Pavlos Georgiadis's blog

The tropics are home to the largest share of the world's biodiversity. At the same time, they are regions where persistent poverty, population increase and climate change pose major threats to the food security of the local populations. Therefore, there are in great need of sustainable modes of land-use, which maintain diversity at all levels. This is achieved at best through multi-crop prodction systems, hence forests and agroforestry could not be missing from the international discourse for development on the margin.

This year's Tropentag covered the topic through numerous posters and oral presentations, with interesting contributions from both theory and practice.

Julia Szulecka from the Technische Universität Dresden, traced the development of historically changing assumptions, concepts, values and practices that constitute our way of viewing plantation forestry. By doing so, she drew a direct correlation between the evolution of meanings and associations related to forest plantations and the development of plantation-related policies.

Julia Szulecka, Technische Universität Dresden

Tropentag 2011 brings together prominent researchers and thinkers alike to discuss and exchange the challenges of development on the margin. Food security, rural incomes and livelihood diversification are in the core of the debate, while the conservation of biodiversity and the valuation of ecosystem services attract more and more attention.

With a special invited paper on Resource use and ecosystem services by Christian Borgemeister from ICIPE, this session highlighted that the conservation of biodiversity does not have to exclude economic opportunities, but at the same time its success is vulnerable to various risks.

Christian Borgemeister, ICIPE

In less than 24 hours Tropentag 2011 in Bonn will begin. This event is not only interesting for well-known speakers, but it’s also a unique opportunity for young scientists to present their research and meet with people from all over the world. This event will be covered by a group of 12 selected students of 11 different nationalities and 10 European universities.

With 1098 registered participants from 72 countries, Tropentag 2011 is just a month away. A team of Student Reporters will be present to document in real time this year's 513 accepted contributions (117 paper presentation and 396 posters). Get a glimpse to the hosting University of Bonn and the City of Bonn.

Hans-Joachim Preuß is the Managing Director of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). He holds a PhD from
Justus Liebig University in Giessen, under the topic of target group-oriented agricultural research in developing countries.

Dr. Preuß started his professional career in development cooperation at the GTZ, holding various positions in Africa and at the GTZ Head Office in Eschborn, also as a member of the Corporate Development Unit. He was transferred at Welthungerhilfe in Bonn, where he was initially in charge of the Programmes and Projects Department and later Secretary General and Managing Director. In 2009, Dr Preuß was appointed Managing Director of GTZ.

Carla Roncoli is an economic-environmental anthropologist and member of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University. She is currently Adjunct Faculty at Emory University and formely an Adjunct Professor in Anthropology at the University of Georgia.

She has worked with UNICEF in Nepal and Chad and consulted for numerous development organizations and International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs). Dr. Roncoli’s research addresses the human dimension of climate change, with a particular focus on risk perceptions, communication, and management among African rural communities. It emphasizes the need for achieving a good “fit” between scientific information and technological innovations on the one hand and local knowledge, capabilities, and experience on the other hand.

Paul Richards is currently Professor of Technology and Agrarian Development at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He was a member of the Department of Anthropology at the University College of London (UCL) for 20 years from 1979 (Head of Department 1989-1992, Professor from 1992). While in UCL, he specialised in ecological anthropology, technology studies and West African ethnography.

His main fieldwork focus was on Sierra Leone, and included studies of Mende village rice farming systems and forest conservation on the Liberian border. He continued to work on and in Sierra Leone during the period of the civil war (1992-2002) and has written extensively on that conflict, and on the anthropology of modern armed conflicts more generally.

Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher is Director General of the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority and Councillor at the World Future Council.

He received his PhD in 1969 and is Ethiopia’s first plant ecologist. Most of his working life has been in academia, and he has been the Dean of Science at Addis Ababa University and President of Asmara University.
He also served as Director of the Ethiopian Conservation Strategy Secretariat.

During the 1990s Dr. Egziabher put much of his energy into negotiations at the various biodiversity-related fora, especially the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the FAO. During this time, he built up a strong group of well-prepared African negotiators who began to take the lead in the G77 and China Group. Africa came out with united, progressive positions such as no patents on living materials and the recognition of community rights.