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CAWR Newsletter
July 2018
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.'
News
Michael Warne was invited to be a member of the Technical Review Committee for the Proposed Default Guideline Values for Australia and New Zealand. This committee consists of four experts in Water Quality Guideline Derivation. The committee are reviewing the guidelines developed as part of the current revision of the Australian and New Zealand Water Quality Guidelines. They typically meet every fortnight to assess a few of the proposed Guideline Value reports.
Share your Data!
Support the #IndigenousWomen Campaign
In January 2018, FAO Director- General, José Graziano Da Silva, launched the Global Campaign for the Empowerment of Indigenous Women for Zero Hunger with the collaboration of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (IIWF) and the News Agency for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Women (NOTIMIA).
The slogan of the campaign is #IndigenousWomen, Visible Women and it is a call to organizations, governments, academia and the international community to make indigenous women’ contributions to food security visible, in particular in regard to sectoral policies and national statistics through disaggregated data.
Register yourself or your organisation here and send any data or research you may have about indigenous women and food security to indigenous-peoples@fao.org. This way you will contribute to build a Repository of Knowledge specifically focused on indigenous women.
Click here for more information about the campaign.
CAWR is supporting this initiative.
Public lives, private water: a study of gender, water and empowerment among Ready-Made Garment women workers in Dhaka
Photo Credit: Alice Chautard/REACH
This study, led by Coventry University in partnership with Bangladesh Agricultural University, East West University, and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, explores gender and water interrelations for women workers of Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garment industry (RMG).
The research team, led by Dr Deepa Joshi at Coventry University includes three Bangladeshi researchers, who will study how women workers experience and exercise their relative empowerment in navigating contested waterscapes and negotiating gendered (water) roles, responsibilities and identities. The study will map the dynamic flows of water and people in the evolving peri-urban landscape, and in the process, assess social, economic and political changes to water resources, services, technologies, institutions and actors. Rather than singularly focusing on women, this study will look at how social relations between women and men have changed at home, in community spaces and settings and at the workplace. Fieldwork will be conducted in two peri-urban locations in Gazipur district in Dhaka sub-division from July to December 2018.
International Farming Systems Association
Drs Julia Wright, Saskia Von Diest and Sara Burbi just returned from Crete, Greece, where they presented at the 13th European Symposium of the International Farming Systems Association (IFSA) at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (CIHEAM - MAICh). Drs Wright and Von Diest organised the panel session “Introducing the invisible into agricultural knowledge systems”, that also included Dr Christopher Brock from the biodynamic research network Forschungsring in Germany and a local Cretan organic farmer. Dr Burbi presented her work in “Supporting farmers in the transition to agroecology to promote carbon sequestration from silvopastoral systems”. Academics, students, NGOs and farmers attended the symposium. CAWR’s contributions were of high interest. Dr Burbi’s article was selected for publication based on its knowledge integration methodology grounded on agroecological principles, while Drs Wright and Von Diest’s session was so successful that it lead to the organization of a post-conference workshop on intuitive farming with some local producers.
Inaugural meeting of the Plant Health Panel
On the 4th /5th of July Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz attended the inaugural meeting of the Plant Health Panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma. The Panel on Plant Health (PLH) provides independent scientific advice on the risk posed by plant pests which can cause harm to plants, plant products or biodiversity in the EU.
Gerald L. Young Book Award
M. Jahi Chappell was recently awarded the Gerald L. Young Book Award from the Society for Human Ecology (SHE) for his book Beginning to End Hunger, for “Exemplifying the highest standards of scholarly work in the field of human ecology.” He was presented with the award shortly before his keynote presentation at SHE’s annual conference, held this year in Lisbon.
Congratulations to Jahi!
Visit to Sichuan University
Professor Sue Charlesworth, Dr Matthew Blackett and Dr Yung Fang Chen visited Sichuan University, Chengdu, China from 6 to 18 July. They taught a variety of courses in the Institute for Disaster Management which included Dutch and Nepalese students from Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands.
