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Sustainable Aquaponics for Food Security and Community Empowerment in São Tomé and Príncipe

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £946,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Coastal Ecosystems Food Systems Improving livelihoods Small Island Developing States

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Project Summary

Countries: São Tomé & Príncipe

Delivery Partner: Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão

Project Partners: Instituto Superior de Agronomia, ONG MARAPA , Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia da Universidade de São Tomé e Príncipe, Direção das Pescas e Aquacultura (DPA)

Principal Investigator: Idalina Dias Sardinha, Invited Associate Professor at ISEG and Senior Researcher at ISEG Research, Universidade de Lisboa, specialising in Sustainability Science.

 

Challenge

This SISTA project addresses the critical nexus of poverty, climate vulnerability, and biodiversity loss in São Tomé and Príncipe by establishing a sustainable, community-driven aquaponics model. Our innovative approach will develop a climate-resilient pilot system using local materials, integrating tilapia with the native freshwater prawn to enhance biodiversity. A key element is the creation of an eco-efficient, closed-loop system based on principles of circular economy, by producing sustainable fish feed from local agricultural waste, thereby overcoming a major cost driver for aquaponics in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and minimizing environmental impact.

Therefore, SISTA employs a transdisciplinary methodology, structured in three phases: 1) Co-design and Pilot Implementation, 2) Vocational Training and Capacity Building, and 3) Scaling and Enterprise Development.

The project’s transformative change is anchored in identifying and establishing the essential technical, socio-economic and institutional enablers of aquaponics, such as inclusive governance and sustainable business models, that ensure long-term community ownership of 10–15 community-managed units.

This foundation empowers vulnerable groups, especially women and youth, through a comprehensive vocational training program, fostering local entrepreneurship and livelihoods. By scaling this proven model to 10–15 community-managed units, SISTA will directly enhance food security, increase incomes, and build climate resilience. Co-created with local partners, the project delivers a scalable blueprint for sustainable food production that ensures long-term impact and serves as a model for other SIDS.

 

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Coastal Ecosystems Food Systems Improving livelihoods Small Island Developing States

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AFBIO: Timor-Leste’s Living Landscapes: Agroforestry for Biodiversity and Resilience

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £999,000
Dates: Jul 26-Dec 28

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Agriculture Conservation and Restoration Governance Improving livelihoods

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Project Summary

Countries: Timor Leste

Delivery Partner: International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF)

Project Partners: IUCN- International Union for Conservation of Nature, FUNDAÇÃO BIAMALAI, Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO)

Principal Investigator:  Sonya Dewi, International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF)

Challenge

The AFBIO project is designed to deliver transformative outcomes by directly addressing the interconnected challenges of poverty, biodiversity loss, and climate change in Timor-Leste. Focusing on a “landscape-to-seascape” approach, the project empowers communities by establishing an ecological matrix of climate-smart agroforestry and agrosilvofishery systems for resilience livelihoods. This will restore crucial habitat connectivity and prevent ecological disintegration beyond protected areas.

The project will address critical environmental and socio-economic challenges through four key outcomes:
• Enhanced Governance: We will establish new governance frameworks that integrate non-conservation areas, empowering stakeholders to manage resources cooperatively.
• Empowered Farmers: Farmers will be equipped with knowledge, skills, and resources, including a local nursery, to become stewards of agrobiodiversity.
• Green Enterprises: We will foster profitable, nature-based businesses by creating clear business plans and value chain analyses, directly addressing poverty.
• Broader Impact: Our findings will be documented as evidencebased policy recommendations for scalability across TimorLeste and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Innovating through scientific modeling and inclusive partnerships, we will explore the potential for new Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) guided by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. A core commitment to Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) ensures equitable access to resources and opportunities, ensuring the project’s long-term sustainability and impact.

