This report comes at a critical time for Europe. The new President and Commission have already committed to a European Green Deal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. They have further pledged to place the SDGs at the centre of the European Semester – the Union’s framework for the coordination of economic policies across member states. Indeed, in their mission letters each new Commissioner is asked to ensure “the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals within their policy area.

The Sustainable Development Report 2019 – Mediterranean Countries Edition is a synthetic review of the fourth edition of the Sustainable Development Report 2019, including integrated contents and tables editing, specifically focusing on 23 Mediterranean countries. It was drafted by a team of experts of the University of Siena – Santa Chiara Lab, as hosting institution of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the Mediterranean Area (SDSN-Mediterranean), in an effort to raise awareness on the SDGs and foster the implementation of transformation strategies.

This 2019 SDG Index and Dashboards Report for European Cities (prototype version) provides an overview of the performance of 45 capital cities and large metropolitan areas on the Agenda 2030 and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by global leaders in September 2015 at the UN Sustainable Development Summit.

The Sustainable Rangeland Management Project (SRMP) aims at securing land and resource rights of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and crop farmers, while improving land management by supporting village and district land use planning and rangeland management in Kiteto, Bahi, Chamwino and Kondoa Districts in Tanzania. More broadly, it aims at influencing policy formulation and implementation on these issues.

Rangelands provide numerous goods and services that have great economic, social, cultural, and biological value. Inhabitants of rangelands have engineered pastoral, hunter-gatherer, and farming systems that have sustained their livelihoods in these usually dry environments for centuries. Primarily, rangelands are grazing-dependent systems, characterised by dry periods and droughts. However, these characteristics should not be a barrier to development and can be managed through careful planning and management of resources.

Rapid economic development has a significant negative impact on the rural ecological environment. Evaluating the ecological environmental effect of land use and its change trend at the village scale has important practical significance for maintaining ecological functions and ensuring ecological safety. Taking a typical village in Yudian Town as an example, we applied a land-use ecological environment effect evaluation and the CA-Markov change trend prediction model and constructed an index of ecological environmental effect status.

The rise of urban populations has rendered cities in both developed and developing countries vulnerable to poor health and diseases that are associated with urban living conditions and environments. Therefore, there is a growing consensus that while personal factors are critical in determining health, the urban environment exacerbates or mitigates health outcomes, and as such the solution for improving health outcomes in urban settings can be found in addressing socio-environmental factors that shape urban environments.

RESUMEN EJECUTIVO

En Bolivia, la agricultura bimodal surgió con fuerza como consecuencia del boom de la soya, que comenzó en la década de 1980. A diferencia de la coexistencia de dos modos de producción abolidos por la Reforma Agraria de 1953, la hacendal y la campesina, la agricultura soyera dinamizó nuevas ‑y cada vez más desiguales‑ relaciones entre los pequeños productores familiares, establecidos en las zonas de asentamiento del departamento de Santa Cruz, y los medianos y grandes productores empresariales que, en la misma región, concentran las mejores tierras de uso agrícola.

Land use change is a major global driver of pandemic risk. Land usechange is a significant driver of the transmission and emergence of infectious diseases 40,177-179. Land use changeis cited as the cause of over 30% of emerging infectious diseases, and correlates significantly withthe emergence of novel zoonoses globally 13,180. However, the mechanisms by which diseases emergeare context-specific and scale-dependent.

This publication was produced as part of the digital interactive exhibition Droughts in the Anthropocene, prepared for the fortieth session of the UNESCO General Conference. Droughts in the Anthropocene features fifteen case studies from around the world showcasing the social, environmental and cultural impacts of droughts and water scarcity. It highlights solutions offered by collaboration between scientists and local communities, and the important work of UNESCO IHP and partners in bridging science with society and policymakers to better address the impact of droughts.