Key Issues

Forestry

An estimated 1.2 billion of the world’s most poor are dependent on forests for livelihoods or income. Yet they are often excluded from decisions and processes around forests that affect their lives.

Through our research and advocacy work, we aim to help communities gain control over their local forest resources. We work on issues of governance, enterprise, climate change and energy in relation to forests. Our current projects include:

• Forest Connect: linking small and medium forest enterprises to markets and services

• Forest Governance Learning Group

• South-South REDD: A Brazil-Mozambique Initiative

Empowerment and Land Rights

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, land is a fundamental asset for economic development, food security and poverty reduction. Secure land rights enable rural people to ensure their livelihoods.

Related to land rights we work on issues of policy/legal reform, security of tenure, gender and alliances that enable peer-learning and effective policy advocacy. Our current projects include:

• Pastoral livelihoods and climate change
• Strengthening pastoral civil society in Senegal
• Legal empowerment for secure resource access

Food and Agriculture

The knowledge and needs of rural communities - and of poor, marginalised food providers and food workers - are largely absent from international debate on food systems. In our work on food and agriculture our primary aim is to help agricultural communities gain/maintain control of their own resources.

We will achieve this by pushing for policy reform to allow all people the right to food, and by supporting equal property rights and the role of local organisations. We will also seek to build food systems that are resilient to the growing risks of climate change and water crises. The strengthening of citizens' voices in the design and oversight of policies and regulations for food and agriculture is key to all of this.

Our current projects include:

• Sustaining local food systems, agricultural biodiversity and livelihoods
• Opportunities for farm seed conservation, breeding and production
• Strengthening local voices in the governance of food systems, land use and the environment

Water and Ecosystems

Freshwater ecosystem services – the benefits obtained by people from rivers, swamps, floodplains and groundwater systems – are central to human well-being. But these ecosystems are being degraded, water problems are increasing, and the poor are being hit hardest.

We aim to redress these problems by promoting well goverened water services with equal allocation and shared gains. We are working in particular, on issues of irrigation and agricultural water use, benefits and externalities, and resilience to climate change.

Our current projects include:

• Global water initiative
• Developing markets for watershed services
• Water ecosystem services and poverty reduction under climate change

Biodiversity and Conservation

Many of the world’s most biodiverse areas are found in developing countries with high levels of poverty.

Our work on biodiversity and conservation aims to establish and highlight the multiple values that biodiversity can provide in these countries and the rest of the world. We work on issues of conservation, mainstreaming, ecosystem resiliance and sustainable use. Our current projects include:

• Poverty and Conservation learning group
• Protecting community rights to traditional knowledge
• Policy that works for biodiversity and poverty reduction

The United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. It’s a key reminder of how fundamental biodiversity is to the health of planetary systems as well as human prosperity and wellbeing — and a chance for all of us to learn more. See summary of biodiversity work and 2010 events calendar.