Abstract

Securing the multiple benefits of forest conservation while meeting imperatives of food security represents a leading global environmental challenge. Numerous attempts at interventions that deliver to multiple goals have been implemented across the tropics and met various success. I will draw on my previous research, and introduce ongoing research, that explores this variable performance at the forest-agricultural nexus.

A leading global environmental challenge concerns how best to secure forest conservation while meeting the imperatives of food security, climate change mitigation and delivering to the well-being of local people. The forested tropics represent a region of rapidand drastic land use change, driven largely by agricultural expansion. Deforestationand fire associated with this land use change represent leading causes ofglobal environmental change. Numerous attempts at interventions that deliver tomultiple goals have been implemented across the tropics and met varioussuccess. Understanding the variable performance of such policies is a researchtopic of much debate. I will draw on my previous research in the BrazilianAmazon, and the peat swamp forests of Sumatra’s oil palm frontier, toillustrate the importance of integrated approaches to reconciling competinginterests. Finally, I will introduce ongoing research set to explore which interventions perform better at the forest, agricultural nexus.