Research Projects
Ongoing Research Projects
Soil and Land Health Assessment.
ACER in partnership with World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is conducting a biophysical baseline survey for soil and land health on AKU’s Arusha land sites in Arusha. Expected project outcomes include establishing a baseline of key land and soil health indicators, developing moderate to high resolution maps combining LDSF field data and earth observation (remote sensing) for key soil and land health indicators, including soil organic carbon and soil erosion prevalence, providing a georeferenced dataset of key indicators of soil and land health to track changes over time and to enable further research, outreach and collaboration, and finally developing joint research and community outreach programs on soil health, landscape restoration and SLM based on LDSF results.
Biodiversity Status Assessment.
ACER partnered with Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) to carry out a survey on biodiversity status of AKU Arusha land sites. The expected project results include establishing general baseline information for biodiversity status, and biodiversity species richness and abundance.
Non Apis Bees Research Project.
ACER in collaboration with Kathrin Krausa (PhD), a German entomologist and visiting scientist to ACER is conducting non Apis pollinator study in norther Tanzania. Among other things, the study aims to highlight both diversity and abundance of this group of bees, understand their behavioural ecology, and determine their contribution to pollination function.
Green Economy.
Undertaken by ACER’s Director, this project seeks to explore peoples understanding of Green Economy, its presence and how to measure it. Based on analysis of ethnographic data: intensive interviews with the people who produce and compile these statistics, those who work in quality control and evaluation, and those who use them, the project examines the implications of the world views, complementarities and contestations of the SDGs for the Green Economy concept as envisioned in Tanzania's green economy plans. Project early outputs include a blog and academic conference in June 2023.
Upcoming Research Projects
There are many different research project opportunities that are in different stages of design. Our focus is on tackling climate change impacts and environmental degradation and improving nature conservation, natural resources management, food security, and community development practices. For the land restoration projects, we intend to identify and develop effective ecological restoration techniques for areas that are heavily degraded in northern Tanzania.
One of the larger projects under design is Sharing a Planet in Peril which we are co-developing with the University of Cologne and other partners in Germany, Columbia, Indonesia and South Africa. The project aims to address the critical challenges associated with Global Environmental Challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and depletion of crucial resources like water and soul. It focuses on understudied social and cultural dimensions which are central in strengthening diverse form of knowledge and practices.
