Inspiring narratives of an improved green environment

Even wildlife photographers struggle to catch a glimpse of the charismatic snow leopard. The snow leopards play a key role as top predators in the Annapurna range of the Himalayas of Northern Nepal. Here local communities must learn to co-exist with these elusive wild cats. There are often tensions between top predators and human settlements: the wolf in the Netherlands is another example.

Digital solutions can play an important role in supporting agricultural transformation towards sustainability and inclusion. This is particularly the case for low- and middle-income countries, where digital solutions can reach people in places that are difficult to reach otherwise. At the same time, we see investments in digital agriculture solutions in the agricultural sector lagging behind other sectors. Solutions often fail to reach the sector at scale and thus local economies are not benefiting from them. The Digital Agri Hub collects information on digital agriculture solutions and helps digital solution providers to find partners to work with and governments, donors and investors to make effective investments that benefit farmers and local economies.

The consumption of chocolate in Europe and the United States is increasing every year. Demand is also rising in emerging economies, such as China, India, and Brazil. Over the next few years, it is expected that an extra million tonnes of cocoa will be demanded. To ensure cocoa production meets the demand for years to come, cultivation will have to be intensified and made more sustainable. Most of cocoa is produced by smallholder farmers. Many farmers miss expertise on sustainable production. To gain insight into good farming practices, many experiments have been conducted. However, the initiatives are scattered and findings and underlying data ended up in separate repositories in various formats often with missing headings and contextual information. These barriers in sharing and re-using such data hamper a comprehensive analysis of cocoa agronomy.

Surveying animals is hard work, takes a lot of time, and costs a lot of money, especially in large, remote areas that are difficult to reach. This is especially true for wildlife in nature reserves and for livestock on large farms. Farmers and nature conservation managers need to know how the animals are doing, even in these hard-to-reach places.