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RCR - Resilience, Collapse and Reorganisation in Social-Ecological Systems of East- and South Africa's Savannahs

DFG Research Unit (Forschergruppe) FOR 1501

Overview:

The research unit (RU) is a joint project between the Universities of Cologne and Bonn and will investigate resilience, collapse and reorganisation in complex coupled social-ecological systems (SES) in Africa. Contemporary research shows that Africa is comprehensively affected by environmental transformations, but that societies, economies and environments are also massively impacted by forces of internal mobility and differentiation, violent conflict, economic globalisation and global environmental governance. We acknowledge that Africa-related pessimism has deep historical roots and that numerous allegedly catastrophic environmental shifts were rather based on the wish for political control of rural populations than on factual observation. However, we surmise that the present social and ecological challenges are path-breaking and lead to profound transformations of African SES. The savannahs of South and East Africa and especially wetlands within these drylands seem particularly suited to study these processes. On the one hand, savannahs are inherently unstable systems due to major variability of precipitation. On the other hand, pertinent processes of land use change (e.g. land reform in South Africa, voluntary sedentarisation in East Africa) and globalisation (e.g. establishment of horticultural industries in wetlands of East Africa, savannah and wetland orientated conservation efforts and tourism) currently affect savannah systems and the wetlands embedded within them profoundly.

Contribution of ILR

ILR hosts sub-project B2:

Resilience of SES from a Resource-Economics Perspective

Massive transformation of user groups and land use change characterise today's social-ecological dynamics in the savannahs of Eastern and Southern Africa. Changing popula-tions and market environments as well as institutional dynamics - for instance altered rights of access to resources - are driving these changes. Resource economics will concentrate on strengthening the link between natural and social sciences by modelling the interaction between ecosystems, the resources that these ecosystems incorporate, and the human communities using and managing these resources in the described SES. The main analytical tools will be bio-economic numerical simulation and the empirical analysis of the formal and informal institutional designs that are relevant for the regulation of resource use. The sub-project will work in Naivasha/Kenya and Thaba Nchu/South Africa.

Research proposal of sub-project B2

Principal Researchers:

Research fellow:

PhD students:

Last updated: Thursday, April 14, 2011