News/events type: Nature series seminar

Climate Change and Rural Livelihoods in Ghana: the impacts, adaptations and barriers – Prof. Philip Antwi-Agyei

Climate change poses considerable threats to socioeconomic development and ecological systems across Africa. This is particularly critical for smallholder farming communities in dryland agroecosystems where climate change interact with non-climatic stressors and shocks to exacerbate the vulnerability of rural livelihoods. Ghana is already suffering from significant climate change impacts and is projected to experience increased temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns in the coming years and decades. This threatens the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those relating to poverty reduction (SDG 1), food security (SDG 2) and climate action (SDG 13).

This talk focuses on providing an understanding of the adverse impacts of climate change and variability on rural livelihoods in northern Ghana and how these perpetuate existing vulnerability among rural households and communities. Drawing on personal research from across rural Ghana, this talk spotlights the various practices employed by rural communities to moderate the adverse impacts of climate risks. The talk also highlights the key barriers confronting rural communities in their attempt to address the impacts of climate change. The talk concludes by proposing a number of recommendations such as increased use of climate services, climate-smart agriculture interventions and changing cropping choices, aimed at making rural livelihoods in northern Ghana more resilient in the face of climate change and variability.

Biography
Prof. Philip Antwi-Agyei is the Director of the Office of Grants and Research at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Philip is a former Commonwealth Scholar, who obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom in 2013. Philip is an interdisciplinary climate change scientist whose research involves developing innovative multi-scale methodologies for assessing vulnerability and adaptations to climate change across the local, regional and national scales. Specifically, his research uses spatial databases, ecological studies and field-based participatory approaches aimed at broadening understanding of how climate change and variability affect food security and livelihoods.

Prof. Antwi-Agyei was a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 oC, and a Contributing Author on the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC. He has consulted for leading international organisations including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, Accra), the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canada, and Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency, to mention but a few. Philip developed the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Framework for Ghana and the National Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan for the Infrastructure Sector (Water, Energy, and Transport Sectors). Prof. Antwi-Agyei was the Consultant for the adaptation component of Ghana’s Updated Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Climate Agreement.

Prof. Antwi-Agyei is a recipient of several prestigious international grants including the International Foundation for Science (2010–2013), Climate Impacts Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement Fellowship (2015–2016) funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, Innovation Grant from the London School of Economics and University of Leeds, United Kingdom (2016–2018), and Science for Weather Information and Forecasting Techniques (2016–2021) funded by the Global Challenge Research Fund. He has also won grants under the Climate Research for Development (2019–2021), an initiative of the African Climate Policy Centre in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. Philip was a Fellow under the Future Leaders–Africa Independent Research (FLAIR) (2020–2022) and Collaboration Grants (2021–2022) funded by the Royal Society, London.

He has published extensively in reputable international peer reviewed journals on climate change issues and presented his research outputs in several international conferences and workshops. Philip serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Climate and Development (published by Taylor and Francis). He also serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Environmental Policy and Governance and is a regular reviewer for several leading high impact factor journals on climate change related matters.

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.

Reserve your seat here

Boldly reimagining our approaches to nature recovery

In this provocative talk Justin will argue that while the increased awareness and understanding of the decline of biodiversity is to be welcomed. Our current approaches and responses at both the global and local levels are woefully inadequate. We are stuck in a cycle of incremental gains that are failing to address the roots causes of the ‘nature crisis’. Moving forward we will need to be much bolder in reimagining the future we want to help build.

Justin will draw on his diverse experience to highlight the inadequacies of incremental approaches and the urgent need for transformative change. From addressing commodity-driven deforestation, to the ongoing challenges and controversies of the carbon market, to his experience of implementing Biodiversity Net Gain locally, Justin will share insights gained from more than 15 years working on nature recovery.

He will take a step back to explore what we can learn from all these examples and then offer some perspectives on how we might collectively reimagine our approaches to nature recovery.

This interactive discussion will provide a platform for attendees to challenge assumptions and engage in dialogue on the future of nature recovery. Come prepared to explore bold solutions and contribute to the conversation.

About the Speaker:

Justin is a seasoned expert in nature and food systems. He has held senior roles in both the private sector and civil society and was a Senior Advisor to the UK Government to deliver COP26 for which he was awarded an OBE by the late Queen in 2022. Most recently he led the strategy development of Generation Investment Management’s new multi hundred-million-dollar nature and food investment fund.

He stepped down from this role in August 2023 to create space for a much deeper exploration of how to unlock transformational change at both the individual and system levels. His latest endeavour, the Ostara Collective, launches in June and aims to create intentional dialogue and space for restoring our relationship with ourselves, our communities, and the Earth. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, is a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School and is Chair of the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment focused on local nature recovery.

