I have been undertaking fieldwork in Sedgefield for my PhD in Geography, University of Exeter, UK, for the past three months with support from the Sustainability Research Unit, Nelson Mandela University, George campus.
SRU facilitating capacity development for Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency.
During August 2016, the Sustainability Research Unit (SRU) from the Nelson Mandela University held the first of a series of capacity development workshops for the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency (BGCMA).
Thea Buckle recently received the Nelson Mandela University award for the best Master’s student in the social sciences for her dissertation “Media and communication influences on farmer’s views of water conservation in the Garden Route”.
Our international research collaboration MAGIC (Multi-scale adaptations to global change and their impacts on vulnerability in coastal areas) held its annual meeting 4th-8th of May 2016.
On the 7th of April 2016 the Sustainability Research Unit hosted a Research Associates Symposium at the George Campus of Nelson Mandela University.
On the 7th of November, 2015, a public dialogue between members of the public and environmental professionals from various institution was held at the Wilderness Hotel.
Dr Jackie Dabrowski was invited to present at Nelson Mandela University, George campus on the 9th of March 2016. She presented her research on “Pansteatitis in tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus): untangling the links to fish diet, thyroid status, water quality and drought”.
MAGIC is a research collaboration aimed at understanding ‘Multi-scale adaptations to global change and their impacts on vulnerability in coastal areas’, on the basis of three case studies: Languedoc-Roussillon in France, Cornwall in the UK, and the Garden Route coast in South Africa.
On the 4th of November 2015, SRU members Janine Adams and Bianca Currie attended the 2nd Nelson Mandela University Engagement Colloquium in Port Elizabeth.
The SRU would like to welcome Peter Novellie and Herve Fritz to our dynamic research team!
On the 16th of February 2016, the SRU hosted a follow up focus group with professionals from SANParks, MTO, Southern Cape Landowners Initiative (SCLI) and SRU/NMMU research associates.
The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society conference, held between the 3rd and 5th November 2015, gathered scientists from various disciplines, from within and beyond the PECS network, who shared cutting-edge research insights on social-ecological dynamics in the Anthropocene.
Prof Christo Fabricius visited Lesotho in January 2016 to advise the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to promote agricultural resilience.
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 University.
GEORGE NEWS - "The Wilderness community reacted well when called upon to clear public areas of invasive alien plants - and on their day off as well," said Cobus Meiring, of the Southern Cape Landowners Initiative (SCLI).
On behalf of the Kaaimans-to-Touw (KTT) Eco-Restoration Forum, we would like to thank everyone who attended the community hacking day on the 1st of October 2015.
There was a great turnout and the area looks incredible.
With over 90 people in attendance, the Hacking Day was a huge success and a lot of fun!
Kaaimans-to-Touw Eco-Restoration Forum would like to invite you to a community project where teams of volunteers will work together to clear invasive plants.
Supervision, information about invasive species and refreshments will be provided on the day.
Building bridges in the war on weeds.
On the 22nd of June, Prof. Richard Kingsford entertained the students of NMMU George Campuis with an impassioned lecture about his journey to restore and protect rivers in Australia.
Professor Richard Kingsford is the Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of NSW. He has focussed his research over about the last 20 years on the waterbirds, wetlands and rivers of arid Australia, which cover about 70% of the continent. He has identified the significant impacts of water resource development on the rivers and wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin and other parts of the world and he has contributed to policy development and environmental flow management. He is the current President of the Society for Conservation Biology in Oceania.
The SRU team received a favourable report of their 5-year review by a panel consisting of NMMU and external environmental leaders.
Conversations for improved public participation was a presentation and mini workshop facilitated by Bianca Currie on the 28 March 2015 at the Knysna Municipality Ward Committee Summit.
The many challenges associated with mislabelling of seafood have been highlighted in a paper published in the January 2015 edition of Marine Policy.
The title of NMMU Adjunct Professor in the Science Faculty was recently conferred on Dr Dirk Roux, a stalwart Research Associate in the university’s Sustainability Research Unit and Senior Scientist in South African National Parks (SANParks).
Adaptive Stewardship of Social-Ecological Systems in the Garden Route, South Africa
NMMU’s Sustainability Research Unit (www.nmmu.ac.za/sru) is recruiting Master’s and Doctoral students, as well as Research fellows, who are passionate about collaborative action research, complexity and adaptive co-management of social-ecological systems.
The SRU recently welcomed Dr Jeanne Nel as a Research Associate. Her appointment was confirmed by the NMMU last week. We are very pleased to have this acomplished researcher on board and look forward to working with Jeanne. Jeanne's professional biography can be read below.
South African legislation promotes public participation in development planning (National Environmental Management Act) and water management (National Water Act). The public participation aspect of modern-day planning is particularly challenging and fraught with pitfalls. Conversations for improved public participation was an opportunity for dialogue around the challenges, with the aim of collaboratively brainstorming solutions for improved public participation.
The first social- ecological winter school, organized by NMMU's Sustainability Research Unit in collaboration with Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), saw twenty-one students from southern Africa gathering at NMMU George Campus from the 30th of June to the 4th of July 2014. Aimed primarily at PhD students in their first year of study, the main goal was capacity development of new scholars in social- ecological systems through innovative use of facilitated dialogues and adopting integrated coaching principles. A systems perspective was also given through a field trip in and around the Garden Route National Park where practitioners working at the interface of ecosystems and societies highlighted the practical challenges they face.
A number of SRU members (Christo Fabricuis, Dirk Roux, Lisa Heider, Cara Nieuwoudt and Abigail Crisp) participated in the third international conference presented by the Resilience Alliance (RA). The RA champions the international discourse on resilience thinking; resilience being the capacity to deal with change and continue to develop. Resilience 2014 was hosted by the French Node of the RA and held in the south of France (Montpellier).
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s (NMMU) Sustainability Research Unit and SAPECS would like to invite relevant Masters and PhD students to an ‘Ecosystems and Society’ Winter School that will be held at NMMU’s George Campus at Saasveld from 30 June to 4 July.
On the 25th and 26th of March the Water Research Commission visited the Sustainability Research Unit Team at NMMU George Campus for a strategic workshop.