Latin America is the second most urbanized region in the world, with 81% of its population concentrated there. This strong urbanization, its rapid growth and the weakness of urban planning policies affect areas of high ecological and environmental value. However, natural ecosystems can be a source of solutions for those involved in urban design and development, in particular to respond to the risks generated or exacerbated by climate change.

Understanding nature-based solutions (NBS), studying their implementation conditions and analyzing their integration into public policies is therefore necessary to ensure the livability of cities in the long term. While NBS and green infrastructure are still recent in the urban landscape, initiatives have been deployed for several years and are a privileged source of data to exploit. 

The ENSLAC (Enabling Nature based solutions Scale-up in Latin American Cities) project aims to analyse the mechanisms that enable the scale-up of nature-based solutions implementation in Latin American cities, drawing on 15 case studies in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. This research approach aims to: 

• Analyze the challenges of ecological restoration for the management of risks related to the impacts of climate change in urban areas;
• Understand the levers for using NBS as a tool for urban planning and development;
• Identify the temporal, technical, cultural, political, social, financial and cooperative processes that have enabled large-scale NBS-based projects;
• Assess the influence of national or supranational strategies and policies on NBS development;
• Disseminate the knowledge produced by focusing on formats and channels that can be used for the training of urban development actors. 

To explore these issues, Yes Innovation, based in Quito, works with the Humboldt Institute for Biological Resources Research, an institution linked to the Ministry of the Environment of Colombia, and Periferia Territorios Vivos, a Peruvian organization specialized in urban planning with an ecological approach. 

This research project uses two analytical tools (depending on the case study and the available field data):

1. Temporal and spatial analysis (known as BA/CI, which refers to a Before/After and Conservation/Intervention analysis);
2. Comparative analysis between case studies on NBS and reference cases of comparable characteristics but without implementation of NBS. 

The ENSLAC research project aims to: 

• Understand mechanisms that enable scale-up of nature-based solutions as a tool for urban and peri-urban planning;
• Identify replicability levers of these NBS for Latin American cities;
• Produce training materials for urban development actors. 

The research team presented its findings during a webinar from the Research Conversations series. The replay is available below (in French and Spanish).

Uganda’s wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems (in terms of ecosystem services) in East Africa. In addition to their ecological functions, they provide more than 50% of the monthly income of the populations that depend on them. However, the rate of wetland degradation is over 70 times the rate of their restoration. Artificialization and urban growth, informal settlements, agricultural activities, pollution or illegal mining of sand and clay: all of these causes contribute to the degradation of these ecosystems. 

To address this challenge, many restoration projects have already been carried out in Uganda, and the knowledge available on the country’s wetlands is important. Strengthening the links between research and policy implementation is therefore essential to facilitate and improve the extension of sustainable wetland restoration in Uganda.

Based on two case studies, this project aims to facilitate and enhance the upscale of sustainable wetland restoration in Uganda:

• Identification of institutional and socio-economic constraints on restoration projects, including available research and lessons learned from Uganda;
• Analysis of the effects of restoration projects on natural ecosystems and their sustainability;
• Development of tools to support decision-making;
• Capacity building of key actors in wetland restoration and management. 

The IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, in partnership with Makerere University, the Ministry of Water and Environment of Uganda and the NGO NatureUganda, is mobilizing its 20 years of experience in wetland research in Uganda to address these issues. 

This project draws on the analysis of two Ugandan wetlands – Lubigi and Rufuha, one urban and one rural – and focuses on several research questions to achieve its objectives: 

• Understand issues of wetlands and synthesize knowledge and practices of wetland restoration;
• Characterize institutions, governance and development process of wetland restoration;
• Analyse the participation of local communities in wetland restoration and assess the economic contribution of these ecosystems to household incomes;
• Assess the impact of restoration on wetland biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services;
• Develop and test an indicator framework for wetland restoration monitoring and develop decision-making tools. 

Strengthening the capacity of the implementing agencies for restoration management, in particular by communicating the results of the project to public actors, is also a key axis of the methodology of this project.

This research process should result in the production of scientific analysis reports on constraints and issues related to wetland restoration projects. Policy notes and knowledge products on the monitoring, evaluation and deployment of ecological restoration of wetlands are also expected.

A Research Conversations webinar was organized in September 2024 to present and discuss the results of the research project.

Watch the replay: Restoring wetlands in Uganda: An integrated approach for sustainable solutions?

South Africa’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development assists persons (or their descendants) who were excluded the formal agriculture economy on the basis of their skin colour, and who have recently begun to engage in farming with the support and assistance of the State. This broad policy is implemented through the Land Reform Programme, where Recapitalisation and Development funding (Recap) is used to help land reform beneficiaries establish viable enterprises. However, this programme remains focused on traditional models of crop and livestock systems. 

