Plans To Extend Research Partnership on Biodiversity and Climate Change

BY: .

Plans are in hand to extend the KwaZulu-Natal Sandstone Sourveld Research Programme – a venture in which UKZN has partnered with the eThekwini Municipality.

The Programme, a research partnership between UKZN’s School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences (SAEES), the School of Life Sciences (SLS) and the eThekwini Municipality's Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department (EPCPD), is currently nearing the end of its initial three-year phase. Discussions are taking place around continuing the current research for a further three-year period

The partnership, initiated by Professor Rob Slotow (UKZN) and Dr Debra Roberts (EPCPD), is currently managed by Professor Mathieu Rouget’s Land Use Planning and Management Research Chair and Dr Sean O’Donoghue of the Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department.

Ms Jessica Cockburn, a research Fellow in land use planning at SAEES who provides support for the co-ordination of the programme and assists with research activities, says the programme has covered a lot of ground since the eThekwini Municipality first approached the University in 2010 to request collaboration on developing the specialised biodiversity and climate change skills required by the EPCPD. The motivation behind this was the need to address the skills shortage being encountered in the market place while simultaneously undertaking research related to the key questions being addressed by the Department in its biodiversity and climate change adaptation work.

‘This collaborative research partnership currently involves an endangered ecosystem within the eThekwini municipal area, the KwaZulu-Natal Sandstone Sourveld grassland. The research activities focus on biodiversity and climate change adaptation through local land use planning and management in an effort to lessen the impacts of climate change and urbanisation on the area’s ecosystems and its endemic biodiversity.

‘The research therefore has real-world application and relevance in answering some of the questions raised by the municipality about managing its environmental projects,’ said Cockburn.

The programme currently comprises about 30 people from UKZN and the municipality, including research staff, municipality staff and students completing honours and masters degrees in various disciplines across SAEES and SLS, from Botany, to Ecology to Geography to Agricultural Economics and more.

Through the programme, eThekwini municipality has supported research through funding for bursaries and research expenses, student supervision and research guidance.

The programme participants have been able to learn more about working on a collaborative project across disciplinary and institutional boundaries, thereby improving their networking connections for their future careers and their experience in their field. Additionally, the programme has given the students the satisfaction of contributing to the solution of everyday problems by conducting much needed research.

The programme has begun to generate research outputs, however some of the key advantages resulting from the initiative so far have been the relationships that have been built and the mutual understanding of institutional cultures developed through this collaboration.

Cockburn says the programme hopes to continue the current research for another three years. ‘In the second phase, there will be a continued focus on capacity-building, along with refining the research focus to more directly address municipal questions; more actively providing space for the co-generation of knowledge with municipal staff, and deepening the original research focal area.’

She believes there is certainly scope for more collaborations like this, both in terms of support from even more disciplines and similar agreements with other municipalities and decision-makers.

‘Focused partnerships like this are innovative and they bridge the gap between scientists and policy-makers, making research relevant to environmental and social realities and acknowledging the role of practitioners as co-generators of knowledge.

‘The partnership would like to expand the scope of the research by bringing in researchers from the social sciences to address the challenge of environmental governance and land use decision-making, increase understanding of community reliance on natural resources and ecosystem services support the development of green economy initiatives,’ said Cockburn.

This kind of partnership highlights the positive work that the eThekwini Municipality is undertaking by committing resources to biodiversity, planning and combatting environmental change, as well as capacity building to increase knowledge in these areas. It also emphasises the importance of the University’s role in contributing significantly to the advancement of biodiversity, climate and social governance.

-          Christine Cuénod