SEED focuses on four central themes: policy & strategy, evidence & data analysis, community empowerment, and ecosystem and livelihood diversity. We specialise in creating high quality scientific articles, synthesis reports, policy briefs, and multi-media presentations for local communities, scientists and policy-makers alike.
We specialise in project review and impact assessments, state-of-play reports and briefings, policy development and outreach/dissemination.
Recent projects:
Forest Defenders Conference
June 21 – June 22 Jointly hosted by OCTF, British Ecological Society, Not1More and SEED
This meeting brought together front line environmental defenders, sharing their experiences of threats, violence or criminalisation, and a wide range of experts – including security specialists, environmental and human rights groups, researchers, funders, media representatives and lawyers. The two groups shared their work and, led by the SEED team, developed strategies to address the increasing levels of violence against environmental and land defenders.
Transitions to Agroecological Food Systems
This project is being led by Sussex University, and is being carried out in the UK, Senegal and Nicaragua in partnership with farmer-led organisations in each of these countries. The aim of the initiative is to identify practical ways to facilitate more sustainable / agroecological food systems. The research is participatory, and is centred on small-scale farmers who set the project’s research agenda and will also analyse the results and determine their implications.
The first gathering of the farmers’ panel identified four areas where research would be useful to generate a better understanding of some of the issues in question. These were: access to land for agroecological farmers, triple bottom line accounting, the relationship between subsidies and the cost of food, and local council food policies. The research was undertaken by SEED and the results reported to the farmers.
Multi-use forest management in Peru
In this CIFOR commissioned project SEED conducted a multi-stakeholder SWOT-analysis, developing and using analytic hierarchical process methodologies to assess the opportunities and barriers for multi-use forest management in the Peruvian Amazon. Our team led workshops and training with different stakeholder groups from civil society, local government and communities, to collect the data for the analysis. We are currently finalizing the resulting journal article and policy brief.
Development of a regional programme for mangrove conservation and ecosystem management in West Africa
SEED, together with two associates (Julie Gale and Brigitte Carr-Dirick, was commissioned by IUCN to develop the baseline studies and proposal for the coordination of the development of a regional programme for the sustainable and coordinated management of mangroves in Western Africa. In this project we worked in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Abidjan Convention and Wetlands International. This future programme aims to enhance monitoring capacity and coordination between national, regional and international institutions involved or interested in mangrove monitoring in the region.
Mid-term review of Testing REDD+ in Mozambique
SEED was commissioned by IIED to conduct a mid-term review of a 3-year project intended to test models for REDD+ in Mozambique. This project was led by Dr Mary Menton who developed a methodology to assess the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of project activities, and provided a report with constructive feedback and suggestions for project improvements.
Our work typically includes four main steps:
1) gathering evidence via literature reviews, online questionnaires, or field-based research
2) data analysis and synthesis
3) evidence-based policy/strategy recommendations which stem from (1) & (2) together with multi-stakeholder consultations.
4) communication of the results to scientists, policy-makers and local communities via written reports or multi-media presentations.
As a small and responsive team, and in contrast to many large consultancy groups, we do not carry large overheads or employer costs. As a result our fees are modest and flexible. We would be very pleased to discuss your needs. If you are interested in contracting our services, please contact us at info@seedinternational.org.uk or get in touch with one of our directors.
SEED can be contracted to provide support at any stage in the research and writing/communication process including:
SEED is a consultancy providing rigorous syntheses and analyses to promote evidence based solutions for policy and practice that empower local people and balance conservation and development objectives.
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