GCRN_AM Kampala Workshop, July 2007

Webcast

Click here to view the webcasts of the presentations.

Image Galleries 

Click here to access MRI's image galleries and to view Philip Omondi's group foto and Willem Ferguson's fotos of Kampala, and the field trip to the Rwenzoris Mountains, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and Bwera.

The workshop has been organized by

• The Mountain Research Initiative, Bern, Switzerland
• UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program, Paris, France
• CGIAR Global Mountain Programme, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• African Highlands Initiative, Kampala, Uganda
• Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia
• Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
• Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya
• University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
• University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Background

When measured in terms of temperature and precipitation means and variances, future expected climate change may be more pronounced in tropical than in temperate regions of the world. In Africa these climate changes may lead to the disappearance of tropical mountain glaciers, increasing variation in water flows and changes in disturbance regimes in mountain flora and fauna, all of which would have important impacts on African communities and nations.

Climate change is however not the only nor necessarily the most important form of global change affecting sub-Saharan African highlands. Population growth and migration, economic development, global trade, and infectious diseases are all driving change in their own right and interacting with climate in African highlands. Perhaps more than in any other region, the discussion of global environmental change in sub-Saharan African highlands moves quickly to the issues of human security, vulnerability and adaptation. However the scientific community's ability to contribute to the development of adaptation strategies is hampered by our limited scientific understanding of the coupled human-earth system in sub-Saharan African mountain environments.

The Global Change in Mountain Region (GLOCHAMORE) Research Strategy provides a global template for improving that understanding. It provides a list of focused research topics in both biophysical and socioeconomic disciplines, and a framework for integration specifically created for sites such as Mountain Biosphere Reserves. As such it provides a starting point for improving our understanding of coupled human-earth systems and for implementing strategies to adapt to global change in sub-Saharan African mountains.

Workshop Goal

The workshop in Kampala has several objectives. First, we want to bring together researchers, site managers (e.g. Biosphere Reserve managers) and stakeholders, and representatives of funding agencies to refine the Global Change in Mountain Regions (GLOCHAMORE) Research Strategy developed under the EU 6th Framework Programme. The Strategy is global in scope and we wish to translate it into an agenda that responds to the realities of highland Africa. We hope that a focused and realistic GC research strategy can be used by researchers in their proposals to funding agencies to augment both the volume and the efficiency of funds directed toward global change research.

Second, we want to facilitate the development of a multi-site network in highland Africa within which interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary GC research is pursued. This research can include monitoring and data acquisition, focused process studies, integrative modeling, and can provide guidance to sustainable development and conservation of mountain areas. The network could include continental scale transects (e.g. Ethiopia to South Africa) as well as altitudinal transects. These research projects can certainly have strong disciplinary foci but should be embedded within a larger integrating framework which should itself be related to the needs of policy makers and stakeholders.

The goal of the workshop is then to move us from the generalities of a Research Strategy to the details of "real projects by real people in real places", especially as those involve scientists and local mountain communities in the assessment of adaptations to global change.

Participants in the workshop should include researchers, site managers, staff from organizations and agencies responsible for rural development, key stakeholders in different mountain regions, staff of regional research and development initiatives, donors and NGOs.