Conference: Large-Scale Land-Use Transformations: Implications for Social-Ecological Systems and Resilience

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This project brings together researchers from various disciplines working on linked ecological and social change to examine the effects of large-scale land-use change associated with developments such as plantation agriculture and the construction of dams on environmental and socio-economic sustainability. The project will focus on the Omo-Turkana Basin and support a workshop allowing local and international researchers to share experiences and synthesize existing knowledge about developments in the region using a social-ecological resilience framework. The workshop will open up opportunities for future multi-disciplinary research by supporting the formation of an umbrella organization for ongoing research in the region, strengthening linkages between researchers, and allowing members to develop collaborative research agendas. International students and early career researchers are also well represented, enhancing the network's capacity for future growth. A wider outcome of the workshop and network will be to inform decision-makers in the region of the results of on-going research, contributing scientifically robust evidence to better inform debate among policymakers and the public. In addition to a multi-disciplinary, landscape-scale situation analysis, the workshop will generate a series of policy briefs to facilitate the dissemination of outputs to non-academic audiences. The project engages the concept of resilience and will use the workshop to advance the idea of resilience assessment. An objective of the workshop and research network will be to ascertain whether the large-scale land-use change occurring in the Omo-Turkana region supports the economic and social goals declared by project planners, or whether economic growth is being prioritized over the quality and resilience of environmental and social systems. Given the landscape-wide impact of development in the Omo-Turkana Basin, a theoretical basis is required that integrates contributions from multiple disciplines and therefore represents all elements of a social-ecological system. Resilience is one such theory, and this project will contribute to the literature by using the strong representation of social and political sciences in the network to better address equity and power relations within a resilience framing. Such a framing has generalizable relevance for other contexts, and as such, should be useful to science and society well beyond the specific case at hand.