The consortium of researchers assembled by the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) argues that the Land Reform Programme would benefit from integrating the ecosystem services paradigm to help reduce inequality and understand the benefits of land transfer more holistically (Clements et al. 2021). This research consortium is working to integrate wildlife economy enterprise development within the Recap scope of investment.

More specifically, the research project focuses on wildlife ranching, which can be defined as the breeding and commercial use of wild animals for hunting, game meat production, live animal trading or ecotourism. This economic activity can be an interface between conservation and agriculture but, although anchored for many years in South Africa, it remains little studied. Decision-makers thus lack data on the functioning of this wildlife economy as well as its socio-economic and environmental impacts. 

Developing knowledge and decision support tools on this wildlife economy with the support of the ECOPRONAT programme is therefore an opportunity for better management of agricultural land and natural ecosystems, for the benefit of beneficiaries of the Land Reform Programme. The survey methodology and lessons learned in South Africa will be used for exchanges with Kenyan authorities who are also conducting studies on the role of wildlife economy in that country.

This project aims to support the development of agricultural policies in Africa that are sustainable on the long-term, and to develop wildlife economy research in South Africa and Kenya. Through its work, the research consortium aims to produce knowledge and tools to enable a large-scale transition, going from a land use that degrades ecosystems to profitable wildlife enterprises that restore natural capital, create jobs and catalyze investment to expand conservation areas. 

To this end, the project aims to: 

1. Develop foundational knowledge for the wildlife economy to facilitate its mainstreaming into agricultural and biodiversity public policies (production of data on business models, their viability, investment and skills development needs, etc.);
2. Co-produce decision support tools that enable local actors, companies and public authorities to adapt their policies and investments and create a systemic impact;
3. Create a regional community of practice to strengthen research capacity in the South and the development of the wildlife economy. Two master’s students are involved in this project, led by SANBI in partnership with the South African Universities of Rhodes, Stellenbosch and Nelson Mandela. 

This research project is based on participatory knowledge building (including training workshops) and on the development of survey methods to collect social, economic and ecological data. This information will be used to produce decision-support tools. In particular, a geospatial selection tool will be developed to identify the actions and investments to be undertaken. 

The methodology consists of collecting data from the established wildlife ranching industries established in South Africa and Kenya, on the contributions of the wildlife industry to biodiversity, land restoration and socio-economic development. Through statistical analysis and data visualization, the team will convert this information into knowledge products to make it more accessible, and then into decision support tools to assist new and emerging farmers to create businesses in the wildlife economy and thus expand the wildlife ranching estate.

The research team has published academic articles on the functioning of the wildlife economy and its socio-economic and environmental impacts:

• Clements, H.S., Child, M.F., Lindeque, L. et al. Lessons from COVID-19 for wildlife ranching in a changing world, Nature Sustainability 5, 1040–1048 (2022).
• Denner, C., Clements, H. S., Child, M. F., & De Vos, A. (2024). The diverse socioeconomic contributions of wildlife ranching, Conservation Science and Practice, 6(7), e13166. 

The team collaborated with public authorities to ensure that this information could be used by local stakeholders. Their data, gathered from surveys with a representative sample of wildlife ranchers, fed into fact sheets on the wildlife economy published by South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE). These are available on the Biodiversity Sector Investment platform, which aims to inform South African citizens and investors interested in engaging in this type of activity.

The research has also informed local decision-making, notably in the revision of the National Biodiversity Economy Strategy and related debates on the sustainable use of biodiversity for economic purposes.

Finally, the team shared its findings with a broader audience through The Conversation Africa, analyzing how different wildlife use models can contribute to local development and the inclusion of disadvantaged communities.

Several findings have emerged from this research project: 

Public actors need to monitor the state of the environment in order to assess the effectiveness of their actions, prioritize management policies and measures, and thus objectively establish their contribution to the conservation of natural capital. To do so, they must be able to rely on science-based standards to identify the thresholds at which environmental functions can be considered sustainable.

The ESGAP (Environmental Sustainability Gap) is an innovative tool for assessing the condition of a territory’s environmental functions and how sustainable they are. For all critical components of natural capital in the territory concerned (air or water quality, pollution, forest resources, fisheries, etc.), this indicator calculates the difference between their current state and a state that would be sustainable (i.e., a state compatible with the sustainable functioning of the processes necessary for the preservation of life, human activities and well-being). This allows for the calculation of the “environmental sustainability gap”, which highlights the path to environmental sustainability. This can then serve as a guide for public policies to estimate and preserve the critical functions of the natural capital of a given territory. ESGAP has already been tested in New Caledonia, Kenya and Vietnam.