The team met with the Dean of the Institute, Professor Gretchen Kalonji, as well as Associate Professors Tian Bingwei and Basanta Raj Adhikari to discuss future collaborations around Disaster Risk Reduction and city resilience in the face of climate extremes.
They also met Professor Liu Yun from the Southwest Normal University in Chongqing to discuss their research. Liu is a biologist and Environmental Scientist working on the 3 Gorges Dam, specifically re-vegetating the banks of the reservoir behind the dam in the drawdown zone and also the Yangtze River which flows through Chongqing, with native plants such as mulberry.
Back in Chengdu, flooding was a serious problem, with students evacuated from the campus at Sichuan University as their dormitories flooded. Sustainable drainage, hazards and resilience seemed to be appropriate topics to consider under these
circumstances, and the students engaged well with the concepts, tackling them in their final assessment presentations with the title “How can Sichuan Campus be turned into a Sponge Campus?” by applying the Sponge City concept introduced by the Chinese Government in 2015 to 30 Chinese cities.
Graduation celebrations
Congratulations to Elizabeth Bos who graduated this month after defending her PhD earlier this year.
Her thesis ‘Reconnections in the City: Exploring the Drivers of Community Garden Participation’ focused on people’s participation in communal food growing activities on estates and in community spaces across Lambeth, an inner city London borough.
Congratulations Elizabeth from CAWR!
Participatory workshop in Mali
Following on from the scoping mission to Mali in March a workshop was held in Bamako from 25-27 June, within the project “Governing natural resources for food sovereignty” funded by 11th hour. The event was co-organised by Mamadou Goîta, Director of the Institute for Research and Promotion of Alternatives in Development (IRPAD), and Priscilla Claeys and Stefanie Lemke from CAWR, with 18 partners from Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, Benin and Guinée. The discussions generated rich insights into challenges regarding access to natural resources for different user
groups, with a view to co-developing an academia-civil society collaborative research project. Another scoping mission will take place to East Africa in October 2018.
Seminar by Neil Armitage
Professor Armitage’s seminar focused on Cape Town’s water crisis, explaining why the city did not have enough water, and also some of the city’s suggestions for addressing it, including towing an iceberg close to the city and delivering it by tanker into the harbour.
The talk was very interesting, and topical not only for South Africa, but also for other cities worldwide. Neil detailed the reasons behind the drought, which nearly brought the city’s water supply to a standstill, with growth in water demand at about 4% per annum exceeding population growth of about 3% per annum. Coupled with Cape Town being in a semi-arid, water scarce region, with inadequate storage of water supplies and underdeveloped alternatives, the worst drought on record lead to a perfect storm whereby Day Zeros came and went as the government brought in draconian “Level 6” measures to reduce water use. No lawn watering, no car washing, no swimming pools etc.
Neil then brought the situation right up to date, showing the upwards trend in storage in the “Big 6” reservoirs, overtaking capacity in 2016 and 2017 at the same time of year. Suggestions to supplement supplies include boreholes into groundwater, a pilot to treat sewage and produce water at potable quality and desalination of seawater around the coast with barges moored in the harbour, as well as that iceberg!
The talk was rounded up with details of the Future Water Research Institute at UCT, its foci and the research that it carries out. Its banner read that it is “research relevant for a water sensitive future”
Ezinne's internship
Enhancing agro-ecology transition in Nigeria is part of Ezinne Emeana’s PhD research. Ezinne worked with the National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS) as part of her internship experience sponsored by Coventry University. During the programme, Ezinne visited some of the farmers under ‘NAERLS adopted village scheme’ in southeast, Nigeria, to understand their knowledge about agro-ecology and train them in some of the practices. Ezinne combined the face-to-face training and the use
of mobile-enabled application to enhance agro-ecology extension. This farmer group formed part of Ezinne’s PhD research participants.