 

Header Image: Forest canopies meet thriving agroforestry and agricultural fields in Aileu Municipality, Timor-Leste. Credit to Hikmah Fajar Assidiq

 

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Birds for Sustainable Agrifood Systems: Strengthening biodiversity, climate resilience, and rural prosperity in Colombia

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £925,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Conservation and Restoration Improving livelihoods Nature based solutions

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Project Summary

Countries: Colombia

Delivery Partner: National Audubon Society

Project Partners: Centro para la Investigación en Sistemas Sostenibles de Producción Agropecuaria , Universidad ICESI

Principal Investigator: Gloria Lentijo, Regenerative Agriculture Director, Latin America and the Caribbean, National Audubon Society

 

Challenge

Colombia’s Cauca Valley is one of the country’s most biodiverse regions, home to over 900 bird species that provide essential services for agrifood systems (pest control, pollination). Yet conventional cattle farming is degrading habitats, driving biodiversity loss, and leaving rural families trapped in low productivity systems and vulnerable to climate shocks.

This project aims to transform these landscapes by embedding bird-friendly Nature-based Solutions (NbS) into smallholder cattle farming. Birds will be used as indicators of ecosystem health to show how NbS—such as silvopastoral systems, hedgerows, and riparian restoration—restore habitats, regulate water, improve soil fertility, reduce cattle heat stress, and strengthen livelihoods. Despite their benefits, NbS adoption remains limited due to economic, policy, and knowledge barriers.

Through ecological monitoring, innovative tools like passive acoustic monitoring and DNA metabarcoding, farmer-led exchanges, and pilot incentive schemes, the project will generate robust evidence on how NbS improve biodiversity, productivity, and resilience, while creating pathways for wider adoption.

The potential for transformative change lies in aligning farmer-led solutions with policies and incentives, embedding bird conservation into productive landscapes. Benefits will flow to farmers and communities (income, resilience), researchers and NGOs (robust evidence and tools), policymakers (actionable recommendations), donors and private actors (investment-ready models). Results will support Colombia’s biodiversity and climate goals while offering a replicable framework for sustainable agriculture across Latin America and beyond.

 

Header photo credit: Andres Estefan/Audubon

 

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Enhancing Pollinator Biodiversity for Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Resilience

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £585,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Agriculture Conservation and Restoration Food Systems Nature based solutions

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Project Summary

Countries: Nigeria

Delivery Partner: University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (UAES) Umuagwo

Project Partners: Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) Nigeria , Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) – Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Environment (FMEnv) – Nigeria, Sheda Science and Technology Complex Abuja, Nigerian Women Agro Allied Farmers Association (NIWAAFA) – Nigeria

Principal Investigator: Dr. Francis Ugochukwu Madu, University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (UAES) Umuagwo

 

Challenge

This project aims to enhance pollinator (bees, moths, butterflies, wasps, and hoverflies) biodiversity within smallholder farming systems to improve agricultural productivity, climate resilience, and ecosystem sustainability. By integrating agroecological practices (use of bee pastures, set aside hedgerows and nesting sites, grow a variety of crops, including annuals and perennials, and plant flowering plants at different times of the year, using integrated pest management, minimize tillage to avoid disturbing underground insect nests), pollinator-friendly habitat restoration, and precision pollination technologies, the project will support pollinator populations critical for food security.

The research will assess the impact of biodiversity-enhancing interventions, develop climate resilient pollination strategies, and engage local communities in conservation efforts. Deliverables include scientific assessments of pollinator diversity, AI-driven monitoring tools (crop monitoring drones, wireless sensor networks, Internet of Things), eDNA assessments, farmer training programs, and policy recommendations for biodiversity-friendly agriculture.

The outcomes will contribute to poverty reduction by increasing crop yields and farmer incomes, support climate adaptation through resilient ecosystems, and promote biodiversity conservation by restoring pollinator habitats.

