October 31, 2016
The Exceed Conference on “Forced Migration – environmental and socioeconomic dimensions”
Migration is currently one of the main issues worldwide, however, the topic is not as new as often suggested by the public media. The reasons for migration or rather people are forced to escape from their living environment are manifold. They are not only fleeing from war, violence, suppression and persecution, but many thousands are leaving their homes because of hunger and poverty induced by a lack of economic opportunity, an ever-increasing degradation of their natural environment and the growing number of natural disasters.
As focal point of the Centers for Natural Resources and Development, the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT), TH Köln together with four other universities organize the first exceed Conference on “Forced Migration – environmental and socioeconomic dimensions” from the 19th – 20th October 2016 in Berlin.
In 2009, five German higher education institutions – Technical University Braunschweig, University of Hohenheim, University of Kassel, TH Köln (University of Applied Sciences) and Ludwig-Maximilians-University München – were selected to be part of the Excellence for Development Cooperation (Exceed) Program by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Since then, these centers in collaboration with their 37 partners in developing countries, have been establishing think tanks to contribute to the post-2015 development agenda.
These five Exceed centers have now combined their forces to take a closer look at the environmental and socioeconomic dimensions of forced migration together with scientists, politician and the public from all around the world by organizing this first Exceed conference. During the course of the conference, current research results were presented, challenges were discussed and new strategies to prevent forced migration were identified in an interactive conference set-up.
After two days of intensive work, proposals and ideas for cooperation projects on the topics of development-induced displacement, water security, decent work, food & nutrition security and many more were developed. Particularly noteworthy are the many south-south cooperations that were formed. The focus of their work is on aspects of rural areas (agriculture, health), but also on the analysis of the effects of forced migration on the economies of different countries. More specifically, there will be workshops in 2017, research groups have been formed and networks were created. It is currently being considered to incorporate these diverse topics into the framework of a follow-up conference in 2017, thus providing the different working groups a platform to present their results of the project in 2017.
For further information please refer to the exceed website
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October 26, 2016
This years CNRD annual network meeting will take place in Da Nang, Vietnam
The annual CNRD Network meeting will be held in Da Nang, Vietnam, from October 31st to November 4th, 2016. Here, representatives from thirteen worldwide members of the CNRD network gather to discuss the relevant issues of the network, share their experiences and decide on the activities for the following year. The first day of the meeting is organized in the form of a symposium in which the network’s activities are presented to regional and national organizations and potential areas for future cooperation are highlighted. International experts from academia and political stakeholders from Vietnam come to Da Nang to attend the event; these include representatives from the Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE). Moreover, representatives from global directed organizations, such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as well as the CNRD-exceed project funding organization, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) will participate to foster a community of practice on natural resources management and development. The results of the discussions and the high density of experience presented during the network meeting serve as a framework for a future strategy and increases the visibility of the CNRD network in its field of interest – natural resources management.
CNRD is a worldwide university network promoting academic exchange and cooperation in the area of natural resources management, in particular related to water, land, ecosystem and renewable energy resources. The network aims to provide a valuable contribution to the Post 2015 Agenda and to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
October 12, 2016
Call for Papers!
Are you looking where to publish your research about Natural Resources and Development? The Journal of Natural Resources and Development (JNRD) is calling for papers and looking for more reviewers!
For more information follow the link: http://eepurl.com/chVWmX
September 14, 2016
CNRD represented at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawai’i
Simone Sandholz facilitating the session on learning tools, where Udo Nehren presented the materials developed by CNRD
The IUCN World Conservation Congress took place from the 1st to the 10th of September 2016 with a record-breaking 9,500+ participants, making it the largest ever and first time in the United States. President Obama delivered a welcome message the day before while announcing the creation of the largest marine protected area ever: the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Hawai’i. Several speakers mentioned the importance of protected areas and ecosystems for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. These topics were also addressed in four sessions in which the CNRD participated.
In one of these sessions, the new book, “Ecosystem-based DRR and Adaptation in Practice”, that was edited by members of the CNRD and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR), was officially launched. Seven (of the 77) authors presented highlights of their chapters. The book is a compilation of recent developments in the field of ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption (Eco-DRR/CCA) globally, with contributions from different CNRD member countries. It provides further evidence that ecosystem-based approaches make economic sense, and showcases how research has progressively filled knowledge gaps about translating this concept into practice. It presents a number of methods, and tools that illustrate how Eco-DRR/CCA has been applied for various ecosystems and hazard contexts around the world and discusses how innovative institutional arrangements and policies are shaping the field of Eco-DRR/CCA.
