Nature nurture: how to keep agrobiodiverse forest and farm systems alive in the modern world

Agrobiodiversity (or agricultural biodiversity) underpins food security, nutritional health, livelihood resilience, ecosystem functioning and the capacity of food systems to respond to environmental change. Yet globally, agrobiodiversity is declining at an alarming rate.

Understanding how collective organisations help sustain agrobiodiverse production systems under pressure, and the challenges that they face, is central to efforts to nurture nature while supporting viable rural livelihoods.

The purpose of this report is to strengthen evidence and understanding of this role by identifying the practices and principles that collective organisations use to maintain and adapt agrobiodiverse production systems.

The report draws on three case studies from Indonesia, the Philippines and Tanzania that examine how collective organisations support smallholder farmers and Indigenous Peoples to sustain agrobiodiversity in different social, ecological and political contexts.