 

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Enhancing biodiversity, climate resilience and livelihoods through more sustainable and equitable cattle value chains in communal rangelands of South Africa

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £795,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Food Systems Improving livelihoods Indigenous Peoples Nature based solutions

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Project Summary

Countries: South Africa

Delivery Partner: Coventry University

Project Partners: Khusel’Indalo South Africa, Conservation South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), University of Venda

Principal Investigator: Dr James Bennett, Associate Professor, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University

 

Challenge

Through a focus on communal rangelands in the globally important Maputaland- Pondoland- Albany (MPA) biodiversity hotspot in South Africa, this project analyses how Nature- based Solutions (NbS) can be optimised socially and ecologically within a community setting to deliver improved outcomes for biodiversity, climate change and local livelihoods.

Working through an existing Herding for Health (H4H) community engagement model and using a co-construction and ‘living labs’ approach, the project will explore ways to enhance NbS practice and outcomes in three key areas.

    1. Firstly, the development of more appropriate and inclusive institutional arrangements for delivering NbS and monitoring of biodiversity, focused on increased community participation and incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and practice.
    2. Secondly, testing how existing and novel (e.g. thinning of invasive trees) NbS approaches can be optimised in time and space to deliver improvements in forage production, soil carbon and biodiversity in rangelands. Related scientific modelling of these outcomes at scale, under different climate projections, will enable evaluation of different rangeland management practices, and will be used as a basis for co-developing community climate adaptation scenarios.
    3. Thirdly, the project will evaluate how these potential improvements in ecosystem services can enhance livelihood outcomes by increasing currently limited opportunities for local people, particularly women, to participate in the beef value chain. Our analysis will identify key opportunities for adapting the current H4H model in communal rangelands, with potential to scale to 9 additional H4H sites in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Photo Credit: Granny Mokgakane, a cattle farmer in the communal rangelands of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve in South Africa who is implementing sustainable cattle grazing (310A3654) Photographer: M&M Pictures

 

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Scaling Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience, Biodiversity Conservation, and Sustainable Livelihoods in Ethiopia’s Drylands: A Participatory Systems Approach

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £958,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Food Systems Improving livelihoods Nature based solutions

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Project Summary

Countries: Ethiopia

Delivery Partner: University of Greenwich

Project Partners: CIAT – Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical,  Haramaya University, Makobu Enterprises Plc

Principal Investigator: Dr. Mofakkarul Islam, Associate Professor of Food Security, Environment and Development, University of Greenwich

 

Challenge

The project aims to transform farming systems in Ethiopia’s Central Rift Valley (CRV) drylands by scaling Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that enhance biodiversity, build climate resilience, and reduce poverty. Over 1.5 million CRV smallholders face mounting risks from drought, land degradation, and water scarcity, threatening food security and livelihoods. Promising NbS – such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture, regenerative grazing, and wetland restoration – already exist, yet their long-term effectiveness, scalability, trade-offs, and enabling conditions remain poorly evidenced, especially under changing climatic and socioeconomic dynamics.

Our theory of change is that by generating robust evidence on which NbS deliver the greatest co-benefits, co-designing pathways with communities and policymakers, and embedding these in supportive policy, finance, and extension systems, we can enable widespread adoption. Participatory System Dynamics Modelling (SDM), augmented by Artificial Intelligence, will assess NbS effectiveness and trade-offs, providing policymakers and development partners with credible evidence, decision support tools, and guidance, while participatory co-design processes will strengthen stakeholder capacity and ownership, thus supporting institutional reforms that promote NbS adoption at scale.

This in turn will deliver improved soil health, water retention, biodiversity, and climate resilience, enhancing farm productivity and diversifying incomes. All project outputs and engagement will actively consider Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI), ensuring women, youth, and marginalised groups benefit from more equitable opportunities.

