Exploring how biodiversity, local knowledge and agroforestry can strengthen climate resilience across West Africa.
Seeing the diversity on my uncle’s land inspired this research.
As we travelled through the thick heat and dusty roads of Abengourou, we suddenly turned into dense vegetation and forest. Everything changed. I felt a cool breeze flow over me, offering relief from the scorching heat.
After an hour of driving, we were finally there.
Passion fruit. Cocoa. Mangoes. Yams. Plantains.
My uncle told me that some of the produce grew without him even trying to plant it—it simply gave itself to us.
As we walked through the farm, he picked up a diseased fruit and threw it onto the ground.
I asked,
“But won’t the disease spread?”
He laughed.
“It’s too diverse. It won’t touch anything.”
He was right.
Later, bringing this experience back to my aunt’s land, which is a monocrop rubber plantation, I couldn’t ignore the difference. One landscape was full of life, cooler and constantly changing. The other felt man-made, hotter and far more vulnerable.
That contrast became the genesis of this research.
It left me asking a simple question:
Could biodiversity itself be one of agriculture’s greatest forms of resilience?
Today, this project explores that question through research into agroforestry, biodiversity and climate resilience across Côte d’Ivoire and West Africa.
Current research explores:
- Biodiversity and resilience within cocoa agroforestry systems
- Agroforestry compared with monocrop cocoa and rubber plantations
- Climate resilience and adaptation for smallholder farmers
- The relationship between biodiversity, soil health and crop productivity
- Indigenous knowledge and traditional farming systems
- Sustainable rural livelihoods across Côte d’Ivoire
- The role of agroforestry in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration
- The contribution of agroforestry to wider environmental initiatives such as the Great Green Wall