In the session “Ecosystems and Society in a Changing World: Experience, Exchange, and Learning about EbA and Eco-DRR that Works,” Udo Nehren presented research on coastal dunes systems in Vietnam, Indonesia and Chile that has been conducted by several researchers of the CNRD network. In his presentation Dr. Nehren pointed out that coastal dune systems are important buffers against natural hazards, such as tropic cyclones, storm surges and tsunamis. However, in many countries of the global south coastal dunes are severely degraded due to rapid coastal development and a lack of integrated management practices. The CNRD therefore fosters research and action that aims at protecting, restoring and sustainably managing coastal dune management in the partner countries.
In two sessions on learning tools for ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and resilience building, Simone Sandholz and Udo Nehren presented teaching materials that have been jointly developed by the CNRD. These materials include the master’s module “Disasters, Environment and Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR)” that is currently being translated into Japanese, as well as the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate,” that was jointly developed by the TH Köln, the CNRD and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The World Conservation Congress offered an excellent platform to promote the CNRD and disseminate its research activities and products.
Fabrice G. Renaud, Karen Sudmeier-Rieux, Udo Nehren presenting the new book, “Ecosystem-based DRR and Adaptation in Practice”
Click on the Book to visit the Springer Link of the publication
September 6, 2016
Upcoming: Forced Migration Conference – environmental and socioeconomic dimensions
Perspectives of higher education institutions in development cooperation
19th – 20th October 2016, Berlin
At present migration is one of the main issues worldwide, however, the topic is not as new as often suggested by the public media. The reasons for migration, or rather people being forced to escape from their living environment, are manifold. They are not only fleeing from war, violence, suppression and persecution, but many thousands are leaving their homes because of hunger and poverty induced by a lack of economic opportunity, an ever-increasing degradation of their natural environment and the growing number of natural disasters.
As a focal point of the Centers for Natural Resources and Development, the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT), TH Köln together with four other universities are organizing the first exceed Conference on “Forced Migration – environmental and socioeconomic dimensions” on October 19th, 2016 in Berlin.
For further information please check the website: https://exceed.global or the view the information flyer.
If you wish to attend the conference, please note that the registration deadline is September 30th, 2016.
July 28, 2016
The 4th “Resource Efficient Cities” Workshop Series
Continuing the workshops’ series of the Curriculum Development of the Interdisciplinary Master Program “Resource Efficient Cities” (IMaREC) which started in Cairo, Egypt in June 2015, the 4th workshop took place in UASLP, San Luis Potosi – Mexico during the period 18th – 23rd July 2016. Four partner universities of the CNRD network in addition to UASLP participated in the workshop: TH Köln, Germany; ASU, Egypt; KU, Kenya; and UGM, Indonesia.
The workshop was twofold in that it included activities of both curriculum development and research. The curriculum development workshop aimed at defining course structures, learning units and full description of the four core courses comprising the first semester of IMaREC in terms of course aims/objectives, Intended learning outcomes (ILOs), course content, teaching method(s) and assessment method(s). The research workshop aimed at promoting the concept of resource efficient cities and prioritized relevant topics of the city as a socio-ecological and thus metabolistic system. This was done by developing a systematic urban case study approach for a scalable cities, including Cairo, Egypt (mega city), San Luis Potosi, Mexico and Yogyakarta, Indonesia (medium size cities), and Kisumu, Kenya (small size city) in order to pave the road to draft relevant and specified research proposals responding to calls of bilateral or multilateral funding options.
The workshop was enriched by two open sessions with inputs from international guests of topics related to resource efficient cities such as “Urban metabolism and system theory”, “Water efficient urban systems”, and “Introducing urban sustainable model: La Pila”. Professors and students from the different faculties of UASLP joined the opening sessions and participated actively in the discussions. Furthermore, the workshop included a very interesting field trip to explore urban strategies for food production and water management in a local elementary school as a sustainable model developed by UASLP, where sustainable practices of rainwater harvesting, urban farming, greenhouse, fruit trees farm, waste water treatment, soccer field design and photovoltaic design have been implemented. The field trip also included visits to local brick makers and to a social housing development “Villa Esperanza” for exploring environmental-social design aspects and community governance.
Moreover, the workshop hosted an important event for strengthen international cooperation; based on the CNRD agreement, a bilateral agreement between ASU, Egypt and UASLP, Mexico was launched with the presence of the Egyptian Consulate of the Egyptian Embassy in Mexico and the Rector of UASLP.
