Balancing food security and biodiversity: Co-designing regenerative pathways in Kenya’s Central Highlands
In Kenya’s Central Highlands, the future of feeding communities while conserving biodiversity is at a crossroads. Production systems in the region are hindered by erratic and declining rainfall, soil fertility loss, watershed degradation, and increasing climate stress. Furthermore, intensive farming, land fragmentation, shrinking land and water sources, and overgrazed rangelands are degrading the very ecosystems that sustain rural livelihoods.
Balancing food security and biodiversity: Co-designing regenerative pathways in Kenya’s Central Highlands
In Kenya’s Central Highlands, the future of feeding communities while conserving biodiversity is at a crossroads. Production systems in the region are hindered by erratic and declining rainfall, soil fertility loss, watershed degradation, and increasing climate stress. Furthermore, intensive farming, land fragmentation, shrinking land and water sources, and overgrazed rangelands are degrading the very ecosystems that sustain rural livelihoods.
To respond to these challenges, a coalition of visionary partners including the Nature Conservancy (TNC); the Centre for Training and Integrated Research in ASAL Development (CETRAD); Micro Enterprises Support Program Trust (MESPT); Sustainable Agriculture Foundation (SAF); CABI; Kenya National Chamber of Commerce (KNCC); and multiple CGIAR centers (the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, IWMI, ICRISAT and CIP), joined forces under the Central Highlands Eco-Region Foodscape (CHEF) initiative. Their goal: to co-create actionable, science-backed solutions that catalyze regenerative agriculture transformation through targeted water, finance, and rangeland interventions to restore productivity and enhance biodiversity.