All publications and documents

Floods and drought Heavy rain and extensive flooding occurred over large parts of Africa and Asia in 2020. Heavy rain and flooding affected much of the Sahel and the Greater Horn of Africa, triggering a desert locust outbreak. The Indian subcontinent and neighbouring areas, China, the Republic of Korea and Japan, and parts of South-East Asia also received abnormally high rainfall at…

People and the planet are only as healthy as the ecosystems we all depend on. Bringing degraded ecosystems back to life – for example by planting trees, cleaning up riverbanks, or simply giving nature space to recover – increases their benefits to society and biodiversity. Without reviving ecosystems, we cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals or the Paris Climate Agreement. But…

While climate change, around which there is more awareness, is driven by several lifestyles domains (primarily food, mobility and energy), this desktop research reveals that biodiversity loss is driven by food production and consumption, and more specifically by (red) meat consumption for terrestrial biodiversity loss and by fishing for marine biodiversity loss. Though how much and what stuff you…

Growth in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to remain at 3.2 percent in 2019 and rise to 3.6 percent in 2020. The expected Despite turning out better than expected, growth in 2020 is estimated to be the worst on record, at –1.9 percent, leading to a large increase in poverty. In 2021, the region’s economy is expected to resume expansion at 3.4 percent, weaker than the 6 percent for…

The Global Forest Goals Report 2021 is the first evaluation of where the world stands in implementing the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2030, providing a snapshot of actions being taken for forests, while stressing that it is necessary to meet the 2030 deadline in the Plan. The report finds that while the world had been making progress in key areas such as increasing global forest…

Leveraging LDN Commitments to Boost Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. The greatest prospects for reversing land degradation, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss lie in transforming how we use and manage human, financial and natural capital to produce, distribute, and consume food. The UN Secretary-General’s Food Systems Summit 2021 offers a timely …