Biodiversity offsets seek to counterbalance loss of biodiversity due to major developments by generating equivalent biodiversity benefits elsewhere, resulting, at least in theory, in ‘no net loss’ (or even a ‘net positive gain’) in biodiversity. While local costs of major developments themselves receive significant attention, the local costs of associated biodiversity offsets have not.

Colombia’s Andean-Amazonian foothills are among the most pressing deforestation hotspots in the country. Yet, the relationships and dependencies of underlying deforestation drivers are not well understood. For an adequate territorial reorganization in the post-conflict era that is sensitive to local context, a targeted analysis of the present situation at the local level is required. This study investigates direct and indirect deforestation drivers, relationships among these and potential measures to lower deforestation post-conflict.

Action-based payments that compensate farmers for adopting land-management measures to preserve and enhance the environment have been criticized for being ineffective. The root of the problem is that farmers are not paid for achieving a desired environmental benefit, but compensated for their costs of management. There is growing interest in formulating result-based economic incentives.

 Most of the cities and urban centres of developing nations, Tanzania inclusive are faced with increased urbanization coupled with informal land development in non-designated areas including marginal and hazardous lands. This paper reports the findings of a study undertaken to assess the processes of land development and the associated impacts in Msasani Bonde la Mpunga, a, flood prone area in the City of Dar es Salaam.

The conceptual framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) highlights that land degradation in developing countries impacts men and women differently, mainly due to unequal access to land, water, credit, extension services and technology. It further asserts that gender inequality plays a significant role in land-degradation-related poverty hence the need to address persistent gender inequalities that fuel women’s poverty in LDN interventions. This paper presents recommendations for moving towards a twin-agenda: gender equality and land degradation neutrality.

Small-scale farmers in north-central Namibia face numerous challenges, ranging from low crop yields, high rainfall variability and land degradation which is threatening the long-term productivity of the land, to social changes that are reducing the work force available for farming. This paper aims to assess existing land use practices (LUPs) and to determine their relationship to ecosystem services (ES). As agriculture (crop and livestock farming) is the dominant land use in northern Namibia, it is the main driver influencing environmental services and will be in the focus here. We suggest

The “Sustainable Land Management and Climate-Friendly Agriculture” Project was implemented in Turkey to improve the sustainability of agricultural and forest land use in the area by rehabilitating degraded forests and rangelands, promoting climate-smart agriculture and establishing a favourable enabling environment. The project was designed to develop the necessary strategies, plans, tools and mechanisms that will aid stakeholders in sustainably managing forest and land resources.

FAO is stressing on the communication as an effective tool for disseminating the information for advocacy and resources mobilization in the fight against hunger and food insecurity to achieve its strategic objectives. In this regard, communication tools are edited on a regular basis by the FAO country office in Togo to ensure a better visibility of field projects at the country level. One of these tools is FAO Flash, an electronic newsletter to share information with the various partners on field activities implemented to the benefit of target groups.

The forest-water nexus is crucial for ensuring water and food security, as well as for achieving sustainable development objectives. Only by recognising the interlinkages of forests and water, and how the management of these resources influences productive multi-functional landscapes can appropriate long-term benefits from landscape planning and management be actualized. And while it is important that generalized assumptions about the forest-water nexus are not widely applied due to their complex and context specific nature, the knowledge is available to lend guidance.

The “Sustainable Land Management and Climate-Friendly Agriculture” Project was implemented in Turkey to improve the sustainability of agricultural and forest land use in the area by rehabilitating degraded forests and rangelands, promoting climate-smart agriculture and establishing a favourable enabling environment. The project was designed to develop the necessary strategies, plans, tools and mechanisms that will aid stakeholders in sustainably managing forest and land resources.

The successful reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation requires forest governance to be efficient, effective and equitable. The concept of forest governance has evolved to engage public and private actors at many levels to make and enforce decisions that are clear, transparent, just, and lead to the sustainability of forests and the fair distribution of the benefits derived from their use. Forest governance also refers to the institutional, policy and legal dimensions addressing both direct and indirect drivers of forest loss and degradation.

To implement the ambitious REDD+ actions required to halve deforestation and forest degradation, developing countries need to adopt innovative and ambitious financing approaches. Financing to shift land-based investments and achieve deforestation-free commodity production is estimated at USD 200 billion, of which approximately USD 17-28 billion is needed for REDD+, an ambitious amount given the current level of climate finance.