KE Fellowship: Facilitating sustainable reforestation in tropical agricultural landscapes as a nature-based solution - HARP

重新造林已被确定为应对气候减缓和适应挑战的潜在强大的基于自然的解决方案，同时支持生物多样性和其他可持续发展目标。然而，重新造林的许多潜在风险也已查明，包括与粮食安全和生物多样性的权衡。尽管存在这些关切，但多个行为体已经在热带农业景观中推行重新造林战略。特别是，可可和咖啡等初级商品价值链中的行为者正在承诺以农林业为基础重新造林。这些行为体表示，它们在可持续地兑现这些承诺方面面临挑战。在这里，我们确定了从业者和科学家之间的知识交流（KE）差距：如何在热带农业景观中实施成功和可持续的重新造林，作为一种国家基础结构。为了填补这一空白，该研究金将促进科学家、保护工作者和可可和咖啡价值链中的工业界之间的知识产权，建立在申请人威廉·汤普森和东道国已经建立的关系的基础上，自然解决方案倡议（NBSI），美国牛津关于农林业和再造林的最新知识以及从知识更新进程中产生的新知识将被纳入农业再造林高潜力工具包。KE过程也将导致建立一套最佳实践原则，在小农农业contextuals.We提出了一个双重的案例研究，在加纳的可可和咖啡在越南，两个主要的商品生产国，高毁林风险，但也高再造林潜力。选择这些互补案例是为了最大限度地提高工具包在不同地域和商品中的可用性。总的来说，我们将采取跨学科的方法，由利益攸关方共同制定造林方面的挑战和工具包，包括：巧克力公司（Lindt），认证机构（雨林联盟，4C），项目开发商（Plan Vivo）、非政府组织（IDH）、农民组织、金融（绿色金融研究所）和科学家（NBSI，牛津大学，KE研究员，NERC研究人员），以及国际合作者（ETH苏黎世，昆士兰州）。该研究金的第一阶段将建立一个“农林业和再造林”KE网络，包括：一）覆盖全球的跨商品平台（半虚拟/联合王国），二）可可价值链平台（加纳w/ KNUST，IITA）和三）咖啡价值链平台（越南w/ CIAT，IDH）。第二阶段将与利益相关者共同设计和测试HARP工具包。第三阶段将综合一套在小农农业景观中重新造林的最佳做法原则，HARP工具包将使一个行动者联盟能够在景观尺度上规划基于农林的重新造林干预措施。该工具包将允许对照用户定义的标准（如农民收入、碳固存）评价不同的农林业和再造林（如斑块富集、河岸缓冲区）配置。网络成员已被确定为HARP工具包测试者（IDH、雨林联盟、Plan Vivo）。因此，该研究金的一个关键影响是将NERC和NERC的科学转化为提高可可和咖啡价值链中重新造林干预措施的可持续性。更广泛地说，“最佳做法原则”可为供应链公司（如Lindt）作出重新造林承诺以及生产国和消费国政府（如通过联合王国全球资源倡议）制定政策提供信息。此外，NERC研究人员和KE研究员将通过建立对重新造林行为者的科学需求的理解，从KE过程中受益。我们打算KE过程可以是可持续的，该网络将在奖学金后自我维持。

Reforestation has been identified as a potentially powerful Nature-based solution (NbS) to climate mitigation and adaptation challenges, whilst supporting biodiversity and other sustainable development goals. However, many potential risks with reforestation have also been identified, including trade-offs with food security and biodiversity. Despite these concerns, multiple actors are already pursuing reforestation strategies in tropical agricultural landscapes. In particular, actors in commodity value chains, such as cocoa and coffee, are making commitments to agroforest-based reforestation. These actors have stated that they are facing challenges in the sustainable delivery of these pledges. Here we identify a knowledge exchange (KE) gap between practitioners and scientists: how to implement successful and sustainable reforestation as an NbS in tropical agricultural landscapes.To fill this gap, this fellowship would facilitate KE between scientists, conservation practitioners and industry, in cocoa and coffee value chains, building on relationships already established by the applicant William Thompson and the host, the Nature-based Solutions Initiative (NbSI), U. Oxford. State-of-the-art knowledge regarding agroforestry and reforestation, as well as new knowledge generated from the KE process, will be packaged under the umbrella of the High Agricultural Reforestation Potential (HARP) Toolkit. The KE process will also lead to establishing a set of best practice principles for reforestation in smallholder agriculture contexts.We propose a dual case study of cocoa in Ghana and coffee in Vietnam, two leading commodity producing countries with high deforestation risk but also high reforestation potential. These complementary cases are selected to maximise the usability of the toolkit across geographies and commodities. Overall, we will adopt a transdisciplinary approach, whereby the framing of challenges in reforestation and the development of the toolkit will be performed jointly between stakeholders, including; chocolate companies (Lindt), certifiers (Rainforest Alliance, 4C), project developers (Plan Vivo), NGOs (IDH), farmer organisations, finance (Green Finance Institute) and scientists (NbSI, Oxford, KE fellows, NERC researchers), as well as international collaborators (ETH Zurich, Queensland). Phase 1 of the fellowship will convene an "Agroforestry and Reforestation" KE network consisting i) Overarching cross-commodity platform (semi-virtual/UK), ii) Cocoa value chain platform (Ghana w/ KNUST, IITA) and iii) Coffee value chain platform (Vietnam w/ CIAT, IDH). Phase 2 will co-design and test the HARP toolkit with stakeholders. Phase 3 will synthesise a set of best practice principles for reforestation in smallholder agricultural landscapes.The HARP toolkit will enable planning of agroforest-based reforestation interventions at a landscape scale by a consortium of actors. The toolkit will allow for the evaluation of different agroforest and reforestation (e.g. patch enrichment, riparian buffers) configurations against user defined criteria (e.g. farmer income, carbon sequestration). Network members have already been identified as HARP Toolkit testers (IDH, Rainforest Alliance, Plan Vivo). A key impact of this fellowship, therefore, would be to translate NERC and NERC remit science to enhance the sustainability of reforestation interventions in cocoa and coffee value chains. More widely, the "best practice principles" can inform the creation of reforestation commitments by supply chain companies (e.g. Lindt), as well as policies by producing and consuming country governments (e.g. via UK Global Resources Initiative). In addition, NERC researchers and KE fellows will benefit from the KE process by building understanding of reforestation actors' scientific needs. We intend that the KE process can be sustainable and that the network will be self-maintaining after the fellowship.