US-Africa Workshop: Integrated Land Use Change in Southern Africa: Process Modeling, Impacts, and Implications for Sustained Development, Zomba, Malawi, July 2002

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

0218022 Desanker This award supports 16 participants (nine from the United States and seven from Africa) in a US-Africa Workshop on "Integrated Land Use Change in Southern Africa: Process Modeling, Impacts, and Implications for Sustained Development," scheduled for July 8-12, 2002, in Zomba, Malawi. The co-organizers are Professor Paul Desanker, with the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, and Professor Mzoma Ngulube, with the Faculty of Environmental Science at Mzuzu University, Malawi. There will be a total of approximately 27 participants, who will be drawn from academia and governmental organizations in the United States, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The workshop will draw upon process studies of land cover-land use change (LCLUC) to advance the discussion of how the emerging field of sustainability science can inform and guide the sustained development of complex human-ecological systems. The meeting is also expected to establish linkages between investigators in the United States and Africa for the development of collaborative, interdisciplinary research and education programs. The way people use land is fundamental to the livelihoods, political stability, and economies of many countries, especially in Southern Africa where there is a heavy reliance on land-based economic activities. And while the adverse impacts of land use are well known, they have not yet been well quantified. Workshop participants will focus on better understanding the processes, rates, and modeling of land use change in Southern Africa, especially for the linked human-river basin-ecological systems within the greater Zambezi River Basin and its components, the Miombo biodiversity ecoregion, and Southern Africa in general. The meeting will consist of plenary talks and small group discussions, and will also include site visits to examine ongoing projects within the Lake Malawi and Lake Chilwa basins. It is expected that the results of the workshop will lead to a state-of-the art synthesis of land use change for the Zambezi region. More broadly, the meeting's findings will inform the larger scientific community about integrating fundamental, multidisciplinary research studies on LCLUC into sustained development programs. This information will also be useful to policy makers and resource managers. Results will be disseminated through professional journals and meetings, and via a web site. The project supports the participation of five junior investigators from the United States, as well as a postdoc and graduate student from Africa. The Office of International Science and Engineering, the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, and the Division of Environmental Biology jointly support this award.