Blogs

4th Agriculture and Rural Development Day: Lessons in Sustainable Landscapes and Livelihoods - 18 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro

Do you believe in the importance of investing in an integrated landscape approach that improves agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods, while also addressing threats to forests, water, and biodiversity? Then make plans now to attend Agriculture and Rural Development Day at Rio+20!

The purpose of the 4th Agriculture and Rural Development Day is to ensure that the vision for a sustainable green economy includes clear steps for building a sustainable food system.

The half-day event will give voice to a wide cross section of people working on land, food and sustainability. Learning events will explore concrete cases of success that could translate into a thorough transformation of the global food system.

Additionally you may register to attend an afternoon event on the same day, hosted by CGIAR, a global research partnership of 15 Centers that focus on sustainable development research. Together with Brazilian partner Embrapa, CGIAR will hold an afternoon set of sessions with a focus on Science for a Food Secure Future. More information at http://consortium.cgiar.org

Register Now!

We must look at the whole landscape if we want to achieve climate-smart agriculture. Lini Wollenberg, who leads research on Pro-poor climate change mitigation for the CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) program, explores how a whole-landscape approach can help us ensure that efforts for adaptation and mitigation of climate change in agriculture, can also help meet agricultural production, food security, and sustainable development objectives.

[T]he context of agriculture-forest interactions and social and agroecological capacity for agricultural intensification is a key factor in developing climate smart landscapes. Landscapes afford flexibility in trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation, livelihoods and biodiversity. Understanding these trade-offs will be essential, as will appropriate institutional arrangements for landscape-level management.

Read the full story: Exploring the Evidence: Making Landscapes Climate-Smart via the EcoAgriculture Partners Blog Landscapes for People, Food and Nature

Read more blog posts about climate-smart agriculture

In an editorial published on 6 April, the New York Times endorses the recommendations from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, noting that the report "illustrates the complexity of the problem and makes clear that action must be taken soon to address it." The editorial highlights some of the complex but urgent challenges for food and farming:

These are complex goals that require a new vision of how we farm and how we eat, a vision of how to take better care of this planet’s biological resources and live equitably within our planetary means.

Read the full story on the NYTimes.com: Sustainably Feeding a Changing World

Read more about the Commission and download its report