Demand for agricultural commodities from EU agrofood systems are driving land use change in biodiversity-rich countries in the Global South, leading to major biodiversity losses. Tackling the EU’s global biodiversity footprint is a top EU policy priority. The science demonstrates the need for transformative change in economic, social, and financial models for safe and just transitions, but there is limited knowledge on how to achieve transformative change in practice, which requires navigation of biodiversity, climate and equity trade-offs and synergies. TC4BE will support transdisciplinary research on different dimensions and scales of telecoupled agrofood systems, engaging diverse stakeholders, including EU and producer-country policy-makers and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Scenarios and modelling of EU agrofood systems transformations, will be complemented by analysis of EU governance, trade, legal, consumer, collective action and sustainable finance levers and social innovations. In three producer countries (Cameroon, Colombia, and Kenya), TC4BE will generate methods for and assess land use change drivers, at-risk biodiversity hotspots, and the effectiveness of Sustainable Landscapes Initiatives. In six landscapes TC4BE will explore relationships to nature, perceptions of socio-ecological histories and futures, rigorously evaluate SLIs, and conduct regenerative enterprise case studies using a structured landscape learning process. Transformative change pathways will be co-generated by diverse stakeholders recognizing plural values and informed by new evidence, decision-making tools and training modules. The overall process will strengthen the capacity of participating stakeholders (care-knowledge-agency) to influence biodiversity and equity outcomes. A global dialogue, facilitated by the Global Landscapes Forum will link the transdisciplinary processes between the scales, supported by additional dissemination and communication activities.

CLEVER identifies new leverage points for sustainable transformation informed by a novel holistic approach to quantify biodiversity and other impacts of trade in major raw and processed non-food biomass value chains. In line with Pillars 3 & 4 of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, we address all outcomes of this topic by adopting perspectives at the system and value chain levels. At the system level, we improve our understanding of leakage effects in the non-food biomass trade system informed by quasi-experimental evaluation techniques, quantitative scenario modelling, and policy case studies. At the value chain level, CLEVER engages with key stakeholders (i.e., producers, traders, retailers, civil society, and policy makers) in R&I co-design to identify leverage points for transformative change at corporate and institutional levels. Value chain analyses will produce ‘ecological footprints’ from advanced life cycle analyses and enhance our understanding of actor-specific behavior focusing on trade in soy, timber, wood pulp, and fishmeal/oil between Europe, South America, and Central Africa. Further CLEVER products and tools to influence decision-making at the right level include (1) improved indicators of biodiversity loss to inform business and policy, (2) enhanced features for the global modelling platform GLOBIOM to quantify trade-mediated leakage and SDG interdependencies in biomass value chains, and (3) an innovation action pool to support public and private decision-makers in choosing governance instruments that effectively enhance biodiversity and promote climate change mitigation and adaptation. Building on prior and ongoing engagement of its members at the science-policy interface and through partnerships with other projects under the destination on biodiversity and ecosystem services, the consortium will leverage CLEVER knowledge and tools to strengthen IPBES and IPCC and enhance science-industry cooperation for sustainable bioeconomic transformation.

The Congo Basin holds the world's second largest continuous rainforest, after the Amazon Basin, and contains about 70 % of Africa’s forest cover. These forests are home to about 30 million people and support livelihoods for more than 75 million additional people who notably rely on local natural resources for food and health. Despite their importance, the emergence and diffusion of agriculture in Congo Basin rainforests remain largely undocumented. Our project, RainForStory, aims to decipher the history of development of agriculture in this region. Toward this aim, we will develop an original multidisciplinary approach involving palaeoecology, palaeoclimatology, archaeology, archaeobotany, and plant genetics. Specifically, our approach will aim to describe the spatio-temporal dynamics of propagation and use of a set of culturally emblematic food plants relying on data acquired through a multidisciplinary approach. RainForStory will allow for the first time the collaboration of researchers from different disciplines and research laboratories (ISEM, CEREGE, PALOC, CEPAM, DIADE, as well as foreign researchers) who all present strong and independent expertise on the study of African rainforests and their people. In turn, this will provide a unique opportunity to develop an integrative answer to the question of the history of emergence and diffusion of rainforests from Central Africa. Understanding the history of agricultural emergence and diffusion in the region and the influence of past human management practices on the evolutionary history of crops will help to orient the conservation and sustainable management of local food plants, and more generally of forest genetic resources, which represent important food and commercial products to local people and are highly threatened by global change. By doing so, RainForStory will contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals 1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger) and 15 (life on land).

The study of tropical biodiversity and ecosystems is crucial to understand, protect and manage nature in an era characterised by an international biodiversity crisis with imminent risks of extinction of species due to global warming and anthropogenic impacts such as habitat destruction and changes in land use. Funded by the European Commission and bearing the latter’s educational excellence brand, TROPIMUNDO is the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Tropical Biodiversity and Ecosystems, and is the first and only MSc program (2 yrs, 120 ECTS) that integrates the knowledge and skills related to the above field of study, while organising 2 full semesters abroad, one of which is located in the tropics.TROPIMUNDO is unique in incorporating theoretical courses and a significant field course in the tropics in Guadeloupe, Cameroon, Madagascar, Malaysia and Hong Kong. It also brings together European expert higher education institutes from Belgium, France and Italy with long-standing worldwide expertise in tropical rainforests and woodlands and in coastal ecosystems. Together they integrate world class scientific education and research expertise on tropical ecosystems and experience in designing and teaching in international MSc programs. The 1st semester aims at teaching basic courses, and the 3rd at specialised courses, in Europe, whereas the 4th is dedicated to the thesis. Graduates obtain a joint-degree, a common TROPIMUNDO Certificate, a joint Europass Diploma Supplement, and various Europass Certificates. TROPIMUNDO’s learning outcomes stretch far beyond academic knowledge and insight, but also aim at demonstrating enhanced capabilities in effective analysis and communication, independence, creativity and assertiveness, critical judgement, and ethical and social understanding.TROPIMUNDO students can choose to focus on botany, zoology and integrative ecosystem approaches. Multiple specialisations include the evolution of tropical flora and vegetation; faunistic assemblages; informatic and geomatic tools to treat and manage biodiversity data and databases; management and conservation of historic collections; diversity, dynamics and evolution of tropical and subtropical ecosystems (with a focus on related systems, namely tropical rainforests and woodlands, savannahs, mangrove forests/rocky shores, seagrass beds and coral reefs); interactions between biota, man and environment; sustainable management and governance of biodiversity, and finally, tropical ethnobotany, exploitation and valorisation of the functions, goods and services of natural habitats and their resources, and conservation of traditional ecological knowledge.This aims at improving the students’ language capabilities for which facilities are provided by all partners. TROPIMUNDO management is handled by a multi-level and shared responsibility involving 4 decision and 1 main execution body. A variety of Associated Partners links TROPIMUNDO to the real and professional world.