Library

This analytical report focuses on corruption risks involved with adaptation and REDD+. On adaptation, the report outlines three corruption risk areas: State capture and abuse of discretion; bribery, clientelism and cronyism leading to poorly designed programmes; and petty corruption in programme delivery. For REDD+, the authors highlight: powerful individuals or lobby groups influencing the design of national REDD+ frameworks; petty corruption, political corruption and grand corruption in the implementation phase resulting in fraudulent documentation and disregarding breaches of REDD+ laws; and corruption affecting the distribution of REDD+ revenues. Recommendations to reduce these risks are also included.

This policy document includes the UN-REDD Programme five-year strategy for 2011-2015.  This strategy provides a road map for increased support to UN-REDD partner countries for activities related to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, including conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+). It defines six key work areas for Programme support:  measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) and monitoring; national REDD+ governance; stakeholder engagement; multiple benefits of forests and REDD+; management of REDD+ payments; and REDD+ as a catalyst for transformations to a green economy.

This ILO background note expands on and complements the report “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication” (UNEP, 2011). The ILO was closely involved in the preparation of this report and its major inputs have been collected in this note. In particular, it articulates the social dimension of a transition towards a green and sustainable economy. It emphasizes the need for skilled workers, qualified employers and informed and engaged labour market institutions and the importance of social dialogue as an essential tool for successful transformation.

This analytical report provides a preliminary framework for strengthening development institutions and programs in their capacity to address the communication dimension of the new challenges related to climate change and food security. It calls for the systematic design and use of participatory communication processes, strategies and community-media to share information and knowledge among relevant stakeholder, in a particular agro-ecological context, in order to encourage attitudes and practices that increase people’s resiliency and offer livelihood options to cope with climate change.

This analytical report provides an overview of the impact of climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa and discusses its implications for the agricultural sector. Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity. Nonetheless, African farmers are well poised to adopt ecological agriculture, given that many of these sustainable practices are already in place and contributing to food production. Ecological agriculture is also an option that is easily accessible for Africa, where many farmers cannot afford expensive chemical inputs.

This document consists of an interactive map showing the typology of climate change impacts and response options for agricultural water management in selected agricultural systems around the world.

This document introduces the Organic Research Centre Alliance (ORCA). This uses a broad approach designed to promote farmers’ participation. Organic-based research focuses on diversity and mutual help, thus ensuring that producers can better manage risks and uncertainties posed by climate change and restricted economic conditions.

This technical document presents and discusses the EX-ACT analysis performed on two World Bank-supported projects in Brazil. The projected estimates of the impact of project activities on green house gas emissions and carbon sequestration demonstrate the additional environmental benefits achieved through protecting forested areas, enhancing production systems and expanding agro-forestry and perennial systems. The study demonstrated possible synergies between mitigation and rural development goals while the EX-ACT sensitivity analysis has indicated that projected results will be intermediate between “pessimistic” and “optimistic” scenarios.

This policy document aims to support the process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in response to the need for concerted action on fisheries, aquaculture and climate change. It lays the groundwork for a coordinated response from the fisheries and aquaculture sector to climate change, notably through a strategic approach to maintain or enhance the health and resilience of global oceans and waters, and strengthening the capacity of dependent people and communities, integrating these closely into broader development strategies.

This policy document highlights various key issues to ensure that decision-makers and negotiators understand  climate change and its impacts. It also aims to make them aware of the opportunities for adaptation and mitigation in aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture and to present how to integrate them in international, national and local responses to climate change.

This technical document provides guidance on how to formulate new baseline and monitoring methodologies for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Afforestation and Reforestation (A/R) projects. The analysis puts together lessons learned from baseline and monitoring methodologies which were submitted for approval so far and helps project developers to avoid mistakes made in those earlier methodologies.

This technical document stresses the necessity for developing countries to define “forest” before they can host afforestation and reforestation projects under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. To do so, they must chose country-specific values from a range provided in the Marrakech Accords for minimum area, crown cover and tree height. The paper also discusses ambiguities and problems of the existing definitions.

This technical document provides background on definitional issues related to reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries. It analyses existing definitions for forest, deforestation and forest degradation and other forest-related terms and the issues related to their use in the context of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol. The paper concludes that, in order to facilitate efficient negotiations and implementation, as well as streamlined future reporting, Parties to UNFCCC might consider, ex ante, a comprehensive set of definitions for the negotiations on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries.

This activity report discusses the linkage between traditional knowledge, sustainability, food security and climate change. Traditional farming, fishing, pastoralism/herding, foraging and forestry are based on long established knowledge and practices that help to ensure food and agricultural diversity, valuable landscape and seascape features, livelihoods and food security. In addition, the report presents FAO projects that support the use of traditional knowledge to promote rural development, gender equity, conservation of biocultural diversity, and sustainable management of agro-ecosystems, among others.

The FAO Glossary on Climate Change and Bioenergy contains 212 concepts and definitions, where appropriate, which have been selected from FAO and international documents and publications on climate change, as well as from the proceedings of meetings of experts discussing climate change, bioenergy and food security issues.

This manual is designed to help educate children and young people about climate change and food security while encouraging them to take action against global warming, environmental degradation and hunger in the world. It includes activities to reduce environmental foodprints and to learn how to make better consumer choices. Also available in Italian.

This video presents the environmental and climatic risks caused by forest degradation and deforestation. It also introduces the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) and its activities to preserve forests and their ability to store carbon.

This video introduces the  United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD), a collaborative initiative implemented by three United Nations agencies – FAO, UNDP and UNEP – with the aim to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

This policy document summarizes the main findings of five workshops organized between 2006 and 2008 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) to promote multi-sectoral dialogue between countries on improving forest law compliance. It also highlights the lesson learned from experiences on the ground. In addition, the document sets out elements for an approach to forest law compliance and governance that benefits climate change mitigation.

This video highlights that continuing deforestation and forest degradation account for almost one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions more than the entire global transport sector. It explains how society can combat climate change by conserving and managing existing forests, by tackling causes of deforestation and by planting new forests. It stresses the use of wood as a renewable energy source and as a raw material, pointing out that wood products store carbon for their entire lifetime, until they decay or are burned.