The Zambia for Agroforestry, Biodiversity and Climate (Z4ABC) project, co-funded by the European Union, offers financial matching grants to support private sector entities engaged in sustainable value chains. This FAQ document clarifies eligibility criteria, financial and organizational requirements, and the application process. Grants range from £5,000 to £60,000 and are available exclusively to Zambian-owned entities with at least two years of operational history. Applicants must demonstrate financial accountability through audited statements and meet compliance documentation standards. While core value chains include mushrooms and caterpillars, the initiative encourages innovation across non-timber forest products. Activities must align with pilot sites in Eastern, Lusaka, and Muchinga provinces. Only one proposal per applicant is permitted, and informal groups must formalize their status to qualify. The document emphasizes transparency, accountability, and strategic alignment with Z4ABC’s restoration and climate resilience goals.
Tag: biodiversity
The determinants of dietary diversity and nutrition: ethnonutrition knowledge of local people in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania
Background
Diet and nutrition-related behaviours are embedded in cultural and environmental contexts: adoption of new knowledge depends on how easily it can be integrated into existing knowledge systems. As dietary diversity promotion becomes an increasingly common component of nutrition education, understanding local nutrition knowledge systems and local concepts about dietary diversity is essential to formulate efficient messages.
Methods
This paper draws on in-depth qualitative ethnographic research conducted in small-scale agricultural communities in Tanzania. Data were collected using interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in the East Usambara Mountains, an area that is home primarily to the Shambaa and Bondei ethnic groups, but has a long history of ethnic diversity and ethnic intermixing.
Results
The data showed a high degree of consensus among participants who reported that dietary diversity is important because it maintains and enhances appetite across days, months and seasons. Local people reported that sufficient cash resources, agrobiodiversity, heterogeneity within the landscape, and livelihood diversity all supported their ability to consume a varied diet and achieve good nutritional status. Other variables affecting diet and dietary diversity included seasonality, household size, and gender.
Conclusions
The results suggest that dietary diversity was perceived as something all people, both rich and poor, could achieve. There was significant overlap between local and scientific understandings of dietary diversity, suggesting that novel information on the importance of dietary diversity promoted through education will likely be easily integrated into the existing knowledge systems.
Development planning in high-priority areas for biodiversity conservation and tourism development
The World Bank has supported Rwanda with financing from the PROGREEN initiative to improve sustainable management of the Congo-Nile Ridge (CNR) landscape. Despite past investments in parts of the CNR landscape, unsustainable land-use and management practices continue. These lead to, among other results, biodiversity loss, accelerated run-off and frequent floods. These, in turn, cause losses of lives, livelihoods, natural capital and infrastructure. Investments in addressing unsustainable land-use practices have often been fragmented, and have not led to permanent improvement in the situation. This is particularly true for biodiversity conservation planning.
Synthesis report can be accessed: here
Integrating sustainable hunting in biodiversity protection in Central Africa: hot spots, weak spots, and strong spots
Wild animals are a primary source of protein (bushmeat) for people living in or near tropical forests. Ideally, the effect of bushmeat harvests should be monitored closely by making regular estimates of offtake rate and size of stock available for exploitation. However, in practice, this is possible in very few situations because it requires both of these aspects to be readily measurable, and even in the best case, entails very considerable time and effort. As alternative, in this study, we use high-resolution, environmental favorability models for terrestrial mammals (N = 165) in Central Africa to map areas of high species richness (hot spots) and hunting susceptibility. Favorability models distinguish localities with environmental conditions that favor the species’ existence from those with detrimental characteristics for its presence. We develop an index for assessing Potential Hunting Sustainability (PHS) of each species based on their ecological characteristics (population density, habitat breadth, rarity and vulnerability), weighted according to restrictive and permissive assumptions of how species’ characteristics are combined. Species are classified into five main hunting sustainability classes using fuzzy logic. Using the accumulated favorability values of all species, and their PHS values, we finally identify weak spots, defined as high diversity regions of especial hunting vulnerability for wildlife, as well as strong spots, defined as high diversity areas of high hunting sustainability potential. Our study uses relatively simple models that employ easily obtainable data of a species’ ecological characteristics to assess the impacts of hunting in tropical regions. It provides information for management by charting the geography of where species are more or less likely to be at risk of extinction from hunting.
Measuring, monitoring and conserving biodiversity in managed tropical forests
Discusses methods for measuring and monitoring different components of biodiversity in tropical forests. Considers the conservation of biodiversity in tropical forests including the use of criteria and indicators, the zonation concept of management, the use of buffer zones, and extractive reserves. Prospects for future conservation and management are discussed.
Measuring and monitoring biodiversity in tropical and temperate forests: proceedings of a IUFRO symposium held at Chiang Mai, Thailand August 27th-September 2nd 1994
Many estimates suggest that the world’s forests are home to more than 50% of terrestrial biodiversity, yet temperate and tropical forests face numerous threats, including agricultural and industrial expansion, climate change, non-sustainable management and pollution. If forests and their diversity of living organisms are to be conserved, there is a need to measure and monitor biodiversity, in order that the impact of human activities and the efficacy of conservation measures can be assessed. As the concept of biodiversity covers the range of life itself, from genes to ecosystems, measurement and monitoring is extremely complicated.
