The Agricultural Resilience Impact and Innovation Hub (AGRIIH) aims to generate a transformational shift in the scope of Oxford‘s agricultural research impact, by engaging industry and stakeholders to co- develop novel and industry-relevant research and innovation that transforms our agricultural systems for a sustainable future.
Agriculture is a major cause of biodiversity loss and carbon emissions globally. Oversimplification of the system, reliance on high levels of inputs, and a disconnect from nature and the important services it provides, leaves our food systems inherently vulnerable to environmental and economic shocks.
The University of Oxford is home to world-leading research into all aspects of agriculture from plant science, climate and ecology, to social science, business and economics providing a melting pot for the interdisciplinary collaboration that is needed to generate real solutions and innovation that effectively harness technology, people and nature to transform agricultural systems for the future.
The AGRIIH will stimulate collaborations across disciplines to develop a coordinated multi-dimensional offering that integrates molecular plant science with ecology within a broader food system framing, all informed by business needs and supported with industry funding.
The Flourishing Landscapes Programme (FLP) addresses the triple challenge of livelihoods, climate change, and biodiversity loss at tropical forest frontiers. It will develop novel landscape-scale transdisciplinary research, via a new network of scientists and practitioners, to investigate strategies to both biodiversity and the climate resilience of smallholder farmers. By investigating agroforestry and community-led reforestation as nature-based solutions (NbS), the FLP addresses key knowledge gaps regarding the role of biodiversity in maximising nature’s contributions to people (NCPs) in agricultural landscapes. Building on this, via a human-centred design approach applied in Ghana, Ecuador and Viet Nam in coffee and cocoa production landscapes, the FLP will co-design, with rural communities, a citizen-led biodiversity monitoring toolkit to empower communities to utilise adaptive management to harness NCPs in their production. To showcase the value of the research data sets and citizen-science approaches, we will lead a co-design process with farmers, value chain actors and the insurance industry to explore risk sharing mechanisms that incentivise value chain investments in nature.
Target landscapes
The FLP focuses on landscapes with agricultural land-use dominated, to varying extents by, by coffee or cocoa production. In particular, we will focus on agricultural-forest matrix landscapes in three biodiversity hotspots: 1) Napa Province, Ecuador (the Tropical Andes hotspot), 2) Ashanti Region, Ghana, (Guinean Forests of West Africa) and 3) Central Highlands, Viet Nam (Indo-Burma). These landscapes represent forest-frontier areas where agricultural production, particularly cocoa (Ghana and Ecuador) and coffee cultivation (Viet Nam), intersects with severe fragmentation of natural forests.
Consortium and stakeholders
The Flourishing Landscapes Programme is driven by a novel global consortium of research, civil society and industry collaborators. We are motivated by a shared desire to deliver transformative change in the food system, by enhancing smallholder farmer climate resilience through the scaling of biodiversity’s benefits across topical agricultural landscapes. The consortium was built on the backbone of several longer-term collaborations between the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Tay Nguyen University and PanNature. The FLP brings together a consortium of research (Oxford, KNUST, TNU, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam), finance (WTW), technology (NatureMetrics), NGO (PanNature, WWF) and community (YAKUM).
Funding
The Flourishing Landscapes Programme (FLP) is one of thirteen recipients of the first round of research grants awarded by the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC) – a UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) research and development programme that funds research to unlock the potential of nature to provide climate solutions and improve livelihoods. It is funded by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs working in partnership with DAI Global as the Fund Manager Lead and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as the Strategic Science Lead. Learn more about GCBC and this grant.
Biodiversity and ecosystem function responses to woodland creation
Using data collection across natural gradients and designed experiments, this project explores aboveground processes of forest establishment and interactions with belowground communities and soil properties, providing evidence on outcomes of forest expansion by natural regeneration vs planting.
Working within Trees for Life’s Wild Trees Survey in the Scottish Highlands, we are exploring the dynamics of tree regeneration in remnant native woodland and links to soil communities, soil physical properties and soil chemical properties. This is complemented by forest experiments comparing natural regeneration to tree planting and consequences for carbon sequestration and biodiversity colonisation, co-designed with Highlands Rewilding in Scotland.
Working with The Carbon Community experiment in Wales, we are assessing biodiversity responses to treatments designed to optimise woodland carbon sequestration: forest type (Sitka spruce monoculture vs mixed native broadleaf), soil microbiome inoculation and enhanced weathering.
