Dieses Projekt untersucht, wie Luo-Migranten aus Westkenia den Maßstab ihres Handelns durch ergebnisoffenes Umherstreifen und zielorientiertes Infrastrukturieren im Rift Valley neu definieren, um an gross-skalige Intensivierungsprojekte Anschluss zu finden. Um zu erforschen, wie Luo-Migranten zwischen Zonen der Intensivierung, der Konservierung und des Zerfalls ihre Zukunft ausbilden und gestalten, liegt der Fokus der Forschung auf a) Lohnarbeit in multinationalen Firmen, b) agrikultureller Nutzbarmachung angemieteter Landflächen und c) Fischfang und Tourismus im Rift Valley.
Boosting remote-sensing companies through cross-cluster support: The PARSEC project is focused on designing sustainable services to help European SMEs raise their competitive profile globally through access to a platform providing among other things geospatial information. Taking advantage of the EU's Copernicus database and other resources, the system will provide remote-sensing companies access to support, technology, capital and markets. It will facilitate this through cross-cluster collaboration at European level, encouraging innovation and creating new markets globally. This will help innovative SMEs make better use of the vast Earth Observation geospatial information available, to provide improved productivity, a better carbon footprint and expansion into more sectors and countries. Objective: Emerging industries, as high-potential growth sectors in early stage development, can be effectively supported by cross-sectoral cluster-facilitated innovation towards the creation of new value chains and the opening up of new markets. Earth Observation-derived information has been widely proven to improve productivity (e.g. reduced fertiliser, pesticide, water, labour inputs in precision agriculture), outputs (e.g. solar farm yield), and eco-friendliness (e.g. carbon footprint monitoring of industrial activities) in the emerging food, energy and environment industries. In designing, developing and delivering sustainable services that meet the needs of these industries, European SMEs need to be supported in accessing knowledge, capital, technology and markets. Recognising this need, PARSEC aspires to build a cross-sectoral/cross-border ecosystem whereby SMEs and innovative start-ups will gain: Access to knowledge (provision of a holistic portfolio of support services, including market, technology and investment training/ information as well as tailored coaching support); Access to technology (through three large scale demonstrators, acting as enablers for the development of new EO-based products/services); Access to capital (an innovative selection and funding scheme to ensure selection of high-potential ideas); Access to market (incl. cross-border and cross-sectoral matchmaking, investment readiness, export promotion). By providing access to these resources, PARSEC will concretely contribute to the establishment of new value chains bustling with innovative SMEs that can translate the large public investments in the Copernicus programme and numerous sector specific initiatives (related to food, water, energy, climate change, biodiversity, etc.) into applications and services meeting user needs and market demands, for the benefit of European economy and society.
The CRECE project supports Cuba in the provision of regionally relevant multidisciplinary education in sustainable energy engineering and renewable energy development. This is done in order to ensure that Cuban higher education institutions (HEIs) are better equipped and able to provide high-quality experts for the ever-growing societal and energy sector development needs. The Cuban energy sector is undergoing a state-led transformation. So far, this 'Energy Revolution' has improved energy efficiency but harnessing renewable energy (RE) resources is still lagging far behind. In order to attract investors, meet the government's RE targets, and reduce CO2 emissions and environmental pollution from fossil fuels, Cuba needs national expertise and experts in RE development. CRECE answers this call by training skilled experts and enabling cross-sectoral and regional cooperation possibilities. Cuban partners will be better equipped to conduct international-level energy related research and provide sustainable energy experts to the growing labour market needs. In the long run, CRECE will impact on Cuban energy self-sufficiency and domestic growth. By harnessing Cuban RE potential, not only greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced, but also expenditures and dependency on Venezuelan oil imports will be minimised, while simultaneously improving domestic energy access and security. The project begins by creating a roadmap for addressing energy transition needs in Cuba through higher education. Following this roadmap, CRECE improves capacity and internationalisation of partner HEIs through (1) modernising learning outcomes on sustainable energy and sustainability; (2) improving teaching approaches; (3) reviewing curricula and updating learning modules; (5) improving materials, tools, equipment and facilities for quality education; (5) creating networks with relevant energy sector stakeholders; and (6) facilitating International research collaboration and partnerships. The primary objective of the project is to support Cuban partner HEIs in the provision of up-to-date and relevant education in sustainable energy systems to meet current societal and labour market needs. Regional cooperation is fostered through partnering with Costa Rica, showcasing how Costa Rican national policies have had a strong impact on prioritising renewable energy and transforming the energy sector. Cross-regional knowledge transfer is enabled by engaging European RE experts. CRECE project is funded by Erasmus+ Capacity Buiding in Higher Education.
