Ecology and Natural Resources Management (ECOL)

Keywords
Science-Policy-Practice Interface (SPPI); Nature-based Solutions (NbS); Savannas; Africa; Climate Change; Biodiversity

Countries
Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Germany

Summary
Africa’s sustainable development is tremendously challenged by climate change and biodiversity loss. In particular, the vast African savanna systems have largely been converted into managed landscapes, including agricultural and settlement areas. Savannas are very rich in biodiversity and provide indispensable ecosystem services. At the same time, savannas are the “breadbasket” of the continent providing 70% of Africa's cropland, 66% of cereal production and 80% of livestock farming. One of the greatest future challenges in savanna areas will be to adapt to the ever- changing environmental conditions, to conserve their biodiversity, maintain ecosystem functionality and ecosystem service provision, and concurrently provide food for the local population.

The African Climate and Environment Centre - Future African Savannas (AFAS) which is one of the global Centres of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) aims to build the critical mass and expertise to tackle these challenges, leveraging on working in the unique SPPI (Science Policy Practice Interface) space, adopting an inter- and transdisciplinary education and research approach with strong digital teaching, learning and research components, capacity development for the implementation of concepts and technologies as drivers of transformative change for the conservation and sustainable use of the savanna ecosystem following the Nature-based Solutions (NbS) approach. Indigenous and local knowledge combined with innovative new approaches based on research represent a great potential for sustainable development and achieving the SDGs in the region.

Methodology
AFAS aims to build capacity of young African scholars through a post-graduate program with masters and doctoral students who undertake an interdisciplinary study program with a curriculum that is co-developed together with stakeholders. The students and senior researchers undertake research on climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation in the African Savannas. The students also engage in international exchange programs and internships. AFAS is a transdisciplinary project that works with stakeholders in the Science, Policy and Practice Interface.

Main Cooperation Partners
The Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany
The Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation (ICCA), University of Nairobi, Kenya
The African Center of Excellence on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (CEA-CCBAD), Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
The Global South Studies Center (GSSC), University of Cologne, Germany

Main Funding Partners
The German Federal Foreign Office

Duration of the Project
5 years (2021-2025)

Project Homepage
https://www.afas.africa/

Team
Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister (ZEF, University of Bonn)
Prof. Dr. Michael Bollig (GSSC, University of Cologne)
Prof. Dr. Daniel Olago (ICCA, University of Nairobi)
Prof. Dr. Souleymane Konaté
Assoc. Prof. Dr. N'golo A. Koné
Dr. Juliet Wanjiku Kamau ZEF, University of Bonn)
Dr. Jan Henning Sommer (ZEF, University of Bonn)
Dr. Gerda Kuiper (GSSC, University of Cologne)
Ms. Lewnorah Ayieta (ICCA, University of Nairobi)
Ms. Angelika Mikusz
Ms. Marie Thomalla Arellano
Ms. Bárbara Meraz

Contact
Dr. Juliet Wanjiku Kamau, Phone.: +49-228-73-1838

Keywords
Capacity development, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Countries
Overall: 38+ countries (West, East and Central Africa). Core countries (8): Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Gabon, Madagascar, Sierra Leone

Summary
CABES – Capacity Development for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Experts (www.cabes.online) aims to develop and strengthen the capacity of professionals in biodiversity-related fields in West, Central, and East Africa to engage in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, www.ipbes.net). Goal one is to inform national decision-making processes amongst multiple stakeholder groups including researchers, practitioners from the public and private sectors, as well as NGOs, indigenous & local knowledge (ILK) holders, women, and IPBES national focal points. Goal two is to establish a network of science-policy platforms to contribute to the implementation of the IPBES work programmes at national, sub-regional and regional level. Goal three is to train early-career scientists, researchers, and facilitators to manage science-policy interfaces (SPIs). Finally, CABES will develop capacities to support the implementation of political decisions for the management and sustainable use of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services/Nature’s Contributions to People (BES/NCP).

Methodology
CABES will develop and strengthen capacity in West, Central, and East Africa to engage in IPBES through different capacity building initiatives and setting up of science-policy platforms across geographic scales, including: (i) A capacity development programme and platform targeted at professionals; (ii) Education & capacity development programme through university course works targeting early-career professional; (iii) the establishment and/or strengthening of National platforms on biodiversity & Ecosystem Services that brings together national experts to identify and address policy gaps; and (iv) A “network of platforms” that connects science-policy platforms at sub-regional, regional scale and beyond to mainstream contributions to the IPBES work programme and its uptake, as well as to foster knowledge exchanges & south-south collaboration.

Main Cooperation Partners

• CoKnow Consulting, Germany
• UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), United Kingdom,
• West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change & Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), Burkina Faso.
• African Center of Excellence on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture (CEA-CCBAD), Université Félix Houphouët Boigny (UFHB), Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
• Horn of Africa Regional Environment Center and Network (HoAREC), Ethiopia
• Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the Université de Lubumbashi (FSA-UNILU), Democratic Republic of Congo

Main Funding Partners
The International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).

