Sustainable Development Goals

Mabisi is a fermented milk beverage that is extremely popular in southern Zambia. It is not sold in shops, but thanks to interdisciplinary research by universities in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Benin, and Wageningen, official certification is now within reach. What began as a study of bacteria could ultimately lead to higher incomes and greater empowerment for women in rural areas.

In southern Zambia, farmers generally bring their fresh milk to the dairy cooperative by bicycle or on foot. If tests show that the milk arrived too late to be accepted for processing, it can still be used to make Mabisi. This task traditionally falls to the women on the farm. They strain the milk, transfer it to another container, and leave it for several hours to a full day. During this time, the bacteria do their work, and the milk becomes sour and thick. The women then sell the product along the roadside.

Mabisi is popular and sells quickly. Many motorists stop to buy a full jerrycan to take home. The drink has existed for as long as people can remember, and many Zambians will tell you it is good for your health. In shops, however, only a version made from pasteurized milk is available, which differs from the traditional product. There is no fixed recipe or method for the traditional version. Each farm has its own way of making this fermented milk, prompting concern from the Zambian government about the quality of these traditional products.

In collaboration with universities in Benin, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) has studied every aspect of Mabisi. Since 2019, more than ten PhD candidates from various countries have been working on projects examining its microbiological composition and shelf life, value chains, nutrition and health, food security, and women’s entrepreneurship. All of these multidisciplinary efforts come together in the project "Traditional Fermented Foods to Promote Food and Nutrition Security in Africa", part of the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme, which supports this wide-ranging research approach.

Taken together, these research findings could enable the official certification of Mabisi. The Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) is closely involved in the project. Together, they will develop a code of practice that defines and regulates the main production parameters, such as the quality of raw milk and the pH level of the final product. These standards are essential for food safety and for ensuring consistent product quality—key requirements for certification.

Certification would have a significant impact on the incomes of dairy farmers. The cooperative could produce Mabisi itself and bring it to market, contributing to food security and improving the health of Zambians. It would also greatly affect the position of women on the farm, since they are the driving force behind this popular beverage: they develop the recipe, produce it, and sell it.

The nature and severity of disturbances in contemporary agri-food systems are becoming increasingly unpredictable. As a result, resilience within these systems is gaining priority on political and business agendas, but addressing this challenge requires a new approach. In 2024, the United Nations reported that current progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is seriously lagging behind. Significant upscaling of action is essential to meet these goals.

INTRINSIC — which stands for Investigations, Narratives and Teachings on Resilience: Initiating Novel Scaling in an International Context — responds to this urgent call by working to enhance the resilience of farmers and other actors within global food systems. Additionally, the research team is preparing a “post-SDG” agenda. This project is funded by Wageningen University C Research’s Global Sustainability Program.

INTRINSIC identifies intrinsic, shock-resistant properties that have been demonstrated to proactively contribute to the resilience of agri-food systems in the face of negative economic, social, or environmental impacts. To do so, the project team draws on the extensive knowledge and experiences of resilient farming communities worldwide, which have already been mapped through the Global Network of Lighthouse Farms.
INTRINSIC’s focal regions span Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Kurdistan Region in Iraq. INTRINSIC will develop a roadmap to scale resilience attributes, thereby paving the way for future-proof, intrinsically resilient farming and food systems.

Wageningen University & Research takes an interdisciplinary, science-based approach to solving major global challenges as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). INTRINSIC’s focus on strengthening the intrinsic resilience of agri-food systems aligns particularly well with the following SDGs 1 – No Poverty, SDG 2 – Zero Hunger, SDG 13 – Climate Action, and SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.

After analysing resilience attributes within and across Lighthouse Farm Communities, the program co-creates and implements five action-oriented intervention pilots together with five of the world’s major development organisations. The INTRINSIC team comprises Wageningen PhD students, MSc and EngD students, postdoctoral researchers, representatives of Lighthouse Farm research partners, partners from development organisations, and an interdisciplinary Wageningen University team. The team is supported by an advisory board consisting of Wageningen experts and representatives from (inter)national development organisations.

Within the UN Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Indigenous and Traditional Territories (ITTs) are recognised as critical spaces for achieving biodiversity conservation goals. The project “Area Based Conservation Futures”(ABC Futures) initiates research to further delve into the issue of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC)-led conservation. For this effort it receives funding from the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme.

The Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in late 2022 and explicitly acknowledges the importance of ITTs and the central role of IPLCs in safeguarding the planet’s natural heritage. At the same time IPLCs face mounting challenges; climate change, extractive industries such as logging and mining, land use changes, and environmental crimes increasingly threaten both biodiversity and the integrity of indigenous lands. While IPLCs are increasingly seen as "conservation champions," there is an urgent need for a deeper understanding and support for their diverse strategies and practices. That is where the project ABC Futures comes in.

