The project is collaborating closely with different governmental, non-governmental and private sector actors at national, landscape, and local levels, as well as with different actors involved in the selected nature-based value chains. The target beneficiaries are the local communities.
Tag: biodiversity
Learning pathway: Course flows & blueprint
This course is a pivotal contribution to FAO’s vision of fostering a Better Environment, particularly focusing on Biodiversity for food and agriculture. Aligned with FAO’s strategic initiatives, the course is fortified by the approval of the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and the 2021-23 Action Plan, emphasizing the importance of targeted policies and practices for sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems.
Tree islands boost biodiversity in oil-palm plantations
The cultivation of oil palm is here to stay. However, a five-year study indicates that creating islands of native trees within oil-palm monocultures increases biodiversity and ecosystem functioning without notably lowering crop yields.
Protecting people and wildlife from the potential harms of drone use in biodiversity conservation: interdisciplinary dialogues
In this policy intervention, we recount the process of producing a policy briefing targeting researchers and practitioners who use drones in biodiversity conservation. We use the writing process as a springboard to think through the ways that interdisciplinary exchange has and might further inform the ethical use of new technologies, such as drones. This approach is vital, we argue, because while drones may be deployed as tools that enable or empower forest, wildlife or habitat monitoring practices, so too can they be variously disruptive, repurposed and/or exceed these applications in significant ways. From questions of surveillance and capture, data ownership and security, to noise disruption, drone use requires careful and critical reflection, particularly in sensitive contexts. Yet, interdisciplinary exchange attentive to the ethical, social and experiential dimensions of drone use remains patchy and thin. To this end, this intervention reflects on the process of a group of scholars from ecological, environmental and social science backgrounds coming together in an interdisciplinary project grappling with diverse issues around responsible conservation drone use. After recounting our methodology, including the surprises and learning that emerged in practice, we contextualise the key themes we chose to foreground in our published policy briefing. We conclude by connecting our collaboration with wider actions and energies in the context of existing (conservation) drone policy and practice, while underscoring our contributions to existing work.
A review of bambusicolous Ascomycota in China with an emphasis on species richness in southwest China
Bamboos not only provide socio-economic benefits to communities within the region, but also provide ecosystem services such as soil-water conservation, stabilization of sandy soils and restoration of soil nutrients. Bambusicolous ascomycetes refer to ascomycetous fungi living on any substrate of bamboo. As the largest group of fungi on bamboo, they play a significant ecological value in species composition and the structure of the fungal community, circulation of materials and energy flow of nutritional elements. In an effort to document the bambusicolous Ascomycota found in China, we assessed all major sources of academic literature, journal papers, and the USDA database (https://nt.ars-grin.gov/fungaldatabases/fungushost/fungushost.cfm) for reports of these fungi from China. As a result, we produced a systematic and comprehensive checklist of bambusicolous Ascomycota in China. Current names of fungi, bamboo host name, bamboo substrate, details of collected localities, references and latest classification for every bambusicolous ascomycete in China are also provided. In addition, we focused on the species richness of bambusicolous Ascomycota in China with an emphasis on southwest China.
A Whole Earth Approach to Nature-Positive Food: Biodiversity and Agriculture
This rapid evidence review documents the best available evidence of agriculture’s relationships with biodiversity, drawing on the contributions of leading biodiversity experts, and recommends actions that can be taken to move towards more biodiversity/nature-positive production through the delivery of integrated agricultural solutions for climate, biodiversity, nutrition and livelihoods. The analysis, which takes a whole-of-food-system approach, brings together a large body of evidence. It accounts for aspects not typically captured in a stand-alone primary piece of research and indicates where there are critical gaps.
Learning pathway: Course flows & blueprint
This course is a pivotal contribution to FAO’s vision of fostering a Better Environment, particularly focusing on Biodiversity for food and agriculture. Aligned with FAO’s strategic initiatives, the course is fortified by the approval of the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and the 2021-23 Action Plan, emphasizing the importance of targeted policies and practices for sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems.
Carbon stocks of billions of individual African dryland trees estimated
The fewer trees there are, the more important they become. This is especially true in dryland ecosystems, where scattered trees provide a range of crucial environmental services and benefits to local inhabitants. Indeed, trees will be instrumental in helping dryland communities meet many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Detailed information about trees is essential for managing and restoring dryland ecosystems, and for understanding their role in storing carbon as the climate changes, yet such data have been lacking.
Operationalizing Climate Appropriate Portfolios of Tree Diversity
Key messages
- Climate Appropriate Portfolios of Tree Diversity (CAPTD) are mixes of tree species’ planting materials, delivered to growers, that are environmentally-matched to planting sites and purpose-matched to planting requirements.
- CAPTD are necessary to respond to climate change in conjunction with other challenges that tree planting can help address.
- A possible pathway for the operationalization of CAPTD, outlined in this brief, involves a series of steps to define the portfolios and then implement them, drawing on different tree-knowledge resources, consultation approaches and planting material production methods.
The Role of Agroforestry Systems for Enhancing Biodiversity and Provision of Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes in Southeast Asia
Biodiversity has a pivotal role to play in providing ecosystem goods and services, which is under threat due to various anthropogenic activities. This chapter is based on literature review to assess the role of agroforestry to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services in Southeast Asian agricultural landscapes. The reviewed literature was analysed through narrative qualitative and narrative comparative methods. The review provides substantial evidence that agroforestry systems can conserve species diversity and enhance ecosystem services. Farmers’ cultivating diverse species in agroforestry is the key to enhance biodiversity on farmlands that can also lessen the pressure on local forest. Careful agroforestry plantation design will not only increase the multiple ecosystem functions but can also create corridors and buffer zones to support natural habitats, to reduce human and wildlife conflict. The case of human conflicts with Asian elephants is an obvious example. From ethical ground to support elephant’s right to survive, further research on agroforestry modelling is required to benefits both humans and elephants.