The three Ghanaian students Hezekiel Clottey, Michael Ayamga and Irene Ampaabeng have been visiting ZEF and Germany during the pasts six weeks to get an impression of German academic and development-policy organizations. They are participating in the newly established Program for Development Studies in Accra, Ghana, run by ZEF and the Institute for Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER).

How can GTZ projects benefit from scientific outcome? How can the collaboration between the ZEF and the GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) be further improved? These were the main questions discussed by 30 scientists and experts during the second ZEF-GTZ workshop "Science for Development" in Eschborn, held on 28 May 2009. This workshop focused on the issue of water.

Scientists from the GLOWA Volta Project, which is led and carried out by ZEF, developed a geoportal in cooperation with the Department of Computer Science III at the University of Bonn. This tool was developed for regional users, stake holders and decision makers from politics, water resources institutions as well as science in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The project in the West African Volta Basin is part of the umbrella program 'Global Change and the Hydrological Cycle (GLOWA)' of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).

The new Ghanaian-German Center for Development Studies and Health Research in Accra was officially inaugurated on June 16. The Program for Development Studies was set up jointly by ZEF and the Institute for Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana.

ZEF organizes two sessions at the International Symposium on Society and Resource Management (ISSRM) taking place in Vienna, Austria, on July 5-8, 2009.

One ZEF-session will be on 'Integrated Water Resources Management - Challenges and Innovative Strategies from Around the World', and the second one on 'Sustainable Resource Management: The Role of Knowledge, Education and Certification'

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On Saturday June 6, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat hosted "Land Day" at the Gustav-Stresemann-Institut, Bonn, Germany. The event, attended by 170 participants, aimed to help climate change negotiators and other stakeholders attending the concurrent Bonn climate change talks consider in detail the linkages between climate change and desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD).

Broadcasted live in the internet here

ZEF is a partner in the European Commission funded research project STRIVER (Strategy and methodology for improved IWRM - An integrated interdisciplinary assessment in four twinning basins; under SUSTDEV-2005-3.II.3.6: Twinning European/third countries river basins).

The ZEF research focuses on the Tungabhadra basin in south India, which is one of the four basins studied in the project. Tungabhadra river is a tributary of the Krishna river. ZEF will be mainly active in Work Package (WP) 9 "IWRM in the twinned Tungabhadra and Tejo/Tagus river basins, with a focus and land and water use interactions".

To get an impression of their experiences in the Mekong Delta, the project area where they did their field research, please read the interview with three of the students: Nadine Reis, Judith Ehlert and Tatjana Bauer. For more information on the WISDOM project have a look at the project homepage » here

The project on "Conservation and Use of Wild Coffea Arabica in the Montane Rainforests of Ethiopia (CoCE)" will carry out its final workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from June 1-4, 2009. On the basis of results from the social and natural sciences, the project has developed a conservation concept and strategy for the endangered wild coffee forests in southwestern Ethiopia, which will be implemented by a local non-profit organisation, established by former ZEF researchers.

'Water Pollution and its Implication on Human Health' was the title of one of the sessions ZEF organized at the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 in Bonn on April 27 2009. The overall theme of this session's discussion was how global environmental change affects water resources and subsequently human health.

A group of international water research experts met at ZEF from March 24-25 2009 to exchange views, insights and research results on "Water Policy Dynamics in State-Centric Regimes". Read the interview on the outcome of the workshop.

NEW: ZEF's first video clip!!! Speech by James Nickum on China's water policies. Watch here and now!