Assessing the success of on-farm conservation projects in delivering conservation and livelihood outcomes.

After an initial desk review of 26 studies, six case studies in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador were chosen for in-depth assessment. While each study had its individual characteristics, such as different locally available crops or geographical and environmental conditions, all were focused on using agricultural biodiversity to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers working in varying marginal conditions, and were well-documented which allowed for systematic research to assess their impact.

“The framework, methodology and guidelines developed during the project have allowed us to measure impact in three areas: delivering conservation of agricultural biodiversity, delivering livelihood benefits for farmers, and delivering wider public benefits” explained Mauricio Bellon, Bioversity principal scientist and project leader, to workshop participants.

A final report is due in several weeks, but initial findings indicate that the majority of projects that were assessed, successfully delivered both conservation and livelihood outcomes. Evidence from three projects in particular suggest that increased agricultural biodiversity leads to more perceived livelihood benefits for farmers.

Increasingly funders like the McKnight Foundation, as well as policy makers and practitioners, are keen to analyze the value of previous projects and to apply lessons learnt to future ones. It is hoped that the framework and guidelines will be a valuable tool to assess the success of projects and help to design and implement ones in the future that maintain crop diversity more effectively and deliver higher levels of well-being to the farmers who maintain it.
 
Carlos Perez, Liaison Scientist of the McKnight Foundation (see video), stressed the need to standardize methods of intervention in on-farm conservation, commented that this project makes “an enormous contribution” to this effort.

“This project is the first time that a comprehensive stocktaking has taken place, whereby 6 projects in Latin America have been analyzed. On the basis of that some criteria have been defined to allow us to see which projects are more successful than others, what guidelines could be used for developing projects in the future, and what training is needed.

The McKnight Foundation has a limited budget so we need to be strategic about what we fund and this is exactly the kind of tool we and others need to help us make decisions. We plan to share the methodology from this project in 3 workshops to be held in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, with practitioners, donors, researchers, universities and NGOs as it is important that the impact of this work extends further than just this project."

This project reflects a significant shift in emphasis for the international community and in particular for the CGIAR, to a serious engagement in measuring and delivering real outcomes and long-term impact for smallholder farmers.  

The full results of the impact assessment and details of the framework, methodology and guidelines will be published on the Bioversity website soon.