ZEF Bonn

🌿 ZEF Public Lecture | Oct 30, 13:30 CET
“Lessons from Grassroots Civil Society Action in Disaster Risk Reduction in the Indian Sundarbans”
by Prof. Dr. Farhat Naz (IIT Jodhpur / TH Köln)
📍 ZEF, Bonn
Join us for insights on climate resilience, local action & social inclusivity.

+ New Research +

Medicinal plants show how closely human health and biodiversity are intertwined🌿

A Social Ecology perspective shows community gardening, sustainable collection & shared knowledge as pathways to well-being and conservation.
Read more 👉 bit.ly/47a3Lfb

++ New Study++

🌾👶 1 in 4 children in rural #BurkinaFaso have malaria — nearly 9 in 10 are anaemic.

🥑 Diets rich in fat & vitamin A may help reduce malaria risk.
Healthy nutrition = stronger immunity.

Read here: bit.ly/4npu8CF

Can faith move water?

Join us for the ZEF Public Lecture
🗓️ Oct 16, 2025 | 13:30–14:30
📍 ZEF Conference Room | Hybrid
👤 Prof. Anthony Amoah (UESD, Ghana)

Learn how faith-based collaboration boosts bill payment & water conservation in Ghana 🇬🇭

Join here: bit.ly/Zoom_PL_16Oct

📢 Deportaciones masivas y estado de excepción 🇩🇴

People of Haitian descent face arbitrary detentions, raids, and violence under Abinader’s presidency (2021–2025).

Cover photo by Micely Díaz Espaillat 📸
Read the full report: bit.ly/3KDVs2g ✊💡

Reflecting on yesterday’s lecture by Dr. Namukolo Covic @ ZEF:
Africa’s nutrition goals are still far from reach. Food environments, markets, and consumer behavior need transformation—and it starts with end-to-end approaches and bold, transformative leadership 🌍

🚨 Afghanistan’s natural water storage is vanishing.
Snowpacks, glaciers & groundwater are shrinking fast.

📉 Snow cover dropped from 16.1% → 10.6% in 6 years
🌊 Groundwater is nearing unsustainable levels
🍽️ 9.5M face food insecurity

🔗 bit.ly/ZEF_News51_Afghanistan

🚨 New issue of ZEF News No. 51 is out! 🚨

"Entangled Lives: Climate, Gender & Place" dives into how climate change deepens social inequalities.

📘 Read more: bit.ly/ZEFnews_No_51_

#ClimateJustice #GenderEquality #FoodSystems #UrbanResilience #GlobalSouth

🌍 Ernährungssicherheit in Gefahr: Kriege, Spekulation & Verschwendung treiben Preise hoch – viele im Globalen Süden hungern.
Wie stoppen wir das? 🎙️Neue Podcast-Folge mit Welthungerhilfe, Matin Qaim & mehr.

🎧 bit.ly/47GKYcb - jetzt hören!

Wrapped up Summer School on Digital Innovation in Nutritional Epidemiology at @UniBonn!
🌍
25 PhD students, 5 days of insights, collaboration & digital solutions for global nutrition.

Thanks to TRA, BIGS-DR & Dr. Rainer Wild Foundation!
🔗 More info: bit.ly/3I08p5y

💡 Insights from today’s ZEF Public Lecture by Dr. Gabriel Kallah-Dagadu on optimizing sustainable diets for Ghanaian populations using RODAM study data.

Plant-forward, culturally tailored and climate-smart.

🔗 bit.ly/45OUkQk

#ZEF #SustainableDiets #RODAMStudy

📢 Save the Date!
Public Lecture @ ZEF 🌍

🗓️ Aug 27, 2025 | 09:00 CEST
👤 Dr. Gabriel Kallah-Dagadu (Univ. of Ghana)
🗣️ Sustainable diets through optimization modelling
Focus: Ghanaian diets, health & climate.

🔗 bit.ly/478QDra

🌍 New Article: "Negotiating Green Urbanism"

How do global greening agendas play out in Nairobi's informal settlements?

🔹 State-led greening deepens inequality
🔹 Grassroots actors reclaim space through care & resistance
🔹 Urban sustainability is local, political & contested

📖Read: bit.ly/4fMBopV

New Research 📊🌍

Afghanistan faces worsening droughts (1974–2023). Our study using SPI & SPEI reveals:
🔹 More severe, frequent, prolonged droughts
🔹 Regional hotspots
🔹 Climate drivers: temp, evapotranspiration

Read more 👉 bit.ly/3Jn8zEn

#ClimateChange #Drought

🧠 „Wissenschaft nimmt ihren Ausgangspunkt im sich-Wundern“ – J. von Braun

Was trennt Wissenschaft von Pseudowissenschaft? Wie passt Glaube dazu?

