Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use (LAND)
In the research group Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, we integrate diverse perspectives and disciplines to address the complexities of land use decisions and their impacts on biodiversity and livelihoods. With our research we strive to improve coordination among land use priorities, political sectors and visions of a good life. This includes research on global crises such as biodiversity loss, unsustainable agricultural practices, deforestation, climate change, infrastructure expansion and zoonotic diseases as well as potential solutions to meet these challenges such as land use policies, certification, conservation planning, nature-based solutions and bioeconomic transformation. In this context we also explore the role of Science Policy Interfaces (SPIs) in shaping land policies and their capacity to navigate synergies and conflicts between land use priorities such as biodiversity conservation and food security.
In our research, we emphasize the necessity of stakeholder engagement and foster a research that considers dimensions of ethics, intersectionality and decoloniality. To this end, we explore different quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches as well as their combination for stakeholder engagement, participatory research, scenario development and modelling. Our aim is to contribute significantly to informed decision-making that considers synergies and conflicts and fosters sustainable development.
LAND Projects
Keywords
Biodiversity, Land Use, Climate change, Arboviruses, Emerging Infectious Diseases
Countries
Germany and Uganda
Summary
In the ArboEmerge project we assess the current and future risk of infectious zoonotic diseases under future ecological, climate and socio-economic change in Uganda. In particular, we explore spill over infections in vector species (e.g. mosquitoes, rodents and ticks), livestock and humans to identify drivers of emerging arboviral diseases and propose preventive policies.
Methodology
Applying an inter-disciplinary approach, samples from mosquitoes, livestock, and humans in three less disturbed ecosystems (Bwindi Impenetrable, Queen Elizabeth, and Murchison National Parks) and adjacent disturbed urban areas (Kasese and Arua Cities) will undergo screening for pre-epidemic arboviruses. Identified arboviruses will undergo molecular and phenotypic characterization, and phylogenetic analysis to describe their intra- and inter-host genetic diversity. Using phylogeographic analyses, we will reconstruct the virus spatial movement and build ecological niche models that assess the influence of different socioeconomic and ecological factors on the risk of virus transmission and disease outbreaks. This will also enable modelling of virus and host distribution as well as infection risk under current and future climatic and land use scenarios. We will also apply Bayesian decision modelling approaches to assess the effectiveness of policy interventions in reducing the risk of outbreaks under current and future climatic and land use scenarios.
Main Cooperation Partners
University of Bonn, ZEF
Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Makerere University, Uganda
Uganda Virus Research Institute
Main Funding Partners
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Duration of the Project
36 months
Team
Jun.-Prof. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger, ZEF
Prof. Dr. Sandra Junglen, Berlin
Dr. Julius Lutwama, Uganda
Dr. Anthony M. Nsubuga, Uganda
Dr. Innocent B. Rwego, Uganda
Erick B. Kigai, Uganda
Peter Z. Sabakaki, Uganda
Selina Graf, Berlin
Teddy A. Tindyebwa, Uganda
Maureen Nabatanzi, ZEF
Keywords
Nature-based Solutions; biodiversity-climate synergies; Social dimension; participatory processes: Transdisciplinarity
Countries
Austria, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya, Lebanon
Summary
The BioClimSocial project is intended to highlight the significance of the social dimension in the context of researching, planning and implementing measures for biodiversity and climate at the local (or regional) level.
The ‘social dimension’ encompasses the views, needs and experiences of a diversity of actors/stakeholders across civil society, industry and academia, as well as relationships between these actors/stakeholders (power relations, institutional arrangements, governance systems). The project is to complement the existing knowledge and tools in the respective field by putting emphasis on exploring the social dimension in the applied research in climate- biodiversity relevant NbS.
The BioClimSociale project will analyse the social dimension of synergistic climate-biodiversity NbS through two interlinking research packages.
Work Package 1 involves the undertaking of data collection on the features of the social dimension as an integral part of NbS research and implementation. The data set will be drawn from those NbS researchers who are applying transdisciplinary research. A mixed methodology analysis of data via surveys and interviews from this database of global NbS study cases will encompass NbS in four sectors: agroforestry, coastal, mountainous and urban regions. The questionnaire that will form the survey will be formulated in part, by data derived from an academic and grey literature review on NbS case studies that fit the criteria (climate-biodiversity synergy and with a strong focus on the social dimension), where themes will be identified and coded in order to be integrated into the questionnaire.
Furthermore, data derived from Work Package 2 - constituting our four NbS case study partners will also contribute to the forthcoming survey and in depth interview questions. The resultant data will contribute directly to both the NbS Guideline and a prospective scientific co-authored publication. The four NbS case study partners, along with our selected Project Advisory Board of experts, will be part of the iterative process of knowledge co-production through transdisciplinarity in order to produce the said outputs of the Guideline and the publication.
Work Package 3 and 4 constitute capacity building and project management activities, both of which are designed to support the ongoing and potentially future research activities for our case study partners at the biodiversity-climate interface in practice.
Specific objectives of the project are:
To undertake transdisciplinary research that will lead to the development of a guideline. The purpose of this Guideline is to provide a theoretical underpinning as well as practical recommendations for considering the social dimension in NbS for climate and biodiversity.
