December 2008: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has released a discussion paper entitled “Climate Variability and Maize Yield in South Africa: Results from GME and MELE Methods.” The paper investigates the impact of climate variability on maize yield in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa using the Generalized Maximum Entropy (GME) estimator and Maximum Entropy Leuven Estimator (MELE).
13 January 2009: The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), will produce a detailed digital soil map of 42 sub-Saharan countries. The project, named the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS), will provide information necessary to overcome soil depletion and improve crop production through better soil management.
17 December 2008: During the ministerial conference “Water for Agriculture and Energy in Africa: the Challenges of Climate Change,” held from 15-17 December 2008, in Sirte, Libya, ministers from 53 African countries adopted the Sirte Declaration, in which they pledge to promote water development throughout the continent to fully exploit Africa's agricultural and hydroenergy potential.
December 2008: The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) presented a submission, titled Use of biochar (charcoal) to replenish soil carbon pools, restore soil fertility and sequester carbon dioxide, to the fourth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA4), which convened in Poznań, Poland, from 1-10 December 2008.
3 December 2008: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with the UN/OCHA Integrated Resource Information Network (IRIN), has launched a film series titled “Gathering Storm - The humanitarian impact of climate change.”
10 December 2008: The 14th Senior Officials Meeting of the Environment Management Group (EMG) convened on 10 December 2008, in Poznań, Poland. Participants discussed: implementation of the 2007 commitment by the Chief Executives Board on moving towards a climate-neutral UN, including the development of a Climate Neutral Knowledge Management website that will document individual agency's greenhouse gas emissions and reductions; the cost implications and budgetary modalities of purchasing carbon offsets; and future EMG work, including a possible strategic process and the strategy for implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the 2010 biodiversity targets.
4 December 2008: Farmers and forest users should become more strongly involved in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to unlock the potential of agriculture and forestry for climate change mitigation, said Alexander Müller, Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in Rome, Italy.
December 2008: The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has invited comments on a draft report it commissioned entitled “Policies for fighting water scarcity and combating desertification.”
25 November 2008: According to research conducted by CarboAfrica, an international research consortium of 15 institutions from Africa and Europe that includes the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Africa could be absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits.
22 November 2008: The 35th Special Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference, which convened from 18-22 November 2008, in Rome, Italy, has adopted a three-year Immediate Plan of Action (IPA), which will implement an agenda for “reform with growth” as recommended by an independent external evaluation completed last year.
| Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) |
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| Conference Reporting Services (CRS) |
