The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today welcomed the approval of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for four FAO-led projects in eight countries, for a total funding of over $ 13.6 million. The decision was taken at the 61st meeting of the GEF Council, its main governing body, which was held virtually.

The latest projects will address pressing environmental challenges – such as land degradation and soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable fishing and food production – that affect the food security and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands. people around the world.

“Preventing and reversing degradation is particularly important for the transformation of global agrifood systems,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said. “These projects represent an important new effort to protect and improve our resources in order to achieve better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all.”

The latest GEF-approved projects will help countries and communities restore degraded landscapes and seascapes, adopt more sustainable and climate-resilient practices, and foster greater regional cooperation.

Implemented in partnership with and co-funded by the governments of Barbados, Cape Verde, Guyana, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Suriname, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, the projects will directly benefit to more than 135,000 people and will restore more than 4,150 hectares of degraded landscapes. . The overall management of more than 5 million hectares of terrestrial and marine habitats will be improved and 37,000 tonnes of overexploited fish stocks will be moved to more sustainable levels, as part of a key initiative that coincides with the International Year of Small-Scale Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022.

Among the four projects, there is a regional project in the Golok / Kolok River Basin on the border of Thailand and Malaysia which aims to provide water management, flood mitigation and control of water. erosion. The project aims for a source-to-sea approach to better manage the impact of upstream activities on coastal and marine resources.

Initiatives in the Caribbean and Cabo Verde will focus on supporting countries to improve the food security, environment and livelihoods of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which face unique environmental challenges and have also been hard hit economically by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Cabo Verde, efforts will focus on landscape restoration and nature-based solutions to improve food security and nutrition, livelihoods and resilience, in support of land degradation neutrality commitments. land (LDN) of Cabo Verde, in particular meeting the needs of the islands of Santiago and Santo Antão. where vulnerable farmers and their families have been severely affected by the pandemic.

Barbados, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago will work together on a project to reduce overfishing and promote more responsible fishing and marine conservation, while a project in the Marshall Islands aims to restore forests degraded and improve marine management in an effort to transform agrifood systems.

FAO is a partner agency of the GEF, a partnership of 18 agencies and 183 countries tackling the world’s most difficult environmental issues related to biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, chemicals and international waters. The GEF provides grants to countries to address these challenges while contributing to key development goals, such as food security.

Since December 2018, FAO has mobilized over $ 580 million in GEF grants for member countries, including the latest projects, benefiting over 4.6 million people and making FAO one of the top four GEF agencies around the world.