The origins of over two-thirds of the grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural crops countries grow and consume can be traced to ancient breadbaskets in distant parts of the world, according to an exhaustive peer-reviewed report published today.
As countries prepare to finalize a climate agreement in Paris this coming December, global leaders like the United States and the European Union are releasing intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), country specific action plans that outline how they intend to reduce global warming emissions. An analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) evaluated how the INDCs from the U.S., the EU and Mexico address land use emissions, which include those from agriculture and forestry. UCS found that the U.S. and EU INDCs fall short in describing what they will do to reduce land use emissions, but that Mexico’s contribution ambitiously addresses emissions from this sector.
About one in nine people globally still suffer from hunger with the majority of the hungry living in Africa and Asia. The world’s forests have great potential to improve their nutrition and ensure their livelihoods. In fact, forests and forestry are essential to achieve food security as the limits of boosting agricultural production are becoming increasingly clear.
Amidst fears that global warming could zap a vital source of protein that has sustained humans for centuries, bean breeders with the CGIAR global agriculture research partnership announced today the discovery of 30 new types, or lines as plant breeders refer to them, of “heat-beater” beans that could keep production from crashing in large swaths of bean-dependent Latin America and Africa.
The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement Executive Committee today named the Honorable Jane Lubchenco, PhD, of Oregon State University, and Madhav Gadgil, PhD, of Goa University, as the recipients of the 2015 Tyler Prize for their leadership and engagement in the development of conservation and sustainability policies in the United States, India and internationally.
During 2000-12, an average of one football pitch of forest was illegally cleared every two minutes to supply the EU with beef, leather, palm oil and soy used for groceries, animal feed, leather shoes and biofuels, according to a new study released today. It finds that the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France and the UK are by far the largest consumers of illegally sourced commodities flowing into the EU, which, as a whole, imports 25% of all soy, 18% of all palm oil, 15% of all beef and 31% of all leather in international trade stemming from illegal tropical forest destruction.
The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) Coalition joins local and international NGOs in condemning last Friday’s killing of a local farmer and land rights defender in Jambi, Indonesia. While traveling to a harvest festival, Indra Pelani was allegedly murdered after an argument with guards stationed outside a pulpwood plantation owned by PT Wira Karya Sakti (WKS), a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). According to reports, Pelani’s body was later found tied up several kilometers away, showing evidence of stab wounds and severe beating. The seven guards suspected in the killing surrendered to police on Wednesday.
Editor's Note: For more about the New Voices Fellowship, visit www.aspennewvoices.org or email [email protected]. Follow all the fellows on Twitter here and the fellowship at @aspennewvoices.
On the heels of a year marked by bold zero deforestation commitments the first ever comprehensive ranking of the powerbrokers that control the global supply chains that drive over half of tropical deforestation finds that only a small minority are equipped to tackle this problem. Deforestation and land use change cause more than 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, undermine regional water security, and threaten the livelihoods of more than one billion people worldwide.
A new report finds that Indigenous Peoples and local communities control less than one sixth of tropical forests—despite living in or near the forests and safeguarding them—in eight of the 11 countries accepted by the World Bank for initiating the proposed carbon market. The report, produced by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), identifies only two countries participating in the market that have laws defining who has rights to forest carbon, and not one with a law defining how to trade it.
GreenIndonesia and six partner Indigenous communities will headline Reiselivsmessen Oslo, the largest Scandinavian tourism event. Together they show that resilient and green economic development is possible when local community land rights and the integrity of natural ecosystems are equally protected.
A new study released today presents powerful evidence that clearing trees not only spews carbon into the atmosphere, but also triggers major shifts in rainfall and increased temperatures worldwide that are just as potent as those caused by current carbon pollution. Further, the study finds that future agricultural productivity across the globe is at risk from deforestation-induced warming and altered rainfall patterns.
On the eve of the arrival of negotiators at a crucial UN conference on climate change, a new report shows that, despite public commitments to protect Peru’s forests, the first Amazonian host of the UN COP is ignoring the real drivers of deforestation and failing to safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples. This, despite the fact that these peoples occupy approximately one third of the Peruvian Amazon and offer the best chance of defending the country’s precious forests.
A comprehensive new analysis released today says that nearly half (49%) of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of illegal clearing for commercial agriculture. The study also finds that the majority of this illegal destruction was driven by overseas demand for agricultural commodities including palm oil, beef, soy, and wood products. In addition to devastating impacts on forest-dependent people and biodiversity, the illegal conversion of tropical forests for commercial agriculture is estimated to produce 1.47 gigatonnes of carbon each year—equivalent to 25% of the EU’s annual fossil fuel-based emissions.
El fortalecimiento de los derechos forestales comunitarios es una estrategia esencial para reducir los miles de millones de toneladas de emisiones de carbono, haciéndolo una forma efectiva para que los gobiernos cumplan los objetivos climáticos, salvaguarden los bosques y protejan las subsistencias de sus ciudadanos, según un importante reporte nuevo. El informe, llamado "Asegurando derechos, luchando contra el cambio climático: Cómo el fortalecimiento de los derechos forestales comunitarios mitiga el cambio climático", está siendo publicado conjuntamente por el Instituto de Recursos Mundiales (World Resources Institute - WRI) y la Iniciativa Derechos y Recursos (Rights and Resources Initiative - RRI). El documento proporciona el análisis más completo a la fecha vinculando el reconocimiento legal y la protección gubernamental de los derechos forestales comunitarios junto con las reducciones en la contaminación de carbono.
Strengthening community forest rights is an essential strategy to reduce billions of tonnes of carbon emissions, making it an effective way for governments to meet climate goals, safeguard forests and protect the livelihoods of their citizens, according to a major new report. The report, called “Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change: How Strengthening Community Forest Rights Mitigates Climate Change,” is being published jointly by World Resources Institute (WRI) and Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). The paper provides the most comprehensive analysis to date linking legal recognition and government protection of community forest rights with reductions in carbon pollution.
Programs and policies to reduce tropical deforestation, and the global warming emissions resulting from deforestation, are seeing broad success in 17 countries across four continents, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
Two new studies show that excessive taxation and a tangle of rules and regulations are crippling forest enterprises Mexico, harming their ability to compete on the domestic market and depriving the sector from a role in reducing a US$6-billion trade deficit in forest products, cellulose and paper.
Locally-owned seed companies participating in a program to offer high-yield crop varieties to smallholder farmers across the continent have collectively become the largest seed producers in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report released at the Grow Africa Investment Forum alongside World Economic Forum for Africa.
Annual carbon emissions from global agriculture can be reduced by as much as 50 to 90 percent by 2030—the equivalent of removing all the cars in the world—according to a comprehensive new report released by Climate Focus and California Environmental Associates. The study highlights twelve key strategies—led by reduced global beef consumption, reduced food waste and better farm nutrient management and production—that can deliver big climate wins while maintaining food security and building resilience.
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