HARP Project: Facilitating Sustainable Reforestation in Tropical Agricultural Landscapes – The High Agricultural Reforestation Potential (HARP) Toolkit
This project asks how can practitioner and scientific information be better integrated to enhance the sustainability of agroforestry transitions in smallholder production landscapes? Focussing on Ghana and Vietnam, to address this question we use transdisciplinary, human-centred design, remote sensing, on-farm biophysical measurements, socio-economic household surveys, and semi-structured interviews. 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.
Sustain-Cocoa: Sustainable sourcing policies for biodiversity protection, climate mitigation, and improved livelihoods in the cocoa sector
The conversion and degradation of tropical forests have multiple negative socio- environmental impacts. Conversely, their restoration, including enhancing tree cover on already cleared farmland, is a powerful nature-based solution to climate mitigation and adaptation, with potentially large biodiversity and rural livelihood co-benefits. A major driver of forest loss and degradation in the tropics is the production and trade of food commodities and associated land management practices, with cocoa being the leading forest-risk commodity in West Africa. Yet, cocoa production in agroforestry systems harbours the potential to partially restore biodiversity in key hotspots. Acknowledging these challenges and opportunities, ending deforestation and encouraging agroforestry has become a high priority in cocoa supply chains as part of interventions such as the Cocoa and Forests Initiative.
Main objectives
In the proposed research SUSTAIN-COCOA aims to investigate the conditions under which supply chain sustainability initiatives (SSIs) can lead to reduced deforestation and increased shade-tree cover in cocoa production systems and, in turn, a triple-win of increased biodiversity, climate change mitigation, and livelihood resilience. To meet this aim, six sub-objectives are integrated:
Developpe and synthesise datasets of cocoa supply chains, SSI attributes and coverage, and current extent of cocoa agroforestry;
Quantify the impacts of shade-tree cover on farm-level biodiversity, carbon storage, food production, farm and household income, and climate resilience;
Identify the drivers and impacts of SSIs on shade-tree cover, deforestation, and biodiversity in cocoa producing landscapes;
Estimate the potential carbon and biodiversity benefits of shade-tree adoption at regional scales;
Assess the overlap between SSI benefits and company motivations for adoption;
Deliver recommendations for how to improve the design, uptake, and implementation of SSIs in cocoa producing landscapes to promote biodiversity, climate, and livelihood synergies.
Main activities
To achieve these objectives, SUSTAIN-COCOA integrates (agro)-ecological fieldwork in cocoa agroecosystems, household and supply chain interviews, supply chain and land cover mapping, regional modeling, and stakeholder workshops. The cross-scale, interdisciplinary, and transnational approach will provide insights into the on-the-ground impacts of existing SSIs in the cocoa sector and the potential impacts of scaling up SSIs to reduce deforestation and enhance shade-tree cover. Furthermore, the role that agroforestry can play in helping deliver multiple sustainability objectives will be clarified: protecting biodiversity, climate mitigation, and improved farmer livelihoods.
Nature-based solutions for resilient infrastructure systems in Jamaica, Bangladesh and the Maldives
This project investigates the benefits and costs of NbS in enhancing the resilience of infrastructure systems, including water supplies, renewable energy, transport systems and flood protection. It uses geospatial tools to inform the prioritization of NbS and their deployment where they will yield the greatest benefits for infrastructure resilience, biodiversity, livelihoods and carbon sequestration.
Understanding the value and limits of NbS to address climate change and other development challenges in the Philippines
This research provides a country-specific analysis of nature-based solutions (NbS) for addressing societal challenges in the Global South, with a focus on the Philippines. This project examines the potential of NbS to support climate change adaptation, identifying intervention types, outcomes, priorities, and the factors that hinder or enable NbS. A central question guides this work: NbS for what, and for whom?
To understand the potential holistic nature of NbS, this research explores a diverse range of potential adaptation contributions, including social, economic, biodiversity, cultural, resource security outcomes (e.g., food, water, income), as well as health and wellbeing outcomes.
This action-oriented research employs a mixed-methods, combining systematic literature reviews, participatory workshops and knowledge-exchange events. This includes capturing diverse perspectives and comparing academic insights with on-the-ground experiences of NbS in the Philippines.
Impacts & Outputs
In addition to scientific articles, this project prioritises public engagement and accessibility, producing outputs in formats for decision-makers in practice and policy, and media for the public to foster broader awareness.
Ultimately, this project aims to develop a co-created, evidence-based understanding of NbS in the Philippines, to mitigate potential risks of NbS misuse while strengthening national and local adaptation strategies. A key ambition is to lay the foundation for an NbS Philippines platform and Southeast Asian network, enabling collaboration to tackle shared societal environment and development challenges and support thriving, adaptive communities and ecosystems.
