Exploring the Evidence

This series provides insights and updates on research related to whole landscape approaches and agricultural development that addresses rural livelihoods, food production, and environmental sustainability. It also showcases findings from the Landscape Initiative’s Global Review as they are produced. The posts in this section are written by researchers and serve to keep the blog audience current not only on the evidence base being created by the Global Review, but also highlights research of the Co-Organizers and others that is relevant to the objectives of the Initiative.

Watershed Wars: Avoiding Water Rights Conflict between Smallholders and Agri-Industries

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Blog Editor

By Delia C. Catacutan, Senior Social Scientist, World Agroforestry Centre, Hanoi, Vietnam Dr. Catacutan currently leads research related to governance and natural resources management processes, including policy and institutional analyses in relation to payments for ecosystem services, in the Southeast … Continue reading →

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Landscape Approaches in Managing Conflict

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Blog Editor

By Saswati Bora, Operations Officer, Agriculture & Environmental Services, the World Bank Ms. Bora, the lead author of the background paper “Food Security and Conflict” to the 2011 World Development Report: Conflict, Security and Development, kicks off our first Landscapes … Continue reading →

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It’s Complicated: Landscape Diversity for Pest Control

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

By Wei Zhang, Research Fellow, and Mark Rosegrant, Director, Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington DC On the Landscapes Blog we’ve seen how diversity on the farm level to diversity at the scale of … Continue reading →

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Taking Care of Business: Landscape Approaches to Reduce Risk

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

From beer brewing in Bogota to mochas in Mexico, for the past few weeks the Landscapes Blog has covered the role of landscape approaches in business operations and supply chains, in light of the Landscapes Initiative’s release of Reducing Risk: … Continue reading →

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Melting Pots of Biodiversity: Native and Introduced Plants in Tropical Smallholder Farming Landscapes

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

By Christian Kull, Associate Professor at Monash University, Australia For the past week the Landscapes Blog has taken a closer look at trees and forests in the context of agricultural landscapes. While there is often an emphasis on native vegetation … Continue reading →

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Policy in the Forest-Agriculture Mosaic: REDD+

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

One size doesn’t usually fit all. And the case of reducing deforestation and forest degradation is no different. While agriculture is often viewed as a driver of deforestation, context is key for developing policies to maintain ecosystem benefits within a … Continue reading →

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Fostering Farmer-driven Innovation: Creating Opportunities for Sustainability

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

By Fiona McKenzie, University of Sydney, Australia. In the last two posts the Landscapes Blog looked at what is needed for transitions to more integrated and sustainable systems of agricultural production, in both an industrialized and developing nation context. These … Continue reading →

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Diversified Farming Systems for Ecosystem Services

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

One of the primary objectives in landscape approaches to management is the protection of multiple ecosystem services. Last week researchers from the World Agroforestry Centre provided lessons on how adopting a landscape scale can improve incentives to manage land for … Continue reading →

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Project-Level Insights for Landscape Level PES

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

Landscapes can provide a range of natural benefits, from clean water to carbon sequestration, but often people don’t have the right incentives to manage their lands to maintain these services. Gabrielle Kissinger (Lexeme Consulting) and Henry Neufeldt (World Agroforestry Centre) … Continue reading →

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United States National Climate Assessment 2013 now Open for Comment

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Rachel Friedman

From past discussions of climate-smart agricultural landscapes, it is clear that mitigating and adapting to climate change is not simply a matter of having the most comprehensive scientific understanding, but also of connecting that technical base to policy and decision-making. … Continue reading →

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