Urban Gardening in Cairo, Egypt
Group picture of the workshop participants
July 11, 2016
CNRD Training of Trainers Workshop at Vietnam Academy for Water Resources in Hanoi
The Vietnam Academy for Water Resources (VAWR) hosted from June 18th to June 20th the CNRD Training of Trainers Workshop „Modern Higher Education Didactics“. The workshop was aiming to equip multipliers from the Asian CNRD partner universities with the latest approaches in higher education didactics. The workshop was conducted by two Vietnamese trainers, Mr. Nguyen Duc Danh, Ph.D. from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education and Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, PhD, associated professor at the National Economics University, Hanoi.. A large number of lecturers from the VAWR and its partners participated in the workshop together with five participants from Nepal (TU), Indonesia (UGM) and Bangladesh (IUB). Beside the inputs which were taught in an interactive and participative way four participant teams were able to create a learning sequences base on the problem base learning approach. A lively discussion addressing challenges as well as the active participation led to a productive learning experience and created commitment to apply and promote problem base learning.
CNRD thanks all participants, the trainers and the representatives of the VAWR as well as the staff of VAWR for the successful workshop implementation. CNRD will continue to conduct such workshops in the future.
June 13, 2016
Call for abstracts – Water Security and Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities in Asia
Achieving water security is one of the major challenges being faced by society today. Asia has been facing many water security
challenges since decades because of multiple drivers such as increasing population, socio economic development, urbanization,
migration, among others. Furthermore, climate change is also creating an additional threat. While significant efforts have been made
by governments in Asia to make societies water-secure; much more work is needed. There is a need for robust water security
enhancement strategies that are grounded in sound scientific evidence, and that will stand the test of time.
This conference is a plattform for engaging leading experts in the region and beyond in discussions on water security issues in Asia in order to facilitate the path towards water-secure societies. The conference is organized by the exceed centers CNRD (Cologne) and SWINDON (Braunschweig) together with the Asian Institute of Technology.
Contact
Prof. Andreas Haarstrick
Scientific Coordinator, Exceed Excellence Center,
TU Braunschweig, Germany
+49 (0) 531-391-3935; a.haarstrick(at)tu-bs.de
Prof. Mukand S. Babel
Water Engineering and Management
Asian Institute of Technology
+66-2-524-7905; msbabel(at)ait.asia
Important dates
Registration open: 20 June 2016
Deadline for receiving abstracts: 30 July 2016
Notify authors of selection: 15 August 2016
June 1, 2016
Conference on Forced Migration – environmental and socioeconomic dimensions
The Centers for Natural Resources and Development (CNRD) together with the other four Centers for Excellence in Development Collaboration (exceed) are pleased to invite you to the 1st Exceed Conference “Forced Migration – environmental and socioeconomic dimensions” that will be held on the 19th and 20th of October, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. During the Conference, participants will have the opportunity to present posters on their own. For this purpose, we welcome students, researchers and professionals to submit an abstract until June 15, 2016.
Registration and call for abstracts are online on https://exceed.global/
We would be happy to welcome you in Berlin!
April 22, 2016
CNRD representative Dr. Nadir Elagib on a visit to Sudan and Oman
In order to initiate new cooperations and to present the CNRD network to the public, Dr. Nadir Elagib was travelling to Sudan and Oman in March 2016. From March 13-16, he participated in the International Water Conference 2016 (IWC2016) on “Water Resources in Arid Areas: The Way Forward”, which was organized by the Water Research Center at Sultan Qaboos University. His presentation was entitled “Hydro-sociological framework of farmer-drought feedback: Darfur as a case study”. The paper was co-authored by Ammar Ahmed Musa from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia, and Dr. Hussein M. Sulieman from Gadarif University, Sudan. The conference attracted a large number of keynote speakers, presenters and poster presenters from worldwide to discuss issues distributed in several issues related to surface and sub-surface water hydrology, desalination, water quality and pollution, water conservation and agriculture, wasterwater treatment and reuse, rainwater harvesting, climate change and water resources management. Field visits were also arranged for the participants, including a trip to the Wadi Dayqah Dam. The dam is intended for floodwater use in irrigation, potable domestic water supply, reducing the risk of flood damage and development of tourism sector. It has a reservoir area of 350 ha when it is full with a storage capacity of about 100 MCM.
Wadi Dayqah Dam
Dr. Nadir Elagib met the director of the Water Research Center at Sultab Qaboos University, Dr. Osman Abdalla. Together, they explored areas of potential collaboration in research, projects, education and project funding in addition to opportunities to get the Water Research Center involved in the CNRD network.
A visit to his home country Sudan concluded Dr. Elagibs trip. There, he met Dr. Khalid Shamboul, Head of Monitoring and Inspection Directorate at the Higher Council of Environment, Urban & Rural Promotion. Venues for collaboration were recognized in view of the diverse projects that the council is involved in and that match the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics at TH Köln, which is the coordinating point of the CNRD project.
Meeting with Dr. Osman Abdalla