Honeybees (Apis mellifera), wild bees, and other pollinators can be adversely affected by pesticides as well as other stressors, with potentially large economic and ecological consequences. Legislation is one possible tool which can be used to support actions to protect pollinators from pesticides. Several documents have been published at the...

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a proven cost-effective approach to address interlinked societal challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change. Though there is still insufficient funding for it with little funding flowing to local implementors including local communities, indigenous people, local NGOs and governments. This collection explores four distinctive but complementary finance...

Traditional mountain landscapes governed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) conserve unique wildlife and agrobiodiversity, and strongly support climate change adaptation and mitigation by protecting ecosystem services, including grasslands that store almost 50% more carbon than forests. But mountain biodiversity and the Indigenous and traditional peoples that sustain it are...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has signed an agreement with the Chinese Government officially launching Phase III of the FAO-China South-South Cooperation (SSC) Programme. The General Agreement was signed by the Director-General of FAO, QU Dongyu and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the...

Three sites in China - an ancient tea-producing area, a nomadic livestock-rearing region and a rain-fed stone terrace farming system - were formally recognised  as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), for their unique ways of using traditional practices and knowledge while maintaining unique biodiversity and ecosystems. The sites were designated during...

Shexian dryland stone terraced system is a rain-fed agricultural system in the mountains, developed by the local ancestors through adapting to and transforming the harsh natural environment and inherited from generation to generation. The dryland terrace system has outstanding soil and water conservation abilities. This practice explains the process of...

The following practice describes the STB model, its functions, major elements, how it works, stakeholders involved, training required, costs and outcomes, and challenges and limitations to adoption and scaling. It includes summary information on some case studies to highlight the success of this practice applied elsewhere. China's agriculture sector is characterized...

Beekeeping with Apis cerana using traditional log hives often leads to the destruction of the colony during honey harvesting because the combs are destroyed in the harvesting process and bees cannot survive. The introduction of a wooden cross in the middle of the traditional log hive can solve this problem. This practice...

This publication presents a collection of case studies by Mountain Partnership (MP) members from around the world, highlighting experiences of agroecological mountain farming systems. It aims to increase attention toward agroecological principles and approaches and showcase their potential. The MP, the only United Nations global voluntary alliance dedicated to sustainable...

China's agroecological and organic farming sector is developing rapidly as increasing numbers of consumers have the economic means to consider their food's safety and health. The market potential is vast, but many challenges remain: educating the consumer and building trust, supporting new entrants, recovering damaged ecosystems, and creating viable market...

The paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the changes witnessed in the forest sector in China during the last three decades and the key drivers that have contributed to the country’s forest transition. Clearly, such a transition is an outcome of the convergence of several factors, including the emergence of...

The sustainable development of cooperatives is essential to agricultural sustainability and is determined mainly by cooperation longevity. The risk sharing and benefit distribution mechanisms are important governance arrangements that affect cooperation longevity in member-heterogeneous cooperatives. However, the relationship between cooperatives’ risk sharing and benefit distribution arrangements and cooperation longevity is...

Cuando las asociaciones locales de campesinos son debidamente capacitadas y empoderadas, pueden desempeñar un papel fundamental en la gestión de riesgos. En el 2007, la Ley Nacional de Cooperativas de Campesinos fue adoptada en China, estableciendo un marco institucional sólido para el desarrollo de cooperativas agropecuarias a nivel local. Sin...

The Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for about 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, but can also be an important part of the solution to climate change, through adaptation and mitigation efforts.  As part of its Strategy on Climate Change, FAO is developing the low...

China has made tremendous strides in improving food security for its population, but in certain areas, this has come at the expense of the environment. Faced with the absence of a cost-effective carbon accounting methodology, FAO together with the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Science, the World Agroforestry Center and the...

In recent years, the interests on the social world and the physical world of indigenous peoples have been on the increase, resulting in a gradual growth of literature on indigenous or tribal peoples of the world. Such works have provided an understanding on the situation of indigenous peoples. However, more...

Growing concerns relating to land degradation, threats to eco-systems from over and inappropriate use of inorganic fertilizers, atmospheric pollution, soil health, soil biodiversity and sanitation have rekindled the global interest in organic recycling practices, like composting. The potential of composting to turn on-farm waste materials into a farm resource makes...

In ‘The Fate of Food’, Amanda Little (professor of journalism and science writing at Vanderbilt University) takes us on a strange journey to the cutting edge of agricultural research. Little has an astonishing knack for getting quality face time with some of the most innovative (and busy) people in the...

Le labour constitue la principale opération dans l'agriculture conventionnelle. La charrue, l'équipement le plus usité pour réaliser cette opération, est devenue un symbole de l'agriculture. Dans le passé, le labour était considéré comme le gage de l'amélioration de la fertilité des sols, en raison de la minéralisation des éléments nutritifs...

Lack of assessment methodology for culture-based fisheries has been identified as a major problem in the development of fisheries. The optimal stocking density, size at harvesting and fishing mortality are interrelated. Over-fishing is equivalent to under-stocking, and overstocking is equivalent to under-fishing. This model of quantitative population dynamics for culture-based...