Duration of the Project
15.02.2022 – 31.01.2030

Project Homepage
https://www.cabes.online/

Team
Jan Henning Sommer
Isimemen Osemwegie

Contact
 Dr. Jan Henning Sommer, Phone.: +49-228-73-1725

Keywords
Teaching exchange and student exchange

Countries
Japan, Germany

Summary
The longstanding collaboration between the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the University of Tokyo grows with the inclusion of the Graduate School of Frontier Science (GSFS) in addition to the International Program in Agricultural Development Studies (IPADS). Together, they are forging new pathways in sustainable development and addressing global challenges such as hunger, malnutrition, poverty, inequality, and the sustainable management of common resources. With interdisciplinary perspectives, all three institutes strive to create a positive impact.

The partnership, initiated in 2016 by Prof. Kensuke Okada from the University of Tokyo and Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister, Dr. Manfred Denich, and Dr. Günther Manske from ZEF, has evolved into a thriving collaboration. Under the management of Dr. Silke Tönsjost and Max Voit from the Bonn International Graduate School for Development Research (BIGS-DR) at ZEF, along with Dr. Juliet Kamau from ZEF, the project starts a new chapter of student exchange and knowledge exchange. All three institutes are committed to fostering academic excellence and empowering future decision-makers through science-based approaches to tackling complex global challenges.

Methodology
Teaching exchange, student exchange, excursions, and joint online-seminars.

Main Cooperation Partners
International Program in Agricultural Development Studies (IPADS) / University of Tokyo
Graduate Program in Sustainability Science - Global Leadership Initiative (GPSS-GLI) / University of Tokyo

Main Funding Partners
University of Tokyo and University of Bonn

Further information
“Local communities matter”. Interview with Professor Hiroe Ishihara of University of Tokyo

Duration of the Project
Since 2016

Team
Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister (ZEF)
Dr. Juliet Kamau (ZEF)
Prof. Dr. Mitsuo Yamamoto (IPADS)
Prof. Dr. Hiroe Ishihara (GPSS-GLI)
Dr. Silke Tönsjost (ZEF)
Max Voit (ZEF)

Contact
Dr. Silke Tönsjost, Phone.: +49-228-73-1794

Keywords
Future making, arboviral diseases, vector ecology and biology

Countries
Kenya, Namibia

Summary
Conservation and intensification are two important pathways of large-scale land-use change in rural Africa. Besides anticipated effects, these top-down strategies of future-making may have unintended side effects on human and animal well-being, in particular because of so- called emerging infectious diseases (EIDs). These pose a serious threat to global health, with more than 70% of them being zoonotic, and among the latter a significant number are arthropod-borne viruses, so-called arboviruses. Arboviruses are particularly sensitive to ecological changes and can easily escape from their natural transmission cycles and adapt to new hosts and geographic regions. Most prominent examples are the epidemics caused by yellow fever, Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika viruses in humans and Rift Valley fever (RVF) in both humans and animals. Land-use changes can have profound effects on biodiversity and EIDs. However, functional linkages between biodiversity and viral pathogens are poorly understood. Moreover, land-use, climatic and demographic changes and rapidly developing livestock markets with concurrent social transformations have a tremendous impact on the livestock sector, in particular on traditional forms of pastoralism in Africa. One of the consequences of these transformations are changing livestock migration routes, which can foster the spread of arboviruses. Yet the impact of ongoing socio-ecological trans- formations in rural Africa on arbovirus transmission cycles remains elusive. This project aims to understand how ecosystem diversity influences vector and virus populations in the light of large-scale land-use changes in rural Africa. Effects of conservation and agricultural intensification (with a particular focus on invasive plant species) on selected arboviruses will be studied in the KAZA and the KRV sites. We will analyze major ecosystem characteristics and assess vector diversity and concomitant arbovirus infections at sites with different duration of land-use changes, the latter especially in KAZA. To identify if simple proxies of diversity can predict patterns of arbovirus abundance or prevalence, we will quantify the taxonomic diversity of vectors, hosts and vegetation. The latter could be important, as there are indications that some vector species favor certain invasive plants. Thus, this project will attempt to quantify the proportion of selected invasive plants, initially in the KRV site, and analyze the impact on vector dynamics and arbovirus prevalence. Close collaboration with projects studying agricultural futures (A03) and conservation areas (A04), ecosystem diversity and services (A01), the challenges of invasive species (B01), and the economic and energy transformations (C02) to name a few will enable a broad and long-term understanding on how such socio-ecological changes will affect arboviral diseases at the KAZA and KRV sites. Regarding the bridging concepts of the collaborative research cluster (CRC), our research will investigate how socio-ecological transformations and land-use changes in the context of future making will lead to shifting boundaries of EIDs and the vectors that are responsible for their transmission. Long-term studies within the framework of the CRC will enable us to understand the dynamics of vector-born infectious diseases and how they affect and potentially disrupt future-making across Africa.

