About the Project
Working in collaboration with Fairtrade International in Bonn, Germany, this CASE Award project considers how climate change and losses of ecosystem services due to land degradation, are affecting Fairtrade farmers, across geographies and products. It will critically assess the impacts on crops in the Fairtrade system, using surveys and other tools to review how Fairtrade’s current climate change projects are working, and will make recommendations to enhance Fairtrade international’s interventions to support climate change mitigation, resilience building, and adaptation efforts for affected Fairtrade farmers.
This project aims to contribute to debates around climate resilient agriculture, land degradation neutrality, biodiversity loss, ecosystem services and climate adaptation measures (including resilient crop varieties, pest management, soil management). Findings will inform on-going climate change work at Fairtrade International.
The supervisors have a long-established relationship with Fairtrade International, who hosted a previous NERC-ESRC PhD student whose work informed the Fairtrade Climate standard. Our partnership has also led to joint work on academic-NGO research relationships (Justice et al 2018; Tallontire et al 2020).
According to the interests and expertise of the student, and engagement with Fairtrade International and its member producer networks, the student could combine approaches such as:
-Mapping and quantifying climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation impacts on key crops in the Fairtrade system, drawing on data from global and regional climate and crop models.
-Analysing understanding and experience of environmental changes and understanding of risks amongst Fairtrade farmers
-Comparing environmental change impacts experienced in different regions producing the same crop (e.g. across a rainfall gradient)
-Analysing trade-offs between climate change adaptation measures and other ecosystem services (e.g. impacts of new climate resilient varieties on biodiversity; impacts on water availability)
-Analysing environmental change that affects Fairtrade farmers at multiple scales and levels, from farm to landscape to supply chain, and the feedbacks between impacts at these different levels and scales
-Identifying, developing and testing key quantitative and qualitative indicators for monitoring and evaluation of adaptation measures
-Identifying measures that farmers, farmer groups and companies in the supply chain can undertake to enhance resilience
-Participatory scenario development and decision-making exercises identifying what affects the adoption and disadoption of adaptation measures that can contribute positively towards building farm resilience
We anticipate that the student would spend 6-9 months undertaking primary data collection in countries where Fairtrade crops are impacted by different kinds of climate change processes following a successful transfer viva.
In line with the collaborative nature of this project, the research approach would likewise need to be action-oriented, bringing together both excellent social and/ or natural science with applied impact. In addition to the peer-reviewed publications expected from a PhD, the student would also be responsible for delivering webinars updating Fairtrade stakeholders as to the emerging findings of their work. Once findings solidify, the student should expect to produce short, crisp, non-academic reports detailing key findings, their implications for Fairtrade’s climate change work, and recommendations for action at both the producer network and the international level. These reports will likely help inform the rollout or evaluation of specific climate and environmental change projects, assist with the further development of Fairtrade’s climate change work, contribute to the accomplishment of an EC Framework Partnership Agreement, and help the implementation of the 2021-2030 Fairtrade International strategy.
After completion of the PhD, the student will be well-situated to pursue a career in academia but likewise in international organizations or the charity development or environmental sectors.
For application process see https://panorama-dtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
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