Increasing demand for food, fiber and raw materials is putting more and more pressure on (often) fragile landscapes. Today, about one-fifth of all cultivated land suffers from some form of degradation, such as salinization, deforestation, erosion, excessive fertilizer use, waterlogging and poor nutrient availability (ELD Initiative 2015). Degradation often goes hand in hand with the worst poverty, affecting the lives, health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.

The terms “landscape” and “landscape approach” have been increasingly applied within the international environmental realm, with many international organizations and nongovernmental organizations using landscapes as an area of focus for addressing multiple objectives, usually related to both environmental and social goals. However, despite a wealth of literature on landscapes and landscape approaches, ideas relating to landscape approaches are diverse and often vague, resulting in ambiguous use of the terms.

This report examines the opportunities for undertaking forest-based climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Particularly, it outlines how these activities could contribute to achieving the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) “Aichi Biodiversity Targets”.

In Armenia, the forestry sector and forest restoration policy development and decision making in natural resources management processes have been shaped as a result of women’s historical every day practices—which are also often drivers of deforestation and degradation—and yet women’s direct participation in these matters is frequently neglected. Forests in Armenia are state property and the management system is top-down, meaning that decisions are made at the government level and passed down through a hierarchy of power.

Drawing on feminist and development literature, this paper suggests several important lessons and considerations for building equitable approaches to REDD+. Specifically, we illustrate the conceptual and practical significance of women’s participation for achieving the goals of REDD+as well as the limits and opportunities for gendering participation in REDD+.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as well as local governments and civil society organizations, have been working to address many of the climate-related issues in the Sanzara community by employing Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) with an integrated Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EBA) approach to maximize community climate resilience.

Licuri is a highly valuable tree species, both to local ecosystems and in traditional cultural uses, with a clear commercial niche. Its productive and sustainable uses are directly linked to ecosystem conservation and women’s empowerment—which is being further developed to great success. Project partners are working together to increase the mechanization of the licuri harvesting and production process, aiming to lessen the time-burden on women and enhance their livelihood potential.

Due to the rapidly growing population in Ethiopia, land is becoming scarce resource. This often results in an increased land use conflicts. Rapid urban expansion, large infrastructure projects in urban as well as in rural areas and an increasing demand for farmland often leads to displacement of the local population. Small holders are expropriated, forced to leave their farms and lose their livelihoods. 

The promotion of commercialized and mechanized agriculture is considered as one possible contribution to the further economic development efforts in Ethiopia. In addition to the traditional farming sector, which is predominantly characterized by smallholders and subsistence farming, large-scale agricultural investments are expected to provide input for the processing industry, bring foreign currency as well as technology transfer to the country.

This training manual is designed to give those responsible for undertaking environmental impact assessments the skills and knowledge to conduct environmental monitoring for large-scale commercial farming. It proposes a variety of tools such as exercises and proactive learning, as well as presents key elements of Environmental Monitoring.

The Social and Environmental Code of Practice (SECoP) for Responsible Commercial Agriculture is designed to help investors in ensuring that their investments are inclusive, sustainable, transparent, and respect human rights. While it focuses on Ethiopia, it will be a useful resource for investors and companies operating in other countries.

This manual illustrates a monitoring scheme for monitoring large-scale agricultural investments. It aims at providing orientation for establishing a monitoring scheme and implementing monitoring activities in the framework of LSAI with the collaboration of the authorities responsible for leasing out land to agricultural investors and supervising related activities. While focused on Ethiopia, it will be a useful resource for other countries too.