ABC Futures initiates research in four country regions to delve deeper into the issue of IPLC-led conservation; 

1. in indigenous communities across Surinam
2. with multiple stakeholders in the mouth of the Brazilian Amazon
3. in and around Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique
4. and with pastoralist communities in the northern rangelands of Kenya. The ABC Futures consortium consists of multiple groups of Wageningen University, international knowledge institutions (CIFOR-ICRAF, Anton de Kom University, Resilience BV) and civil society partners (Fauna Conservation Surinam, Gorongosa NP, Nature & People as One Kenya, WWF Kenya)

ABC Futures is aligned with the WGSP’s ‘crossing borders’ philosophy:bridging gaps between disciplines, regions and knowledge systems. WUR plays a central coordinating role and contributes expertise in landscape ecology, participatory research, policy analysis and natural resource management.

This collaboration brings together scientific knowledge, local expertise and policy engagement to achieve sustainable and inclusive forest landscape restoration in East Africa. The project contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals, among which: SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 15: Life on Land, and SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.

Through activities such as national workshops and by attending international summits, ABC Futures consortium seeks to offer a new perspective on biodiversity conservation.

Forest restoration is a powerful nature-based solution that addresses both environmental and social challenges affecting ecosystems and human well-being. It has gained significant attention on global political agendas. In 2011, the Bonn Challenge set an ambitious global target: to restore 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030.

REFOREST-IT! supports this global ambition, while emphasising a critical gap—the lack of thorough analysis on the indicators that determine the effectiveness of various forest restoration methods (FRMs). The project argues that large-scale forest restoration can only succeed if environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors are taken into account. To address this, REFOREST-IT! aims to develop a portfolio of forest restoration methods, each linked to specific benefits based on context-sensitive indicators. This portfolio will be informed by a comparative evaluation of four different restoration methods across three countries (Brazil, Ghana, and Kenya) in diverse environmental and socio-economic conditions. Such an approach allows to explore both broader patterns and context-dependency of restoration outcomes.

REFOREST-IT! advocates for transformative change to rehabilitate degraded landscapes—restoring the vital relationship between people and nature. Through this transformation, the project aspires to contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

Funded by the WGSP, the project's outcomes will be directed toward a wide range of policymakers and practitioners engaged with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). REFOREST-IT! directly supports the mission of Wageningen University C Research to improve quality of life and specifically contributes to the SDGs 1 – No Poverty, 2 – Zero Hunger, 13 – Climate Action, and 15 – Life on Land.

Global biodiversity is imperiled, with growing concerns that we are in the midst of a sixth extinction crisis. Conventional efforts to conserve biodiversity within protected areas (PAs) have proven unable to meet this challenge, while also often alienating local residents, leading to calls for transformative change. At the same time, conservation commonly exacerbates human-wildlife conflict (HWC) between local residents and protected animals, while current efforts to address this (e.g., via compensation schemes for livelihood losses) have proven largely ineffective.

CONNECT builds on experience to introduce and test a composite instrument providing unconditional income support for community members living in or near important conservation areas to test the extent to which such a mechanism has potential to redress rural poverty and biodiversity loss simultaneously.

The focus of this research is the Great Lakes region in Eastern Africa, an important global biodiversity hotspot. There is a specific focus within the research on two national parks Rwanda: Nyungwe National Park (NNP) and the Volcanoes National Park (VNP). CONNECT entails a partnership between researchers at WUR and the University of Rwanda and the civil society organization 100WEEKS, with support from several other local partners, including African Parks a South-Africa based NGO that manages NNP on behalf of the Government of Rwanda. 

This Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme project complements the interventions with robust transdisciplinary investigation of process and outcomes. Qualitative (sociological) and quantitative (economic and ecological) approaches are integrated to study biodiversity protection and mitigation of human-wildlife conflict from multiple perspectives. Six local PhD students conduct integrated research to develop sustainable conservation impacts, leading to understanding with fundamental implications for global conservation efforts. 

Oil palm is a contested crop for its contribution to deforestation, environmental pollution and land conflicts. It is cultivated by large plantation companies but also by millions of smallholders providing them with a livelihood. In its favour we can say that it is the most resource efficient oil crop in terms of land needed and nutrient input per ton of oil produced. The crop provides cheap cooking oil for poor people, ingredients for many products worldwide and foreign currency to the producing countries. Oil palm has a very small genetic bases and is mainly cultivated in monocultures, therefore oil palm plantations are highly susceptible to pest and disease outbreaks.
For environmental and social reasons, but also anticipating climate change, oil palm cultivation practices are changing towards increased use of organic nutrient sources, a more circular use of oil palm residues, integration with crops, livestock or trees and decreased use of pesticides.

In Southeast Asia basal stem rot caused by Ganoderma boninense is gaining importance, whereas bud rot caused by Phytophthora palmivora is wiping out plantations in South America. Surprisingly, the diseases are only found in one continent while the pathogens are present in both. It is poorly understood why. Changing climate and cultivation practices can aggravate disease outbreaks and given increased globalization, the diseases may readily cross continents. Negative consequences will then be for the livelihood of smallholders, affordability of palm oil for consumers, income for companies and national economies. Hence the urgency to join forces to investigate these oil palm disease outbreaks and their drivers. The objective is not to kill the pathogens but rather preventing the pathogens to lead to disease outbreaks. Disease outbreaks are the result of an interplay between multiple factors. These factors are context specific and tend to evolve over time. There are no linear cause effect relations leading to simple solutions.

