Social-Ecological Seeds

Greenmatter

How important is skills development around biodiversity conservation in the good anthropocene? Greenmatter is an initiative aiming to drive transformation in graduate level skills for biodiversity conservation in South Africa. In 2010, the South African government’s Economic Cluster convened the first Green Economy Summit, to map out a green growth pathway that creates jobs while reducing pollution and using South Africa’s natural resources wisely. There was growing recognition that economic growth cannot [...]

Laura Pereira2015-05-15T09:33:38+00:00Skills Development, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

TRANSMANGO

Is research and collaboration around sustainable food production a key component of building a good anthropocene? Objective: Identifying a range of current practices in the context of European food systems that have the potential to contribute to transitions to sustainable food and nutrition security in Europe. TRANSMANGO (http://www.transmango.eu/index.html) is a research project supporting the goal of sustainable food and nutrition security in Europe. Scenario work is employed to explore a [...]

ciararh2015-05-13T21:48:49+00:00Food, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy

Connecting people to nature: Is development the key to longterm success in wildlife conservation? Objective: to conserve wildlife without tradeoffs to local communities The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya (http://www.lewa.org/about-lewa/a-catalyst-model-for-community-conservation/) works as a catalyst and model for the conservation of wildlife and its habitat. It does this through the protection and management of species, the initiation and support of community conservation and development programmes, and the education of neighbouring areas [...]

ciararh2015-04-30T21:39:43+00:00Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Project 90 by 2030

Project 90 by 2030 was established as a national project of the Goedgedacht Trust in July 2007 in South Africa. The name comes from an aim to effect a 90% change by South Africans in how they engage with earth systems by the year 2030.

Laura Pereira2015-04-10T15:06:14+00:00Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Sustain Ability Challenge and Live Better Challenge

Connecting people to nature: Can public challenges and competitions with high media visibility promote sustainable living in urban areas by building awareness, sharing information and through peer pressures? Objective: to understand the barriers and motivators to inspiring behaviour change towards sustainable living In 2012, Unilever ran a six-month research study called the Sustain Ability Challenge in 12 UK households in order to understand the barriers, triggers and motivators for sustainable living, [...]

ciararh2015-04-08T19:45:09+00:00Competition, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Oranjezicht City Farm

Local residents from the Oranjezicht community in Cape Town's city bowl came together in 2012 to transform an open area in their neighbourhood from a disused lot attracting criminal activity into a vibrant urban farm where community members grow their own food. In addition, people from all over the city can participate by volunteering as farm helpers, and people are encouraged to assist the farm by contributing their kitchen waste [...]

Laura Pereira2015-03-16T13:50:52+00:00Food, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Yahara Pride Farms

Yahara Pride Farms (http://www.yaharapridefarms.org/) is a coalition of farmers, business people, environmentalists, technical experts and government employees that aims to decrease nonpoint pollution in the Yahara watershed, Madison Wisconsin. YPF engages farmers directly in changes in farm management practices to decrease nonpoint pollution. YPF is experimenting with manure digestors, cover crops, deep injection of manure into croplands, and other new and innovative nutrient management practices. The programs include monitoring to evaluate the effects of the practices.

Garry Peterson2015-02-06T01:00:02+00:00Food, Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off

Satoyama Initiative

The values of satoyama landscape, Japanese traditional agricultural landscape, has been increasingly recognized in Japan, as provider of a bundle of ecosystem services to humans while harnessing unique and higher level of biodiversity. It has been understood that continuation of appropriate management of landscapes has created sustainable landscapes benefitting both humans and nature. The challenges faced to the satoyama landscapes today are more on the underuse of natural resources rather than overexploitation which comes from depopulation in rural areas and decline of agricultural sectors. Responding to this, new ways to maintain satoyama landscape is being explored by linking urban and rural areas and creating mutual benefits.

Garry Peterson2015-02-06T00:51:56+00:00Social-Ecological Seeds|Comments Off