Within the framework of the ECOPRONAT research programme, AFD aims to develop methodologies for assessing strong sustainability, that is, adopting demanding criteria concerning the non-substituability of natural capital by other forms of capital (physical among others) in a territory or country. AFD also wants to promote their use in international frameworks and contribute to emerging international standards on the good ecological state of ecosystems.

Find out more about ECOPRONAT

The ESGAP pilot project recently conducted in Vietnam made it possible to measure the state of the environmental functions of this country. It identified fisheries resources, soil erosion, air and water pollution as the most degraded dimensions. 

It appears that some economic activities can put pressure on these different environmental functions, while other activities depend on their proper functioning. Developing the ESGAP framework is necessary to go further, by integrating the linkages that exist between the economy and the environment and identifying which human activities are concerned. 

In order to do this, the research team will try to link ESGAP measures to socio-economic activities and build a monetary ESGAP. The aim will be to assess the physical risks associated with certain economic activities on the basis of scenarios of environmental pressures (such as the breakdown of supply of certain essential environmental services, for example in agriculture). The development of these new applications of the ESGAP framework aims to guide policy makers in designing more sustainable development paths. 

The research project will be conducted in two phases: 

• The first step will consist in building a “monetary” ESGAP that measures the cost (expressed in monetary units) needed to achieve a sustainable environmental state. This cost is considered an unpaid ecological debt: it corresponds to the cost of effective measures that society would have to spend to achieve a good ecological state. It will be calculated as an abatement cost, that is, the expenditure necessary for human activities (such as production and consumption) in Vietnam to reduce their environmental pressures to a level that does not result in degradation of natural capital (or to an acceptable level, considering the good condition standards considered by the ESGAP).
• The second phase will use the modeling framework developed in the first phase, and assess how different public policies can improve Vietnam’s environmental sustainability by 2035, as well as mitigate the economic risks associated with the loss of the country’s natural capital. First, the team will develop scenarios to determine which interventions can improve Vietnam’s ecological status. Secondly, it will assess the extent to which economic risks related to biodiversity (due to the dependence of the Vietnamese economy on ecosystem services) can be mitigated through these interventions.

Since this study is considered experimental research, the different elements outlined in the research proposal and intermediate results may be adjusted throughout the study based on different factors – such as access to data, data quality, difficulties in implementing certain aspects of the methodology, or unsustainable or misleading results.

The team will produce a synthesis of the study, that will be used as a working document for communication purposes. The final deliverable will outline the methodology, database used and main results of the monetary ESGAP applied in Vietnam and the physical risk assessment methodology for the Vietnamese economy. This final deliverable will explore the relevance of ESGAP for the implementation of public policies aimed at achieving a good state of environmental conditions and future research pathways to link ESGAP measures to socio-economic activities.

The relationship between the biodiversity crisis and agriculture is complex. On the one hand, the expansion of agricultural systems and conventional agricultural practices threaten biodiversity; on the other hand, agricultural production is dependent on biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides. 

In Mozambique, tensions between poverty reduction targets and biodiversity protection are high. The expansion of small farms leads to the fragmentation of natural ecosystems and it represents one of the main sources of biodiversity destruction for the country. One of Mozambique’s responses to this fragmentation is to save the clearing of new land through a more intensive use of inputs, clearly separating land for nature protection from land for productive agriculture. 

The reconciliation of agricultural development and conservation through the use of agricultural techniques respectful of biodiversity is now essential to ensure the sustainability of agricultural systems and secure the food supply of the population. 

This research project aims to understand the possible trade-offs and complementarities between poverty reduction, food security and biodiversity in the context of developing countries, where farmland expansion is a major threat to biodiversity. This research will help understand how local landscape/community units function, how they impact biodiversity and its ecosystem services and how they benefit from them.

This knowledge will make it possible to identify the levers to mainstream biodiversity into the agricultural sector. This project also aims to demonstrate the need to create a link between the national policy framework regarding the mainstreaming of biodiversity into agriculture, and the socio-ecological context of successful local interventions.

The project involves a multidisciplinary team of ten Portuguese and Mozambican researchers: two from Observatório do Meio Rural (OMR), two from Eduardo Mondlane University, one from Lúrio University and five from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia in Lisbon (including a doctoral student). In addition, eighteen people (researchers and students) are involved in data collection activities. 

The methodological approach is divided into three steps:

1. Priorities, analysis and mapping at the country level: carried out at national level, with the aim of producing a broad, national picture of the effects of farming systems on poverty reduction, food security and biodiversity conservation; as well as an understanding of the conflicts and complementarities between these objectives.
2. Priorities, analysis and research into local context-sensitive interventions: carried out at the local level, through five case studies, covering the main socio-ecological gradients of Mozambique that should be considered when developing a national strategy to mainstream biodiversity into agricultural policies.
3. Link between local initiatives and the national framework for the mainstreaming of biodiversity in agriculture: aims to integrate the results of the first and second steps, to help the mainstreaming of biodiversity in agricultural policy, addressing the conflicting relationships and complementarities between the objectives of poverty, food security and biodiversity. 