Ein lesenswertes Interview mit dem Präsidenten der Päpstlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

🔗 bit.ly/46XjLBw

New Article:

"Governing the Ungovernable"
Sarkar & Sarkar (2025) analyze groundwater governance in India since the 1970s.

Keywords:
– Fragmented regulation
– Weak implementation
– Demand-side reform needed

🔗 bit.ly/4oGCc3J
#WaterPolicy #Groundwater #India

📢 New article:
"Deep learning-based extraction of Kenya’s historical road network from topographic maps"

A deep learning approach applied to 500+ maps (1950s–1980s) yields 56,000+ km of digitized roads. Avg. F1 score: 0.84.

🔗 Read: bit.ly/46WJf1S

++ New study ++

How does electrification reshape labor in rural Ethiopia? 🔌

Findings:
✔️ More off-farm work for women
✔️ Less unpaid/farm work for adults
✔️ Girls fetch less water, boys do more farm work

📄 bit.ly/4mcBZnl

🌿 New Blog Post by Nicolas Lara-Rodriguez (ZEF)!

Can rural communities lead conservation & sustainability? In Colombia’s Peasant Reserve Zones, they already are.
Peasants in Venecia are protecting forests & transitioning to agroecology.

📖 Read more: blog.zef.de?p=9305

🌿 Kenya’s sacred Kaya forests face threats despite UNESCO status. Community-led conservation and sustainable livelihoods are key.

📖 Read more: blog.zef.de/?p=9284

#Conservation #Kenya #CulturalHeritage

🎙️ New Interview!

We spoke with Dr. Muthio Nzau about her research on sacred landscapes in Coastal Kenya and her stay in Bonn.
Her work is part of a project on UNESCO World Heritage sites as living cultural landscapes in Kenya & Ethiopia.

👉 bit.ly/Interview_MuthioNzau

🎙️ New Interview!

Dr. Eric M. Kioko (Kenyatta University) shares insights on cultural heritage as a living, evolving practice.

🌍 Joint project with Dilla University, hosted at ZEF & funded by Volkswagen Foundation.

📺 Watch: bit.ly/Interview_EricMKioko
🔗 Info: bit.ly/UNESCO_Heritage_Project

🌍 Ernteausfälle, steigende Risiken:

Obstbauer Roland Schmitz-Hübsch und Agrarökonom Matin Qaim im Handelsblatt Podcast über Ernährung und Klimawandel.

🎧 Jetzt hören: bit.ly/41fqliY

#Klimawandel #Ernährung #Landwirtschaft

🚨 New Research Alert

Can low-carb diets improve blood sugar control in high-risk groups?

🧪 A study of ~5,900 Ghanaian adults (RODAM) explored links between low-carb diets, HbA1c & diabetes complications.

📉 Surprising results!

🔗 Read more: bit.ly/3UF6F4m

🌱 Negotiating green urbanism by Valentine Opanga

What does sustainability look like in Nairobi’s informal settlements? From urban farming to resistance, Korogocho & Pumwani-Majengo offer a powerful rethinking💪🏾🌍

🔗 Read: bit.ly/4l9O2At

#GreenUrbanism #UrbanJustice

🌿 Agroecology in Africa: Lessons from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal & Uganda

Study shows strong NGO-led efforts with clear environmental gains—but barriers like weak policy support, funding gaps & limited local ownership remain.

👉 bit.ly/ZEFWP_247

🌾 Join us for a ZEF Public Lecture (July 31, 13:30–14:30)!

Dr. Bikash Ranjan Parida shares how remote sensing & ML improve crop yield modelling & food security in India’s Indo-Gangetic Plain.

📍 ZEF & Hybrid: bit.ly/4kO69f3

📘 New book out: Gender-Transformative Approaches for Climate Change Adaptation (Springer, 2025)

Edited by Anindita Sarkar & Nairwita Bandyopadhyay

Focuses on gender, power, and climate policy in the Global South!

➡️bit.ly/44PhpSx

🦠🌿 How do biodiversity loss and land use change fuel disease risks in Uganda?

In her new ZEF blog post, Maureen Nabatanzi calls for interdisciplinary action and community engagement to tackle vector-borne diseases.

👉 Read: blog.zef.de?p=9265

#OneHealth #ZEF #Biodiversity #Uganda #ZoonoticDiseases

We are getting started with today's lecture with ZEF senior fellow Peter Mollinga