"There is great value in doing water and catchment-based research with people for people," says Dr Tally Palmer. “If you were to ask in the modern university how much engaged research there is, it would be very, very small. We are living in an era when society is pushing back at universities and saying, ‘for us to see that you are valuable we want to see you take the risk of getting into the messy spaces’.” Professor Tally Palmer, Director of the Institute of Water Research, won the 2018 VC’s Distinguished Community Engagement Award for her championing of ‘engaged research’ [...]

Project background  Southern Africa has significant biodiversity and natural resources and a robust and evolving legislative framework for their transboundary management. However, the capacity to manage the region’s rich natural resources varies widely from country to country. National policies often lack harmonisation across countries and between sectors, and biodiversity-rich ecosystems are characterised by poor and vulnerable human populations who lack sufficient benefits and incentives for sustainable resource management. In the face of these challenges, as well as increasing water scarcity and uncertainty related to future change (including climate change), the region needs to assess its management of transboundary resources from [...]

Project background  The Okavango River Basin is recognised as an internationally important site of biodiversity. It hosts two Ramsar sites, or wetlands of international importance: the Okavango Delta in Botswana and the contiguous Bwabwata-Okavango Ramsar Site in Namibia. The Okavango Delta, one of the largest inland deltas and a World Heritage Site is a popular tourist destination that contributes US$1.5 billion to the GDP in Botswana. Tourism is the second-largest source of foreign income for Botswana and there are many protected areas in the basin, including part of the world’s largest Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA), the Kavango-Zambezi Transfontier Park (KAZA). [...]

 Project background  The Limpopo River Basin is a complex transboundary system that supports more than 18 million people across the riparian states of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Most of this population is rural and poor, and heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture. The basin is an important agricultural area, has extraordinary mineral resources, is exceptionally rich in biodiversity, supports a significant tourism industry, and contains major urban and industrial centres. The system comprises biophysical and human sub-systems and drivers, all of which interact to present a composite picture of vulnerability. As the Limpopo River Basin approaches water resources closure [...]

Project background  The Limpopo River Basin is a complex transboundary system that supports more than 18 million people across the riparian states of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Most of this population is rural and poor, and heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture. The basin is an important agricultural area, has extraordinary mineral resources, is exceptionally rich in biodiversity, and supports a significant tourism industry. More than 60% of Botswana’s population resides in the Limpopo and it contains some of South Africa’s major urban and industrial centres. The system comprises biophysical and human sub-systems and drivers, all of which interact [...]

Understanding the social and environmental impacts of multiple drivers of global and local change in Africa requires systemic and longitudinal place-based research. Landscapes provide the ‘ideal’ unit for this purpose, as well as for applying sustainable solutions that tackle complex—sometimes wicked—development and environmental challenges. Through a landscape approach, it is possible to explore the interaction between multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs), enabling understanding of the impacts of change and risk on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and livelihoods, as well as the implementation of locally appropriate and integrated response options. Indeed, landscape approaches have been widely promoted by government agencies, NGOs, and [...]