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.

Reserve your seat here

Does science impact nature conservation policy? Stories of success and failure.- Hugh Possingham

Hugh in semi-retirement has 3 jobs: Biodiversity Council’s Co-chief Councillor, Chief Scientist of Accounting for Nature and The University of Queensland. He was the founding Director of The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, the National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species hub and an Australian Research Council Professorial, Laureate and Federation Fellow.

Hugh also has a variety of broader public roles advising policy makers and managers, and sits on c30 boards and advisory committees – from the Friends of Oxley Creek Common to Conservation International.

Alongside Dr Barry Traill, Hugh wrote “The Brigalow Declaration”. This open letter was used by the Queensland Premier Peter Beattie to stop land clearing in the state, thereby stopping c10% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions per annum and saving an area the size of Portugal from conversion into farmland.

The Possingham lab developed Marxan, the most widely used conservation planning software in the world. Marxan was used to underpin the rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef and is currently employed by more than 7000 users in over 180 countries to build most of the world’s marine and terrestrial protected area systems from the Amazon and British Columbia to the Sunda Sea and South Africa.

Hugh has co-authored over 740 peer-reviewed papers, including 35 in Science and Nature, and has been the privileged mentor of over 200 PhD candidates, honours students and postdoctoral researchers. His google scholar h-index is 164. Hugh has honorary doctorates from the University of British Columbia and Adelaide University.

He has one known psychological disorder – a compulsive desire to watch birds.

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.

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Global Ecological Shift: for the protection and restoration of biodiversity

Abstract: Ecologist Thomas Crowther underscores the vital role of nature conservation and restoration in combating biodiversity loss and climate change. In his talk, Crowther will highlight recent scientific advancements, such as the groundbreaking evaluation of global forest carbon potential, and the launch of the SEED, a biocomplexity index, which enables us to understand the variation in biological health across the globe. These initiatives aim to enhance our commitment to nature and empower individuals, companies and governments to make positive contributions towards biodiversity conservation. Through collective action and informed stewardship, Crowther inspires hope for a sustainable future where nature thrives alongside humanity.

Biography:
Thomas Ward Crowther is a professor of ecology at ETH Zürich and co-chair of the advisory board for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. At ETH Zürich, he started Crowther Lab, an interdisciplinary group of scientists exploring the role of biodiversity in regulating the Earth’s climate. Crowther is the founder of Restor, an online platform that provides connectivity, and transparency to thousands of conservation and restoration projects around the world. He also founded SEED, a biodiversity monitoring tool to help measure the health of nature across the globe. He was selected in the final cohort for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, and was selected by World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader for his work to promote nature

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.

Climate Change and Rural Livelihoods in Ghana: the impacts, adaptations and barriers

Climate change poses considerable threats to socioeconomic development and ecological systems across Africa. This is particularly critical for smallholder farming communities in dryland agroecosystems where climate change interact with non-climatic stressors and shocks to exacerbate the vulnerability of rural livelihoods. Ghana is already suffering from significant climate change impacts and is projected to experience increased temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns in the coming years and decades. This threatens the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those relating to poverty reduction (SDG 1), food security (SDG 2) and climate action (SDG 13).

This talk focuses on providing an understanding of the adverse impacts of climate change and variability on rural livelihoods in northern Ghana and how these perpetuate existing vulnerability among rural households and communities. Drawing on personal research from across rural Ghana, this talk spotlights the various practices employed by rural communities to moderate the adverse impacts of climate risks. The talk also highlights the key barriers confronting rural communities in their attempt to address the impacts of climate change. The talk concludes by proposing a number of recommendations such as increased use of climate services, climate-smart agriculture interventions and changing cropping choices, aimed at making rural livelihoods in northern Ghana more resilient in the face of climate change and variability.

Biography
Prof. Philip Antwi-Agyei is the Director of the Office of Grants and Research at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Philip is a former Commonwealth Scholar, who obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom in 2013. Philip is an interdisciplinary climate change scientist whose research involves developing innovative multi-scale methodologies for assessing vulnerability and adaptations to climate change across the local, regional and national scales. Specifically, his research uses spatial databases, ecological studies and field-based participatory approaches aimed at broadening understanding of how climate change and variability affect food security and livelihoods.

