Improving biodiversity and ecosystem health in climate-stressed agricultural landscapes in Africa and Latin America.

The CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes (MFL) Science Program envisions landscapes that are biodiverse, productive, resilient, and low in emissions. In the 2025 season, the program is actively implementing interventions in several countries, building upon the work and successes of previous CGIAR Initiatives including Agroecology, Nature Positive Solutions, Work Package 3 of the Livestock and Climate Initiative, and the Environmental Health and Biodiversity Platform.

A key component of the MFL Program is the B-REAL (Biodiversity for Resilient Ecosystems in Agricultural Landscapes) project, which addresses the urgent issue of biodiversity loss exacerbated by industrial agriculture. Currently, only 12 crops and five animal species provide 75% of the global food supply, reflecting a sharp decline in agricultural biodiversity. B-REAL prioritizes integrating biodiversity conservation directly into agricultural practices, particularly in climate-stressed regions of Kenya and climate-vulnerable areas of Peru and Colombia.

By March 2026, B-REAL aims to mainstream site-specific agroecological practices, leveraging prior achievements from CGIAR’s Nature Positive Solutions and Agroecology Initiatives (2022–2024). This project is a collaborative effort involving multiple CGIAR centers and global partners, including CIFOR-ICRAF, the Coady Institute, and local stakeholders in Kenya, Colombia, and Peru.

Table1: Past achievements in Counties of Kenya, Colombia and Peru; partner organizations

B-REAL follows three impact pathways

1. Enhance integration of biodiversity conservation, ecosystem health, and climate resilience into agricultural landscapes.
   • Develop site-specific intervention plans with communities to pilot and strengthen landscape- and farm-level practices that preserve biodiversity, restore degraded lands using native tree species, and promote community seed banks.
2. Strengthen enabling environment for sustainable and socially equitable biodiversity use and management.
   • Integrate equitable nature positive and agroecological approaches into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs); Co-develop financial and non-financial inclusive incentives for conservation and strengthen the capacity of vulnerable groups to design and monitor inclusive conservation objectives and initiatives.
3. Enhance equity and inclusivity in the access, use, and benefits sharing of biodiversity genetic resources among women, men, youth, and marginalized communities
   • Strengthen equitable biodiversity-based value chains and engage women in multistakeholder platforms with increased leadership capacity and influence on biodiversity decisions.

Project launch and coordination

In July 2025, approximately 40 team members responsible for delivering B-REAL project outputs convened at the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT campus in Cali, Colombia. This meeting facilitated strategic discussions, progress updates, and alignment around the project’s overarching goals and vision. Key areas of focus included gaining deeper insights into each country’s unique landscape ecologies, socio-economic contexts, value chain dynamics, and farmer typologies. Teams reviewed current achievements, identifying strengths to build upon, and shared best practices on existing engagement and collaborative mechanisms. Working collaboratively in country-specific and thematic groups, participants pinpointed actionable contributions and explored partnership opportunities to effectively support the project’s targets and maximize impact.

To facilitate effective implementation, the B-REAL project is coordinated by Yosef Gebrehawaryat as the overall coordinator. Supporting him are dedicated country coordinators:

• Peru: Maria Caludia Tristan, social scientist (Alliance)
• Colombia: Marcela Beltrán, postdoctoral fellow (Alliance) and biological scientist; and Israel Navarrete , associate scientist (CIP)
• Kenya: Lisa Fuchs, political ecologist (Alliance; and Alex Awiti, principal scientist and ecosystem ecologist (CIFOR-ICRAF)

Partner perspectives

The activities built on ongoing learning events, such as the recent visit of the Coady Institute to Kenya’s aggregated farms. The Coady Institute will be a valuable partner in supporting knowledge exchange, GEYSI integration, and value chain development across countries. For Yogesh Ghore, senior program teaching staff at Coady Institute, transitions to increased ecosystem health in multifunctional landscapes must grow form the inside out: “To me, real change happens when we identify strong examples—like those I’ve seen in Peru and Kenya—and actively support them so others can learn and follow. Change is a slow process, but that’s how you make it happen.”

Two participants from Kenya commented on their role as local and national partners in co-designing and implementing projects: For Nicholas Syano, CEO and founder of Drylands Natural Resource Center DNRC located in Makueni County, that helps subsistence farmers in dryland Kenya reforest their land and increase crop yields, partnering for international research is a win-win situation: “It’s true—sometimes we put in so much work with limited resources, and it can feel overwhelming. But on the flip side, you also put us on the map and lift us up. It’s a win-win, as long as there’s a balanced, equal partnership—where no one dominates, but instead, we engage in open dialogue and negotiate with mutual respect. That way, we all benefit equally.”

Daniel Wanjama, is the coordinator of the Seed Savers Network, a leading agent in promoting diverse seed access to farming communities in Kenya. He appreciates the workshop invitation: “It’s a great opportunity to be here and discuss the project plans with a full overview. Involving grassroots organizations early, especially during proposal design and research planning, is crucial. While the broader agenda is set by donors, how it’s implemented locally should be shaped by those it aims to benefit. After all, communities know their challenges best, and including their voices in shaping solutions makes them more effective and meaningful.”