Post-Harvest Losses (PHL) destroy between 20 and 60% of the East-African food production, thus heavily contributing to the devastating nutritional situation. They represent an unacceptable waste of scarce resources (soil, water, labour, seeds, fertilizers), and aggravate rural poverty, as they impede income generation along the food value chain. RELOAD proposes to establish a development oriented inter- and transdisciplinary African-German Research Network in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, to address reduction of PHL and enhancing value addition. The applying consortium comprises 3 German and 6 African universities, research institutions and private sector representatives (SME). RELOADs integrated approach addresses the whole food value chain, including scientific base, capacity building, handling and processing at smallholder level, transport, storage, processing and market access. The referring target groups comprise East-African scientific networks, administrations, SMEs, farmers and civil society actors. The simultaneous treatment of agricultural, technological, economic and social issues allows for an efficient and sustainable improvement of the East African food system.
Wissenschaftler der Technischen Universität Berlin, der Bundesanstalt für Materialprüfung (BAM), des Fraunhofer Instituts für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik (IPK), des Zuse Instituts Berlin (ZIB) und des Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin (WZB) arbeiten gemeinsam im Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 1026 'Sustainable Manufacturing - Globale Wertschöpfung nachhaltig gestalten'. Der Sprecher ist Professor Dr.-Ing. Günther Seliger von der koordinierenden Technischen Universität Berlin. Das ZIB beteiligt sich daran mit den beiden Teilprojekten 'A5 - Multikriterielle Optimierung' und 'A6 - Optimierung und System Dynamics' im Projektbereich 'A - Strategieentwicklung'. In vielen gegenwärtigen Wirtschaftssystemen ist der Stellenwert von Nachhaltigkeitsaspekten immer noch zu gering. Um unseren Planeten for diese und für nachfolgende Generationen als Lebensraum zu erhalten, ist ein vernünftiger Umgang mit endlichen und nachwachsenden Rohstoffen wie auch der menschlichen Arbeitskraft unerlässlich. In diesem SFB arbeiten Wissenschaftler aus den Bereichen der Produktions- und der Umwelttechnik mit Wirtschaftswissenschaftlern und Mathematikern zusammen, um gemeinsam die Frage zu beantworten, auf welche Weise globales Produzieren und Wirtschaften nachhaltig ausgestaltet werden kann. Ihr Ziel ist es, neue virtuelle und reale Produktionsprozesse zu entwickeln, welche die Überlegenheit von nachhaltigen Methoden über verbrauchsorientierten aufzeigen. Im Teilprojekt 'A5 - Multikriterielle Optimierung' arbeiten wir zusammen mit den Kollegen der Partnerinstitutionen an der bestmöglichen Organisation nachhaltiger Wertschöpfungskreisläufe unter Berücksichtigung von ökonomischen, ökologischen und sozialen Zielen. Wenn die wichtigsten Wirkungszusammenhänge quantifiziert werden, lassen sich solche Probleme als mehrkriterielle Optimierungsprobleme formulieren. Idealerweise würde man gerne die sogenannte Paretomenge der effizienten Lösungen mit allen Trade-off-Beziehungen in einer verständlichen, d.h. komprimierten oder reduzierten Form, berechnen, um auf dieser Basis fundierte Entscheidungen zu treffen. Die Umsetzung dieser Idee ist die Vision dieses Projektes. Multikriterielle Probleme sind im allgemeinen sehr schwierig. Die enormen Fortschritte der letzten 20 Jahre in der Diskreten Optimierung erlauben es aber, heute erstmals auch solche Probleme anzugehen. Das Feld der nachhaltigen Wertschöpfung mit seinen modularen und skalierbaren Fragestellungen bietet ideale Möglichkeiten für einen Entwicklungspfad, der in sinnvoller Weise von kleinen, einfachen zu großen und komplexen Anwendungen fortschreitet. Das Projekt zielt auf die Entwicklung von in der Praxis nutzbaren Algorithmen zur Lösung diskreter multikriterieller Optimierungsprobleme auf der Basis von Methoden der ganzzahligen Optimierung. (...)
