No Images? Click here CAWR Newsletter September 2019 Our monthly newsletters are an easy way to keep up-to-date with new developments at our research centre. From successful project bids to upcoming events, our newsletter informs you on how we are 'driving innovative transdisciplinary research on resilient food and water systems.' NewsCoventry's Waterways Research at Spon Spun FestivalOn 14th of September, one of the stands at Spon Spun festival was part of CAWR's research. Assistants to the event had the opportunity to think about Coventry's waterways and to share some thoughts around them. This was part of the RECOMS project, looking to work with communities and environmental issue. Seeding a new storySeed Stall at the Food and Seed Festival 2019 On September 13-14 Miche Fabre Lewin and Flora Gathrone-Hardy attended the Zimbabwe Traditional and Organic Seed and Food Festival at the Harare Botanic Gardens. Their three-minute ConVivere film Seeding a New Story shares how resilience is being restored across the regions by the cultural and ecological diversity of traditional farmers. Here is testimony of how the convivial is a practice in living well together and within the other-than-human world. Gratitude to John Wilson, and all at Pelum and Naturally Zimbabwean. Click here to view the video. IPBES assessment of invasive speciesThe Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body, established by member states in 2012. The objective of IPBES is to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development. Invasive alien species were identified, in the recent landmark IPBES Global Assessment Report as one of the top five causes of negative change in nature around the world. Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz attended the first meeting of authors for the new global IPBES assessment of invasive alien species which was held from 19-23 August 2019 in Tsukuba, Japan. About 70 invited authors from more than 35 countries participated in the meeting and developed the outline and work plan for the assessment which will assess the threat that invasive alien species pose to biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods, and the global status of and trends in impacts of invasive alien species by region and sub-region, taking into account various knowledge and value systems. CAWR Seminar on “Biochar – integration with bioenergy and use in environmental applications”Dr Ondrej Masek, a co-founder of the UK Biochar Research Centre at the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, visited CAWR and gave a great talk “Biochar – integration with bioenergy and use in environmental applications” on 26th September. Ondrej discussed different options and provided specific examples of ways to integrate pyrolysis with other thermochemical or biological systems into a zero-waste biorefinery. He also showed examples of environmental applications of biochar in soil, water, effluent and waste management. Click here to view the seminar. Collaborations with Stellenbosch University and University of Cape TownPhoto 1: Dr. Jana Fried and participants at the Field study at AC21 International Graduate School in Invasion Science. This summer, Dr. Jana Fried and Dr. Marco Van De Wiel visited Stellenbosch University (SU) for two months. Dr. Fried was an invited lecturer and facilitator on the AC21 International Graduate School in Invasion Science, which was organised by SU from 12 to 21 July 2019 (photo 1). She also liaised with several researcher at SU’s Centre for Invasion Biology (CIB) to discuss the possible contributions of social science research to the study of invasive species. Photo 2: PhD students and supervisors taking part in the dual degree PhD programme between Stellenbosch University and Coventry University. These discussion have resulted in a number of ongoing and future research collaborations with CIB. Dr. Fried is also co-supervising a PhD candidate at SU, who is looking at water ethics in Cape Town’s Philippi Horticultural Area. This PhD is part of the dual degree PhD programme hosted by both Coventry University and Stellenbosch University. Dr. Van De Wiel is CAWR’s coordinator of this dual degree programme. At SU, he delivered two workshop seminars to the students enrolled in the dual degree programme (photo 2). Dr. Van De Wiel is also co-supervising an SU PhD candidate who is taking part in this programme and who will be looking at gully erosion dynamics in South Africa. He also discussed additional research collaborations with members of the SU Water Institute and the Department of Soil Science. Photo 3: Dr. Kevin Winter (right) explaining water filtration experiments at the Water Hub in Franschhoek. Dr. Fried and Dr. Van De Wiel also visited the Water Hub in Franschhoek. The Water Hub is an experimental site for advancing knowledge of how nature can clean polluted water and restore the health of rivers, managed by Dr. Kevin Winter from University of Cape Town. It is one of the case study sites in Prof. Sue Charlesworth’s WASTE FEW-ULL project, which investigates waste minimization in the urban food-energy-water nexus. The project involves several CAWR researchers (Prof. Sue Charlesworth, Dr. Ulrich Schmutz, Dr. Francis Rayns, Dr. Jana Fried, and Dr. Marco Van De Wiel). Dr. Winter’s tour of the facilities and experiments at the Water Hub (photo 3) highlighted the potential for embedding circular economy concepts in the development of appropriate solutions to contaminated stormwater and water reuse. Agroecology Europe ForumProfessor Michel Pimbert represented