We look forward to receiving your applications!

Application deadline: 15 June, 2022!
Learn more clicking here.

Starting date: October 2022
Location: Bayreuth, Germany

The post CALL FOR APPLICATIONS for the M.Sc. Global Change Ecology appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

The topic

As the name already suggests, the School focuses on land use, land use change and the effect of these changes on ecosystems. In more detail, lectures addressed the modelling of land use change, the question of how land use is integrated in policy frameworks like IPBES as well as issues related to ecosystem services, species habitats, and biodiversity. Although some of these topics might seem familiar and are covered within GCE lectures, I really enjoyed looking at them from a land use (change) standpoint.

Furthermore, the School approached the discussed topics from a socio-ecological perspective, incorporating concepts like resilience, vulnerability, and risk management. Besides, we got a lot of input about past, present and future drivers of land use change and discussed the role of social networks and human impact, e.g., in form of deforestation or land abandonment. What I really enjoyed is that they tried to show how these changes and processes are connected on an international scale.

The format and lecturers

The organizers really put a strong effort into making the School as applied and active as possible. A usual day would start with a lecture followed by a Q&A session or a quick discussion round and an introduction into the group work, which was continued in the afternoon. The days adjourned by presenting the group work and having discussions about the topic. On two of the days, we had the chance to exchange our ideas about two posted questions through reading and commenting on each others’ ideas (basically a virtual form of a discussion forum). The group exercises were definitely a big plus. Using different models or assessment tools, we had to investigate about the effect of different land use and emission scenarios, and how these changes would differ between countries. We also took a closer look into the changes in ecosystem productivity under different land use scenarios.

I highly valued the broad variety of platforms, modelling tools, and datasets that they selected for the group exercises. It gave a great insight into the availability of (open source) data and makes you want to use this data for future analysis. Especially for students that like to dive into the field of land use (change), this could be beneficial for a future thesis or project. One other point why I recommend this School are the professors and lecturers. All are major experts in their field and have been closely engaged in important (research) activities, e.g., the writing of the IPBES report. They are very motivated to share their knowledge and are always happy to have a personal talk.

The participants and the setting

The School is open to international master and PhD students. I think the committee did a great job in selecting the participants. We had a diverse group with an almost equal split between master and PhD students. For me, I really enjoyed hearing about the projects the PhD students were conducting, and I think their perspectives enriched the discussions a lot. It was also nice to see some real-world projects dealing with land use change and the challenges they were facing. Even online, we had some very cool discussions and I assume that this is even better when the School will take place in person this year in the alpine region of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Although I have only been there during my free time, I can definitely say that this is a great region to spend a Summer School and I am convinced that the organizers have great excursions planned for this year, too.

Any drawbacks?

Well, as the master program GCE is very diverse, there are topics that have been covered in classes before. Especially the lectures about ecosystem services, biodiversity or the CBD will be more of a repetition rather than new knowledge. However, putting these topics in the light of land use change adds some new perspectives and I believe that it can be a nice possibility to refresh some knowledge or engage even more in the discussions. Moreover, the many tools, models and datasets that you will get to know during the School can be very beneficial for people that want to pursue a career in the field of land use and ecosystem change.

Wrap-up

I would recommend this School to anyone interested in land use, the drivers and challenges of land use change, and the relation to social system. The School offers a new perspective into a topic, i.e. land use change, that I find GCE courses only cover partly. If you are looking for motivating and engaging professors to extend your network, then you are absolutely right to go for this School. If you want completely new knowledge, then this Summer School might not be your first choice, as some of the topics are covered by the GCE program modules.

I hope I could motivate some of you to take part in this School. This year, the Summer School will take place from the 16^th to the 23^rd of August. Applications are still open until May 27^th, 2022. Keep in mind that you need a signed motivation letter, so don’t wait too long!

More information about this year’s summer school clicking here.

The post KIT Summer School 2021: Land Use and Ecosystem Change appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

In addition to the fact that it is the first global report on land use, it could also be described as the most ‘inclusive’ IPCC report to date. The report has more contributor scientists from the global south than the global north and 40% female scientists. Simultaneously, this highlights the growing importance of the topic, and the rising interest in the question in the global south.

The body of knowledge on climate change, its causes, consequences and mechanisms is already extensive. I think that what we need is more awareness raising, and more climate action, for a better future for everyone. Therefore, every new IPCC reports is a good occasion to debate the climatic crisis.

