Social cohesion plays a key role in processes of peacebuilding and sustainable development. Fostering social cohesion might present a potential to enhance the connection of natural resource management and peacebuilding and better functioning of sustainable land use systems. This contribution explores the nexus between social cohesion, natural resource management, and peacebuilding. Research is based on experience from cocoa production in two post-conflict countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Colombia.

Agriculture and other land-use sectors play a major role in the global response to climate change – as a large source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as a carbon sink, and as a sector vulnerable to climate extremes and variability. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are important policy instruments under the Paris Agreement that guide national climate actions in the near to short term. While most Southern African countries have included agriculture in their current NDCs, many lack sector-specific, quantifiable commitments to drive targeted action.

Drylands are a critical part of the earth system in terms of total area, socioeconomic and ecological importance. However, while drylands are known for their contribution to inter-annual atmospheric CO2 variability, they are sometimes overlooked in discussions of global carbon stocks. Here, in preparation for the November 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), we review dryland systems with emphasis on their role in current and future carbon storage, response to climate change and potential to contribute to a carbon neutral future.

The importance of equity has been emphasized in climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and ecosystem restoration. However, equity implications are rarely considered explicitly in restoration projects. Although the role of equity has been studied in the context of biodiversity conservation and environmental governance, environmental variables are often ignored in equity studies, and spatial analyses of equity are lacking.

Burkinabé women have traded shea kernels and shea butter in periodic local markets, and on a regional scale with the densely-populated West African littoral, for centuries. This paper traces the origins of French colonial efforts to develop shea as a commodity of empire from the 1890s to independence in 1960.

Livestock production constitutes a significant contribution to the economy and nutrition of many households in Tanzania. Despite the profound attributes of livestock in the nation, livestock sector is yet to attain its maximum level of production and productivity due to a number of challenges including insufficient forage quantity and quality. This culminates to poor animal performance especially during the dry seasons whereby availability of natural forages is limited and yet of poor nutritive value.

This study asks whether there is utility in knowing who sources soybean seed within the household and why when explaining variation in seed obtained from the formal versus informal sector. Survey data collected in Malawi in 2018 were used to explore the question. Results suggest that the identity of the person who sources seed has little to do with whether the seed was obtained from the formal sector. Instead, why the person sources soybean seed is the better predictor.

everal studies have been conducted on shaded cocoa systems, but few of these have examined species-specific crown architecture of upper canopy trees and its influence on shade provision in cocoa agroforestry systems.

To increase the productivity of tropical cattle systems and at the same time mitigate the environmental impacts of the cattle sector, a strategy of improving the quality and availability of cattle feed has been implemented through substantial improvements in forage germplasm (Herrero et al., 2013; Gerber et al., 2013; Peters et al., 2012). With this objective, significant resources have been allocated for research and development (R&D), which has led to the release of cultivars such as Brachiaria brizantha cv. Toledo (CIAT 26110), B. humidicola cv. Humidicola (CIAT 679) and cv.