 

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AquaRoots: Rooting Shrimp Farming in Biodiversity for Climate Resilience and Food Security

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £990,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Coastal Ecosystems Food Systems Improving livelihoods

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Project Summary

Countries: Mexico

Delivery Partner: University of Leeds

Project Partners: SCPP ACUICOLA LA ENSENADA S.C. DE R.L. DE C.V, Comision Nacional Forestal, Municipio de Angostura, Universidad Politécnica del Valle del Évora, CAREY COSTA AZUL, S.C. de R.L. de C.V.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Alan Javier Hernandez Alvarez, Lecturer in Nutrition and Global Health, University of Leeds

 

Challenge

Sinaloa’s shrimp farms (SF) have decimated ecosystems, deepened social inequality, and degraded local livelihoods. Driven by community needs, AquaRoots pilots a sustainable shrimp silvoaquaculture system (SSSS) in Mexico, integrating microecosystem (μES) management and biodiversity-based solutions for eco-social and economic resilience.

A demonstration site will showcase how μES-enhancing species reduce the negative impacts of SF on the environment. By bridging the nutritionalsensory gap between farmed and wild-caught shrimp, AquaRoots will simultaneously increase the productivity, lower μES-farmer expenses, and open market access. AquaRoots will use citizen science to empower vulnerable stakeholders in democratically generating biodiversity data for real-time impact evaluation.

AquaRoots links “ejidos” to the blue carbon market via mangrove carbon sequestration, ensuring shared communal benefits for collective landholders. By minimising chemical and organic matter discharge through its SSSS, AquaRoots enhances coastal ecosystem health and bolsters wild fishery people, which directly supports local fishing families and cooperatives. AquaRoots aims to pioneer and demonstrate a sustainable, biodiversity-driven shrimp farming system, establishing a regenerative model that ensures long-term environmental, economic, and social benefits, and developing a globally applicable model.

 

All Photo Credits to Dr Oscar Abel Sánchez Velázquez, AquaRoots team.

 

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REVIVE: Just Restoration and Equitable Value Chains for Inclusive, Viable Mangrove Ecosystems: The case of Malaysia

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £714,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Conservation and Restoration Improving livelihoods

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Project Summary

Countries: Malaysia

Delivery Partner: The University of Manchester

Project Partners: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Mangrove Research Unit (MARU), Institute of Oceanography and Environment (INOS), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), University of Warwick, Cardiff University School of Mathematics , PENANG INSHORE FISHERMEN WELFARE ASSOCIATION (PIFWA)

Principal Investigator: Dr Aarti Krishnan, Developmental Economist, University of Manchester

 

Challenge

REVIVE builds scalable, evidence-based pathways for just restoration in Malaysia. Mangroves buffer storms, sustain fisheries, and store carbon, yet top-down, science-only restoration have seldom delivered self-sustaining models that balance climatebiodiversity with fair livelihoods. Also, value chains draw on mangrove resources, but channel rents to intermediaries, leaving communities in low-skill roles facing trade-offs exacerbating social inequality and ecological loss.

REVIVE develops and tests hybrid co-governance that couples community participation (CP)-voice in decisions, grievance redress, shared monitoring with value chain (VC) upgrading into highervalue diversified products/services. We track impacts using three measures: Just Restoration Index (carbon, social, economic); Restoration Stewardship Index (collective capacity and agency); and a Restoration Imaginaries Index (shared future visions), alongside explicit trade-off analysis.

Working in Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR), Sungai Acheh & Sungai Chenaam (SASCM), and Setiu Wetlands (SWMT) we run a RCT (Control; CP; CP+VC) integrated with habitatsuitability, blue-carbon modelling, co-production, digital ethnography, and agent-based modelling to identify CP×VC configurations that are effective and equitable.

Outputs include a Restorative Business Model Canvas, reporting app, open maps/datasets/code, policy and industry briefs, Community of Practice for scale-out. Communities (especially women and youth) gain agency, better jobs; state forestry/NGOs/ certifiers gain auditable metrics and evidence; firms gain ESG opportunities; donors gain carbon and justice baselines, supporting transformational change.

