Garden Tiger Moth photographed by Gabor PozsgaiThis website has been mothballed.

It is no longer being updated but we've left it here for reference.

Further information

You are here

What we are doing

ALTER addresses the opportunities to alleviate poverty through the supply of multiple ecosystem services (ES) delivered from the effective functioning of soils by tackling the poverty-linked issues of soil degradation. ALTER will demonstrate the lasting pro-poor benefits of tackling soil degradation using contrasting research areas in sub-Saharan Africa.

Our Research Objectives

  • Understand the relationships between poverty, Ecosystem Services and soils across scales.
  • Assess the capacity of ecosystems to supply multiple Ecosystem Services through effective and equitable soil management, focusing on the restoration of degraded soils.
  • Assess the effectiveness of investment mechanisms to alleviate poverty through equitable and effective management to restore soil capital.
  • Assess the resilience of Ecosystem Service based poverty alleviation to climate change.
  • Enable capacity building, testing and development of new tools and generation of new environmental, social and economic information.

the connection between livelihoods and nature offers us an unrivalled opportunity to combat poverty

What we are doing