Testing the Resilience of Tropical Agricultural Landscapes

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Landscapes have many functions, including providing food to feed a growing human population and support local livelihoods, as well as conserving biodiversity. In SE Asia, cultivation of palm oil is a driver of rainforest loss, but is vital to local economies and supporting poverty alleviation, making it crucial to develop sustainable cultivation practices. This project will study smallholder landscapes, which contribute up to 50% of palm oil production, and tackle the followingquestions:1. Biodiversity is higher in natural forest areas within smallholder-dominated landscapes than in forest areas withinindustrial plantations;2. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are higher within oil palm in smallholdings compared with larger concessions;3. Yields are higher on larger concessions than on smallholdings. The project will also explore smallholder impedimentsto yield enhancement.Methods & Approach: Biodiversity (ant) surveys will be carried out in eastern Sabah (Malaysian Borneo). Ants are anideal taxon to study because they include predators, seed dispersers as well as decomposers, and so provide information on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Spatial location of forest and agricultural areas will be assessed using GIS, and computer modelling will test size, placement and quality of forest patches on species richness and the effects of oil palm intensification. Land sparing/sharing analyses will examine the 'best' landscapes under different biodiversity/yield prioritisation scenarios. The project will suit a student interested in inter-disciplinary research, wishing to gain skills and training in ecological field surveys, invertebrate identification and taxonomy, modelling and spatial analyses, and translating their science findings into policy development. This is a CASE project and during their placement with Proforest (Oxford office), the student will examine social impacts of sustainability and certification processes, focusing on impediments to uptake of certification by smallholders.