Cape Verde visit
Dr Steve Coupe, Dr Alex Franklin and Dr Jana Fried returned from a 3-day visit to Cape Verde where they had been invited by Dr Fatima Monteiro from the Institute of Macronesian Studies to network with the Cape Verdian Minister for Agriculture and Environment, the national Water Regulator ANAS, the National Institute of Agrarian Research and Development, the University of Cape Verde, the Municipality of Santa Katharina and other stakeholders. Cape Verde is currently experiencing a severe drought and is looking to find sustainable solutions for its water needs. The visit built on earlier interactions to co-develop stronger resilience in the country’s water sector and allowed the involved
sector and allowed the involved researchers to engage with local stakeholders and to present to them how CAWR’s areas of expertise could contribute to finding long-term solutions for domestic and agricultural water consumption in Cape Verde.
Art of Collaboration
Image: Postcards and touchstones to inspire conversations in collaboration
Artist Research Associates Miche Fabre Lewin and Flora Gathorne-Hardy shared Art of Collaboration as an experiential encounter and slide presentation on July 19th at CAWR, Ryton Gardens.
In his welcome and introduction, Professor Michel Pimbert spoke of CAWR’s commitment to bringing together the social and natural sciences with the vernacular and place-specific knowledge of farmers, water-users, men, women and children, and citizens generally. Michel went on to share how this understanding of transdisciplinary practice led him to invite Miche and Flora to join CAWR in its first year to help contribute to the centre’s paradigm changing and agenda setting vision. As Michel explained:
‘At CAWR, we value experiential knowledge as much as academic knowledge generated by qualitative and quantitative research. Within that mix of transdisciplinary ways of knowing there has to be a place for the Arts and Humanities. As James Hywood Rolling says: “The arts and sciences are twin peaks in human cognition and neither should be privileged in research practices”. Moreover, transdisciplinarity recognises the essential unity of all knowledge and works within, between, and beyond disciplinary boundaries’.
Participants came from CAWR, Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW), Centre for Dance Research, InsightShare and Platform. The time together offered as space for exploring the question ‘What is the art of collaboration?’ Miche began by offering an experience of artful research methods that focus on the invisible, inner, and tacit resources of our body-minds. This included introducing postcard images as a pathway to discovering associative meaning and the ‘touchstone’ as a collaborative method for dialogue. Miche went on to share a slide presentation of ‘Living Cultures: kitchen culture meets agriculture’, her Artist Research Residency with Sustainability Institute in South Africa. The images of her Ritual Workshops with food and culinary traditions gave participants a taste of the embodied methodologies within her doctoral field research.
The gathering ended with an honouring of Art of Collaboration, an emerging alliance between CAWR, Touchstones, Sustainability Institute and the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST), Stellenbosch University.
Apply for MSc Agroecology, Water and Food Sovereignty now!
If you are interested in joining us in September please submit your application by:
- the end of July for overseas applicants
- the end of August for UK/EU applicants
The new MSc is structured according to the thematic pillars of our Centre’s research and will be a multi- and transdisciplinary course introducing students to a range of different approaches to foster equitable and sustainable food and water systems.
For more information, visit our website.
Publications
Adam P, Merrington G, Schlekat C, De Schamphelaere K, Stauber JL, Batley GE, Harford AJ, van Dam R, Pease C, Mooney T, Warne MStJ, Hickey C, Glazebrook P, Chapman J, Smith R, and Krassoi F. 2018. In press. Validation of the nickel biotic ligand model for locally relevant species in Australian freshwaters. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Accepted 19/06/2018
Dehnen-Schmutz K. & Conroy, J. (2018): Working with gardeners to identify potential invasive ornamental garden plants - testing a citizen science approach. Biological Invasions, doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1759-3
Hook SE, Mondon J, Revill AT, Greenfield PA, Smith RA, TurnerRDR, Corbett P, Warne MStJ. In press. Transcriptomic, lipid, and histological profiles suggest changes in health in fish from a pesticide hot spot. Marine Environmental Research. Accepted 28/06/2018
