Sustainability Dialogues by SAN Nancy De Lemos

Human actions have significantly altered three-quarters of the land-based environment. More than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production. Nevertheless, land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the global land surface, and up to US$577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss.

With this not-so-promising picture, we must ask ourselves a vital question, Why should we invest more in ecological infrastructure?

For answering this question, we talk with Jordi Domingo from Fundación Global Nature. 

Women constitute 38% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries.  But many women have remained "invisible workers."

In India, agriculture continues to absorb and employ female work force but fails to recognize employed/hired labour.  85% of rural women are engaged in agriculture, yet only about 13% own land. Indian women comprise 33% of the agricultural labour force and 48% of the self-employed farmers.

In this episode, we talk with ASK India, the SAN member in this country, about the feminization of agriculture and how to empower women and close the gender gap. 

In 2019, Colombia -one of the richest biodiversity countries on the planet-lost 158,894 hectares of forest due to deforestation. 62% of the forest loss was concentrated in the Amazon.

Understanding deforestation in Colombia is vital to design effective strategies that allow its reduction and control. To help us understand the origins, dimensions, and elements involved in this problem, we spoke with Clara Solano, executive director of Fundación Natura Colombia, the SAN member in this country. (audio in Spanish)

We spoke with Paul Matiku, Executive Director of Nature Kenya (the SAN member in that country) about land-use conflicts and the pressure from economic activities among protected areas, as well as the role of local communities in conserving biodiversity, and the equity in cost and share of benefits of biodiversity protected areas.