Thrive Blog | Water, Land and Ecosystems

Blog Post
April 06, 2018
Systems Thinking Empowers Us
Interview: How do we evaluate food systems while considering the social, human, and environmental dimensions across the value chain?
- Wei Zhang
Blog Post
March 21, 2018
The next great water crisis may be under our feet
As the world marks World Water Day, it is clear we need better groundwater governance to avoid the next big crisis.
- Karen Villholth
World Water Forum and World Water Day
Blog Post
March 21, 2018
Water Crises Are Hitting Our Economies. Time to Hit Back with Natural Infrastructure
We need natural infrastructure - like forests, swamps, aquifers and grasslands - to overcome droughts and floods that have a high economic cost.
Blog Post
March 20, 2018
Water-energy-food weave a tangled web. Here’s how we can navigate it.
As we mark World Water Day on March 22, researchers explore the complexity of sharing water resources across borders, sectors, and issues.
- Jennie Barron
Blog Post
March 20, 2018
It’s time to understand where our water really comes from
It’s time to take a scientific approach to understanding the origin of water resources.
Blog Post
February 28, 2018
Searching for pathways towards equitable and sustainable reservoir management
Bioversity International and partners work closely with local communities in Burkina Faso to tackle the dry season water constraints by supporting community-driven innovations that increase the equity and sustainability of reservoir management.

Big Questions

A debate space featuring perspectives from different sectors. Join the conversation!

Big Question
February 28, 2018
What’s the truth about the role of women in agriculture today?
What do we know about the role of women in agriculture, in different societies across the globe, that can help us design more effective programs for increasing gender equity?
- Liza Debevec
- Marianne Gadeberg
7 responses
Big Question
May 25, 2016
How can the media galvanize more effective responses to social and environmental challenges?
Currently, much of the mainstream media coverage, particularly when it comes to environmental issues limits itself to focusing on political rhetoric and disaster reportage while underlying structural changes taking place due to climate change and other factors, largely go ignored.
- Nitasha Nair
5 responses
Big Question
February 24, 2016
What should we be asking to understand gender dynamics in irrigation?
How many of us want to address gender in our work, but when it comes down to the specifics, aren’t quite sure how? Join the discussion- help us develop a series of collaborative questions to investigate gender in agricultural water management projects.
- Sophie Theis
- Ruth Meinzen-Dick
4 responses
Big Question
November 16, 2015
What would it take to strengthen women's land rights?
The evidence base is growing: strengthening women’s land rights contributes to women’s empowerment and household welfare. But it isn’t that simple - there are always vested interests to protect the status quo along with the additional issues of navigating gender norms. How can we improve women's land tenure? Join the discussion
- Ruth Meinzen-Dick
8 responses
Big Question
August 20, 2015
Sustainable intensification of agriculture: oxymoron or real deal?
The strain on agricultural resources will continue to rise in conjunction with food demand and population growth. Will sustainable intensification be the right answer we're looking for? Is it even feasible? Join the discussion.
- Water Land Ecosystems
6 responses
Big Question
April 21, 2015
Can Africa afford to save its soils?
In celebration of the International Year of Soils, we asked a number of experts: Can poor farmers afford to invest in restoring degraded soils? Read their responses.
- Deborah Bossio
6 responses

Thrive Podcast

Featuring discussions on how people work with water, land and ecosystems to make a sustainable food future. Subscribe on iTunes.

Blog Post
July 18, 2017
Trouble for tapioca: Cassava in Vietnam
Cassava, or Tapioca as it is more popularly known, is a very important staple crop in Vietnam, as well as most of Southeast Asia. This robust crop is facing some serious threats, in the form of pests, depleted soils, and unsustainable farming practices.
- Georgina Smith
Blog Post
March 10, 2016
You, me and the SDGs: the new sustainability agenda
In this episode of Thrive Podcast, filmmaker Doug Varchol asks a few of the over 3,000 attendees of the Global Landscapes Forum (a major parallel event of COP21) what they think about these newly minted SDGs and whether they have begun incorporating them into their work.
- Douglas Varchol
Blog Post
December 22, 2015
Reporting from Paris: Youth solve pressing landscape challenges
One of the highlights of this year's Global Landscapes Forum in Paris was the Dragons Den session, hosted by the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. Eavesdropping from the workshop to the final pitches was Andrew Johnstone.
- Andrew Johnstone
Global Landscapes Forum 2015
Blog Post
November 29, 2015
A social science approach to agricultural dilemmas
Why are many apparently simple, technical solutions to agricultural problems not widely adopted? Why don't people change their behaviour when provided with information that ought to be useful? In this episode of the Thrive podcast, Katherine Snyder from CIAT, shares her views on silver bullet solutions to dilemmas in agricultural development.
- Jeremy Cherfas
Blog Post
November 10, 2015
Water rights re-examined
On this Thrive podcast, we discuss water rights with Tim Williams and Alan Nicol of IWMI. What are the consequences of leaving water out of large-scale land acquisition agreements? And what about another type of human right: the right to water for crops?
- Jeremy Cherfas
Blog Post
October 04, 2015
Preparing for hotter, colder, wetter and drier
Hovering over almost all of the discussions at Stockholm World Water Week was the question of climate change, and one of the few aspects of climate change we can be absolutely certain about is that things are going to become more variable. Claudia Ringler and Jeremy Bird join us on this episode of Thrive Podcast.
- Jeremy Cherfas
Stockholm World Water Week 2015: Water for Development