The land-use sector serves key environmental and social functions and supports the livelihoods of around a half of the world’s population. Despite its importance, however, the climate regime fails to formulate a coherent vision or set of incentives for mitigation and adaptation from the sector. The negotiation of a future climate treaty that will take effect in 2020 presents a key opportunity to improve the current system and create an integrated accounting and incentive framework for adaptation and mitigation strategies across all land-uses. This report - conducted by Climate Focus together with UNIQUE forestry and land use - analyses the current status of the land-use sector under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, and formulates options for how various incentives and systems could be harmonized under a future climate treaty.

Climate change has already resulted in challenges for Nordic agriculture and the difficulties will continue to increase in the future. It is therefore important to act now to adapt our agriculture to future conditions, especially since the development of new crop varieties takes a long time (8-15 years).

In this report, based on a workshop with the leading researchers and plant breeders in the Nordic region, nine specific recommendations are listed. The recommendations have the main goal to support future food security in the Nordic countries by facilitating the development of new crop varieties adapted to our future needs. Special attention is given to the challenge of adaptation to climate change and high-quality food and feed production.

NordGen is the Nordic Countries' common gene bank and knowledge centre for genetic resources. This brochure collects examples of how the Nordic seed collection is being used and why it's important to preserve a genetic diversity within cultivated plants, farm animals and in forests. 

NordGen är de nordiska ländernas gemensamma genbank och kunskapscenter för genetiska resurser. Denna broschyr samlar exempel på hur den nordiska frösamlingen kommer till nytta och varför det är så viktigt att bevara genetisk mångfald inom våra odlade växter, våra jordbruksdjur och i vår skog. 

The brown bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, is the honey bee subspecies that occurs natively in the Nordic region. In the 20th century, other honey bee subspecies were introduced to this region by beekeepers. Today, the native brown bee is endangered due to displacement and introgression by these other subspecies.The conservation of genetic diversity is imperative for maintaining future adaptive potential. Bees are not only important farm animals due to their honey production, but also due to their pollination services. Roughly a third of the world’s crop production is based on insect-pollinated plant species and honey bees represent an important pollinator.

In 2014, the Nordic Genetic Resource Center published a report on the current status and conservation of the Nordic brown bee. This final report of an international ad-hoc working group, consisting of beekeepers, researchers and members of national beekeeping organizations came to the conclusion that cooperation amongst actors and coordination atthe national and international level in the conservation of the brown bee is of utmost importance. More specifically, consistent characterization of bee populations in the Nordic region to facilitate exchange of breeding material where necessary and development and promotion of brown bee specific management techniques were identified as important conservation measures. The ultimate goal is to have viable populations of brown bees, with characteristics that beekeepers value, in each of the Nordic countries. A priority list of recommended actions for the conservation of the brown bee in the Nordic region was compiled for the first time in 2015 and updated in this second version in 2019.