Valuable lessons can be learned from smallholder farmers who have successfully protected and regenerated tree cover across agricultural landscapes in Senegal, with minimal reliance on tree nurseries, seedling distribution or tree planting. In the process, they have restored soil fertility to sustainably increase agricultural production.
In the above initiatives, self-motivated populations increased food security and reduced vulnerabilities to climatic shocks by restoring and sustainably managing local forest resources. To regenerate agroforestry parklands, farmers built on traditional systems to increase on-farm tree density and convert degraded lands to densely wooded savannas. These actions increased crop yields and produced new sources of livestock browse. The population of Sambandé restored the local forest and managed it to sustainably produce fuel and fruit.
Ghana’s work to promote the legal timber trade, in partnership with the European Union (EU), strongly emphasizes involving local communities who live in or near forests. Yet many farmers and communities don’t understand their rights, which means that illegal activity by loggers has gone unchecked in Ghana’s off-reserve forests.
Malta’s partnership with FAO dates back to 1964, the year the country joined the Organization. Cooperation through emergency interventions in the 1970s enabled Malta’s successful eradication of African swine fever. Water management has been another major area of FAO assistance – and one of strategic importance – in the country, with action focusing on sustainable management of Malta’s water resources and development of a national water policy.
Carbon labels for food are a new strategy of industrialised countries to reduce climate change-relevant gas emissions in agriculture. However, not every label includes the measurement of all emissions and may disadvantage and even exclude exporting farmers from developing countries. Policy-makers should reconsider this approach or at least focus on fair and non-discriminatory labels.
There is a very close relationship between forestry and farming. Both forests and farms are source of food (both from plants and animals), nutrition, health, and livelihoods for family farmers. Besides, forests provide sources for fuel, energy, water and medicines. Forests beautify and contribute to biodiversity in a particular landscape.
Through our robust search engine, you can search for any item of the over 64,800 highly curated resources in the Land Library.
If you would like to find an overview of what is possible, feel free to peruse the Search Guide.
