The AFD–GDN Biodiversity and Development Awards Programme, a joint initiative of the Global Development Network (GDN) and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) under AFD’s ECOPRONAT umbrella, was launched to support early-career researchers in low- and middle-income countries to investigate how biodiversity can be better integrated into development policy and practice.
At its heart, the programme sought to answer a simple yet transformative question: How can biodiversity conservation and human development be understood and advanced together?
The Awards Programme demonstrated that when researchers adopt a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary lens, biodiversity research becomes not only richer in understanding but also more effective in shaping sustainable, equitable solutions. Similarly, it also demonstrated that flexibility and a commitment to understanding projects in their own terms and in their own context are essential for international funding to become catalytic for change.
This report captures this impact through data, stories, and reflections from the researchers who have turned these principles into practice across Ethiopia, Fiji, Ghana, Madagascar, and Vietnam.
