Two workshops were recently held in Mozambique and Kenya, as part of the "Seeds of Good Anthropocenes" initiative. In the post below, Laura Pereira describes one of these workshops and its outcomes.    Once upon a time in Paradiso village, there lived a fisherman with his wife and two children… As we all know, this is how all good stories start, and it was no different for the third day of the Kenyan workshop where the participants got to draw on all their creativity and story-telling skills to build positive stories of a future Kenya in the age of the Anthropocene. [...]

Dr Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs has been awarded a Research Chair in "Social-Ecological Systems and Resilience” as part of the South African Research Chair Initiative (SARChI). The Research Chair Initiative was established in 2006 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF), with the aim of attracting and retaining excellence in research and innovation at South African public universities. Since then, a total of 197 Chairs have been awarded in diverse disciplines across the natural sciences, engineering, humanities and social sciences. To be chosen as a recipient, researchers have to demonstrate substantial international recognition for [...]

SAPECS researchers Maike Hamann, Oonsie Biggs and Belinda Reyers recently released a study on identifying social-ecological systems based on the level of ecosystem service use among households. The paper, published open-access in the journal Global Environmental Change, explores the relationship between people and nature within so-called 'green-loop' and 'red-loop' systems in South Africa. The researchers used national census data to evaluate the direct use of six ecosystem services: animal production such as livestock and poultry, crop production, use of freshwater from a natural source, use of firewood for cooking, use of firewood for heating and use of natural building materials. Based [...]

Participatory Action Research in Social-Ecological Systems: Principles and Practice when Working with Communities   Dates: 1 November at 16:00 until 2 November 17:30 (before the PECS2015 Conference, www.pecs2015.org) Venue: Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS), 10 Marais Street, Stellenbosch Facilitators: Christo Fabricius with Dirk Roux; Maria Tengö; Franck de Saint Simon; Karen Esler and others   Background Scholars of the dynamics and interactions of ecosystems and society are beginning to appreciate the value of local and informal knowledge and the need to share information with stakeholders. People’s participation is therefore not only desirable but essential and can take the form [...]

PECS 2015 Conference Spier Estate | Stellenbosch | South Africa 3 - 5 November 2015 www.pecs2015.org Registration Closing: 18 September 2015 Limited space still available   Click here to register   ACCOMMODATION BOOKING REMINDER Bookings close 18 September 2015 Accommodation with discounted rates only for PECS2015 registrants available. Please click here for further information.  We have arranged complimentary transfers from the conference selected hotels to the conference venue at Spier. DRAFT SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME UPLOADED Click here   KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Click here ·         Eduardo S. Brondizio - Professor of Anthropology and Adjunct Professor of Environmental Sciences at Indiana University-Bloomington, United States. [...]

SAPECS researcher Oonsie Biggs received a prestigious P-rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) for her outstanding research on social-ecological regime shifts and their impact on ecosystem services. P-rated researchers have demonstrated the potential of becoming future international leaders in their field based on exceptional research performance and output early in their careers. Biggs says the P-Rating is an honour, and a real boost for social-ecological sustainability research in the region. "I hope that this award will open up new opportunities to train students and carry out collaborative research with other researchers working in this field in South Africa." "I [...]

SAPECS-affiliated researchers Ilse Kotzee and Belinda Reyers have published a paper in which they present a composite index for measuring flood resilience and apply this approach to three flood-prone municipalities in South Africa. The study was published in Ecological Indicators, and is available here. For more information, please see the abstract below: "Global increases in the magnitude and frequency of flood events have raised concerns that traditional flood management approaches may not be sufficient to deal with future uncertainties. There is a need to move towards approaches that manage the resilience of the system to floods by understanding and managing drivers [...]

SAPECS-affiliated researcher and working group member Christo Fabricius and his team at the Sustainability Research Unit (SRU) have been awarded the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Engagement Excellence Award (Team Award) for 2014. This award recognizes excellence in academic engagement activities that are essentially educational in nature, and aim to promote integration of engagement in teaching, learning and research. Engagement in this context refers to the process of transferring, applying and shaping the university’s knowledge and resources with the broader community. The SRU (www.nmmu.ac.za/sru) received this award for its outstanding contribution to advancing NMMU’s strategic engagement priorities and goals over [...]