The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Programme
The BEFTA Programme investigates management strategies to support biodiversity and ecosystem processes in oil palm landscapes. The overall aim of the BEFTA Programme is to test whether increasing landscape structural complexity can enhance oil palm sustainability at little or no cost to yields and profitability. Uniquely, the BEFTA Programme is a collaboration between universities, research institutes, and the oil palm industry, ensuring that management practices are realistic and implementable by land managers.
Butterfly and dragonfly transects
Running a butterfly and dragonfly transect is a rewarding pastime! The methods are very straightforward. You simply mark out a route in advance – in our case around the edge of the survey box, from post to post, and along the edge of the road adjacent to the plot, again…
Insect trapping
I’ve just arrived back in Sumatra for my second data collection trip, this time concentrating on the insect communities found in the BEFTA plots. The study has been designed so that the BEFTA team has a year to collect data from all the plots before the experiment is implemented, strengthening…