Rhodes University Environmental Science Research
Current Research Projects
Policy Briefs
GEF5 Sustainable Land Management Project
The GEF5 project aims to build the capacity of selected government departments and rural communities for the integration of sustainable land management (SLM) into development planning and the adoption of SLM within livelihoods practices. The project will include developing tools for the analysis of the challenges and opportunities faced by rural communities, and the development with local communities of innovative SLM practices that will be implemented with the guidance of local government and specialists. The project will provide the foundation for making SLM approaches and practices an important objective in development planning and land-use in rural communities in the Eastern Cape. Appropriate SLM activities will be developed and demonstrated at the local level in Macubeni and Baviaanskloof, and will build on existing local knowledge and best available technologies.
User-driven intervention strategies for fostering energy-saving in South African households
In addressing a country’s energy efficiency and environmental targets, improving the efficiency of household energy consumption has always been an important component of energy conservation strategies.
A weed by any other name?
This project adopts a comparative framework of analysis to investigate how indigenous and rural communities around the Indian Ocean perceive, classify, and use environmental weeds in their everyday livelihood and cultural activities.
Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystem
The overarching goal is to explicitly quantify the linkages between the natural ecosystem services that affect – and are affected by – food security and nutritional health for the rural poor at the forest-agricultural interfaceThe project is led by the University of Southampton (UK)…
Interdisciplinary Science in Land…
This long term initiative aims to develop interdisciplinary understandings of and methods to reveal the role, value and importance of natural resources in rural and urban livelihoods for poverty alleviation.
The contribution of trees to local livelihoods….
The primary research question is “what are the nature, availability, use and contribution of trees and trees products to household well-being and livelihoods in different urban settings and duration of residency in such settings?”
Urbanisation and its impacts on the use of natural resources in Africa
The aim of the project is to develop research partnerships and training to investigate the impact of urbanization on use of natural resources in selected Africa countries.