transFOrming rUral laNDscapes And communiTIes thrOugh NAture-based soLutions: integrating biodiversity conservation and human well-being at the nature-agriculture interphase – FOUNDATIONAL

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) geared to the design and management of sustainable, multifunctional landscapes require innovative planning. Such landscape planning, and the modification of practices, involves tradeoffs between competing claims for natural resources and land uses, as well as the aspirations, interests, and goals of different (local to global) actors. At the same time, transitioning from current to sustainable multifunctional landscapes offers new opportunities to create synergies between bio(cultural)diversity conservation and human well-being. We will explore the transformative power of these NBSs across three continents – Latin America (Brazil), Africa (South Africa), and Europe (France). The target rural landscapes of these countries differ in their social-ecological context, in the level at which NBSs have been promoted by government and social organisations, in the degree of stakeholder engagement, and in their degree of adoption by farmers. With the aim of informing policy, conservation, and development efforts, our objective is to explore landscape-level implementation of NBSs and their implications to improve biodiversity status and ecosystem services at the landscape, local and micro scales, and for human well-being in terms of food security and sovereignty, nutritional diversity, social inclusion, and sustainable rural livelihoods. The work will be organised into three work packages (WP) that address the following specific objectives:
1: To assess how transitioning towards NBSs improve biodiversity status at micro- (soil), meso- (plot, farm) local and landscape scale;
2: To assess the social-ecological tradeoffs and synergies at landscape level that may prevent or facilitate the implementation of NBS;
3: To engage stakeholders, with a focus on local communities that have a stake at the landscape, to co-develop ways of facilitating the implementation of NBS;
A fourth WP will coordinate the project, integrate results and communicate them to the broader policy stakeholders, the public and the scientific community.
In the context of the new European Green Deal and the 2022 UN Food Summit declaration, it is expected that agroecology and regenerative agriculture will increasingly permeate national policies and political discourses, in a quest to address the major challenge of global food security while addressing biodiversity conservation and tackling other societal challenges such as climate change adaptation/mitigation. This project FOUNDATIONAL would hence be highly timely to help refine the national vision and missions around sustainable farming based on these NBS and increase the uptake of these practices among farmers and citizens.