The conservation of biodiversity protects the variety and wealth of ecosystems, habitats and species resulting in increased genetic diversity on the planet. This preserves ecosystems and allows food continuity, supports human health and nutrition, controls pests and disease to prevent future pandemics and regulates climate and soil quality. Not only does this lead to sustainable development but there is important social impact through inclusion and alleviation of poverty.
Professor Jeremy Haggar, Professor of Agroecology at the Natural Resource Institute (NRI) has been working on a range of projects “promoting sustainable land-use through agroforestry and forest conservation to conserve biodiversity” to “generate sustainable livelihoods for local communities and indigenous peoples and mitigate and increase resilience to climate change.”
The Biocultural Landscapes Project
The Biocultural Landscapes Project in Guatemala, which is funded by the Darwin Initiative works “with a federation of indigenous cooperatives to record their indigenous knowledge about nature, reforest and conserve remaining forest, assess and reduce the carbon footprint of coffee and cardamom production, and support sustainable livelihood alternatives.
Thus, the project aims to reduce their carbon footprint and move to becoming a carbon sink, increase the resilience of the landscape to flooding and drought through increasing forest cover, and conserve biodiversity, while maintaining livelihood benefits.”
The Future
“We hope the project can be scaled up to the whole landscape including communities that are not affiliated with the cooperative. This is needed to ensure a landscape level resilience to climate extremes and generate sufficient forest cover and sustainable production to conserve biodiversity, reduce erosion and maintain livelihoods of the indigenous communities.”
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) impacted
SDG 2 – Zero Hunger
SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 13 – Climate Action
SDG 15 – Life on Land
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals
