ResCUE
Building resilience in critical zones: Steep-slope agriculture under changing environmental conditions in the Rwenzori, Uganda (ResCUE)?
Duration: from 2024 to 2027
Funding institution:?institution: Building Climate Resilience for a Vital Environment (BRaVE): Identification of Vulnerabilities, Indicators and Implications for Actions, Program at University of Augsburg
Principal Investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Markus Keck, Prof. Dr. Peter Fiener
Associate Researchers:?Triphine Ainembabazi
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Research topics: Soil degradation, smallholder farming
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Description:
High birth rates, political instability, and climate change are putting growing pressure on land use in Africa. In this context, smallholder farmers in the East African rift system are increasingly forced to cultivate very steep slopes that must be considered as "critical zones" as they are at risk to collapse in the near future. In this project, we take the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori Mountains in the Albertine Rift in Uganda as a showcase to investigate whether and to what extent it is possible to increase the resilience of this critical zone in order to pre- vent the collapse of the agricultural systems on steep slopes in this area. By combining perspectives from social and natural science, this interdisciplinary project provides empirical findings on the resilience of steep-slope agriculture in East Africa and serves as a starting point for international research cooperation dealing with the resilience of critical zones worldwide.
