Nature-based solutions in agriculture: Sustainable management and conservation of land, water and biodiversity

Nature-based solutions in agriculture: Sustainable management and conservation of land, water and biodiversity

Author: Miralles-Wilhelm, F.

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2021-02-03

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 9251339074

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In recent years, considerable progress has been made in the area of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that improve ecosystem functions of environments and landscapes affected by agricultural practices and land degradation, while enhancing livelihoods and other social and cultural functions. This has opened up a portfolio of NbS options that offer a pragmatic way forward for simultaneously addressing conservation, climate and socioeconomic objectives while maintaining healthy and productive agricultural systems. NbS can mimic natural processes and build on land restoration and operational water-land management concepts that aim to simultaneously improve vegetation and water availability and quality, and raise agricultural productivity. NbS can involve conserving or rehabilitating natural ecosystems and/or the enhancement or the creation of natural processes in modified or artificial ecosystems. In agricultural landscapes, NbS can be applied for soil health, soil moisture, carbon mitigation (through soil and forestry), downstream water quality protections, biodiversity benefits as well as agricultural production and supply chains to achieve net-zero environmental impacts while achieving food and water security, and meet climate goals.


Tropical dry forests

Tropical dry forests

Author: Reuben Blackie

Publisher: CIFOR

Published: 2014-08-01

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13:

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This discussion paper assesses the state of knowledge on tropical dry forests as it relates to CIFOR’s strategy and identifies research opportunities that align with CIFOR’s strategic goals. Over the past two decades, CIFOR has accumulated a substantial body of work on dry forests, with a particular focus on African dry forests. This paper is intended to build on that work, by gathering wider research from around the world, as CIFOR seeks to widen the geographic scope of its research on dry forests. The present assessment explores five themes: climate change mitigation and adaptation; food security and livelihoods; demand for energy; sustainable management of dry forests; and policies and institutional support for sustainable management. These themes emerged as priority areas during discussions on dry forest research priorities held at CIFOR’s Dry Forests Symposium in South Africa in 2011. Research on these themes should be considered a priority, given the importance of dry forests to people and ecosystems around the world and the threats posed to them.


Sustainable Intensification

Sustainable Intensification

Author: Jules N. Pretty

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-06-25

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1136529276

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Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.


OECD Green Growth Studies Farm Management Practices to Foster Green Growth

OECD Green Growth Studies Farm Management Practices to Foster Green Growth

Author: OECD

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2016-02-23

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9264238654

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This report looks at farm management practices with green growth potential, from farmer-led innovations (such as those directly linked to soil and water, Integrated Pest Management, organic farming) to science-led technologies (such as biotechnology and precision agriculture).


Social Innovation and Sustainability Transition

Social Innovation and Sustainability Transition

Author: Geoff Desa

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-12-11

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 3031185609

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This book uses a historical and modern lens to reimagine the role that Extension could potentially play in catalyzing reciprocal, co-learning relationships between Land-Grant Universities and their diverse local constituencies. The establishment of statewide extension systems was once seen as a way to ensure that Land-Grant Universities would be accessible and responsive to all of a state’s residents. Extension systems continue to offer a front-door to a major public university in almost every county of the United States, but they tend to be viewed primarily as a way to translate science or distribute information from the university to the public. This books argues for the importance of Extension and shows that we are conceiving of this system too narrowly. Only by retelling the stories of the Extension and getting people to see themselves as part of the story can we imagine a different future in which state universities and land-grant colleges engage more authentically and equitably in two-way relationships with their local constituents.in catalyzing reciprocal, co-learning relationships between Land-Grant Universities and their diverse local constituencies. Chapter “Palatable disruption: the politics of plant milk", chapter “Feeding the melting pot: inclusive strategies for the multi-ethnic city", chapter "A carrot isn't a carrot isn't a carrot: tracing value in alternative practices of food exchange", chapter “Virtualizing the 'good life': reworking narratives of agrarianism and the rural idyll in a computer game" and chapter "'Workable utopias' for social change through inclusion and empowerment? Community supported agriculture (CSA) in Wales as social innovation" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license via link.springer.com.


Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021

Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021

Author: Osvaldo Gervasi

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-09-10

Total Pages: 748

ISBN-13: 3030870073

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​​The ten-volume set LNCS 12949 – 12958 constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2021, which was held in Cagliari, Italy, during September 13 – 16, 2021. The event was organized in a hybrid mode due to the Covid-19 pandemic.The 466 full and 18 short papers presented in these books were carefully reviewed and selected from 1588 submissions. Part VII of the set includes the proceedings of the following workshops: ​​International Workshop on Geomatics for Resource Monitoring and Management (GRMM 2021); International Workshop on Geomatics in Agriculture and Forestry: new advances and perspectives (Geo-for-Agr 2021); 12th International Symposium on Software Quality (SQ 2021);10th International Workshop on Collective, Massive and Evolutionary Systems (IWCES 2021); International Workshop on Land Use monitoring for Sustainability (LUMS 2021); International Workshop on Machine Learning for Space and Earth Observation Data (MALSEOD 2021); International Workshop on Building multi-dimensional models for assessing complex environmental systems (MES 2021); International Workshop on Ecosystem Services: nature's contribution to people in practice. Assessment frameworks, models, mapping, andimplications (NC2P 2021).


Forest Products Annual Market Review 2018-2019

Forest Products Annual Market Review 2018-2019

Author: UNECE & FAO

Publisher: UN Geneva Publishing

Published: 2019-11-04

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9210045149

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Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 will, to a great degree, depend on implementing a “circular economy”. In the forest sector, this relates to how we manage forests and use forest products. The Forest Products Annual Market Review covers recent trends, policies and market intelligence on forest products along with production, consumption and trade statistics for the UNECE region; all of which are critical to the role of forests in creating a more circular economy.


Agroecosystem Diversity

Agroecosystem Diversity

Author: Gilles Lemaire

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2018-10-08

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0128110511

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Agro-Ecosystem Diversity: Impact on Food Security and Environmental Quality presents cutting-edge exploration of developing novel farming systems and introduces landscape ecology to agronomy. It encompasses the broad range of links between agricultural development and ecological impact and how to limit the potential negative results. Presented in seven sections, each focusing on a specific challenge to sustaining diversity, the book provides insights toward the argument that by re-introducing diversity, it should be possible to maintain a high level of productivity of agro-ecosystems while also maintaining and/or restoring a satisfactory level of environment quality and biodiversity. - Demonstrates that diversified agro-ecosystems can be intensified with environmental quality preserved, restored and enhanced - Includes analysis of economic constraints leading to specialization of farms and regions and the social locking forces resisting to diversification of agro-ecosystems - Presents a global vision of world agriculture and the tradeoff between a necessary increase in food production and restoring environment quality