Information portal to support conservation, vegetation restoration and agroforestry

With the World Agroforestry Center, the Copenhagen University and various national partners in eastern Africa, we developed an information portal with tools and information to help farmers, foresters and others to 'find the right tree for the right place'. It furthermore provides baseline information to help conservationists and land use planners to identify priorities for future conservation and land use activities. For more information, see the vegetationmap4africa website.

Water use and productivity in agricultural and livestock systems

Given the rising temperatures and more erratic rainfall patterns projected in many regions in the worlds, more effective overall use of water is going to be essential to improve future food security and to enhance agro-ecosystem health.

We provided a basin-wide spatially explicit assessment of livestock water requirements and productivity for the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water & Food. This was part of an effort to identify opportunities to increase livestock water. Read more ...

A atlas of the natural vegetation of Ethiopia

We have a long-standing collaboration with Prof. Ib Friis, Professor emeritus at Biosystematics of the Natural History Museum of Denmark and Prof. Sebsebe Demissew at the National herbarium of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa University on the mapping of the potential natural vegetation in Ethiopia. One of the early outputs was the atlas of the natural vegetation of Ethiopia in 2010, a well received and now widely used standard work based on decades of fieldwork of above-mentioned scientists. We are currently working on further improvements of the atlas and our knowledge on the vegetation and tree species of Ethiopia. Read more ...

A atlas of the natural vegetation of southwest Kenya

There is a growing interest of farmers, local governments and NGOs to grow indigenous tree species to provide timber, fruit, watershed protection, biodiversity and other services previously provided by forests. But information on tree species for certain areas has not been readily available - that is, until now. Scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Kenya and the Danish Centre for Forest and Landscape Planning (FLD) adapted old vegetation maps into easy-to-use decision support tools to help identify the best indigenous trees to grow on farms. Read more ...

Consequences of climate change for livestock production systems and options for adaptation and mitigation. An example of a review we did for the Near East.

Agriculture in the Near East is likely to suffer losses because of high temperature, droughts, floods and soil degradation threatening the food security of many countries. Livestock producers in the Near East have traditionally adapted to environmental and climate changes. Increased human population, urbanization, economic growth and a growing consumption of livestock products have made those coping mechanisms less effective. Livestock producers need new technologies, training and technical support to deal with climate change.

For the regional office for the Near East of the Food and Agricultural organization (FAO) of the United Nation, we provided an review of the state of knowledge on climate change in the Near East and potential impacts on agriculture. The report furthermore elaborates on options for adaptation and mitigation measures in different livestock production system in the region.

Interested in collaboration or want to know more about how we can help you with your project? Let us know on!