Prof. Antwi-Agyei was a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 oC, and a Contributing Author on the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC. He has consulted for leading international organisations including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, Accra), the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Canada, and Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency, to mention but a few. Philip developed the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Framework for Ghana and the National Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan for the Infrastructure Sector (Water, Energy, and Transport Sectors). Prof. Antwi-Agyei was the Consultant for the adaptation component of Ghana’s Updated Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Climate Agreement.

Prof. Antwi-Agyei is a recipient of several prestigious international grants including the International Foundation for Science (2010–2013), Climate Impacts Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement Fellowship (2015–2016) funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, Innovation Grant from the London School of Economics and University of Leeds, United Kingdom (2016–2018), and Science for Weather Information and Forecasting Techniques (2016–2021) funded by the Global Challenge Research Fund. He has also won grants under the Climate Research for Development (2019–2021), an initiative of the African Climate Policy Centre in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. Philip was a Fellow under the Future Leaders–Africa Independent Research (FLAIR) (2020–2022) and Collaboration Grants (2021–2022) funded by the Royal Society, London.

He has published extensively in reputable international peer reviewed journals on climate change issues and presented his research outputs in several international conferences and workshops. Philip serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Climate and Development (published by Taylor and Francis). He also serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Environmental Policy and Governance and is a regular reviewer for several leading high impact factor journals on climate change related matters.

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.

Restoration Social Science: Understanding how and why people restore landscapes, and what the impacts of that restoration is on human well being.

Restoration is emerging as a global priority, as exemplified in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Bonn Challenge to restore 350 Mha by 2030, and a wide variety of regional, national, and private efforts. As described in these documents, restoration is primarily conceived as an ecological process, in which ecosystems are restored to a more functional or desirable state through ecological processes, and there is a well developed science of restoration ecology to inform these efforts. However most restoration seeks to undo damage to ecosystems caused by people, most restoration efforts involve people doing things, and restoration is often sold as being beneficial to people. Thus a social science of restoration is needed to make sure restoration achieves its goals, however, no such collected body of knowledge exists.

In this talk I will propose 3 key questions which restoration social science must answer: (1) What are the impacts of restoration on people? (2) How do human actions influence restoration outcomes? (3) Why has restoration emerged as a global priority now? I will provide preliminary answers to these questions which draw on my field research in India. These results suggest that the outcomes of restoration depend on who makes decisions about the restoration program, and as such can vary from beneficial to harmful to people. They also suggest that a major impetus for the popularity of restoration today is that restoration can be an effective way to greenwash environmentally harmful activities.

Biography
Forrest Fleischman is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Department of Forest Resources, and a visiting researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). His research examines the intersection of scientific knowledge, government expertise, and civic engagement in policy-making and implementation, as well as the outcomes of resulting policies, particularly in human-created ecosystems, such as restored, planted, and urban forests.

 

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.

Wildlife, Warriors, and Women Large Carnivore Conservation in Tanzania and beyond

Professor Amy Dickman established is the joint CEO of Lion Landscapes, which works to help conserve wildlife in some of the most important biodiversity areas of Africa. These areas include some of the most important areas in the world for big cats, but also have an extremely high level of lion killing, as lions and other carnivores impose high costs on poverty-stricken local people. Amy and her team are working with local communities to reduce carnivore attacks, providing villagers with real benefits from carnivore presence, engaging warriors in conservation and training the next generation of local conservation leaders. It has been a challenging endeavour, given the remote location and secretive and hostile nature of the tribe responsible for most lion-killing. In her talk, Amy will discuss the significance of this project, the difficulties of working in an area where witchcraft and mythology abound, and the conservation successes that are already emerging from this important work.

Biography
Amy is the Kaplan Senior Research Fellow in Felid Conservation and Professor of Wildlife Conservation at Oxford University, and has over 25 years experience working on large carnivores in Africa, specialising in human-carnivore conflict. She has an MSc from Oxford University and a PhD from University College London, and has published over 80 scientific papers and book chapters on large carnivore ecology and conservation. She is a member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, the Human-Wildlife Conflict Collaboration, the African Lion Working Group, the IUCN Human-Wildlife Conflict task Force, and is a National Geographic Explorer. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Rabinowitz-Kaplan Prize for the Next Generation in Wild Cat Conservation and the St Louis Zoo Conservation Award.

 

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.

Bending the curves – balancing nature, economy and society, from the bottom up

Abstract: Bending the curve of biodiversity decline, ie. halting and reversing loss, has been adopted as the mission for the Global Biodiversity Framework. While conservation and restoration are necessary to achieve this, they are not sufficient and this talk focuses on the two sets of actions that need far greater attention – a) bending and reversing the drivers of biodiversity decline, which requires primary focus on indirect drivers, in particular overconsumption, and b) redressing equity imbalances. Both entail specific responsibilities and actions, by those who over-consume, and for those who under-consume. Focusing on healthy and sufficient nature at square kilometre scales provides a direct approach to address these issues, providing tangible opportunities to revert financial capital into natural capital to nature, economy and society for a sustainable future.