Land use and Climate Change

The first chapter is a general introduction to the issue. It presents the scope of the report and the related topics to land use that will be undertaken. Land use describes the activities, arrangements and inputs that humans use to modify the land cover according to their interests and needs. These activities could result in more greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, or on the contrary, result in a decrease of greenhouse gases. Since humans directly affect around 70% of the global ice-free land surface, this issue and its impact on the climate and the climate action is of extreme importance.

Land use and the climate

The second chapter of the report treats the land-climate interaction in detail, building on the accumulated knowledge of the previous IPCC reports. The land use and climate change interactions are difficult to forecast, as they intertwine in a complex net of casualties and action-reaction. Nonetheless, the general trends are well described in the report, as well as their potential outcomes.

The growing human pressure on land is driving the greenhouse emissions to increase beyond the fixed limits to mitigate climate change. Moreover, the land is used more intensively and extensively to satisfy an increasing food demand through agricultural production. Compared to the pre-industrial levels, this caused the mean temperature over land to increase by 1.5°C, compared to the global 1°C increase over land and ocean. 

The pressure on the land comes from increasing pressure for resources and agricultural products. for example, since 1961, the total production of cereals increased by 240%. This results in increased land degradation and adverse effects on the ecosystems, and interacts also with the climate.

According to the report, the current changing trends of the climate will have potential benefits to agriculture in high latitude areas, as it will expand the arable lands in the north. But eventually, it will trigger a chain of events (known as feedback loops) such as snow melting and release of methane and CO2 in the atmosphere that will lead to further warming and climate extreme events in many parts of the world. These consequences will negatively affect land use and agricultural production in many areas, such as drylands. This will probably exacerbate the negative land use practices even more. It could also put the food security of large populations at risk.

Land degradation

Chapters 3 and 4 of the report treat the topic of desertification and land degradation. In addition to the study of the ongoing processes and their impacts, they present future scenarios and projections.

Among the consequences of climate change, the intensification of the hydrological cycle will lead to more intense rainfalls which in turn will result in increased soil erosion and land degradation. In dry regions of the world, land degradation will happen because of decreased rainfall and increased warming and leading to desertification. In both cases, it will cause the loss of fertile soil and vegetation. The report claims that a sustainable management of land could prevent land and forest degradation. It would alsod contribute to reversing the negative effects of climate change. In turn, this could support the implementation and achievements of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and even create benefits for adaptation measures. The three last chapters (5-6-7) focus on food security, sustainable development and risk management. They present useful insights on the current opportunities to limit the adverse effects of the combined land use-climate change effect. They also present how new policies and governance approaches could lead to a more sustainable way of living. That could avoid a climatic worst case scenario, and preserve the environmental rights of future generations.

We are on a crossroad

My take home message from the report, is that the situation of land use is critical. Humans are approaching a crossroad, in which we will have to choose a development path. This choice will have huge consequences on the climate, positively or negatively, and consequently on humanity’s future ways of life.

Accordingly, humans need to adopt a less economist evaluation of the value of lands and land exploitation in general. Perusing pure economic profit-driven interests will only lead to the further degradation of the environment and destabilization of the climate. Knowing that the consequences of such actions will not be distributed equally means that there will be winners and losers.  This leaves no doubt that the current exploitation of the earth and its resources will not change spontaneously.

Sources:
Press release https://www.ipcc.ch/2019/08/08/land-is-a-critical-resource_srccl/
Climate change and land, summary for policymakers: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2019/08/4.-SPM_Approved_Microsite_FINAL.pdf
Climate change and Land https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl-report-download-page/

The post Climate Change and Land Report – Why this report is important and why we all should care about land use… appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

This is how Martin Abelmann and green citizens of the city of Stuttgart in Germany created the project Stadtacker. Their goal is to give small pieces of land to city dwellers who want to grow veggies and fruits by themselves.

They are not the only one who want to grow food in the city. As more than 50 % of the world population is living in urban settlements, many projects worldwide are flourishing to bring food closer to people. This trend is called urban gardening.

Urban gardening is not only about growing food to feed the near 8 billion earthlings, it’s also about creating a healthy environment, improving people knowledge about Nature and building a sympathetic community.

On an Abandoned Land © stadtacker

The space humanity needs on Earth is increasing so cities are becoming a new home for insects, birds and small mammals. Organic gardens are a biodiversity friendly habitat as fruits and veggies are greatly appreciated by wildlife. Moreover the countryside is saturated by dangerous agricultural pollutants and doesn’t supply enough resources anymore, therefore cities may be a good refuge for biodiversity like bees and pollinators.

