Combating Desertification and Drought

Latin America Makes Headway Against Land Degradation

By Orlando Milesi
Two-thirds of the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have already submitted or are preparing to submit to the United Nations their land degradation goals, to combat a problem that threatens agriculture and the lives of their people.

Women on the Front Lines of Halting Deforestation

By Sally Nyakanyanga
In Zimbabwe, the bulk of rural communities and urban poor still get their energy supplies from the forests, leading to deforestation and land degradation.

Can Drought Be Prevented? Slovakia Aims to Try

By Ed Holt
A landmark programme to combat drought set to be implemented in the small Central European country of Slovakia could be an inspiration for other states as extreme weather events become more frequent, the environmental action group behind the plan has said.

Argentina’s Law on Forests Is Good, But Lacks Enforcement

By Daniel Gutman
Never in the parliamentary history of Argentina had something similar happened: one and a half million people in 2007 signed a petition asking the Senate to pass a law to reduce deforestation. The law was quickly approved, and promulgated on Dec. 26 of that year. But 10 years later, it has left a bittersweet taste.

Policy Support Gap for “Climate-Smart” Agriculture

By Busani Bafana
Conditioned that ploughing is the sure way to produce crops, Zimbabwean farmer Handrixious Zvomarima surprised himself by trying a different method. He planted cowpea seeds directly without tilling the land. It worked.

Disasters Bring Upheaval to Sri Lanka’s Rural Economy

By Amantha Perera
Last year was an annus horribilis for 52-year-old Newton Gunathileka. A paddy smallholder from Sri Lanka’s northwestern Puttalam District, 2017 saw Gunathileka abandon his two acres of paddy for the first time in over three and half decades, leaving his family almost destitute.

The Political Responsibility in the Collapse of Our Planet

By Roberto Savio
On 20 December, Europe’s 28 Ministers of Environment met in Brussels, to discuss the plan for reducing emissions prepared by the Commission, to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change. Well, it is now clear that we have lost the battle in keeping the planet as we have known it. Now, of course, this can be considered a personal opinion of mine, devoid of objectivity.

Long Maligned for Deforestation, Charcoal Emerges from the Shadows

By Friday Phiri
“We have various financial obligations that push us to charcoal making. Top on the list is farming inputs and school fees,” explains Arclay Moonga, a charcoal producer and chairperson of the recently formed Choma District Charcoal Association in Southern Zambia.

Money Talks at One Planet Summit in Paris

By Paris Correspondent
As funding to combat climate change has lagged behind lofty words, the One Planet Summit in France this week invited governments and business leaders to put money on the table.

Combating Climate Change? Combat Land Degradation, Says UNCCD Chief

By Stella Paul
Land restoration is not a “glamorous subject even when you give all the numbers,” admits Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification UNCCD). But she also stresses that by 2050, the world population will reach 10 billion. To feed that extra 2.4 billion, current food production would need to be increased by 75 percent.

On Gender Day at Climate Meet, Some Progress, Many Hurdles

By Stella Paul
“Five years ago, when we first started talking about including gender in the negotiations, the parties asked us, ‘Why gender?’ Today, they are asking, ‘How do we include gender?’ That’s the progress we have seen since Doha,” said Kalyani Raj.

Economic Development vs. Climate Action: Rebutting Deniers and Wafflers

By Friday Phiri
As negotiators meet in Bonn to put together a deal to implement the Paris Agreement, John Holdren, a professor of environmental policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, stressed that economic development and climate change mitigation and adaptation are not ‘either-or’ but must be pursued together.

SLIDESHOW: Two Models of Development in Struggle Coexist in Brazil’s Semi-arid Region

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Irrigated green fields of vineyards and monoculture crops coexist in Brazil’s semiarid Northeast with dry plains dotted with flowering cacti and native crops traditionally planted by the locals. Two models of development in struggle, with very different fruits.

Conservation Agriculture: Zambia’s Double-edged Sword against Climate Change and Hunger

By Friday Phiri
As governments gather in Bonn, Germany for the next two weeks to hammer out a blueprint for implementation of the global climate change treaty signed in Paris in 2015, a major focus will be on emissions reductions to keep the global average temperature increase to well below 2°C by 2020.

Locals Learn to Live in Harmony with Drought in Brazil’s Semi-arid Region

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Irrigated green fields of vineyards and monoculture crops coexist in Brazil’s semiarid Northeast with dry plains dotted with flowering cacti and native crops traditionally planted by the locals. Two models of development in struggle, with very different fruits.

Impending Drought? There’s an App for That – Or Should Be

By Sam Otieno
Fostering and harnessing innovative technologies could significantly reduce the negative impacts from climate change, including drought, water scarcity and food insecurity in African countries.

Kashmir’s Farmland Plowed Under in Wave of Urbanization

By Umar Manzoor Shah
In central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, 40-year-old Javaid Ahmad Hurra remembers vividly how his small hamlet used to be lush and green when he was a child. It is now subtly turning into a concrete jungle, with cement structures dominating the scenery.

Deliberate Famine Should Be a War Crime, UN Expert Says

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
The deliberate starvation of civilians could amount to a war crime and should be prosecuted, said an independent UN human rights expert.

Innovation for Climate-Smart Agriculture Key to Ending Hunger in Kenya

By Siddharth Chatterjee
Some parts of Kenya are reeling from the effects of probably the worst drought in the last 20 years. With nearly 3.4 million people food insecure, Kenya’s food security prognosis looks gloomy, with climate change and natural resource depletion set to pose even greater risks in the long term.

Biotechnology Part of the Solution to Africa’s Food Insecurity, Scientists Say

By Miriam Gathigah
A growing number of African countries are increasingly becoming food insecure as delayed and insufficient rainfall, as well as crop damaging pests such as the ongoing outbreak of the fall armyworm, cause the most severe maize crisis in the last decade.

The Urbanization of Malnutrition

By Manipadma Jena
Rapid urbanization is increasingly shifting the impacts of malnutrition from rural to urban areas. One in three stunted under-five children out of 155 million across the world now lives in cities and towns.
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