Part-time research assistant: biodiversity and agricultural commodities
The Cornell Ecoagriculture Working Group is recruiting a part-time graduate research assistant for fall 2011 to collaborate on two exciting research projects related to biodiversity conservation and tropical agriculture. This position is an excellent opportunity for a student in ecology, natural resources, sustainable agriculture, or a related field to gain experience working on key scientific challenges at the nexus of agriculture, tropical deforestation, and biodiversity conservation, and to interface with leading organizations working in this space. Follow this link for the complete position description and application instructions.
Sara Scherr, President of EcoAgriculture Partners, to visit Cornell Fall, 2011
Dr. Scherr, a Cornell alumnus, will give a Natural Resource Department Seminar on Nov 15th at 3:30pm. She will give a CIIFAD seminar on Wednesday, Nov 16th 12:20-1:10 in Bradfield 101.
`Farm of the Future’ and `Payments for Watershed Service’ publications available, produced by EcoAgriculture Partners and USDA Office of Environmental Markets
The USDA Office of Environmental Markets (OEM) and EcoAgriculture Partners announced the release of two
studies on the use of market mechanisms to enhance environmental stewardship on farms and rural lands in the US. Information about the studies is available at this link. EWG members Louise Buck and Jeff Milder played primary roles in the studies.
Twelve video case studies about ecoagriculture available on www.agriculturebridge.org/
The Agriculture Bridge site for teaching and learning about ecoagriculture now hosts 12 video case studies that are accessible for anyone to view. Complementary written case studies and guidelines for faculty users are accessible by joining the Agriculture Bridge learning network. Visit the www.agriculturebridge.org home page or contact help@agriculturebridge.org for more information and support.
Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative lanunched
Landscapes for People, Food and Nature (LPFN) is an international initiative for dialogue, learning and action about ecoagriculture.
Three components of the initiative include: 1) Global Review in 2011 and early 2012 to expand the evidence base for ecoagriculture, 2) International Forum in March 2012 to develop action agendas for policy, investment, capacity building and research, 3) Action and Advocacy to implement the agendas and 2012 and beyond. For information click here. |
News Archive
Jeff McNeely will visit Cornell University next fall
October 1-8, 2010
Jeff McNeely will be on campus October 1-9, 2010, for a series of lectures and discussions with faculty, staff, and student. The Department of Natural Resources will be coordinating his visit and activities on campus.
Jeffrey A. McNeely, has recently retired from his role as Chief Scientist at IUCN, where he has worked since 1980. He is currently working to link biodiversity to sustainable agriculture, human health, biotechnology, climate change, energy, and more traditional fields of IUCN interest such as species, protected areas, ecosystems, and economics. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, Chairman of the Board of Ecoagriculture Partners, President of the Asia Section of the Society for Conservation Biology, a member of the Scientific and Technical Council of the International Risk Governance Council, and an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. eff McNeely is now Senior Science Advisor to IUCN (IUCN, 2009).
International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN], 2009. People News Story: http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/business/?3939 |
The Ecoagriculture Working Group and Ecoagriculture Partners participated in the Agriculture & Rural Development Day at COP15
December 12, 2009
Seth Shames (EP), Antonio Bento, Sam Bell and John Fay (CU), presented the Session "The State of Agricultural Landscapes GHG Measurement”. This session explored the state of tools and methodologies development around agricultural landscape GHG monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems. Until very recently there have been few rigorous tools and validated methodologies for assessing agriculture related emissions, but these are now emerging for specific components of agricultural land use — for example, soil organic matter enrichment, conservation tillage, agroforestry, grassland management, etc. However, there is generally a piecemeal approach to this methodology development, with each land use being treated separately, creating skepticism that climate investment benefits in one component of an agricultural landscape will be undermined by increased emissions elsewhere in the landscape. Better methodologies are needed that employ an integrated approach to landscape-level carbon accounting. They must account for diverse land uses and management practices and provide for rigorous, cost effective monitoring of large-area carbon sequestration investment programs in heterogeneous, dynamic landscapes.
Seth Shames of Ecoagriculture Partners provided a synthesis of news from key players in the field as they move towards filling key research and methodology gaps.
Antonio Bento, Sam Bell and John Fay from the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future (CCSF) discussed Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), a conservation agriculture initiative in Zambia, as an illustration of the technical challenges and emerging solutions for integrated MRV methodology.Click here to access the poster presented during the session.
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Seminar: New approaches for assessing carbon sequestration, other ecosystem services and livelihood benefits in complex agriculture landscapes
October 2009
Dr. James Lassoie, from the Department of Natural Resources, and Dr. David Wolfe, from the Department of Horticulture, presented this seminar at Cornell University.
The seminar highlighted the approach that a recently formed, multi-disciplinary research team at Cornell is taking to develop a methodology that will rigorously and cost-effectively account for carbon balances, and linked ecosystem services and livelihood benefits, from large-area carbon sequestration or offset investment programs in complex agriculture landscapes. Members of the team framed the global land use carbon methodology challenge and illustrated how it is playing out in a landscape in Zambia. They explained how prospective monitoring protocols are being developed through strategic soil sampling and the use of statistical tools, and the design of complementary livelihood security evaluation instruments.
The seminar was co/sponsored the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future (CCSF). |
Landscape Measures 'Proof of concept' planning workshop
May 2009
On May 12th the Landscape Measures group at Ecoagriculture Partners conducted a 'Proof of Concept' Planning Workshop in Washington, DC.
The workshop was hosted by the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, and facilitated by the Generative Change Community (GCC).
The day-long meeting engaged members of some 15 international organizations who are pursuing conservation, agriculture and/or rural development goals at landscape scale, and seek to share their experience and learn more about approaches, methods and tools that can improve their practice.
The main goal of the workshop was to initiate a process for critically examining the Landscape Measures approach and anticipating its relevance in a variety of programmatic contexts and landscape settings as a basis for further developing the approach and its supporting methods and tools.
A leadership group emerged from the workshop who will plan and initiate next steps with input from all participants.
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The Academic Venture Fund (AVF) of the CCSF has awarded a grant for the development of a cost-effective land use carbon assessment methodology
Fall 2009
The Academic Venture Fund (AVF) of the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future (CCSF) has awarded a grant to a team of Cornell faculty members to explore the development of a cost-effective land use carbon assessment methodology that can help farmers around the world benefit from emerging carbon markets and bring the agriculture sector into global climate change treaties.
The group is collaborating with Ecoagriculture Partners, Forest Trends, The Terrestrial Carbon Group, COMACO and others to pioneer a methodology that accounts for potential co-benefits of carbon-rich farming including hydrological function, biodiversity conservation, livelihood security and others.
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Professor Jim Lassoie and PhD candidate Jamie Herring became fellows of EP
Spring 2009 |
IUCN’s Arborvitae newsletter publishes "Learning from Landscapes" issue
2008
This arborvitae special reviews best practices in assessing landscape values. It is based
upon on-the-ground experiences of the Ecoagriculture Partners Landscape Measures
Initiative and IUCN’s Livelihoods and Landscapes Initiative.
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