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These questions are at the heart of the LEAF Indonesia project, which is combining community knowledge, artificial intelligence, satellite imagery and policy research to explore more sustainable and inclusive land-use pathways. 

What is LEAF Indonesia? 

Led by the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU)’s Professor Fiona Marshall, LEAF brings together farming and indigenous communities, policymakers, NGOs and researchers to understand how decisions about food production and land use reshape interconnected social, ecological and economic systems. The project is led at the University of Sussex in collaboration with the School of Engineering and Informatics' Prof Novi Quadrianto and Dr Jeremy Reffin.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, but it is also pursuing ambitious plans to increase domestic food production. Interventions intended to advance one development goal can have a myriad of unforeseen implicationsfor forests, biodiversity, water, carbon storage, local food systems, land rights and livelihoods. Climate-related pressures, including floods, droughts and forest fires, add further complexity. 

Fiona Marshall, Professor of Environment and Development at SPRU, explains that: 

“LEAF’s starting point is that these outcomes cannot be understood by examining individual sectors or policy goals in isolation. More sustainable futures require an understanding of the complex dynamics on the ground, the processes through which change occurs and whose knowledge and priorities shape decisions”. 

Making the hidden effects of land-use change visible 

LEAF forms part of a long-term programme of research into sustainable, multifunctional landscapes. This work has included projects in the UK, China, India and Indonesia. 

A multifunctional landscape supports several needs at once, including food production, livelihoods, biodiversity and resilience to climate change. However, these objectives do not always align. Progress in one area can create costs or inequalities elsewhere. 

LEAF therefore uses a systems-based approach. Rather than studying agriculture, biodiversity, poverty or climate change separately, researchers investigate how these issues influence one another. 

This systems-based and transdisciplinary approach is strongly rooted in SPRU’s tradition of examining how societies, technologies, economies, institutions and environments interact. It combines insights from different academic disciplines with the knowledge of communities, practitioners and policymakers directly involved in shaping and experiencing change. 

Mapping land-use change with LIMMMA 

One tool supporting this work is LIMMMA - Landscape Integrative Mapping and Modelling for Multifunctional Analysis. 

LIMMMA is an open-source platform developed at the University of Sussex. It helps researchers and other participants bring together different forms of evidence to investigate how landscapes are changing. 

LEAF uses satellite imagery and environmental and socioeconomic evidence to investigate land-use change nationally across Indonesia and in greater depth in Gorontalo, East Kalimantan and West Papua. 

The aim is to uncover connections that traditional data and industry-by-industry analysis might miss, giving people a common starting point for understanding current trajectories and what other paths might be possible. 

AI and machine learning are being combined with data maps created by local communities to fill important gaps in the data. By bringing together computer analysis and the knowledge of farmers and local people we can identify land-use practices and impacts that may be misclassified or missing from formal sources. This gives us a clearer picture of what is changing, who gains, who loses, and what different futures might be possible. 

Agroecology, traditional knowledge and governance 

Identifying transformative pathways also requires an understanding of governance: how land-use decisions are made, whose interests are represented and where opportunities for change exist. 

Across Gorontalo, East Kalimantan and West Papua, LEAF is engaging with local systems rooted in indigenous communities. The distinctive land-usetraditions of Ilengi, Lembo and Sasi each embody practices, knowledge and governance arrangements through which communities have managed food production, natural resources and ecological change. The project explores how these systems, alongside wider agroecological approaches, can become integral to future land-use strategies and what institutional support is needed to sustain them. 

Researchers, students, farmers and practitioners at project partner Universitas Negeri Gorontalo are working together on a ‘Living Lab’. This develops and tests integrated farming systems, soil conservation, nature-based pest management and mobilises supply chains and markets around new diversified crop products". This connects practical experimentation with wider questions about how promising approaches can be adapted, supported and embedded in policy. 

Creating opportunities for policy learning 

LEAF’s policy engagement is not a final stage in which completed findings are presented to decision-makers. Communities, practitioners and policymakers contribute throughout the research by helping to identify problems, interpret findings and consider possible responses. 

In Gorontalo, the team is working with planning and environmental agencies to strengthen the use of biodiversity evidence in land-use planning and monitoring. Engagement at national level is creating further opportunities to connect biodiversity, food security, climate resilience and social inclusion within policy debates. 

The result is an evolving, participatory approach where research informs policy conversations which generate new questions, and feed back into mapping, analysis and experimentation. 

As SPRU celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2026, LEAF demonstrates the continuing relevance of its systems-based, transdisciplinary and policy-engaged research. By connecting spatial analysis and AI with community mapping, traditional knowledge, governance analysis and practical experimentation, LEAF is helping diverse actors understand the forces shaping Indonesia’s landscapes and to work together towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusive futures. 

LEAF Indonesia is a Defra GCBC-funded consortium project led by the University of Sussex in partnership with Monash University, Indonesia, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo, Universitas Mulawarman and Universitas Papua. 

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