World societies experience today large transformation processes both in the social, economic and environmental dimensions. These transformations are usually described under the heading of global change, to emphasize the increasing interactions between them. The objective of the proposal is three-fold: (1) to provide significant advances in the estimation of socio-economic impacts of global challenges at Global, European and regional scale; (2) to identify optimal adaptation strategies; (3) to evaluate total costs and the optimal mix of adaptation and mitigation against global changes. Work Package (WP) 1 will examine the sources, interactions and characteristics of global changes, including the emergence of fast-growing economies, environmental degradation, competition on the use of exhaustible resources, international competitiveness issues. A primary objective of the proposal is to estimate socio-economic impacts arising from global changes by using economic models. The consortium is endowed with a large set of state-of-the-art, internationally renowned, modelling tools. Models will be further expanded and enriched in WP 3. Key areas of research will be: agriculture, forestry, land use, energy, EU competitiveness, labour, international trade. The socio-economic impact of these challenges on key sectors/areas will be examined with the enhanced set of models in WP 4 and WP 5. While in WP 4 impacts of global challenges will be studied assuming limited adaptive capacity, in WP 5 optimal adaptation strategies will be examined. WP 5 will also inform on total costs of global challenges and on the optimal mix of mitigation and adaptation. In WP 2 will develop empirical and theoretical insights on key issues which will have a value per se and will also be used to enhance models in WP 3. WP 6 will complement the analysis of WP 4 and WP 5 developing theoretical innovations concerning discounting, risk and ambiguity and by testing them numerically with models.
Climate change, population growth, land use changes and urbanisation and so forth forcing future generations to produce more with fewer resources. Hence innovative water harvesting approaches in combination with an integrated water management are urgently needed. In the past water harvesting was manly seen isolated and set into a bigger framework of a river basin. Overexploitation at one side necessarily leads to a shortage at the downstream region. This is especially true for basin closure. It is inevitable that integrated water management has to care about upstream/downstream interactions and between water harvesting and large scale irrigation at the catchment/river basin scale. The objective of this proposal is to set standards for water utilization on a basin (sub basin scale) to ensure food and water security in an equitable manner throughout the whole basin in the context of a range of dynamic global and regional pressures. There are numerous technologies for water harvesting available, but what is missing is an appropriate system design and synergies amongst farmers and other stakeholders. The concept of the project therefore is to links knowledge of water harvesting of different regions and analyse and investigate acceptance of systems. A SWOT analyses should be performed for each selected study region to have a sound base for highest investment benefits and also a risk analyses of investment. This analysis also enables the development of guidelines and criteria to transfer the various water harvesting technologies in different hydrological, biological and socio-economic conditions and to ensure integration of those technologies in the context of local and regional economical environment. The Definition of water harvesting for this project is an Integration/Synergies of/with farming systems and as a wider definition with respect to WHO, measures of conservation farming. The advantage of conservation farming is an easy to implementation, it is practical; and reduces loss of water. The prominent part of water storage with regard to water balance has to be recognized. For each basin a water balance (precipitation, evapotranspiration, surface water run off, surface and ground water interaction, subsurface storage and run off) has to be established. One of the key factors could be the water storage in sub soil. The idea of water banking will be introduced. This supports the awareness that water has a value and optimisation may have cost involved. Cost is not necessarily seen in a monetary sense, but also in providing labour hours and commitment to maintain infrastructures. Taking the above into consideration and ensuring a participatory approach at all levels and between all stakeholders and partners will lead to a sustainable production system. By taking environmental requirements and impacts into account at an early stage environmental services are becoming an appropriate value.
