Forests, desertification and biodiversity - United Nations Sustainable Development Forests, desertification and biodiversityFlorencia Soto Nino2017-08-14T16:49:48+00:00 Share this story, choose your platform! Forests cover 30 per cent of the Earth’s surface and in addition to providing food security and shelter, forests are key to combating climate change, protecting biodiversity and the homes of the indigenous population. Thirteen million hectares of forests are being lost every year while the persistent degradation of drylands has led to the desertification of 3.6 billion hectares. Fighting hunger - EU External cooperation programmes Reducing by half the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015 is a priority for the EU and the International community enshrined in the first Millenium Development Goal. Over 900 million people are estimated to be malnourished - most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia. Even if food prices eased in the second half of 2008, they are still very high and subject to volatility in some developing countries, affecting access to food for low income population groups. What's On
El Nino's threat to major food crop yields 15 May 2014Last updated at 09:23 ET By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News Responding to the impacts of El Nino could help maintain crop yields, the study suggests El Nino events can have a significant impact on the yields of certain major food crops, a study has shown. Researchers say the climatic phenomenon, which triggers changes in temperature and rainfall, can reduce maize yields by more than 4%. World Food Programme One of the ways of assessing the fight against hunger is monitoring global food aid flows. New indicators are now available to better understand the nutritional content of these flows. The Fais database contains the most reliable and comprehensive data on food aid flows. It is a source of information for food aid actors, academics, the media and anyone interested in global efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in a global perspective. About INTERFAIS
European Forest Institute The European Forest Institute is an international organisation, established by European States. 29 European States have ratified the Convention on EFI. We have c.120 Associate and Affiliate Member organisations in 40 countries. Our Headquarters is in Joensuu, Finland, and we also have offices in Barcelona, Bordeaux, Bonn and Brussels as well as project offices in Malaysia and China. We conduct research and provide policy support on issues related to forests.
Canadian Council for International Co-operation The FSPG formed after the 1996 World Summit on Food Security, bringing together Canadian international development and humanitarian agencies, farmers’ organizations and human rights groups who have worked for decades in sectors related to enhancing sustainable agriculture and food security in developing countries and Canada. It has 23 members (including CCIC). In the early days, the coalition focused largely on two streams of work: ensuring the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture did not negatively affect food security in developing countries where agriculture is crucial for the livelihoods of poor people; and on untying food aid and encouraging Canada to use its aid dollars to support smallholder farms and promote sustainable agriculture and rural livelihoods. Fertile Ground? Assessing CIDA’s investments in food and farming (July 2013) (PDF 1.1 Mb)
Reports Reports Achieving Food Security in the Face of Climate Change The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change has reviewed the scientific evidence to identify a pathway to achieving food security in the context of climate change. Food systems must shift to better meet human needs and, in the long term, balance with planetary resources. This will demand major interventions, at local to global scales, to transform current patterns of food production, distribution and consumption. EuroBirdPortal - Home LIVE maps show data from the previous day back to one year ago. As in all other EBP maps data is grouped in 52 weeks. Despite most EBP data (86%) is updated daily some online portals still submit their data at longer intervals and, therefore, the areas covered by these portals can appear blank in the most recent weeks (see below which the most recent data available is from each online portal and the usual update frequency of each country or region).
TRADE REFORMS AND FOOD SECURITY Commodity Policy and Projections Service Commodities and Trade Division All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Food Security - Big Facts Big Facts is a resource of the most up-to-date and robust facts relevant to the nexus of climate change, agriculture and food security. It is intended to provide a credible and reliable platform for fact checking amid the range of claims that appear in reports, advocacy materials and other sources. Full sources are supplied for all facts and figures and all content has gone through a process of peer review. Big Facts is also an open-access resource. We encourage everyone to download, use and share the facts and graphic images. We believe that by sharing knowledge we can aid the type of interdisciplinary understanding and collaboration necessary for meeting the challenges posed to agriculture and food security in the face of climate change.
Companies scores We stand at a historic crossroads. With the world facing converging crises in climate, nature, the economy and public health, these must be tackled together with systemic change. We announce this year’s A List against this backdrop. These 300+ companies are leading the way to a more sustainable future. The business world shows growing environmental awareness, despite the unprecedented challenges faced in 2020.
Desertification - a threat to the Sahel Written: August 1994 For reference: Eden Foundation, Sweden (1994:1) Land covers 14.9 billion hectares of the earth's surface. A UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) study shows that 6.1 billion hectares are dryland of which 1 billion hectares are naturally hyperarid desert. The rest of the dryland has either become desert or is being threatened by desertification. One quarter of the world's population inhabit the drylands and depend on this area for their livelihood.
ExxonMobil climate change controversy The ExxonMobil climate change controversy concerns ExxonMobil's activities related to climate change, especially their views on climate change skepticism. Since the 1970s, ExxonMobil engaged in climate research, and later begun lobbying, advertising, and grant making, some of which were conducted with the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and action on global warming. From the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Exxon funded internal and university collaborations, broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach. From the 1980s to mid 2000s, the company was a leader in climate change denial, opposing regulations to curtail global warming. ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and sought to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition of businesses opposed to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Peak soil: industrial civilisation is on the verge of eating itself A new report says that the world will need to more than double food production over the next 40 years to feed an expanding global population. But as the world's food needs are rapidly increasing, the planet's capacity to produce food confronts increasing constraints from overlapping crises that, if left unchecked, could lead to billions facing hunger. The UN projects that global population will grow from today's 7 billion to 9.3 billion by mid-century. According to the report released last week by the World Resources Institute (WRI), "available worldwide food calories will need to increase by about 60 percent from 2006 levels" to ensure an adequate diet for this larger population.