 

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Regenerative Island Futures: Unlocking sustainable food-system opportunities for Ecotourism in SIDS

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £1,000,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Agriculture Conservation and Restoration Food Systems Improving livelihoods

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Project Summary

Countries: Fiji

Delivery Partner: Bioversity International

Project Partners: Nukubati Resort Pte Limited, Pacific Island Food Revolution Ltd New Zealand , University of the South PacificCenter for Sustainable Futures (IAS Section)

Principal Investigator: Dr Gina Kennedy, Principal Scientist, Bioversity International

 

Challenge

Communities in Small Island Developing States face interconnected challenges of climate vulnerability, biodiversity loss, and limited economic opportunities. This research will develop a contextualized, evidence-based approach that leverages the expanding ecotourism market to catalyze climate-smart, biodiversity-based supply and demand solutions.

With Vanua Levu, Fiji as the case study, we will demonstrate how restoring the use of local biodiversity can diversify community incomes, reverse ecological decline, and strengthen climate resilience, creating a transformational pathway for SIDS. Applied, evidence-based research will build resilience by increasing both the supply and demand of native biodiversity. Communities, in collaboration with the research team, will co-develop solutions for biodiversity-based landscape restoration and climate-smart agriculture to boost supply, while culinary and gastronomy opportunities will be tailored to meet the growing demand of ecotourism.

The project will directly benefit actors across ecotourism value chains, including input suppliers (seedlings, planting materials, compost), local producers (farms and markets), and the culinary sector (food processing and preparation), with intentional focus on women and youth. Additional beneficiaries include policymakers, government agencies, researchers, donors, and the broader tourism industry in Fiji and other SIDS, who will gain evidence and tools to guide investment, implementation and policy decisions.

 

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FABRIKs: Fallow Agroecology Biodiversity and Resilience through Integrating Knowledge Systems in the Peruvian Amazon

Project Details

Status: Active
GCBC Funding Round: RGC3
Grant Value: £960,000
Dates: Jul 26-Jun 29

Published 13 Jul 2026

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Agriculture Nature based solutions

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Project Summary

Countries: Peru

Delivery Partner: International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF)

Project Partners: Bangor University, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas (UNTRM), UNIVERSIDAD CIENTÍFICA DEL SUR (UCSUR), Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Valentina Robiglio, Senior Land Use System Specialist, ICRAF

 

Challenge

FABRIKs advances Amazon landscape transformation by demonstrating that biodiversity-friendly fallow management can simultaneously drive climate resilience, biodiversity gains, and poverty reduction at system, ecosystem, and market levels. Led by CIFOR-ICRAF, this transdisciplinary project addresses biodiversity loss in Peru’s Amazon and develops replicable approaches for sustainable land use across tropical regions.

Applying socio-ecological systems science, FABRIKs co-develops evidence-based fallow management protocols, policy frameworks, and market incentives to recognize the value of ecosystem services. An innovative knowledge hub engages a broad coalition of stakeholders—technical specialists, authorities, value chain actors, local communities, and policy makers—to facilitate collaborative learning and scale up nature-based solutions.

The project directly addresses GCBC priorities by showing how biodiverse fallows can transform tropical systems into naturepositive, climate-resilient solutions that reduce poverty and conserve Amazon biodiversity. Participatory processes ensure integration of local knowledge and multi-actor implementation, producing sustainable models for regional transformation.

 

More on the project will be added soon.

In the meantime, explore our Projects page to discover the diverse portfolio of initiatives GCBC is supporting around the world, and see where our research is making an impact.

 

Photo Credits
1. A smallholder explains how he uses his fallow (“purma”) land in Ucayali, Peru, Ernesto Benavides/Landscape Alliance
2. A smallholder working on his fallow (“purma”) land in Ucayali, Peru, Ernesto Benavides/Landscape Alliance
3. A plantation of fast-growing timber trees established on fallow land in Ucayali, Peru, Ernesto Benavides/Landscape Alliance
4. A tree in a fallow (“purma”) area on a smallholder farm in Ucayali, Peru, Ernesto Benavides/Landscape Alliance
5. A fallow (“purma”) area on a smallholder farm in Ucayali, Peru, Ernesto Benavides/Landscape Alliance

 

 

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