Wei Zhang
Senior Research Fellow, Natural
Resources and Resilience
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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.
researcher spotlight
Samuel Benin is the Acting Director for Africa in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. He conducts research on national strategies and public investment for accelerating food systems transformation in Africa and provides analytical support to the African Union’s CAADP Biennial Review.
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IFPRI is committed to providing policy-relevant research for better nutrition and livelihoods.
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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.
Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems, including many that are essential for agricultural production and food, such as water supply, pollination, and climate regulation. Biodiversity is the variety of life at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels, and plays a key role in ecosystem services. For instance, soil fertility, pollination, and natural pest control are examples of biodiversity-mediated ecosystem services that are critical to crop production. How crops and agricultural lands are managed and maintained can have positive—or negative—effects on ecosystem services and biodiversity.
IFPRI research provides much-needed insight into how the dual goals of food and nutrition security and ecosystem health can be included in the decision-making of farmers, communities, and policymakers. To inform policies and local governance that promote sustainability and inclusion, IFPRI engages in policy-relevant research on valuing and modeling ecosystem services, assessing the relationship between biodiversity-mediated ecosystem services and land use and management choices, informing community-based conservation, and supporting self-governance of common pool resources, including designing, testing, and scaling natural resource management games for research and experiential learning. IFPRI’s research on ecosystem services and biodiversity uniquely pays attention to gender and institutions.
IFPRI’s ecosystem services and biodiversity research is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 15, and the CGIAR Impact Areas on Climate Adaptation and Mitigation; Environmental Health and Biodiversity; and Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs.
Working Paper
Working Paper
Brief
Overcoming challenges to helping smallholders.
Water, energy, food, forests, and biodiversity systems are intricately linked but projects to improve resource usage are too often siloed.
Better management of shared natural resources can boost food system transformation.
Webinar: April 29, 2024 – 10:00 AM- 11:00 AM EDT. Join this webinar to hear from experts from IFPRI, the Bezos Earth Fund, Land & Carbon Lab and partners as they discuss the importance of transforming global food systems and the role that geospatial monitoring can play in this.
Virtual Event: September 21, 2023 – 7:45 AM- 9:15 AM EDT. This second seminar of the CGIAR Policy Seminar Series on Strengthening Food Systems examines past and current ecosystem service payment schemes targeted at smallholders, evaluates their effectiveness, and impacts, and explores how such schemes could be taken forward in order to help build greater resilience within food systems.
Virtual Event: August 23, 2022 – 7:00 AM to September 1, 2022 – 12:20 PM EDT. IFPRI is participating in World Water Week 2022, the leading conference on global water issues.
Eureka Alert published an article stating that a team of scientists argue that a One Health approach to plant health is vital if we are to sustainably feed a growing population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. The researchers, who published a commentary in the CABI Agriculture and Bioscience journal, suggest that a One […]
Daily News (Sri Lanka) published an article about new research that is part of a special edition of Ecological Restoration titled “Restoration by Whom, for Whom,” published in June 2021. The research includes work on farmer-managed natural regeneration in Ghana, on-farm experiments and payments for ecosystem services in Kenya, a government-led tree planting initiative in Vietnam, and […]
Daily News (Tanzania) profiled Senior Research Fellow Ephraim Nkonya. The profile highlights Tanzanian-born Nkonya’s years of work and research in agricultural development. The article also discusses his life and education from childhood to university, leading to his career.
Senior Research Fellow, Natural
Resources and Resilience
Research Analyst, Innovation
Policy and Scaling
Research Analyst, Development
Strategies and Governance