We all need to eat, but today’s food systems are failing. How we produce and consume food is the biggest driver of nature loss and a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions. Unhealthy diets are leaving billions obese, overweight or ill, but nearly 830 million are still going hungry. Huge amount of the food we produce is going uneaten - a waste of natural resources, human labour and money. Neither planet nor people are being nourished and these hidden costs are reducing food security and leaving food systems vulnerable to disruption.

Solving the great food puzzle of how to nourish everyone within planetary boundaries requires an integrated and systemic approach. The good news is that food systems can be a major part of the solution to the global health, climate and nature crises.

We work on multiple issues - including scaling nature-positive production practices, shifting to healthy and sustainable diets and radically reducing food loss and waste - and across value chains, in policy, finance, retail, on the farm and so on. We bring partners from across food systems together, at the global level to influence international agendas - like biodiversity loss, climate change and land use - and on the ground and in the water in more than 100 countries to implement context-specific and place-based solutions that will have the highest impact in the shortest time.

We have developed several solutions to help accelerate impact around the world.

We work in nearly 100 countries to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature, by working with local communities and in some of the most iconic ecosystems. Applying a food systems approach is critical to deliver holistic benefits and we frame our work through four interconnected areas:

Planet – wherein planetary health is improved, with the impacts of food systems reduced, so that they operate within planetary boundaries (many of which are currently being transgressed)

Places – reducing the negative impacts, and increasing the positive ones, on landscapes, waterscapes and seascapes in which food is produced – protecting, sustainably managing and restoring these ecosystems to ensure that all ecosystem services (including food production) are optimized

People – improving human health, by increasing the availability, affordability and accessibility of healthy, nutritious and safe food – and recognizing the critical role of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women – leveraging the knowledge of these groups and protecting all groups that are vulnerable

Prosperity – working towards a food systems transformation that improves livelihoods and incomes, ideally for all – but for those that may be negatively affected by transformations, ensuring that they are supported and incentivized to shift to more sustainable practices

Food intersects with most of the primary conservation issues. We work at the global level to shape agendas and ensure that food systems transformation is included as a solution to biodiversity loss, climate change and land-use change. We also focus on reshaping subsidies, incentives, taxes and investments, to shift away from encouraging harmful behaviours to rewarding healthy and sustainable practices.

Global targets for food systems transformation need to be downscaled to local contexts. Implementation will take place at the national and sub-national level. We take a food systems approach, working to scale nature-positive production, shift to healthier and more sustainable diets, and to eliminate food loss and waste. Our area-based conservation focuses on grasslands and savannahs, the ecosystems in which most food is produced - though they are often overlooked in conservation and transformation agendas.