A very hot and humid Grahamstown welcomed more than twenty researchers and PhD students to the 4th meeting of the SAPECS Working Groups between 27th and 30th January 2014, held at Rhodes University. Existing working groups met to further discussions and collaborations that were initiated last year, and new working groups were formed to respond to emerging research gaps identified by the wider SAPECS community.
Three full days of workshopping were complemented with a fieldtrip to Grahamstown’s commonages, which represent fascinating examples of social-ecological systems that provide a variety of ecosystem services to local people (like firewood, grazing for cattle, recreation, space for cultural practices, and freshwater regulation and purification). The workshop participants were also shown around one of Grahamstown’s townships by representatives of the ‘Water for Dignity’ project, which is run through the Khulumani Support Group (https://www.khulumani.net/), in association with the Institute for Water Research at Rhodes University. It is a project that aims to understand the causes of water access and quality problems in Grahamstown East, and find practical solutions to those problems in close collaboration with the affected communities.
Overall, the workshop was geared towards starting to develop tangible outcomes and products, including an initial synthesis paper outlining the SAPECS initiative and first research insights gained within the network (to be submitted later this year). In addition, plans for a SAPECS ‘winter school’ for young scientists starting out in the field of social-ecological research were advanced, and an announcement about the course contents and logistics will be published on www.sapecs.org soon!
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- Introductory talk by representatives of the 'Water for Dignity' project
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- Learning about the challenges of water supply in Grahamstown's townships
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- Remains of aloe harvesting on commonage
Photo credits: Maike Hamann
