SE Nekaris: Advancing Wildlife-Friendly Coffee and Cocoa Farming for Conserving Endangered Primates in Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire

Faculty: Science and Engineering

Supervisors: Prof Anna Nekaris; Dr Victoria Maguire-Rajpaul

Location: Cambridge

This PhD’s overall aim is to investigate how shifting to more sustainable and pro-wildlife farming techniques for coffee and cocoa cultivation can alleviate pressures on endangered primates while empowering smallholder farmers.

Focusing on Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire, the successful candidate will explore integrating biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic improvements into global coffee and cocoa supply chains. They will examine the potential for Wildlife Friendly™ certification to transform agricultural landscapes into tools for conservation.

Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire are biodiversity hotspots, hosting remarkable primate diversity, with 64 and 22 species respectively. Yet two thirds are threatened with extinction, with three species from each country (Indonesia: Pongo tapanuliensis, Simias concolor, Nycticebus javanicus; Côte d’Ivoire: Cercopithecus diana roloway, Cercocebus atys lunulatus, Procolobus badius waldroni) amongst Earth’s 25 most threatened primates.

With Indonesia as the world’s fourth largest coffee producer, and Côte d’Ivoire as the world’s foremost cocoa producer, unsustainable farming practices for these crops have led to habitat loss and forest fragmentation, contributing directly to endemic primate decline. Being two of the world’s most widely consumed commodities, meeting increased consumer demand for coffee and cocoa in part drives this deforestation and land conversion.

The global trade of coffee and cocoa rely predominantly on smallholder farmers, who typically cultivate plots of 2–5 hectares. That most Indonesian coffee and almost all Ivorian cocoa is grown by smallholders provides an opportunity for empowering resource-poor farmers to produce these agro-commodities more sustainably, e.g., implementing organic practices and integrating shade and fruit trees with cocoa and coffee to improve crop quality and household livelihood. Indeed, through empowerment and training on adopting wildlife-friendly agroecology and specifically agroforestry practices, there is potential to transform these agricultural landscapes into tools for conservation.

The Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network (WFEN) certification scheme requires protection of endangered species, and has shown promise in promoting biodiversity and socio-economic benefits. Pro-wildlife certification’s broader feasibility and farmer benefits remain understudied. This doctoral project evaluates WFEN certification’s potential to restore forest connectivity, improve primate habitats and populations, and enhance smallholder livelihoods.

Research objectives:

• Identify agroforestry practices that reduce habitat destruction and conserve primates, including a meta-analysis.
• Combine social and ecological methods to evaluate agroforestry practices in coffee and cocoa landscapes in Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire, assessing their feasibility for WFEN certification, and desirability by smallholders.
• Co-develop wildlife-friendly farming practices with smallholders and assess their feasibility through ecological and focus group data.
• Explore UK consumer perceptions of Wildlife Friendly products to inform their market potential.

Research methods:

• Year 1:
• Conduct desk-based research on agroforestry;
• train in: ethnographic and ecological methods, data analysis, and language skills (Bahasa Indonesia and French);
• prepare for fieldwork by obtaining ethical approvals and developing data collection strategies.
• Year 2:
• Undertake fieldwork in Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire, collaborating with farmers and conservation NGOs to gather ecological and socioeconomic data. Methods include livelihood measurements, interviews, sentiment analysis, alongside ecological data collection (including animal abundance, phenology and camera trapping).
• Years 3–4:
• Analyse and write up results;
• conduct UK-based focus groups with suppliers;
• disseminate findings via conferences, publications, and partner engagement.

This doctorate offers a unique opportunity to advance wildlife conservation, sustainable agriculture, and socioeconomic resilience in Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire. The successful candidate's research will align with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals and contribute to primate conservation and socially-sustainable livelihoods, while fostering practicable pathways for ethical consumer markets worldwide.

This PhD is supervised across departments, and the candidate will be a member of both the School of Life Sciences and the Global Sustainability Institute (GSI).

If you would like to discuss this research project, please contact Prof Anna Nekaris ([email protected]) or Dr Victoria Maguire-Rajpaul ([email protected])

Funding notes

The successful applicant for this project will receive a Vice Chancellor’s PhD Scholarship which covers the tuition fees and provides a UKRI equivalent minimum annual stipend for three years. For 2024/5 this was £19,237 per year. The award is subject to the successful candidate meeting the scholarship terms and conditions. Please note that the University asserts the right to claim any intellectual property generated by research it funds.

Download the 2024/5 terms and conditions (2025/6 terms and conditions TBC)