There are many benefits of gardening in the cities. They improve people life with small services such as air filtering, temperature cooling and CO2 absorption. Thus, they reduce greenhouse gas emissions by shortening the supply chain; food doesn’t travel thousand of kilometers anymore, instead it is produced locally and eaten directly by the gardeners.

Whoever Can Grow Their Food © stadtacker

Did you know that carrots grow in the ground and not on trees ? I hope yes, but imagine young children who were born in a city and never had the chance to go farming in the countryside. I guess, nowadays they are many who don’t know at which time of the year strawberries are grown or on which tree zucchinis are grown. Urban gardening is an opportunity for these children to learn about the food they eat. Even adults may not know how to seed and then thin carrots. Urban gardening makes people aware about the resource and labor needed to grow food. City dwellers are running further and further away from Nature and they are sadly forgetting the basics : food.

“During the sunny season, we meet weekly every Sunday afternoon. We talk, we ask advice about how to grow this and that. We make friends. Sometimes in the summer, we organize events like music concert, workshops etc.”

As Martin Abelmann highlighted, a community garden is a meeting point. Neighbors meet, talk and have fun. They exchange their know-hows and recipes, the garden becomes a school, a school of Nature, a school of Life.

The green area also encourages the new formed community to participate in the city development and planning. It becomes a place to create planning alternatives, a place to defend environmental ideas, a place to strengthen democracy.

“The gardening area is threatened by a housing building project and even if our garden got a city award and a United Nation price for the decade of the biodiversity, we still need people to militate. We need to show that such a green place managed by citizens has a higher value than building houses. Through public awareness, we hope to be able to keep this green area and continue to grow an environmentally friendly community.“ Martin Abelmann

Written by Thuan SARZYNSKI

The post Picking Fruits and Greening Cities appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

The Capacity Development Workshop held on Monday February 19th, was led by the International Forestry Student Association (IFSA), the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) and trained 50 international Youth delegates on accelerating efforts to halt deforestation. Furthermore, Youth proposals were collected for later High Level UN Political Agendas.

Halting or not halting deforestation, that is the question

Forests are our best asset to combat climate change and they are key in securing food, water and ecosystem services for mankind survival. Despite of their fundamental role to sustain life on this planet, we keep on losing them at terrifying annual rates.

With the current rate of deforestation, there will be no forests left within the next 100 years.

Given that deforestation is in the eyes of a conservationist an ecological tragedy and in the eyes of the investor a money-making opportunity, we need to reconcile these opposing interests.

Youth ideas feed UN Plan for Forests

In order to contribute to and accelerate global forest goals and SDGs, the workshop in the morning of February 19th led by Wageningen University (Netherlands) collected Youth proposals for the Halting Deforestation Conference (CPF). Discussions went about how to have an integrated management of lands at the landscape level: where different actors of society, different land use types and different instutional frameworks are best combined to ensure forests protection and sustainable management.

Desmitifying Gender in Forest Conservation Efforts

After the morning session on the Landscape approach, the noon session led by Taylor Tondelli (FAO) touched with the Youth delegates on the importance of mainstreaming gender in efforts to halt deforestation. To see, what we did exactly, check out the video below.

I found this group dynamic to be extremely mind-opening. Participants had assigned roles. We were all standing in one single line and as Ms. Tondelli would read statements we had to give either a step forward (yes) or backwards (no), depending on whether read power statements matched our roles. Example: one would give a step forward if in the role of a woman community leader one would have “political influence on the community” or a step backwards if “at night one wouldn’t feel secure to walk alone”. At the end of this power dynamic, assigned roles revealed high assymetries in power distribution across different societal actors.

Make our voices heard

Throughout the Capacity Development Workshop Youth delegates worked on global proposals to halt deforestation: ideas ranged from experimental urban jungles, to mainstreaming deforestation through comedy and art and music for collective awareness.

All Youth proposals were collected in the afternoon session by IFSA and GLF Sponsored Youth in Landscapes delegates. Youth Proposals to halt deforestation will contribute to the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017 – 2030 and will be presented at the 13th Session of the UN Forum on Forests this May.

Finally, selected Youth delegates prepared online content for the IFSA short course on Halting Deforestation. You can see here, what the results of these hours working on solutions are.

Quick links

IFSA Short course on deforestation Check out now (!)

Halting Deforestation Conference

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