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.
I just spent four months studying spiders in Sumatra, Indonesia
This blog post was written by Insect Ecology Group member Michael Pashkevich. Michael is a first-year PhD student who enjoys all-things spiders, cooking/eating delicious food from his hometown (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA), and spending time with his baby nephew. It’s been nearly four months since I was last in Cambridge.…
Restoring riparian areas in oil palm plantations, and an introduction to the RERTA Project
A blog post by BEFTA Programme and Insect Ecology Group postdoc Sarah Luke. Also posted at https://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/research-groups/insect-ecology/news Riparian zones are areas of land next to water bodies, including the banks of rivers, and streams, and the sides of lakes and ponds. They are a highly important habitat as they act as an…