There is a rapidly growing interest in, and demand for, non-timber forest products (NTFPs). They provide critical resources across the globe fulfilling nutritional, medicinal, financial and cultural needs. However, they have been largely overlooked in mainstream conservation and forestry politics. This volume explains the use and importance of certification and eco-labelling for guaranteeing best management practices of non-timber forest products in the field. Using extensive case studies ...

Hunger is a daily reality for a billion people. More than six decades after the technological discoveries that led to the Green Revolution aimed at ending world hunger, regular food shortages, malnutrition, and poverty still plague vast swaths of the world. And with increasing food prices, climate change, resource inequality, and an ever-increasing global population, the future holds further challenges.In One Billion Hungry, Sir Gordon Conway, one of the world's fo...

The parlous state of our freshwater ecosystems is just one signal that we face a more widespread, and unprecedented, environmental crisis.New Zealand’s dairy industry is big business. But what are the hidden and not so hidden costs of intensive farming? Evidence presented here by ecologist Mike Joy demonstrates that intensive dairy farming has degraded our freshwater rivers, streams and lakes to an alarming degree. This situation, he argues, has arisen primarily through governmental policy...

based largely on information provided in fourteen country reports submitted to FAO as part of the reporting process for the report on The State of the World's Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture.Biodiversity for food and agriculture is the diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms at genetic, species and ecosystem levels, present in and around crop, livestock, forest and aquatic production systems. It is essential to the structure, functions and processes of these systems,...

Introduction to Forestry and Natural Resources presents a broad overview of the profession of forestry. The book details several key fields within forestry, including forest health, economics, policy, utilization, and forestry careers. Chapters deal specifically with forest products and harvesting, recreation, wildlife habitats, tree anatomy and physiology, and ethics. These topics are ideal for undergraduate introductory courses and include numerous examples (mainly graphical) and questio...

Producing food industrially like we do today causes tremendous global economic losses in terms of malnutrition, diseases, and environmental degradation. But because the food industry does not bear those costs and the price tag for these losses does not show up at the grocery store, it is too often ignored by economists and policymakers.The Economics of Sustainable Food details the true cost of food for people and the planet. It illustrates how to transform our broken syste...

This guide is the first on the practical application of FAO's Save and Grow model of agriculture to specific smallholder crops and farming systems. It comes as cassava production intensies worldwide, and growers shift from traditional cultivation practices to monocropping, higher-yielding genotypes, and greater use of agrochemicals. Intensication carries great risks, including soil nutrient depletion and upsurges in pests and diseases.The guide shows how ecosystem-based Save and Grow appro...

This study, prepared within the ambit of The State of the World's Forest Genetic Resources, reviews what is known about the value of trees for tropical rural communities. It focuses on non-timber products harvested from trees in natural and managed forests and woodlands, the various products and services obtained from trees planted or retained in agroforestry systems, and the commercial products of tree commodity crops. The role of intra-specific genetic variation in determining the value ...

When other nations are forced to rethink their agricultural and food security strategies in light of the post-peak oil debate, they only have one living example to draw from: that of Cuba in the 1990s. Based on the first and - up till now - only systematic and empirical study to come out of Cuba on this topic, this book examines how the nation successfully headed off its own food crisis after the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc in the early 1990s.The author identifies the policies a...

Typical development in the American Southwest often resulted in scraping the desert lands of the ancient living landscape, to be replaced with one that is human-made and dependent on a large consumption of energy and natural resources. This transdisciplinary book explores the natural and built environment of this desert region and introduces development tools for shaping its future in a more sustainable way. It offers valuable insights to help promote ecological balance between nature and ...

Its wise and sensitive approach to working with local people will be relevant in situations throughout the world.'ECOS'The numerous diagrams, tables of data, information flow charts, fieldwork sketches etc. give a great vibrancy to the work... It deserves a wide readership.'TEG NewsWild or non-cultivated plants are crucial to the lives of a large portion of the world's population, providing low-cost building materials, fuel, food supplements, medicines, tools ...

Land is the integrating component of all livelihoods depending on farm, forest, rangeland, or water (rivers, lakes, coastal marine) habitats. Due to varying political, social, and economic factors, the heavy use of natural resources to supply a rapidly growing global population and economy has resulted in the unintended mismanagement and degradation of land and ecosystems. Sustainable Land Management provides strategic focus to the implementation of sustainable land management (SLM) component...