Vulnerable communities in the developing world will be better placed to cope with the effects of climate change thanks to an initiative coordinated by the University of Edinburgh.
The scheme will encourage people in some of the world's poorest communities to develop more fully the economic potential of their natural environment.
Among those it seeks to benefit are South Asian farmers facing changing monsoon patterns and Chinese villagers whose lands are at risk of being turned to desert. Other communities who could benefit will be Africans threatened by drought and South Americans who live on the edges of shrinking rain forests.
The £40 million Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme is funded by the Department for International Development, Natural Environment Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council. It aims to benefit communities by offering practical help in adapting to climate change and helping them get the most from their local environment.
The programme aims to train experts from developing countries to cultivate new farming techniques and develop flood resistant infrastructure. It could encourage research into possible future carbon trading, which may one day enable industrialised countries to pay for forests to be maintained, helping to prevent further carbon dioxide being released.
The programme is designed to ensure research ideas are translated into tangible benefits for developing countries, making a difference for some of the world's poorest people.
The University of Edinburgh will receive a grant of £8m to host the ESPA Directorate with responsibility for bringing together the work of all ESPA programme members. Edinburgh researchers will also monitor the impact of the programme and provide training to ESPA researchers.
Also taking part in the programme are Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and Tango International, a US organisation that helps charities working to alleviate hunger and poverty.
Professor Paul van Gardingen, UNESCO Chair of International Development at the University of Edinburgh, said: "Ecological degradation is one of the most significant barriers that we face in the struggle to reduce poverty, hunger and disease.
"The ESPA project will bring together environmental scientists with economists and politics and policy experts. Working together they will help us understand how ecological damage can be reduced, what the value of the environment is and what institutional changes are needed to ensure the poor benefit from improvements to the land."
Professor van Gardingen said the programme would train people to develop their own responses to climate change.
He said: "We are working in a new way. This is not about telling people in the developing world what to do – it is about is about helping them generate their own solutions."
Much of the training will be delivered by the University of Edinburgh's new Global Health Academy and Global Development Academy, and will include online courses designed to be more easily accessible to students in other countries.
The ESPA Programme is holding a three-day workshop for researchers at the University of Edinburgh, starting today (Monday, 4 October), for more details visit: http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/1109/
The ESPA Programme is accepting research proposals for work which will aid the management of ecosystems in a way that contributes to poverty reduction, for more details visit: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/espa/events/ao6.asp
The ESPA Programme is accredited under Living with Environmental Change, a partnership of 22 organisations that fund, carry out and use environmental research, including the Research Councils, government departments, devolved administrations and delivery agencies. For more details visit: www.lwec.org.uk