Weaving the Middle Spaces Between Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge for Biodiversity Conservation and Ecology
Africa’s rich biodiversity and cultural heritage are deeply rooted in Indigenous Peoples’ traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), which offers essential insights for conservation and sustainability. This editorial underscores the active role of African IP in safeguarding biodiversity and strengthening food system resilience, calling for equitable partnerships that value TEK alongside scientific knowledge. Grounded in centuries of observation and cultural practice, TEK supports sustainable resource use and ecological understanding. Yet, climate change, land dispossession, and cultural erosion threaten both these knowledge systems and the communities that uphold them. To address this, conservation efforts must respect Indigenous sovereignty and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. This aligns with global frameworks like the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which affirms IP rights across conservation targets, including land tenure, traditional knowledge, and access to justice. The pressing challenge is translating these international commitments into rights-based, equitable conservation on the ground. Upholding the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and engaging in open, trust-building dialogue with IP communities are essential steps. By embracing these principles, conservation science can move from rhetoric to meaningful, participatory action that honors Indigenous stewardship of nature.
Mammal Depletion Processes as Evidenced From Spatially Explicit and Temporal Local Ecological Knowledge
In the face of increased defaunation in tropical regions, embracing the complexity of wildlife population trends is important to guide the development of effective conservation and restoration strategies. Here, based on a case study in Democratic Republic of the Congo, we use an ethnozoological approach, with a protocol that captures spatially explicit and temporal ecological knowledge on defaunation. Our case study evidences the overall depletion profile for the majority of mammal species in the whole landscape and particularly for red colobus, orycterope, and chimpanzee. The elephant has already disappeared locally, and okapi and forest buffalo only persist in the northern part of the landscape. On the other hand, postdepletion sustainability seems to characterize Yangambi Reserve, with more stable populations of fast-reproducing/small-sized species. Local extinctions or sharp declines in mammal populations in our landscape are either the direct consequence of conflict or the result of cascading effects that have their origins in the rebellions between 1996 and 2002. From a conservation perspective, the challenge is to understand how the depletion process can be reversed in a postconflict context and to identify the levers that can inverse the cascading effect to allow species recovery. We encourage the use of our methodology in regions that are regularly used by a significant number of observers. The proposed methodology provides cost-effective, reliable, and spatially explicit data on population trends, covering for a wide range of species and allows to understand the historical pattern of defaunation as well the wider context in which changes occurred.
Yi Ethnomycology: Wild Mushroom Knowledge and Use in Yunnan, China
Local ethnobiological knowledge offers critical insights into ecological processes, species diversity, and abundance, as well as changes in environmental conditions. Although ethnomycological knowledge remains understudied compared to local knowledge about plants and animals, wild fungi are important components of healthy, functioning ecosystems. Wild fungi are also integral to many social and economic systems. Yunnan Province, China, is home to both a wide diversity of wild edible mushrooms and extensive human-fungi relationships. Understanding local ecological and mycological knowledge is critical for conserving ecological systems and promoting sustainable livelihoods. This study investigates indigenous Yi ethnomycological knowledge in four communities in Nanhua County using both interviews and harvesting observations. The comparative merits and limitations of each method are assessed. Around 90 unique, named folk species were reported or observed in the study communities, with 54 species reported multiple times. Local mushroom names encode information about local ecology, species morphology, and abstract metaphorical ideas. In addition, harvesters variably referred to mushrooms in Yi, Mandarin, or with general descriptive categories, suggesting a link between species use, value, and naming conventions. This study found that directly observing mushroom harvests captured more detailed knowledge compared to recall-based interviews, including both a greater number of species and a more nuanced, multi-leveled taxonomic system. However, interviews revealed the cultural salience, economic values, and culinary preferences for many local mushroom species. These results highlight the importance of mixed-methods approaches to ethnoecological knowledge, as both recall and observational data may lead to different conclusions about local species abundance and diversity.
Blueprints of effective biodiversity and conservation knowledge products that support marine policy
Biodiversity and conservation data are generally costly to collect, particularly in the marine realm. Hence, data collected for a given-often scientific-purpose are occasionally contributed toward secondary needs, such as policy implementation or other types of decision-making. However, while the quality and accessibility of marine biodiversity and conservation data have improved over the past decade, the ways in which these data can be used to develop and implement relevant management and conservation measures and actions are not always explicit. For this reason, there are a number of scientifically-sound datasets that are not used systematically to inform policy and decisions. Transforming these marine biodiversity and conservation datasets into knowledge products that convey the information required by policy- and decision-makers is an important step in strengthening knowledge exchange across the science-policy interface. Here, we identify seven characteristics of a selection of online biodiversity and conservation knowledge products that contribute to their ability to support policy- and decision-making in the marine realm (as measured by e.g., mentions in policy resolutions/decisions, or use for reporting under selected policy instruments; use in high-level screening for areas of biodiversity importance). These characteristics include: a clear policy mandate; established networks of collaborators; iterative co-design of a user-friendly interface; standardized, comprehensive and documented methods with quality assurance; consistent capacity and succession planning; accessible data and value-added products that are fit-for-purpose; and metrics of use collated and reported. The outcomes of this review are intended to: (a) support data creators/owners/providers in designing and curating biodiversity and conservation knowledge products that have greater influence, and hence impact, in policy- and decision-making, and (b) provide recommendations for how decision- and policy-makers can support the development, implementation, and sustainability of robust biodiversity and conservation knowledge products through the framing of marine policy and decision-making frameworks. © 2007 – 2015 Frontiers Media S.A. All Rights Reserved.