Before the Pest Arrives: How SAN Members Are Getting Ahead of Agricultural Risk

Across the SAN network this week, member organizations showed what sustainable agriculture looks like when it moves from commitment to practice. From regenerative palm oil in Sumatra to preventive pest surveillance in Kenya, from community-led restoration in Colombia to cotton cooperatives in Pakistan, the stories below capture farmers, scientists, and local institutions putting climate adaptation, biodiversity protection, and inclusive livelihoods into motion.

Regenerative Agriculture Moves From Vision to Scale

The Circular Bioeconomy Alliance used its time at the UK's Groundswell festival to argue that the regenerative movement has momentum but now needs collaboration and systems thinking to scale, linking resilient farming directly to water pressure and UK food security. In Kenya, the Rainforest Alliance brought stakeholders together for a two-day workshop on regenerative and climate-smart agriculture around Mount Kenya, while also spotlighting the Indigenous Kichwa practice of minka, or collective labor, as a model for stronger cocoa systems and watershed restoration.

In Indonesia, Preferred by Nature detailed a partnership in Rokan Hulu, Sumatra, aiming to reach 5,400 palm-oil smallholders with regenerative practices, support 1,000 toward certification, and restore 1,000 hectares of degraded land. Wild Asia shared similar progress from Malaysia, where its first year working with the Forum for Sustainable Palm Oil has brought mills, dealers, and local communities together in Johor to build traceable, regenerative supply hubs.

Meanwhile, Fundación Global Nature reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to regenerative agriculture and agricultural biodiversity, and CottonConnect joined industry leaders at Bharat Tex 2026 to discuss productivity, fibre quality, and resilient cotton supply chains for India. In Pakistan, REEDS Pakistan convened a Better Cotton meeting between farmers, ginners, and intermediaries to improve fibre quality and support direct sales through farmer cooperatives.

Preventing Pests Before They Take Hold

Prevention was a strong thread in CABI's work this week. New research co-authored by CABI found that invasive plants used as garden hedges across Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda may be helping to spread biological invasions. In Zambia, CABI's laboratory harvested its first spores of a local Metarhizium rileyi strain to help manage fall armyworm, the result of three years of research. And in Kenya, the organization is strengthening farmer awareness and early detection of mango mealybug before the pest has a chance to establish itself. In Peru, RAAA Perú reinforced the same preventive logic, sharing guidance on managing guaba trees as hosts for the fruit fly to reduce economic losses for growers.

Digital Tools, Youth, and Women Driving Change

CABI also expanded its digital and inclusion work this week. In Pakistan, Plant Clinic Desks were integrated into the government's tele-farming system, giving farmers faster access to crop diagnosis. The PlantwisePlus Factsheets app now offers expert-reviewed guidance on crops, pests, and diseases, while in Nepal, trainers came together for refresher training on updated digital-skills materials aimed at reaching more women farmers. For World Youth Skills Day, CABI celebrated young entrepreneurs in Homa Bay County, Kenya, building agricultural advisory businesses, and featured five young agripreneurs from Kenya and Uganda turning training into livelihoods.

In Uganda, Pelum Uganda highlighted an agroecology-trained innovator who developed a successful organic fungicide, showing the path from training to enterprise. And in Malawi, Chipembere shared how women are gaining practical skills in soap making and entrepreneurship to build household income and sustainable livelihoods.

Climate Resilience Rooted in Local Knowledge

CORAF identified climate-resilient crop varieties as key to maintaining production across seven West and Central African countries facing drought and climate shocks, while stressing that solutions must fit each country's own agroecological context. In Ethiopia, Melca Ethiopia reported on the APHEET Alliance's field visit and steering committee meeting reviewing integrated population, health, and environment interventions in Adaba Woreda. And the Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihoods Association shared three scientific contributions on High Atlas biocultural heritage, including a Red List flora assessment, gender and Amazigh knowledge research, and a land-rights analysis.

Community-Led Restoration and Recovery

In Kenya, Nature Kenya concluded a four-day national workshop bringing together 53 participants from 30 Site Support Groups to strengthen community conservation capacity across the country's Key Biodiversity Areas. In Colombia, Fundación Natura Colombia emphasized monitoring ecological indicators, with local communities as essential partners in tracking restoration progress. In Mexico, Pro Natura Sur marked the close of Tree Festival 2026 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, where urban planters were rehabilitated and new riparian trees added to the city's tree population.

Fundación Pachamama offered one of the week's most sobering updates, analyzing how a July landslide in Zamora Chinchipe, Ecuador, caused deaths, displacement, and damage to 108 hectares of land, two-thirds of it agricultural, and linking it to the highest soil erosion levels the watershed has seen in 25 years. The organization also pointed to a path forward, launching a new cohort of its School of Bioeconomy in Tena and celebrating the graduation of the previous cohort supporting Amazonian bio-enterprises.

Why This Work Matters

Taken together, this week's stories show SAN members turning global sustainability goals into local action — preventing pest outbreaks before they spread, restoring degraded soils and watersheds, opening digital advisory services to women and youth, and building fairer, more traceable commodity supply chains. This is what SAN's Global Impact Network and radical collaboration look like in practice: a community of organizations, farmers, and scientists working together across borders to help agriculture heal and nourish the planet.