Research on bundles of human well-being in South Africa

Areas with high levels of direct ecosystem service use among households coincides with areas characterized by relatively low levels of human well-being Ecosystem services and human well-being are closely interlinked. After all, ecosystem services are benefits that nature provides to humans, and human well-being is dependent on natural provisions such as clean drinking water. While these two concepts clearly overlap, many questions remain unanswered. For example, do patterns of ecosystem service use in a landscape correspond with particular patterns in human well-being? A study by SAPECS researchers Maike Hamann, Oonsie Biggs and Belinda Reyers, addresses this question. More specifically, the study, recently [...]

2017-02-02T13:00:13+02:00February 2nd, 2017|SAPECS News|

Novel research on social-ecological systems in South Africa – meet the new Doctors!

As the end of 2016 draws near, we’d like to take a moment to highlight the research of three newly-minted Doctors working on social-ecological systems in South Africa. These three female scientists have pushed the boundaries of knowledge to enhance our understanding of resilience, sense of place, and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, in regions as varied as the Garden Route, Wild Coast, and the Drakensberg mountains. Their work presents a fascinating cross-section of the diverse research undertaken within the SAPECS network, and we are excited to see what their futures hold!   Rebecka Malinga used a multi-method approach to [...]

2016-12-14T13:10:08+02:00December 14th, 2016|SAPECS News|

PECS II Conference website now live!

The Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) was launched in 2011. The principal approach of PECS research is an in-depth understanding of the social-ecological dynamics at landscape scale in a wide variety of situations. PECS uses a broadly set of conceptual frameworks and tools that eventually leads to comparisons of place-based, long-term social-ecological case studies, and reveals general principles for sustainable resource management. Since 2014, PECS is officially part of Future Earth, the newly created global research platform that aims to provide the knowledge and support to accelerate our transformations to a sustainable world. The Conference: PECS 2017 PECSII- [...]

2016-09-23T07:28:21+02:00September 23rd, 2016|SAPECS News|

Resilience Scoping Dialogue held in Stellenbosch

At a recent “scoping dialogue” held at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) and the Sustainability Institute, more than thirty leading thinkers and practical users of “resilience” were brought together to reflect on, interrogate and explore the concept of resilience, how it is being practically applied in a range of settings to advance sustainability, and how resilience thinking and practice can be supported and advanced in the southern African region in future.   Building resilience of communities, cities, landscapes and systems is increasingly seen as one substantive way of enhancing our capacity to deal with change – especially unexpected change – [...]

2016-08-16T12:51:58+02:00August 16th, 2016|SAPECS News|

Call for applications: Postdoctoral fellowship on Social-Ecological Regime Shifts

Deadline for applications: 30 July 2016 We live in a new planetary era – the Anthropocene - where human activities have become a major driver of ecosystem dynamics at local to global scales. There is growing evidence that anthropogenic impacts are increasing the risk of transgressing tipping points that could trigger catastrophic environmental regime shifts, such as the collapse of an important fishery or the Greenland ice sheet. Such regime shifts threaten the supply of essential ecosystem services on which human societies depend - including provisioning (e.g. crops), regulating (e.g. flood regulation), and cultural (e.g. recreation) services - and can [...]

2016-06-28T09:02:44+02:00June 28th, 2016|SAPECS News|

New paper on transdisciplinary research to bridge the science-action gap in local land-use planning

SAPECS-affiliated researchers Jessica Cockburn and Mathieu Rouget, together with a team of researchers and practitioners working in the eThekwini Municipal Area (Durban, South Africa), recently published a paper on bridging the science-action gap in the journal Ecology and Society. Through presenting empirical insights and lessons learnt from a local collaboration between a university (University of KwaZulu-Natal) and a municipality (eThekwini Municipality), the paper contributes to a growing body of research on the role of transdisciplinary research in bridging the gap between science and society. The paper uses the Durban Research Action Partnership (D’RAP) as a case study to test and [...]

2016-03-08T08:51:35+02:00March 8th, 2016|SAPECS News|

SAPECS teams up with Nat Cap and WLE for ecosystem service modelling workshop

Recently, SAPECS teamed up with CGIAR’s programme on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) and the Natural Capital Project (NatCap) to run a workshop on the NatCap’s approach and tools for modelling ecosystem services.  In recent years, NatCap’s modelling platforms, particularly INVEST and RIOS, have become indispensable communication, scoping and scenario development tools for social-ecological projects globally. Although anyone can download and use their software, NatCap pride themselves on iteratively developing tools through a deep engagement with on-the-ground projects.  The main objective of our training was to foster such an engagement between NatCap and various SAPECS and WLE projects, and to [...]

2016-01-20T06:54:39+02:00January 20th, 2016|SAPECS News|

New review on participatory scenario planning in social-ecological research

"Scenarios" are descriptions and visualizations of the potential future of a social-ecological system. In participatory scenario planning different groups of people use their local and scientific knowledge to develop sets of scenarios that provide multiple perspectives on real-world problems. A recent study by SAPECS researchers and a diverse group of international colleagues compares and contrasts 23 examples of participatory scenario planning. The study, published in Ecology and Society, aims to improve the rigor, inclusiveness and effectiveness of scenario planning exercises in place-based research. This is increasingly important as global initiatives such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) are [...]

2016-01-19T09:01:14+02:00January 19th, 2016|SAPECS News|

SAPECS learning event: The practicalities of engaging with society in social-ecological research

- by Odirilwe Selomane Just before the first ever Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) conference this past November in Stellenbosch, SAPECS organised a pre-conference learning event for early career social-ecological systems researchers at STIAS; coordinated and facilitated by Christo Fabricius from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). The topic of the event was “Participatory Action Research in Social-Ecological Systems”, and the focus was particularly on discussing the principles and practice of doing this research. The format for the day was three 15 minute food-for-thought presentations, each followed by an hour of dialogues and discussions in break-out groups, with a [...]

2015-12-04T07:46:56+02:00December 4th, 2015|SAPECS News|

PECS Science-Policy Dialogue explores different pathways towards creating good Anthropocene futures in southern Africa

We have entered a new geological era called the Anthropocene, where human actions that are characterized by an increase in connectivity, speed and mobility are profoundly influencing the functioning of the earth system. Arguably the challenges of living in the Anthropocene are too complex and intractable to be solved by scientists, policymakers or corporate business in isolation of one another. To tackle the problem of navigating the complex mix of intertwined social-ecological drivers, biophysical constraints and improved social conditions for all, the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) (an approved project of the Future Earth) hosted a Science-Policy-Practice Dialogue [...]

2015-12-01T18:11:17+02:00December 1st, 2015|SAPECS News|
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