This year’s gathering of scientists, practitioners and agroforesters in Montpellier happened against the backdrop of the striking outcomes of the IPBES assessment. The landmark report on the global state of biodiversity concluded that nature and its life support systems as well as its capacity to contribute to human well-being are degrading in every region of the world.
The Focali secretariat consists of Focali members from different research environments and act as an advisory group to the Focali management, coordination and communication staff at Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development - GMV. During the spring 2019 three new members were welcomed into the secretariat to broaden the team and strengthen links between the secretariat and network members, these were Harry Fischer, Aida Bargués Tobella and Johan Uddling.
Growing trees and crops on the same land for many purposes, an agricultural technique called agroforestry, has gained a lot of traction. The method promises to restrain the effects of the climate change, nurture nature’s life support systems and shield the poorest and the most vulnerable people from food shortages.
The loss of animals, often due to unregulated or illegal hunting, has consequences for the carbon storage capacity of forests, yet this link is rarely mentioned in high-level climate policy discussions, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
The IPBES report on the state of our biodiversity paints a dark picture - species are going extinct at a rate tens to hundreds of times faster than the average over the last 10 million years. “The report’s message is clear. What we need now is massive, transformative and globally coordinated changes across all levels of society. We can’t just preserve, we must reverse the trend by increasing biodiversity locally, regionally and globally” says Director of Science at Kew Gardens, London and Focali-member, Prof. Alexandre Antonelli.
Focali-member Christel Cederberg is one of six researchers who has been awarded the Chalmers Foundation prize for research on societally important issues. The prize is awarded annually to highlight outstanding examples of Chalmers work and values, and 2019 the focus is on food – a vital component of global sustainability and one of our greatest challenges.
Rapid urbanization, swelling population and climate change will increase pressure on the agricultural sector, demanding innovation and work force to safeguard food production. Given that most of the population in Africa is under 25, ensuring attractive employment within the agricultural sector will be vital for food security. But is farming an attractive career choice for the youth of today? A new research project by Focali-member Hanna Sinare seeks to find this out.
Today on the International Women´s Day we put spotlight on an outstanding Focali member - Aida Bargues Tobella researcher at SLU and ICRAF in Kenya where she lives with her family. She is literally digging for answers on what roots and termites in the Kenyan soil has to do with availability of groundwater for people in African drylands. We had to find out more and asked her two questions:
The most comprehensive and detailed research program so far on the environmental impact of Swedish consumption – PRINCE – has now published its final report on the environmental pressure from private and public consumption and investments. “What’s most important with this project is that we have developed tools for measuring the environmental impact from Swedish consumption, in Sweden as well as in the rest of the world” says Focali-member Martin Persson.
Focali is together with our partners SIANI participating in the Global Landscapes Forum 2018 (GLF) in Bonn. We have a booth in the Landscape Action Pavilion where we share Focali members research and hope to engage in interesting and inspiring meetings. The Focali and SIANI team will report back on some of key issues discussed at Global Landscape Forum via our homepages and social media.
Community-based approaches to tenure formalization are gaining traction in development policy. The concept is nothing new. Collective tenure has been recognized in legislation for over a decade. What’s new is that it’s now being implemented, which has created a whole new area for research.
We are in the midst of the quest for sustainable development. The ambition to leave no one behind, together with the global political consensus that the challenges we are facing are common and interrelated frame the new development narrative. However, this inter-connectedness does not always trickle down to the local level.
The biennial Development Research Conference – DevRes, sponsored by the Swedish Research Council and Sida, will be held in Gothenburg 22-23 August. The Focali research network, hosted by GMV, will participate in the conference together with its partner SIANI.
In this P3 news podcast experts on palm oil, the most consumed oil in the world, are interviewed about the consequences it has as a driver of deforestation.
Den 17 maj 2018 beslutade regeringen om en strategi för Sveriges nationella skogsprogram. Kärnan i programmet är den breda dialogen om skogens roll för ett hållbart samhälle och en växande bioekonomi. Hållbart brukande och bevarande av skogen ska enligt strategin inte bara vara i fokus i Sverige utan även en profilfråga i svenskt internationellt samarbete.
Agriculture in low- and middle-income countries face considerable challenges with rapidly evolving complexity. Although opportunities for agricultural research to succeed in addressing the issues are significant, one major barrier is the low level of gender equity. This brings challenges across entire crop and livestock value chains, all the way to landscape management.
Representatives from the Agroforestry Network, amongst them Focali researchers Anders Malmer and Johanna Björklund, writes in a debate article about how Sweden need to act stronger to promote women's right to use and own land.
Focali researchers have challenged the dominant paradigm in forest hydrology – that more trees equal less water – and their groundbreaking research has now lead to more grants. Four years ahead they will investigate how the use of trees can best address water scarcity in Sub-Saharan Africa.
A chance to get involved! We are looking for a committed student with an interest in sustainability, who wants an internship with Focali during September 2018 to January 2019.
Focalis värdinstitution Göteborgs miljövetenskapliga centrum byter namn till Göteborgs centrum för hållbar utveckling. Detta på grund av ett förnyat samverkansavtal mellan Chalmers och Göteborgs Universitet med större fokus på hållbar utveckling och FN:s 17 globala mål för hållbar utveckling.