the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) at the recent Agroecology Europe Forum held in Crete. CAWR’s PhD student Christelle Ledroit gave a presentation in the session on ‘innovative farming practices’ Michel Pimbert participated in several round table discussions and the General Assembly of Agroecology Europe, which takes place every two years. The Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience is a co-founder of Agroecology Europe. Estimating the risk posed by mixtures of pesticides in rivers that discharge to the Great Barrier ReefA project led by Professor Michael Warne has developed models using land use, climatic and spatial data that are able to accurately predict the combined toxicity of mixtures of up to 22 pesticides frequently detected in rivers that discharge to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The results of this research have been included in the latest Reef Report Card as a series of interactive maps (click "Show map" and you can then drill down using the map to go from the entire coast, to regions and to large catchments). The work is currently being expanded with a MSc student (Aisha Al Ghafri) using the models to predict the combined pesticide mixture toxicity to 170 catchments. We are looking for moo!BioRich Project Update Meeting, 3rd October, Abergavenny. Would you like to join us to hear from BioRich farmer, Richard Copley, and the BioRich team - Jerry Alford (Innovative Farmers), Chris Thomas (ADAS) and Donna Udall (CAWR) as we discuss the results of the BioRich trial (Feeding Biochar to Cattle) and outline further funding streams and future projects? Sign up here! We are looking forward to meeting moo! Also, well done to Richard for his excellent interview recently with Radio 4’s Farming Today! RECOMS training eventOne of the local residents, Wim, whom the fellows worked with mentioned that he would have never expected such results from the 15 RECOMS fellows, who produced games, exhibition, theatre plays and even music in less than two weeks in order to involve locals in sustainable energy and climate change fights in the frame of RECOMS third training event on 10-24 August 2019 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Read more about the event here. (RECOMS has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765389). Congratulations to RebeccaRebecca Lewis passed her MRes with minor amendments this month. Her title was: Addressing disease vectors with Sustainable Drainage: The Zika virus in Brazil’s favelas. Congratulations Rebecca! Visit to Stellenbosch UniversityFlackson with his experiment in the background Francis Rayns made a visit to Stellenbosch University in South Africa. The primary purpose of this was to meet with Flackson Tsuma, a PhD student for whom he is Director of Studies under the Coventry-Stellenbosh Dual Degree Programme. Flackson’s Director of Studies at the Agronomy Department of Stellenbosch University is Dr Pieter Swanepoel and together they made a series of visits to see field trials, some of which had been running since the 1970s, that have been set up to investigate the effects of tillage practices and fertiliser regimes on crop production and soil health. Whilst in South Africa Francis Rayns also met with Dr Kevin Winter of Cape Town University at the Water Hub near Franchoek. The work done here forms part of the Waste Few ULL project and they were able to discuss the potential for recycling food and other wastes in horticultural production systems. Handbook of Food WasteJordon Lazell is one of four editors of the Routledge Handbook of Food Waste due to be published in January 2020. The handbook represents a definitive state of the current art and science of food waste from multiple perspectives. This book includes perspectives and disciplines ranging from agriculture, food science, industrial ecology, history, economics, consumer behaviour, geography, theology, planning, sociology and environmental policy amongst others. The 31 chapters addresses new and ongoing debates around systemic causes and solutions, including behaviour change, social innovation, new technologies, spirituality, redistribution, animal feed, and activism. The chapters evaluate country case studies, waste management, treatment, prevention, and reduction approaches, and compare research methodologies for better understanding food wastage. This book is essential reading for the growing number of food waste scholars, practitioners and policy makers interested in researching, theorising, debating and solving the multifaceted phenomenon of food waste. Click here to find out more about this handbook. The use of plastic and alternative mulchesOn the 26th September, CAWR's Organic-PLUS team welcomed a group of growers and other stakeholders to an Innovative Farmers workshop. There was a series of presentations covering the use of plastic in European organic agriculture, the use of plastic and alternative mulches at 5 Acre Community Farm and field trials currently underway within Organic-PLUS. This event was the first step towards researchers working with growers to facilitate on-farm trials to phase out fossil fuel derived mulches. EventsLegal activism to Protect Peasant Seed Systems in Mali with Mohamed Coulibaly Reterritorialisation practices and strategies of campesinos in the urban frontier of Bogotá, Colombia Pore-scale origins for nonequilibrium subsurface flow: Preferential pathways, rate-dependency, and hysteresis How humanities saved maths and vice versa: counting what counts in a metricised world Publications
|