Read about the CDE research project COMMONPATHS, which focuses on urban resources managed as commons – in Ghana and Switzerland – and how the collectives that manage them address overconsumption and inequality.

SWISSAID has initiated an emergency relief initiative to distribute seeds and food packages in Chad, which has been devastated by the heaviest downpours in three decades, stripping the people of their homes, farmlands, and crops. New seeds are needed to secure the upcoming harvest.

Registration is now open. Register by 28 April for the 5 May conference and five days in advance of the various workshops focusing on decolonizing North-South research.

The extraction of tannins has the potential to create new, sustainable income opportunities for the people of the Philippines. In a four-year project, researchers from the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) and the Philippines identified coconut husks as a promising source of large quantities of tannin.

Shifting cultivation, a vital system in tropical landscapes, is undergoing exciting transitions. Eight archetypes, from perennial plantation crops to restored secondary forests, encapsulate these transitions. Factors like higher expected land rents, resulting form increased market access, crop price surges, secure land tenure, and state interventions are the main drivers of archetypical transitions to perennial plantation crops, permanent agroforestry, permanent non-perennial crops and wood plantation.Meanwhile, prioritizing other on- and off-farm activities leads to transitions to regrown secondary forests and non-cultivated non-forested lands.

The consequences of these transitions are diverse and context-dependent. Positive environmental outcomes are seen in transitions to permanent agroforestry, regrown secondary forests, and restored secondary forests. However, economically profitable transitions to perennial plantation crops, permanent non-perennial crops, pasture, and wood plantations often result in negative environmental impacts. This diversity calls for a critical and contextualized appraisal of shifting cultivation and its transitions in designing land system policies that benefit both people and nature