Methodology
The project partners will also aim to develop viable insect rearing and harvesting techniques, assess the nutritional attributes of the insects (while taking into account the unique needs of women, girls and infants), identify the biosafety risks along the value chain, and build capacity for research on edible insects in the regions. Considering the key roles already played by women in the edible insect sector, the research will endeavour to create low-input insect technologies to support their participation along the value chain.

Main Cooperation Partners
National University of Namibia
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Main Funding Partners
German Research Council (DFG)

Duration of the Project
2018 - 2021 (first phase)
2022 - 2026 (second phase)

Project Homepage
https://www.crc228.de

Team
Prof. Dr. Sandra Junglen – Project PI at Charité
Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister – Project PI at ZEF
Prof. Dr. Eric Fèvre – partner at ILRI/ University of Liverpool
Dr. Tatenda Chiuya – ZEF postdoc, based at ILRI

Contact
Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister, Phone.: +49-228-73-1866

Keywords
food security, adaptation to climate change, environmental protection, social learning, gender, implementation research

Countries
The project spans all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on West Africa

Summary
INTERFACES is an accompanying project that will support four BMBF-funded regional research and development (R&D) projects in their endeavor to drive change for sustainable land management in Sub-Saharan Africa. It will do so through impact-driven support activities which build on networking for the regional projects, science communication, social learning processes and capacity development, and by complementary transfer analyses that enable or facilitate the implementation as well as improve the relevance and outreach of the regional projects' research-based findings.

Key bottlenecks for better adoption of technical solutions or ideas for better land management include that the proposed solutions may not necessarily match the constraints or meet the priorities of the stakeholders who are supposed to use them, that there is resistance to change due to power structures, value systems, norms and institutions, or that it is unclear how to achieve the desired change because context-specific behavior change management concepts are missing. To achieve changes towards sustainable land management, a fundamental reorganization is needed across technological, economic, political, institutional and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values. Changes must be gender-responsive and socially inclusive, which means that implementation pathways for sustainable land management must be based on thorough gender and power analyses and lead to outcomes that benefit both women and men of different ethnicities, ages, classes, and income levels.

The outputs from INTERFACES are expected to include scientific and non-scientific publications, the promotion of transdisciplinary research and social learning approaches in order to produce research results that are relevant to practice, the strengthening of already existing networks on land management issues and linking them up with different African and international networks to further contribute to the implementation of the R&D results in the area of land management. Finally, INTERFACES will anchor implementation-oriented research in education and training.

Approach:
INTERFACES has four work areas that together strengthen the integration, coherence and reach of the regional projects with regard to sustainable land management:

1.  Knowledge synthesis through dialogues about future visions and theories of change for sustainable land management - together with the regional projects and actors from science, policy and practice,
2. Support of innovation and implementation processes by identifying change strategies to bridge knowledge-behaviour gaps,
3. Communication, networking and knowledge management and
4. Education and capacity building, e.g. through the integration of teaching content into African and German graduate programs.
   The methods and results of the regional projects find their way into the training of project partners and students with regard to the training of future "change agents".

Main Cooperation Partners
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Ghana
West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change & Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), Burkina Faso
University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (UBIDS), Ghana
University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS), Germany
German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Germany
Horticultural Sciences, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES) University of Bonn, Germany

Main Funding Partners
Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF)

Duration of the Project
01.10.2022 to 30.09.2026

Project Homepage
https://www.zef.de/interfaces

Team
Dr. Tina Beuchelt
Dr. Hannah Jaenicke
Dr. Peter Asare-Nuamah
Ala Malasheuskaya

Contact
Dr. Tina Beuchelt, Phone.: +49-228-73-4922

Keywords
One Health, urban transformation, water, sanitation, hygiene, food security, public health, zoonosis

Countries
Germany, Ghana, Brazil, India

Summary
The ‘One Health’ concept adopts an integrative perspective of health, recognizing the intrinsic interconnections between human, animal and environmental health. Interactions between environmental, social and economic systems shape and influence One Health. These interactions are investigated in the context of urban transformation to develop sustainable solutions that maximize synergetic effects, minimize trade-offs and mitigate health risks.

Methodology

• Interdisciplinary approaches
• Systems approaches
• Quantitative & Qualitative
• GIS
• Modeling

Main Cooperation Partners
National: HBRS, UNU-EHS, various institutes of the University Bonn
International: ISSER, FEA-USP, FoRC-USP, IIPH-G

Main Funding Partners
Ministry of Culture and Science of the State government if Northrhine Westphalia (MKW) / Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein Westfalen

Duration of the Project
05 / 2016 - 12 / 2020 (Phase 1)
01 / 2021 - 06 / 2024 (Phase 2)

Project Homepage
https://www.zef.de/onehealth.html

Team
Prof. Christian Borgemeister (Speaker)
Prof. Thomas Kistemann (Co-Speaker)
Ana Maria Perez Arredondo (Coordinator)

Contact
Ana Maria Perez Arredondo, Phone.: +49-228-73-4971