High and increasing population pressure in the mountainous regions of northern Thailand and Vietnam has resulted in land use practices that induce heavy soil erosion and degradation of soil and water resources. These land use practices are part of a complex farming system where some long-established ethnic groups, like the Black Thai in Vietnam and the Karen in Thailand, combine irrigated rice fields i n the mountain valleys and adjoining terraces with various upland crops under rotational cultivation in the lower parts of the uplands. Other ethnic groups such as the Dao and Hmong in Vietnam and the Lahu, Akha and Hmong in Thailand, who more recently migrated to these areas, cultivate the higher altitudes in a diversified combination of swidden fallow systems and permanent tree crops. Different types of animal husbandry with varying intensity add to the complexity of the farming systems. Some households members may also be engaged in agricultural processing and in off-farm activities. Overlaying this typical structure are large variations according to agro-ecological conditions and economic and institutional settings. This subproject aims at characterising and modelling these farming systems with their interlinkages, representing typical ecological, ethnic, social and institutional / infrastructural situations. On this basis, it will evaluate the economics of labour use in crops and animal production, resource conservation measures and off-farm activities. This will be the basis for analysing in an interdisciplinary approach the competitiveness of fruit tree production (D1) with improved irrigation (B1) and introduced cover crops (C1) in Thailand and resource conservation measures tested in B3 and improved animal production activities (D2), both in Vietnam. Constraints and requirements for making improved agricultural practices economically viable will be identified. This will provide important feedback to these subprojects to possibly extend or modify research direction, particularly for the next phases of the research program. The subproject will have two components, one carrying out the work in the Northern Thailand project region, the other in Northern Vietnam. The villages and farm households to be selected will include in Thailand those, where the subprojects D1, B1 and C1 are located, and in Vietnam those where B3 and D2 are located. The Thailand component can build on previous research work in Northern Thailand carried out by various Thai researchers (funded under the DAAD-PhD and other programs); it will focus on updating and complementing the earlier work. The Vietnam component will focus on the Son La and Bac Kan provinces and in a similar way as in Thailand complement earlier and ongoing research carried out in the Son La province (see A. Luibrand, own research). The subproject intends to use an innovative approach to address the aggregation problem. (abridged text)
The Human Geography Division contributes to the scientific support of PARDYP in the field of socio-economic issues of natural resource management. PARDYP (People and Resource Dynamics Project) is a regional research project (operational in Pakistan, India, Nepal and China) based at ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) in Kathmandu, and is funded by SDC and IDRC. The project concentrates on livelihood strategies and access to natural resources. It is not only the physical availability that enables people in rural areas to sustain their livelihoods. The institutional setup (in form of laws, rules and traditions) is even more relevant in shaping the access to natural resources like forests and water. Access is understood here as the 'capability to profit' from a specific resource. With the methodological tool of comparative livelihood surveys in three countries, it is aimed to identify distinctions and similarities of livelihood strategies in remote areas of the Himalaya, including non-natural resource based activities like labour migration and trade.
Many aims of nature protection can only be achieved by adapted agricultural methods. For this reason in the last decades various options have been worked out for the farmers' to sign contracts regulating the management of their lands. One of these options is signing a contract for the management of dry meadows. It has become evident that not all farmers are willing to sign such contracts in spite of the possibility to earn some extra money. The question is why some farmers refuse to sign such contracts. The project aimed to answer this question. It can be shown that there are a number of factors that play an important role. Depending on the region and the way of farming different factors are decisive for signing or not. The following factors, however, play an important role for most of the farmers: The contracts for the cultivation of dry meadows fix the earliest date when the grass is to be cut. For some farmers this regulation creates operational difficulties: Depending on the summer weather they are forced to cut the meadows and e.g. pick the cherries at the same time. The cultivation of dry meadows is very time-consuming. During the harvest of this grass the farmers have hardly any time left for other jobs. This means it puts limits on the farmers time schedule. The contracts not only regulate the date when the grass is to be cut but also other matters such as the fertilisation of the dry meadows or their use as pastures. Therefore the farmers are limited in their range of farming options. The use of the grass of these dry meadows is a major problem for the farmers. Due to the late time of cutting and the prohibition of fertilisation the quality of the grass is not very good. Depending on the way of farming they can hardly use the grass for feeding their cows, especially if they are dairy farmers. At the moment the farmers do not think about discontinuing the management of these dry meadows thanks to the subsidies they get if they sign a contract. However it has to be expected that several dry meadows will not be used any longer if the subsidies are reduced or even cancelled. The results of this project show that very different factors influence the farmers' decision whether to sign a contract or not. There is not just one single important factor but every farmer also weighs these factors in a different way. Nevertheless a universal pattern can be seen: The importance of the subsidies and the cost of human labour
| Organisation | Count |
|---|---|
| Bund | 21 |
| Europa | 1 |
| Land | 1 |
| Wissenschaft | 7 |
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| Förderprogramm | 21 |
| License | Count |
|---|---|
| Offen | 21 |
| Language | Count |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | 8 |
| Englisch | 20 |
| Resource type | Count |
|---|---|
| Keine | 19 |
| Webseite | 2 |
| Topic | Count |
|---|---|
| Boden | 17 |
| Lebewesen und Lebensräume | 20 |
| Luft | 14 |
| Mensch und Umwelt | 21 |
| Wasser | 12 |
| Weitere | 21 |