Anthropogenic climate change has made forest fires bigger, more intense, and more common, but analyzing their causes is often difficult. Using a machine learning approach, the paper published in the journal Science analyzes differences in sensitivity to climate, anthropogenic factors, and vegetation across global forest pyromes and finds that climate change has significantly increased emissions of forest fires in the extratropics.

From October 21 to November 1, 2024, the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be held in Cali, Colombia. The theme of this year's event is "Peace with Nature," and not only governments but also local governments, businesses, women, youth, and the general public, including indigenous peoples, will come together to accelerate actions toward the realization of the 2050 vision of a world in harmony with nature.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is an international day established by the United Nations. As the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a researcher who pointed out the importance of political institutions that determine the difference between prosperous and  poor countries, it is urgent to act together for a just, peaceful, and inclusive society to end social and institutional abuses.

On September 10th and 11th, 2024 (Wed-Thu), we visited five organic farms on the outskirts of Bangkok with four fourth-year students from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chiba University.

According to a report published by the European Union at the end of September, a severe drought is currently affecting large areas of the world. The combination of the strong positive state of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole, as well as climate change, is negatively impacting agricultural productivity across a wide range of regions and raising concerns about an urgent food security crisis. In the face of climate change, crop genetic resource diversity is essential for maintaining the resilience of agriculture. On October 11, we will host a special symposium for Dr. Cary Fowler, winner of the 2024 World Food Prize, for his significant contributions to the conservation of crop genetic resource diversity.

According to the World Bank's blog, domestic food price inflation remains high in many low- and middle-income countries. Factors affecting global food security include the impact of record-breaking high temperatures on commodity crop markets and the surge in trade-related restrictions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The conservation of crop diversity and genetic resources is critical to global food security. JIRCAS will host ‘Symposium with Dr. Cary Fowler, 2024 World Food Prize Laureate‘  next Friday, October 11, 2024,

As climate change accelerates and environmental problems pile up, trends in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries in the Global South, which will continue to drive global food demand due to population growth, are important issues for food security in the world and in Japan. To convey the importance of science, technology, and innovation in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries of the Global South, it is necessary to devise effective communication methods.

Microorganisms such as bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi and protists are essential to life on Earth and the functioning of the biosphere. The paper, published in the journal Cell, discusses the main role of microbes in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and discusses recent advances in microbial research and technology that will facilitate the transition to a sustainable future.