Publications to guide policy making 

Policy and legal enabling conditions for sustainable agriculture: a multilevel comparative approach

Regulations and national laws are key to ensuring the transition to more sustainable agriculture at all levels from local farms to national, regional, and global levels. This report spans international law and policy, regional instruments, and necessary updates to national laws and policies to enable, support, and effectively implement sustainable agriculture programs over the long term. It encompasses key areas such as biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, land use planning, environmental regulations, and farmer support to understand the importance of sustainable agriculture and adopt innovative practices.

Agroecology in Dryland Mosaic Landscapes

Dryland/rangeland mosaics across Africa face drought, degraded cover, and blocked mobility—eroding food, fodder, and stability. Agroecology is a proven, people-centred way to stitch these mosaics into one functioning system: Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), soil-water works, adaptive grazing with mapped corridors/pacts, reseeding/fodder, and diversified agroforestry. Where access is recognised and finance runs 8–10 years, results are consistent: soil and vegetation recover, water and fodder stabilise, conflict drops, and local enterprise—especially for women and youth—grows. 

The policy brief sets out what governments and funders must do now: secure mobility & tenure, finance locally-led bundles at duration, de-risk markets, and report once to GBF-T2, NDCs and LDN.

The technical discussion paper consolidates insights from a bilingual survey of 37 stakeholders from 20 African countries and a mapping of over 40 agroecology-aligned projects across Africa, complemented by high-impact case studies and lessons from the 2025 Kenya desertification preparatory workshop.

Assessing the biodiversity-agriculture nexus

How should the relationship between biodiversity and agriculture be assessed? This report examines how international and European policies address the biodiversity-agriculture nexus, highlighting the need for improved integration and comparability of approaches. The insights will help policy-makers in creating effective policies, farmers in making informed decisions, companies in aligning with sustainability goals, and academics in conducting further research.

Exploring the future of vegetable oils

Globally, vegetable oil crops account for over one-third of all agricultural land and this is forecast to increase. No crop is good or bad in and of itself, and much depends on the contexts, including where and how it is planted, owned, managed, traded and consumed. This report explores what we need to do to improve the environmental, socio- economic, and nutritional outcomes of vegetable oil production.

The Common ground report

The Common ground report shows how achieving greater sustainability closely depends on agriculture, and how the future of farming relies on Nature and biodiversity conservation. Therefore reaching consensus between the worlds of agriculture and conservation is critical. The report concludes that a common ground for mutually beneficial action exists, and makes a series of recommendations which would improve the situation further.

Approaches to sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture needs to consider two inseparable, intertwined societal priorities – preserving the environment and providing safe and healthy food for all.  This report shows that different approaches to sustainable agriculture exist, that they have a number of important commonalities, but also that their diversity is a strength in itself. The challenge is to enable dialogue and create the market or regulatory environment that will help prioritise according to local contexts.

Conserving healthy soils

IUCN Globally, soil biodiversity has been estimated to contribute between US$1.5 and 13 trillion annually to the value of ecosystems services – the goods and services provided by healthy ecosystems, including the provision of food, hydrological services and regulation of climate. Current land degradation, chiefly due to chemical-fuelled, intensive agricultural production, is causing the loss of soil biodiversity, undermining the services provided by healthy soils. IUCN recommends that Governments should put in place policies and legislation, and promote land management practices which restore or preserve soil biodiversity.