Public engagement
Short documentary film on the symbiotic relationship of indigenous peoples and their ancestral landscape in Mindanao, Philippines, at the Mt Kitanglad Range Natural Park protected area. Shown at the NbS in Action film festival at Natural History Museum, Oxford, 2024
Community NbS workshop, Lokal Lab, Tropical Academy, Surigao Del Norte, Philippines, 2024
Outreach activities
Short documentary film on the indigenous peoples who protect the Mt Kitanglad Range Natural Park – In post-production
Community NbS workshop at Tropikal Academy, Lokal Lab – Pending 2023
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) – PENRO Bukidnon, Mt Kitanglad Council of Elders, KIN Philippines, Philippine Parks and Biodiversity, TAYO PH, Lokal Lab, Centre for Sustainability PH, ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, Environmental Change Institute Oxford
Addressing climate vulnerability with nature-based solutions in Bangladesh
Bangladesh, like many lower income countries, is exceptionally vulnerable to increased climate risks, exacerbated by environmental degradation and socio-economic challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature-based solutions could provide cost-effective options to address these challenges but policymakers lack evidence on their effectiveness. To address this, we produced a comprehensive synthesis of evidence on the effectiveness of NbS for addressing climate impacts in Bangladesh, and the outcomes for other sustainable development goals.
Biodiversity outcomes of nature-based solutions for adaptation in the Tropical Andes
South America is one of the most biologically diverse areas of the planet, however, this diversity is threatened hugely by human activity and the changing climate. This project explores the outcomes of Nature-based Solutions for Adaptation upon biodiversity in the Tropical Andean region of South America and works towards building the evidence base of NbS for Adaptation. Using a combination of systematic reviews and on-the-ground fieldwork, this project looks at how species and ecosystems are responding in areas in which NbS have been implemented and assesses local knowledge and opinions upon NbS. The projects’ on-the-ground work is carried out in Tena, Ecuador, a city within the Napo province on the border of the Andes and Amazon.
Methodologies employed include camera traps, bioacoustic microphones for birds and bats, soil litter analysis, atmospheric and soil temperature analysis, and semi-structured interviews. These methods are being combined to develop an in-depth socio-ecological understanding of current efforts in the region and the findings will be used to develop a framework for scaling efforts further afield.
Scaling-up nature-based solutions in the UK
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have huge potential to support climate mitigation, adaptation, nature recovery, food security, rural economy and human wellbeing, but implementation is slow and patchy. Some interventions are poor quality, leading to adverse impacts and undermining legitimacy and social support.
To address this challenge, this 18 month research ‘sprint’ – part of the Agile Initiative at the Oxford Martin School – worked with stakeholders to identify and tackle key cultural, scientific and governance barriers to the implementation of high-quality NbS in the UK.
The outputs are presented in our ‘NbS Knowledge Hub’, a one-stop-shop for NbS practitioners and policy-makers containing:
The ‘Recipe for Engagement’ – a best practice guide for practitioners to engage meaningfully with stakeholders and the public.
An open source software package to help people create opportunity maps for planning nature recovery and NbS at landscape scale for any area in England.
A biodiversity and soil health monitoring tool
A funding finder tool
An interactive library of guidance on planning, implementation and monitoring NbS.
A series of policy and research briefs.
Nature-based solutions to address climate risks in the UK
We are investigating the potential of NbS to support climate change adaptation in the UK. In particular, we recently synthesized evidence on how NbS can address climate impacts, as identified by the third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3), and explored the barriers and enabling factors that influence their wider uptake. The work involved literature reviews, interviews with around 20 NbS practitioners and policymakers, research on case studies from a wide diversity of social and ecological contexts from around the UK, with consideration of the policy context in each of the four UK countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), and a workshop.
Interactive global map of good practice nature-based solutions
To enhance awareness and understanding of NbS, and showcase good practice, we are developing an interactive online global map. The first version, which was launched at COP26, includes 110 cases from over 67 countries and 6 continents. Using the platform, practitioners and policy makers can discover the many different ways communities, businesses, and NGOs are working with nature to deal with the causes and consequences of global change, across a diversity of different rural environments, ecosystems, and socio-economic and governance contexts. They can visit each project to explore what is being done on the ground, who is implementing the work, and what the measurable costs and benefits of the projects are. We are currently adding functionalities to the platform, and will include 100s more projects over the coming months.
Guidelines for sustainable, successful nature-based solutions
We led the development of four guidelines for successful, sustainable NbS in February 2020 by a consortium of 20 UK-based organisations, as a letter to the then incoming President of CoP26, Alok Sharma, to encourage adoption of the guidelines by other Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. In May 2020, the guidelines were adopted by the Together With Nature campaign, a call to corporate leaders to commit to four principles for investing in nature-based solutions.