Biography – David Obura chairs the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), is on the Earth Commission and is a Founding Director of the coral reef research and conservation organization CORDIO East Africa. With 30 years of experience addressing ecological and climatic challenges in Africa and tropical coastal regions, he is developing a new focus on sustainability and equity, linking challenges and solutions from local to global scales, and working with diverse teams to identify pathways to a safe and just world for present and future generations.

AmazonFlux: disentangling biodiversity-ecosystem function relationship through an energy flux perspective

Human-made disturbances have triggered multiple changes in biodiversity, with unexpected consequences for ecosystem functioning. Yet, we still miss a mechanistic comprehension of the relationship between biodiversity change and ecosystem function. Considering that species’ response to disturbances will depend on, or are mediated by, their interaction with other species, this information gap might lead to erroneous projections of how human-induced changes impact biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. By merging biodiversity models and energy flux approach we can integrate biotic and abiotic factors into assessing ecosystem functions at macroecological scales. After a collaborative work to compile an extensive biodiversity dataset of camera trap information for the Amazon forest (Amazonia Camtrap), I aim to disentangle the impact of different forest disturbances on bird and mammal communities and use an energy flux approach to investigate how these disturbances and changes in biodiversity affect ecosystem functions.

Biography

I am a Brazilian ecologist working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Synthesis Centre for Biodiversity Sciences (sDiv), iDiv. My current research focuses on understanding how forest disturbances, associated with biodiversity changes, affect ecosystem functions in animal communities across the Amazon forest.

Prior to joining sDiv, I completed my PhD in 2023 in the Theory in Biodiversity group at iDiv where I proposed a framework based on ecological energetics to link biodiversity-ecosystem functions and nature’s contributions to people across macroecological scales, while accounting for ecological interactions between species. In 2016, I obtained my MSc from the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil, where I specialized in ecology and started my passion for the Amazon forest.

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery is interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery or its researchers.

Soil Ecology from the microbe’s eye view

Abstract:
Soil is arguably the most complicated biomaterial on the planet. It is the largest terrestrial carbon sink, and the most species rich habitat on earth. Microorganisms driving biogeochemical cycles live and interact in the soil’s intricate pore space labyrinth, but they difficult to study in realistic settings because of its opaqueness. We recently developed microfluidic model systems that simulate the spatial microstructure of soil microbial habitats in a transparent material, which we call Soil Chips. They allow us to study the impact of soil physical microstructures on microbes, microbial behavior and realistic microbial interactions, live and at the scale of their cells.

Using microbial model strains, we could show the partly opposing influence of the pore space geometry on the growth and degradation activity of the two microbial groups bacteria and fungi in synthetic communities. Different fungi, including litter decomposers and mycorrhizal, showed contrasting space exploring strategies when studied at their hyphal level. Inoculating the chips with soil brings a large proportion of the natural microbial community into our chips to study natural communities including their complex food webs, and self-organizing interactions with soil minerals in early aggregation processes. Chemical imaging of microbe-mineral interactions at nanoscale at synchrotrons reveal aggregate development and microbial gluing agents.

The soil chips enable us to study the influence of trophic interactions such as the presence of predators on bacterial and fungal nutrient cycling, and various predation strategies of protists otherwise difficult to culture. Beyond the scientific potential, the chips can also bring soils closer to people aiming to make more to appreciate their beauty and increase engagement in soil health conservation.

Biography:
Edith is a Senior Lecturer/Assoc Professor in Soil Microbial Ecology at Lund University. Her research focusses on microbial processes that drive the nutrient cycles in soils and are the base for healthy soil functions, such as its enormous carbon storage. She has developed so-called soil chips, microfluidic micromodels that mimic soil pore space structure to study organisms and processes embedded in their spatial settings. Those enable the study of microbial processes and interactions at cellular scale, including organic matter degradation and physical occlusion, trophic networks and microbial behavior.

With a strong background in fungal and mycorrhizal ecology, she has recently been broadening her projects to complex communities also including the often-overlooked protist. With help of imaging from the soil chips she also wishes to increase awareness of the fragile ecosystem with its intricate biodiversity. She leads the branch for climate and C-cycle science of the Swedish strategic research environment BECC, the Section Soil Biology at the European Geosciences Union and a recent initiative for soil microbe outreach (“soilwatching”).

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.