This research project mobilizes different scientific disciplines in a transdisciplinary way, such as socioeconomics of agriculture, ecology, agronomy or sustainability sciences. This work will result in the production of a mapping of regions characterized by similar biophysical and socio-economic conditions, composition of agricultural systems, landscape mosaic, and levels of poverty, food insecurity, and biodiversity.

Stakeholders (decision-makers and contributors to public policies at the central level, farmers' organizations, environmental protection organizations, local actors) are also mobilized throughout the research work and their knowledge, perceptions and preferences incorporated into the analyses produced. This involvement of stakeholders aims to co-construct policies for mainstreaming biodiversity in agriculture. 

The main expected results of this project are: 

• Production of a policy paper presenting the regional reference framework (socio-ecologically homogenous regions) and guidelines for mainstreaming biodiversity in each region;
• Assessment of the transferability of local success interventions within and across regions;
• Identification of the necessary political conditions at the national level for the implementation of local interventions;
• Comparative evaluation of different policy tools;
• Development of a simulation tool based on a farming system approach, that will allow policy makers to assess ex ante the impacts of alternative policies on the objectives of poverty reduction, and food security and biodiversity and ecosystem services improvement. 

The production of cartographic data at the local level contributes to the development of agricultural and land use policies at the national level. Moreover, the cross-referencing of these local data with participatory approaches (organization of workshops with producers and sharing of public policy options) contributes to the development of more transversal policies.

The project contributed to the training of local young students and technicians in applying surveys using tablets and using the Open Data Kit program. The project contributed to the exchange of knowledge between the researchers members of the project and the fieldwork guides regarding the identification of birds and vegetation species.

Find out more about the project's results: farsymabi.webnode.pt

Today, the majority of leaders acknowledge the degradation of natural capital and the urgent need to protect the environment. Nevertheless, in order to define appropriate public policies, they must be able to rely on scientific standards that allow them to assess the state of a territory’s natural capital.

It remains difficult to assess this state, or even to define exactly what a "good state" of the planet should be: most existing instruments have an incomplete definition of environmental sustainability, lack of relevant indicators or fail to set appropriate targets to achieve good environmental status. There is therefore no satisfactory approach that would allow decision-makers or experts to know whether a country is moving towards environmental sustainability.

Based on a dashboard assessing the state of 23 environmental components, the ESGAP framework aims to address this need. However, the lack of appropriate standards for many essential natural capital contributions and in many countries is one of the most notable gaps identified in the ESGAP pilot projects in New Caledonia, Kenya and Vietnam.

Watch the video: How to measure the state of the planet?

This research project with EcoAct aimed to identify missing standards for several components of the Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP). It discusses possible strategies to develop appropriate standards in the event that no standards are available globally.

ESGAP is an innovative tool initially developed with University College London (UCL) that assesses the state of a territory’s environmental functions and their level of sustainability. For all critical components of natural capital in the territory concerned (air or water quality, pollution, forest resources, fishing resources, etc.), this indicator calculates the difference between their current state and a state that would be sustainable (that is, a state compatible with a sustainable functioning of the processes necessary for the preservation of life, human activities and well-being). This allows the calculation of an “environmental sustainability gap” (ESGAP), which highlights the path to environmental sustainability. This can then serve as a guide for public policies to estimate and preserve the natural state of a given territory.

Standards have been proposed for 16 out of the 22 ESGAP indicators examined in this research project. For 8 indicators, there was not enough solid information to propose a global standard. The study identified 13 datasets available to calculate these indicators globally and provided the source and link to these publicly available databases.

Read the final report: Defining Standards of Good Ecological Condition for Computing the ESGAP in Developing Countries 

The next step to produce a standard of good ecological condition applicable to all countries involves, for indicators with "standards to be defined by experts" (Fairbrass, 2020), to consider who the experts might be and how to engage with them to define a globally applicable standard. This depends on the existence of a globally recognized authority (such as the World Health Organization for pollution or the Food and Agriculture Organization for fisheries), or if the indicator is developed by different teams of scientists or organizations. 

Future work could also focus on examining the state of knowledge and options for setting standards from unconventional sources, such as geospatial data, big earth data, etc. The ARIES project related to the compilation of ecosystem accounts under the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) could be an interesting source for this.

Find out more about ESGAP:

• A single indicator of strong sustainability for development: Theoretical basis and practical implementation (2019)
• Monitoring the Environmental Sustainability of Countries through the Strong Environmental Sustainability Index (2022)
• Are We on the Right Path? Measuring Progress towards Environmental Sustainability in European Countries (2022)