In order to meet these guidelines, policymakers across the public and private sectors need to set goals and quantitative targets relating to each guideline, and practitioners should monitor progress towards these targets using robust holistic metrics (i.e. those that take carbon, biodiversity and social equity into account), and use adaptive management to improve outcomes. As public and policy interest in NbS grows rapidly, we are promoting these guidelines to encourage their broad adoption by businesses and governments. The goal is to ensure investment in NbS is channelled to the best biodiversity-based and community-led NbS and does not distract from or delay urgent action to decarbonise the economy. If you would like to sign, please get in touch.
Can nature-based solutions deliver a win-win for biodiversity and climate change adaptation?
The potential of NbS to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crises depends on whether they enhance the health of an ecosystem, including its biodiversity, the condition of its soil and water, and its ability to maintain its functions despite environmental change. However, while research has helped to improve our understanding of how nature-based interventions for climate change mitigation affect ecosystem health, we still do not understand the outcomes of interventions aimed at addressing climate change adaptation. To address this, in this project we systematically reviewed the outcomes of 109 nature-based interventions for climate change adaptation for 33 different indicators of ecosystem health.
Exploring the role of nature-based solutions for social-ecological resilience
This project developed a two-part conceptual framework linking social-ecological resilience to adaptation outcomes in NbS. Part one determines the potential of NbS to support resilience based on assessing whether NbS affect key mechanisms known to enable resilience. Examples include social-ecological diversity, connectivity, and inclusive decision-making. Part two includes adaptation outcomes that building social-ecological resilience can sustain, known as nature’s contributions to adaptation (NCAs). We apply the framework to a global dataset of NbS in forests. We find evidence that NbS may be supporting resilience by influencing many enabling mechanisms. NbS also deliver many NCAs such as flood and drought mitigation. However, there is less evidence for some mechanisms and NCAs critical for resilience to long-term uncertainty. We present future research questions to ensure NbS can continue to support people and nature in a changing world.
Role of nature-based solutions for development
This project collated and synthesized evidence on the development outcomes of investments in nature (protection, restoration, management, creation of ecosystem, and nature-based food production). This includes conservation interventions and more recently labelled “nature-based solutions” to societal challenges. The scope of development outcomes considered was broad, ranging from jobs, food security, empowerment, to climate change resilience for local people in poor (low- and lower-middle-income).
Reducing people’s vulnerability to climate change in the rural Global South using Nature-based Solutions
Although evidence for the effectiveness of NbS for adaptation is growing, there is scant information on whether and how NbS reduce vulnerability to climate change in the Global South, despite this region being home to the majority of the world’s most climate-vulnerable people. To address this, we systematically collated 85 case studies of nature-based interventions in rural areas of low and lower-middle income nations across a range of ecosystems and addressing a diversity of impacts of climate change. We assessed the effectiveness of these interventions at reducing social and ecological vulnerability, through three different pathways: reducing exposure and sensitivity, and building adaptive capacity. We then conducted an analysis on the mediating factors of effectiveness of these interventions.
Nature-based solutions for economic recovery in the global south
The aim of this project is to unpack the contribution of NbS to short term economic recovery potential (ERP), and how this relates to long term development gain, while framing these in a policy setting in a way that supports systemic change. In other words we seek to explore the extent to which NbS make economic sense, and how (or not) this contributes to climate, and biodiversity outcomes. The intention is to contribute to policy guidelines around how to integrate NbS into economic recovery packages. As well as conducting a global systematic review of reviews of the ERP of investments in NbS, we are conducting detailed case study work in Peru and Bangladesh.
Mapping the effectiveness of nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation
This systematic evidence mapping exercise consolidated the large dispersed evidence-base on the effectiveness of NbS for addressing climatic impacts. The collated evidence-base underpins the NbS evidence platform. The objectives were to:
Identify existing evidence of the effectiveness of NbS for addressing different climate impacts on people and economic sectors, and catalogue evidence with respect to geography, country income group, climate impact addressed, ecosystem type, and type of intervention.
Elucidate the synergies and/or trade-offs between climate impact reduction and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, ecological, and social outcomes.
Highlight knowledge-gaps to stimulate further research, especially on the extent to which geographical regions, ecosystems, intervention types and climate impacts are understudied.
We are currently updating our platform to include the outcomes of scenario modelling studies, and working with colleagues from the department of statistics to develop AI technological to enable more regular updating of the evidence base.
