Living Traditions in a Changing World
Ethnobotany & Climate Action
Our Approach:
The AgroForest Project recognizes that the most powerful climate solutions grow from the intersection of traditional wisdom and innovative agriculture. Together, we're pioneering an approach to sustainable agriculture that centers bioculturalism while addressing today's climate challenges.
Our Mission:
We partner with communities to co-create climate-smart agricultural systems that are as diverse and resilient as the cultures that maintain them. By integrating culturally significant plants with innovative farming techniques, we develop nature-based solutions that deliver measurable, culturally significant ecosystem services.
Our Cultural Ecosystem Services Framework:
Our innovative framework places cultural ecosystem services at the heart of climate-smart agriculture, creating systems that:
Preserve local knowledge while combating climate change
Enhance biodiversity through multi-layered planting strategies
Strengthen community engagement and cultural preservation
Mimic natural systems for resilience
Generate measurable outcomes of a system’s cultural ecosystem service
By working alongside communities to integrate culturally significant plants with climate-smart techniques, we develop nature-based solutions that sequester carbon, enhance biodiversity, and maintain cultural connections.
Initiatives
Seeds of Resilience: Appalachian Heritage in Home Gardens
In the mountain communities of West Virginia, home gardens function as multifaceted resources, providing household food security through directly accessible sources, supporting healthcare through medicinal plant resources, and maintaining cultural continuity through place-based stewardship practices.
As rural communities navigate environmental and socioeconomic changes, understanding the role of home gardens in maintaining both biological and cultural diversity provides insights into community-based conservation approaches and the adaptive capacity of traditional agroecological systems.
Biocentrism in the Anthropocene: Ethnobotanical Agroforestry
Community-managed agroforestry systems can function as multifaceted biocultural archives by safeguarding generations of local plant knowledge through community-selected species integration.
Building upon a decade-long agroforestry system established in Zafi, Togo, which has demonstrated measurable benefits, including enhanced carbon sequestration and improved water retention, this project investigates how agroforestry systems can be redefined through biocentric worldviews by applying the AgroForest Project cultural ecosystem services framework.
Consultation Services
The consultation services seek to support companies in developing market-based mechanisms for reducing and removing Scope 3 emissions within tropical commodity value chains, with specialized expertise in agroforestry interventions for coffee and cocoa production systems. Expertise encompasses existing and emerging insetting frameworks for market-based mechanisms.
