New funding to strengthen food security

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced funding for projects that will strengthen food security in eight countries in Asia and Africa. A total of US$46 million will finance projects that address critical environmental challenges - such as land degradation, biodiversity loss, unsustainable fishing, and climate change. The initiatives will be implemented in partnership with and co-financed by Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Lesotho, Malaysia, Senegal, Thailand, and Vietnam.
FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, said: "It is vital that we take action now to restore the natural systems on land and water that we rely on to achieve better production."
The projects approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) will assist countries and communities in adopting more sustainable and climate-resilient practices. The initiatives also aim to foster regional cooperation and enact more robust policies to conserve biodiversity.
They will directly benefit 441,500 people and restore over 27,000 hectares of degraded landscapes. The projects will also create 30,000 hectares of new protected areas on land and sea and improve over 765,000 hectares of landscapes and four million hectares of marine habitats. (Image from Unsplash)