Interests and expertise

I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Nature-based Solutions Initiative. Here, in collaboration with international research institutions, NGOs and industry, I lead the Flourishing Landscapes Programme and the development of the High Agricultural Reforestation Potential (HARP) Toolkit. HARP will be a set of tools designed to facilitate sustainable agroforestry-based reforestation in tropical agricultural landscapes, with a particular focus on cocoa and coffee producing landscapes at forest frontiers. The Flourishing Landscapes Programme addresses the triple challenge of livelihoods, climate change, and biodiversity loss at tropical forest frontiers, via a new network of scientists and practitioners, to investigate strategies to enhance both biodiversity and the climate resilience.

Background

I have diverse experience in food systems and agriculture across research, private sector and international organisations. After a BSc in Biology (University of Bristol), I gained experience in food sourcing and sustainability with Sainsbury’s Supermarkets in the UK, Costa Rica, Australia and Hong Kong. Seeking to specialise in sustainability issues, I took an MSc in Environmental Technology (Imperial College London) focussing on ecological management. Following this, I worked at the United Nations World Food Programme in Tanzania, where I co-ordinated the on-the-ground establishment of a weather risk transfer mechanism for smallholder maize farmers, as part of the WINnERS project for the Farm to Market Alliance. This led to completing a doctorate in food systems resilience, at the Sustainable Agroecosystems Group of ETH Zurich. Here, I explored ways to enhance the climate resilience of smallholder farmers engaged in cocoa and banana global food value chains, by integrating social and natural science methodologies through a transdisciplinary research approach.