September 15, 2017
Blue Waters and Green Mountains: Opening A New Era of Integrated Landscape Management in China
Sara Scherr
EcoAgriculture Partners
Three impressive landscapes demonstrate the triumphs, and challenges, of integrated landscape management in the world’s most populous country. In August I spent several energizing weeks in western China, visiting three landscapes with Professor Li Changxiao of China’s Southwest University, one of the country’s leading experts on landscape restoration and a Fellow of EcoAg ...
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July 28, 2016
Four lessons for private sector engagement from the Sustainable Landscapes Partnership
Simon Badcock
Conservation International
Catherine Rothacker
In North Sumatra, Indonesia, a complex mosaic of land uses, values and challenges, Conservation International (CI) is working with USAID and the Walton Family Foundation on the Sustainable Landscapes Partnership. This article is the second in a series of stories about landscape partnerships that effectively include private sector actors that were showcased at the Business ...
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March 15, 2016
Sandbar cropping in Bangladesh, an innovative technology solution for millions
AZM Nazmul Islam Chowdhury
Practical Action Bangladesh
E.F. Schumacher, an economist who founded Practical Action, wanted to help expand aid programs through technology. Fueled by the idea of developing and promoting appropriate technology to reach a greater segment of the underprivileged population of the world, he published an article in The Observer, on August 29, 1965 titled “How to help them help themselves.” […] ...
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December 11, 2015
Securing Dignity, Sustaining Nature, Part 2
Gaurav Madan
Rights and Resources Initiative
While receiving community titles has kindled a cautious feeling of security among villagers, the politics surrounding protected areas continues to be precarious. Editor’s Note: Read the first part of this series, ‘Securing Dignity, Sustaining Nature’, here It is estimated that communities live in more than two-thirds of India’s protected areas. Since their l ...
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December 10, 2015
Securing Dignity, Sustaining Nature, Part 1
Gaurav Madan
Rights and Resources Initiative
In the Simlipal Tiger Reserve in India, everyday life and culture are deeply intertwined with the surrounding environment, which is reflected in local knowledge of the area’s vegetation and biodiversity. My several-hour journey into the heart of the Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha began in Jashipur, a small but bustling town on the edge of […] ...
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December 4, 2015
Grassroots forest management in Xinqi
Sander van de Moortel
World Agroforestry Centre
Once crippled by rampant deforestation, this Chinese village organized to reinvigorate the landscape, and raise the quality of life, through sustainable forest management. Entering Xinqi (新岐), a small settlement near the Burmese border in southwestern China, is an experience unlike arriving in any other Chinese village. Surrounded by lush green mountains, the village immedi ...
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December 3, 2015
Transboundary landscape management in the Kailash Sacred Landscape
Corinna Wallrapp
Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit
Among the peaks of the Chinese Tibetan Autonomous Region highland lies one of the most venerated sites in the world—Mount Kailash Located in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, this sacred mountain has held a status of utmost importance for many different religious groups for thousands of years. Every year, a […] ...
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October 31, 2015
India’s climate tech revolution is starting in its villages
Lisa Palmer
From solar powered irrigation to handheld crop sensors, climate-smart villages are springing up across Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and other states Editors Note: This story was originally published in The Guardian online on October 12th, 2015. It is reposted here with the permission of the author. Camels pulling wooden carts loaded with coconuts plod down the main road amid [&h ...
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October 24, 2015
Field Diary of Cocoa and Conservation in Bantaeng, Indonesia
Najemia Tahiruddin
Rainforest Alliance
The Sulawesi bear cuscus is a vulnerable animal on the IUCN Red List found in only one part of Indonesia. In the past, farmers viewed cuscuses as pests and would hunt them. However, after receiving training from the Rainforest Alliance, local farmers are now taking action to protect this rare species. Editor’s Note: The following […] ...
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September 12, 2015
Biogas for Cambodian Farmers reduces emissions and inputs of agrochemicals
Jakob Assmann
Polarstern
A German company, a Dutch development organization, and the Cambodian government work with smallholder farmers to turn livestock waste into light and fuel. All around the world, both advocates and opponents of renewable energies are looking at Germany and its Energiewende, German for ‘energy transition.’ Since the late 1990s, the country has embarked on a […] ...
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