Montenegro, rich in forest resources, faces increasing climate-related challenges such as droughts, floods, and forest fires. The country has demonstrated its commitment to climate action through its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) (2025), targeting a total of 55 percent reduction in national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 from all sectors including the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU). Despite the recognition of its importance in terms of vulnerability and contribution to emissions, data information gaps continue to exist, limiting the ability to design and implement targeted actions, specifically also for AFOLU sectors.

A group of municipality representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia visited Mafra, a Portuguese municipality, last week to learn more from its example on localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mafra has shown a strong commitment in overall SDG implementation at the municipal level and in the development of a Voluntary Local Review (VLR), the internationally accepted process to review the implementation of SDGs at sub-national level.

Stakeholders from across Turkmenistan gathered in Ashgabat on 17 April 2025 for a consultation focused on accelerating the country's access to climate finance by identifying crucial climate-resilient technologies and boosting private-sector engagement in climate action. The consultation was part of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness project Improving the Capacity of Turkmenistan to Access Climate Finance through Capacity Building and Strategic Frameworks.

Strong, sustainable forest governance, underpinned by technical data, digital technologies, and institutional capacity are the necessary foundation to ensure the economic benefits of the forest sector to rural livelihoods and to mitigate climate change impacts. As part of the European Union and Sweden-funded programme to support sustainable and multipurpose forest management, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conducted a targeted training to enhance the capacities of Kosovan officials for assessing and monitoring the economic aspects of the forestry sector. 

Mountain regions especially in the world’s developing countries face growing pressure from climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation, yet mountain communities have great potential for climate-resilient development and work to upgrade mountain products sectors such as organic food, textiles and tourism services is already paying off, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said here today.   

Today is Earth Day, a time to reflect on and to take local actions to safeguard the land and the environments that sustain all life. We each play a part and all efforts for sustainability are worthwhile. In Adaköy, a village in the Yeniçağa district of Bolu, Kamil Yıldız farms in the quiet embrace of nature. Kamil leases idle fields in the village, cultivating a total of 300 decares of land. To sustain the family farm, he grows wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, forage peas and silage maize. Most of these crops are used as animal feed, except for wheat, which he sells.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is supporting Turkmenistan’s efforts in enhancing these two priority areas, within the framework of two projects, implemented with the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), “Strengthening technological innovation and research capacities for sustainable and climate-resilient cotton production” and “Support for the improvement of pest management capacities for cereal crops”. The implementation of the project started after FAO successfully held a joint inception workshop for the two projects in March, in Ashgabat, bringing together key actors to take initial steps in the work of the projects.

Inland capture fisheries play a vital role in supporting households, economies and cultures across Europe, through both commercial and recreational fishing. According to capture and landing statistics reported to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the total production from inland capture fisheries in Europe reached 167 187 tonnes in 2021, accounting for 1.5 percent of total global production, making this sector highly important for the region. Yet, climate change poses several challenges to the survival of fish species across Europe. It creates significant and often unpredictable impacts on inland fisheries, and it can be an exacerbating factor for other stressors. Foreseeably, this will lead to shifts in freshwater habitats which are mainly expected to be unfavourable for inland fisheries.

In the Khatlon region of Tajikistan, farming of cotton, wheat and other crops has long been the backbone of rural livelihoods. Safarmad Gadoev, a farmer from the city of Kulob, was one of many who relied on the production of these crops to support his family. But the challenges of cotton and wheat farming—rising production costs, fluctuating market prices, water scarcity, and the impacts of climate change—made it difficult for him to earn a stable income. 

A project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2022, addressing land degradation neutrality (LDN) issues, is progressing to foster a coherent policy environment and track progress towards achieving the national LDN targets. Land abandonment in the last 25 years has adversely affected 1.2 million rural people.