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Objectives A sustainable land management that protects the foundation of our life, always puts new developments and trends to the test and brings the various interests into harmony, is a key task for the future. The Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) supports a total of nine Innovation Groups that aim to develop by 2019 future-oriented and practicable solutions for handling…

The notion of arid lands as ‘wastelands’ derives largely from colonial assumptions — assumptions that continue to harm the world’s drylands and impact the lives of millions of people. Our most common conception of deserts and arid lands is that they are ruined wastelands with little value, aberrations that need to be repaired and improved. Up to 70 percent of global arid and semiarid lands are…

Desertification in the Sahel region of Africa is advancing quickly. A novel solution that involves planting thousands of trees may help protect the area’s environment and the livelihoods of locals. Climate change is a huge problem, and it will require an equally large solution – multiple solutions, in fact. In Africa, one such idea involves planting a wall of trees, 8,000km long and 15km…

Accelerating clean energy development is critical—here’s how we do it the right way. We are at the beginning of an enormous global buildout of clean energy infrastructure. This is good news for climate mitigation—we need at least a nine-fold increase in renewable energy production to meet the Paris Agreement goals. But this buildout must be done fast and smart. …

FAO believes that innovation, in general and particularly in agriculture, is the central driving force for achieving a world free from hunger and malnutrition. Innovation is usually perceived as related to technology. In fact, innovation is broader than that. Agricultural innovation is the process whereby individuals or organizations bring new or existing products, processes or ways…

The world's forests act as shields, keeping humans safe from coronaviruses and other diseases. Their destruction can unleash devastating consequences for global public health. Scientists have been repeating the warning for at least two decades: As humans encroach upon forests, their risk of contracting viruses circulating among wild animals increases. That's why Ana Lucia Tourinho…