To collaborate with four, active global NbS case studies to enrich the Guidelines with “good practice” examples and lessons learnt of the four case studies which explore experiences made by applied and application-oriented projects on: restoring mangroves in Colombia; urban greening in Lebanon; agroforestry practices in Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya; and biodiversity-climate synergies in the rural mountainous areas of Austria.
To foster capacity building for future collaboration and potential research that expands on the current scientific foci.
Methodology
Mixed methodology:
- Questionnaires
- In-depth interviews with academics in the field of Nature-based Solutions
- Online and in-person workshops
- Qualitative and quantitative analyses
Main Cooperation Partners
African Climate and Environment Centre - Future African Savannas (AFAS), Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Prof. Dr N'Golo A. Kone, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny - NbS case study partner
Climate Research Center, Nature Park Ötscher Tormäuer, Austria, Florian Schublach, Katja Weirer, Dr Günther Schreder, Danube University Krems - NbS case study partner
sea4soCiety - Increasing the carbon storage potential of coastal ecosystems rich in vegetation; Colombia, Malaysia, Prof. Dr Martin Zimmer; Prof. Dr Esteban Zarza Gonzalez, Universidad del Sinu and Prof Dr. José Ernesto Mancera Pineda, Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Exact Partner TBD) - NbS case study partner
Urban Greening, Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management, Beirut, Lebanon, Prof. Salma N. Talhouk, American University of Beirut - NbS case study partner
Main Funding Partners
Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), with funds of the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)
Project Advisory Group (PAG)
Dr. Lalisa Duguma (Agroforestry)
Prof. Niki Frantzeskaki (Cities)
Dr. Boniface Kiteme (Water Resources)
Dr. Florencia Zapata (Mountainous regions)
Duration of the Project
Spring 2023 - November 2025
Project Homepage
https://www.zef.de/bioclimsocial
Team
Jun.-Prof. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger (ZEF)
Vanessa Haines-Matos (ZEF)
Keywords
Roads, Rural areas, political economy, socioecological impacts, Nature Futures Framework
Countries
Kenya and Namibia
Summary
In this project, we assess the role of politics in road network development in Kenya. Specifically, we are interested in understanding if and how electoral motives by incumbents drive road infrastructure distribution.
Secondly, we evaluate the road-induced tradeoffs between socioeconomic development and environmental conservation in the rural areas of Kenya and Namibia.
Methodology
We take an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to achieve the project’s objectives.
First, basing on well-established theory on distributive politics from political science, we evaluate the relationship between politics and road development using geospatial datasets and econometric modeling techniques.
Secondly, we engage various stakeholders especially the rural dwellers in Namibia to develop current and future scenarios of road impacts based on the NFF framework.
Finally, we jointly evaluate the socio economic and environmental impacts due to roads using existing impact evaluation techniques and borrowing from other disciplines including remote sensing and geographic analysis and conservation biology.
Main Cooperation Partners
University of Cologne
Main Funding Partners
German Research Foundation- DFG
Duration of the Project
4 years
Project Homepage
https://crc-trr228.de/a05-future-roads/
Team
Jun. Prof. Lisa Bieber-Freudenberger
Vincent Moseti
Keywords
Land use, conflicts, synergies, Agenda 2030, agriculture, land degradation, biodiversity loss, agriculture, gender, climate change, health, Science Policy Interface
Countries
Africa particularly East Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Sudan
Summary
In LANUYSNCON, we try to answer urgent questions about the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. This requires the conceptual and practical involvement of different perspectives, actors and research fields. Using case study in sub-Sahara Africa, particularly in Kenya and Tanzania, we examine the complex trade-offs between different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The aim is to provide results that will help to understand and consider impacts of land use decisions beyond the respective policy sector in order to promote coherent land use policies.
Methodology
Dynamic Bayesian network analysis
Decision modelling
Structured interviews
GIS analysis
Main Cooperation Partners
Dr. David Amudavi (Biovision Africa Trust)
Charles Meshack (Tanzania Forest Conservation Group)
Professor Aletta Bonn (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research /iDiv)
Professor Dr. Jan Börner (Institute for Food and Resource Economics /ILR, the University of Bonn)
Professor Dr. Pierre Ibisch (Center for Econics and Ecosystem Management, the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde /HNEE)
Dr. Thomas Dietz (Institute for Political Science /IFPOL, the University of Münster)
Dr. Guido Schmidt-Traub (United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network /SDSN)
Dr. Claire Brown (UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center /WCMC)
Dr. Cory Whitney (the University of Bonn’s Horticulture Institute)
Main Funding Partners
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Publications
Hermans, K., Berger, E., Biber-Freudenberger, L., Bossenbroek, L., Ebeler, L., Groth, J., Hack, J., Hanspach, J., Hintz, K.S., Kimengsi, J.N., Kwong, Y.M.C. Oakes, R., Pagogna, R., Plieninger, T., Sterly, H., van der Geest, K., van Vliet, J., Wiederkehr, C. (2021). Crisis-induced disruptions in place-based social-ecological research ‐ an opportunity for redirection. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 30 (2), pp. 72-76(5). doi.org/10.14512/gaia.30.2.3
See further publication on LANUSYNCON website.
Duration of the Project
1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025
Project Homepage
https://www.zef.de/lanusyncon.html
Team
Jun.-Prof. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger
Dewi Idam Sari
Hannah Nyakio Kamau
Philipo Jacob
Qambemeda Masala Nyanghura
Sara Velander
Ines Jendritzki
Fatma Salaheldin Ali