Changing lives and landscapes
Paul Stapleton is Head of Communications at the World Agroforestry Centre. He began his career with a University of London degree in botany and zoology, and this has allowed him to work effectively in many different areas of science. His first position was with CAB International, checking abstracts of scientific articles, then he worked as a desk editor on one of the biggest biochemical journals in the world for Elsevier Scientific in the Netherlands. This gave him a solid understanding of science publishing, which stood him well in subsequent positions.
After Elsevier, he moved to work with the editorial section of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia. From there he moved to Bogor, Indonesia to develop the Indonesian Journal of Crop Science with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), where he wrote the popular “Writing Scientific Research Papers: a Guide for Non-native English Speakers”. After Bogor he worked for the now Bioversity in Rome for 13 years as Head of Publications, spent 2 years in Samoa with the South Pacific Regional Environment Program and 4 years as Head of Communications and Public Awareness with the International Potato Centre in Lima, Peru.
Improving developing country farmers‘ income is one of the most effective ways to reduce their vulnerability to climate change. This is one of the conclusions that Henry Neufeldt, climate change scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, and Tannis Thorlakson, a graduate student at Harvard reported to the Planet under Pressure meeting participants in the Poster-session “Reducing Subsistence [...]
Post written by Godfrey Mwaloma, Pro-Poor Rewards for Environmental Services in Africa, ICRAF Payments or rewards for environmental services is a concept bringing together the rural poor, governments, the private sector and international organizations. How does it work? Think of forests and wetlands as providers of services. They provide clean water that is used downstream [...]
A learning event at the Agriculture and Rural Development Day held in association with United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa discussed how to raise awareness of the potential for Evergreen Agriculture as an approach to improve livelihoods, adaptation and mitigation in the tropics, and its successful expansion in Africa.
Two very different places – oceans apart – shared their climate-smart stories in a fascinating FAO/WFP/IFAD side event at the United Nations climate change meeting, COP17, on 2 December.
Poor farmers will not adopt climate-smart agricultural techniques if they do not offer the farmers clear and immediate benefits. During a side event at the UN Climate Change meeting in Durban on 1 December 2012, World Agroforestry’s Henry Neufeldt highlighted the need to transform agriculture because extensification and intensification have had significant negative effects on [...]
