environment that allows these models to thrive. One issue that comes up repeatedly is the crucial role of local authorities, both as landowners and commissioners of land-based services.

Agroforestry systems and tree cover on agricultural land make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, but are not systematically accounted for in either global carbon budgets or national carbon accounting. This paper assesses the role of trees on agricultural land and their significance for carbon sequestration at a global level, along with recent change trends. Remote sensing data show that in 2010, 43% of all agricultural land globally had at least 10% tree cover and that this has increased by 2% over the previous ten years.

Source: IIED.org

The Lao tea sector is small in the global context but has significant potential to grow and further contribute to the local economies of tea production areas in the north and south of Lao PDR. This Industry Position Paper, developed by Earth Systems in consultation with leading tea industry stakeholders, outlines key challenges and opportunities for the sustainable development of the sector. 

The Lao tea sector is small in the global context but has significant potential to grow and further contribute to the local economies of tea production areas in the north and south of Lao PDR. This Industry Position Paper, developed by Earth Systems in consultation with leading tea industry stakeholders, outlines key challenges and opportunities for the sustainable development of the sector. 

The current Amazon landscape consists of heterogeneous mosaics formed by interactions between the original forest and productive activities. Recognizing and quantifying the characteristics of these landscapes is essential for understanding agricultural production chains, assessing the impact of policies, and in planning future actions. Our main objective was to construct the regionalization of agricultural production for Rondônia State (Brazilian Amazon) at the municipal level.

Scientific and policy interest in the biological diversity of agriculture (agrobiodiversity) is expanding amid global socioeconomic and environmental changes and sustainability interests. The majority of global agrobiodiversity is produced in smallholder food-growing.

Land use—with a special focus on agriculture—is increasingly influenced by globalization and external driving forces, causing farmers to seek opportunities to develop efficient, large-scale production systems.[...]

The production of soy is one of the most important economic activities in the Brazilian Amazon, though the expansion of this industry has come at the cost of huge swaths of forest. Since 2006, the private firms that buy and trade soybeans globally have assumed a key role in ensuring that soy producers comply with forest protection policies, including the Soy Moratorium and public policies banning the use of illegally deforested land.

This report addresses the economic, environmental and social dimensions of agricultural development, with the objective of ensuring food and nutrition security, in terms of availability, access, utilization and stability. It focuses on the livestock component of agricultural systems, given the role of livestock as an engine for the development of the agriculture and food sector, and as a driver of major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide.

Between late 2014 and June 2016, South Africa experienced an El Niño-related drought, which various reports claim to be the worst meteorological drought in the southern Africa region in 35 years. In February 2016, the Southern Africa Food Lab (SAFL) commissioned a drought impact assessment (DIA) in the Mopani district of Limpopo province, as part of its Agro-ecology Awareness (AeA) project, and Supporting Smallholder Agriculture programme. This report provides the findings of this assessment.