Episode 18 - Understorey stories

21/07/2022 17 min Episodio 18
Episode 18 - Understorey stories

Listen "Episode 18 - Understorey stories"

Episode Synopsis

In the last few decades, thousands of acres of rainforest have been cleared for palm oil plantations in southeast Asia, with a consequent loss of biodiversity. Currently in Africa, coconut palm production is industrialising. Can this be done more sustainably than in Southeast Asia? I talk to two PhD students at Imperial who are using DNA sampling to explore biodiversity in coconut agriculture, and its links to ecosystem resilience and also economic resilience for farmers.