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11 March 2022 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo Supplied
Dr Ralph Clarke
Dr Ralph Clark, Director of the Afromontane Research Unit.

The African Mountain Research Foundation (AMRF), in association with the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) of the University of the Free State (UFS), and the Global Mountain Safeguard Research Programme (GLOMOS), is hosting the first-ever Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022). The theme of the conference is Southern African Mountains – their value and vulnerabilities.

The conference will bring relevant people together into one space for networking and information sharing, leading to more robust regional and international collaborations and comparative mountain studies with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity and academic outputs that feed into policy and action. 

The conference will take place from 14 to 17 March 2022 in the majestic Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho. 

According to the SAMC2022 website, this is a truly Southern African regional mountain conference, targeting the African region south of the Congo rainforest (DRC) and Lake Rukwa (Tanzania), but including Madagascar, the Comoros and the Mascarenes (i.e., Angola, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo [southern mountains], Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, La Réunion, South Africa, southern Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).

Dr Ralph Clark, ARU Director, said the conference would be a high-level international event with UNESCO patronage and very valuable sponsors.

“The programme will have six parallel tracks (one being dedicated to postgraduate students), with about 200 papers being delivered. In addition, we have some very high-profile special sessions, such as an MRI special session on long-term monitoring activities and associated data availability for climate change-related applications across Africa’s mountains, as well as a UNESCO special session on regional collaboration. We also have Prof Julian Bayliss, described as the man who discovered an unseen world, as the guest speaker at the closing event.”

The conference will bring together relevant people in one space for networking and information sharing, leading to more robust regional and international collaborations and comparative mountain studies, with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity, and academic outputs that feed into policy and action.

The GLOMOS team, one of the long-term partners of the ARU, spent the week of 8 to 11 March 2022 on the Qwaqwa Campus to strengthen collaboration and pave the way for new research opportunities in Phuthaditjhaba and the Maloti-Drakensberg.
GLOMOS represents an interface between the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and Eurac Research. Postdoctoral fellow, Dr Stefano Terzi, said: “It’s very interesting for us to look at the Maloti-Drakensberg area because of its diversity. We are in the process of really exciting collaborations.”
Their projects include an understanding of the root causes of land degradation and improving decision-making processes for current water management within the context of water scarcity in the Maloti-Drakensberg.
• For more information on the speakers and the programme, click here 


News Archive

Powering the future
2014-07-10

 

Kovsie students with the organisers at the African Student Energy Summit.

Photo: Rirhandzu Marivate

Powering the future. This was the theme of the first-ever African Student Energy Summit. The event was recently hosted by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Cape Town. The summit was even more unique, since it was part of a global series of Energy Summits held simultaneously in the US, Mexico and Scotland.

Sixteen Kovsies, together with students from across South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, DRC, Zambia and Cameroon united at this event. The main goal: to confront pressing energy challenges faced by our continent. During roundtable discussions, these students brainstormed issues such as the accessibility of energy, as well as driving efficiency and sustainability through the use of green energy.

Antoinette Nel, a Kovsie honours student in Spatial Planning, said, “Interacting with different speakers and students on green energy possibilities enhanced my understanding of how much can be done to change the current status quo on energy in Africa.”

During a student parliamentary session, the participants had to come up with recommendations on sustainable energy. These will be compiled in a document and sent to the African Union (AU).

“My biggest highlight was understanding the need for energy by most Africans, not for lighting or industrialised activities but rather for daily livelihood, for basic rights and services such as cooking, health and education,” said Justman Suh, also an honours student in Spatial Planning at Kovsies.

“We are creating spaces to challenge Afro-pessimism in Africa through these platforms,” Dr Elizabeth Rasekoala, Chairperson of Green Shift Africa, said during the summit. 



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