The Public Lecture Series is a shared cooperation by AFAS and the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) of the University of Cologne. It is arranged for students, teachers and interested persons. The topic of the first Public Lecture Series was nature-based solutions.
Registration link: https://uni-koeln.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkce6rqjwqGtNl2QfSERzAWDdZTN wHs173
Aliyu Salisu Barau – July 6, 2022
Aliyu Salisu Barau is an Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning at Bayero University Kano. He has worked with influential international institutions, for example the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). His lecture addresses irrigation free tree reforestation in the northern drylands of Nigeria. Irrigation free tree reforestation is a method that aims to replant trees that have already been removed but whose stumps are still in the farmland. Since the stumps have already formed roots, they do not need to be irrigated. This method is more suitable than conventional methods and it can also be titled as indigenous tree restoration. Dr Barau’s lecture reports on the potentials of irrigation free tree reforestation based on three short films for which he is part of the scriptwriters and executive producers.
Marie Ladekjaer Gravesen – June 1, 2022
Marie Gravesen is a post doc. at the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS) in Copenhagen, department for sustainable development and governance. She defended her PhD in anthropology at the University of Cologne in 2018. At DIIS, she has participated in major research projects related to nature-based solutions. Her lecture, titled “Nature-based Solutions: a miracle cure for the climate- and biodiversity crisis?”, focused on the implementation of nature-based solutions in working landscapes, landscpaes where people already use the land for their livelihoods in various ways. Regarding this, the lecture addressed the chances and risks that arise from the increasing importance of nature-based solutions for local communities and how they can be secured in practice.
Cecily Maller – April 27, 2022
Dr Cecily Maller is an Associate Professor at RMIT University’s School of Global, Urban and Social Studies in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Maller focuses on human geography and is specialized in post-human approaches, in particular theories of social practice. Her lecture, titled “The more-than-human politics of cities: Multi-species policy futures and nature-based solutions”, pointed out that nature-based solutions must help conceptualize cities as ‘more-than-human habitats’. It provided an outline of theories that have arisen in several disciplines and how they can be used to reshape nature-based solutions towards a greater appreciation of the non-human species – or the various publics and their politics – in cities.