Funded by the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme, the OIL-CLiPS project combines different disciplines in its research in oil palm producing countries, and addresses different factors simultaneously. Researchers from various disciplines, such as  phytopathology, social science/economy, agronomy/farming systems, and climate science/crop modelling work on this project from Colombia, Indonesia, and from Wageningen University & Research. 

Coral reefs are vital hotspots of marine biodiversity, yet they face mounting pressure from climate change and expanding tourism. INREEF, funded by the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme, investigates how tourism-dependent regions can safeguard these fragile ecosystems while supporting local livelihoods. To do so, INREEF develops tools and interventions to help marine protected areas cope with those pressures. These include interdisciplinary educational modules, a governance toolbox to assess ecological and socio‑economic impacts, and technological solutions to reduce wastewater pollution from tourism. The project also develops a digital dashboard that monitors reef resilience and helps policymakers, conservation organizations and tourism operators determine sustainable activity levels.

Working across Indonesia and the Dutch Caribbean, INREEF involves thirteen PhD researchers who study marine protected areas as interconnected social‑ecological systems. Their work examines how ecological, hydrodynamic, social and economic factors jointly shape reef health, and how governance structures can better support sustainable tourism. The research project brings together researchers, local universities, governments, NGOs and community stakeholders to co‑develop strategies that strengthen the resilience of marine protected areas.  

Through fostering transdisciplinary collaboratation, INREEF works toward a future in which thriving coral reefs and responsible tourism can coexist. The project strengthens local capacity, promotes inclusive decision‑making and contributes to governance models that align ecological integrity with social and economic needs. 

The Smart Indonesian Agriculture (SMART‑In‑Ag) programme is a long‑term research initiative, financed by the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme, dedicated to exploring how smart farming technologies can be sustainably integrated into Indonesia’s dairy and aquaculture sectors. Running from 2019 to 2026, the programme investigates how digital tools, data systems and sensing technologies can strengthen productivity in small‑scale farming environments while supporting national policy development and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Led by WUR’s Professor Henk Hogeveen, SMART‑In‑Ag brings together an extensive interdisciplinary consortium. Veterinary epidemiologists, economists, social scientists, information specialists and researchers from plant, marine and animal sciences collaborate closely with Indonesian partners to ensure that technological innovation aligns with local realities. This interdisciplinary approach is central to the programme’s design, enabling the development of solutions that are both technically robust and socially feasible.

Each phase of the research generates practical outputs that inform subsequent scientific questions. Early efforts focus on collecting detailed local data, which then supports the development of context‑specific decision‑support tools and intervention strategies. Later stages examine how these innovations function in practice and how they can be scaled sustainably.

A major emphasis of SMART‑In‑Ag is long‑term viability. The programme actively involves stakeholders—including farmers’ unions, government agencies, universities and industry partners—to ensure that emerging technologies can be adopted and maintained beyond the project’s duration. With 10 PhD candidates contributing across multiple disciplines, the programme aims to strengthen interdisciplinary research capacity in both Indonesia and the Netherlands.

Ultimately, SMART‑In‑Ag seeks to deliver durable, locally adapted smart farming applications for dairy and aquaculture producers, while fostering a broader culture of interdisciplinary collaboration. 

The SESAM programme explores how serious games can improve decision‑making in landscapes where water, agriculture, and forests intersect. Within those areas, diverse stakeholders often hold competing interests. Because policies in water management, agriculture and forestry are typically developed separately, they can unintentionally disadvantage certain groups. SESAM addresses this challenge by designing interactive games that reveal local dynamics and empower communities to participate more effectively in planning processes.

SESAM investigates how serious games can serve as scientific tools for understanding complex socio‑ecological systems. Financed by the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme, the SESAM reseach project simulates real‑world interactions. These games help researchers analyse how environmental, economic, and social factors shape behaviour. The programme aims to make knowledge about soil, water, and land‑use systems more accessible by presenting it in an integrated, experimental format.

The games aim to determine if and how they can be systematically designed, evaluated and scaled, and how their outcomes can inform broader modelling approaches. A sizeable interdisciplinary team of MSc students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers and professors from fields such as geo‑information science, hydrology, forestry, sociology and information technology work together on this project.

An international team with partners from Africa, Asia and South America, develops site‑specific and adaptable game models that reflect the realities of different landscapes. Collaboration with local communities is central to the programme. By incorporating the perspectives and knowledge of farmers, NGOs and regional institutions, SESAM ensures that each game reflects the lived experience of those directly affected by land‑use decisions. This transdisciplinary approach strengthens partnerships and supports the development of tools that are both scientifically robust and socially grounded.

SESAM aims to advance serious gaming as a methodological framework for sustainable agro‑forestry management. By generating shared insights and fostering collective learning, the programme contributes to more inclusive, informed and resilient landscape governance.