Framing Debates about Poverty Reduction and Ecosystem Services

The purpose of this research project is to set the agenda of research into poverty reduction and ecosystem services over the next ten years. It will do so through two means. In the first instant it will map and conceptualise the key disputes and areas of agreement that animate current debates in this field. This will make it possible to distinguish between the different sorts of disagreement (and agreement) that exist between different epistemic communities, whether they by theoretical, moral, conceptual or empirical. The nature of these disagreements is important because it determines the sort of work which is required to resolve current disputes (if they are resolvable) and so advance current understanding. This work will be written up in a short paper and made available in the public domain on the project website. We will then undertake a series of interviews, review and consultation across the different epistemic communities engaged in this debate using this concept paper as a research tool. This will allow is to refine and specify the research agendas that emerge from it. We will publish the concept note in a prominent scientific journal at the end of this process.

This project follows the model of a previous key paper written by some of the investigators in this project and published in Science 10 years ago (Adams et al 2004) that served as a vital concept note for work on conservation and poverty. The clarifications that paper offered helped to define debates on poverty and conservation over the next ten years. We intend to repeat that process, but will this time be more pro-active in using the concept paper to engage with stakeholders and epistemic communities to shape future research agendas.

Our engagements will take place in a variety of fora. We will have our own bespoke meetings to which we will invite key members of different epistemic communities. We will do this both in the North, where we are based, and in the South, where much of the work exploring poverty reduction and ecosystem services takes place in practice. We will also travel to different professional and academic meetings where these communities are concentrated at particular moments of the year. Again we will be doing this both in the North and the South. Finally we will travel to visit and interview people at their own institutions as well as conducting interviews by phone and Skype.

The project will use a mixture of published papers, working papers, interview, review and consultation in professional meetings and bespoke workshops to engage with different epistemic communities. It will use the research project's website and social media to engage with different stakeholders. In particular it will seek to engage with key policy debates and stakeholders in those debates in the different regions in which it works. After its completion it will leave a legacy website and several papers published in the journals of leading disciplines.

Who will benefit from this research?
This project is a consultation, review and mapping exercise whose immediate purpose will be to define the research agenda into poverty reduction and ecosystem services over the next decade. Its prime and most immediate beneficiaries will therefore be members of the academic community. This is recognised in the call for these projects (page 10), and derives from the 'blue skies' thinking they are designed to promote. Nonetheless this work will also have a number of direct and indirect impacts beyond the academe. Its ultimate purpose is promote poverty reduction by promoting knowledge, research and policy that will allow ecosystem services to benefit the poor. Its means of doing so will be to engage with numerous practitioner and policy-making groups which overlap substantially with the academe in the epistemic communities with whom we will be engaging.

How will they benefit from this research?
The key contribution of this research project will be the formulation of a research agenda over the next ten years. Our impact strategy is centred upon making this agenda accessible, owned and shared by as many groups as possible. Therefore a thorough and far reaching communications strategy is vital to this project's work. We will establish a project website and use existing blogs we run to promote and communicate the work. Moreover we will use the website as a means of building up an audience and panel of stakeholders who are interested in the outcomes of this research. We will host on it working papers communicating our latest thinking and inviting comment on them. Our experience in previous research projects is that this, combined with intelligent use of social media, is essential as a means of building our reach as a precursor to impact.

A key element of our impact strategy is our engagement with stakeholders whom we encounter and work with on our interview and consultation. Informal review of findings with our subjects, and formal feedback sessions will identify practical contributions. In working with these organisations our previous experience across numerous research projects is that any impact arising from our work has to be cultivated through repeated engagement with stakeholders and potential beneficiaries. This can be part of the research process itself, our engagement with interviewees and with employees of companies, governments and organisations as part of the research can be an iterative and growing set of associations that drives interest in our findings.

We will therefore be working closely with practitioner groups working in both development and environmental fields. We already have strong personal contacts and networks with these groups through our service on the board of NGOs. We also have excellent formal links through institutions such as the Cambridge Conservation Forum, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and BOND (working in overseas development). We will be engaging with different stakeholders at professional meetings, as well as hosting our own bespoke meetings during the life of the project. Finally please also note that we have put considerable resources to meetings and travel in the South in order that we can engage effectively with voices, practitioners and epistemic communities who are not well represented in the Northern gatherings.