Postdoctoral Position

The Oliver Tambo Africa Research Chair Initiative (OTARChI) awarded one of the Chairs designated “Ecosystem-based Adaptation (to climate change) in Arid and Semi-arid zones (ESORCCAS)” to the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Maputo, Mozambique. The project is financed through the Mozambique National Research Fund (FNI) and will be implemented in the Limpopo Corridor Region, under the coordination UEM with participation of national and international higher education institutions, including the Instituto Politécnico de Gaza, University of Pretoria, the University of Namibia, and the University of Cape Town. The main focus of the project is to promote research, teaching, and to support society, through science-based knowledge.

The Chair intends to hire a postdoctoral researcher, who will work directly with Professor Almeida Sitoe. This researcher will work on the integration of different socio-ecological elements in the Limpopo Corridor region, Mozambique, from the point of view of ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change. The aim of the Chair's research project is to systematically assess the socio- ecological interactions of the arid and semi-arid areas of the Limpopo Corridor, with a view to producing science-based knowledge to support policy and development. The overall hypothesis of the project is that ecosystem services and local organizations are the primary factors that determine local adaptation strategies and therefore increase community resilience at relatively low cost. Four work packages have been created to address the problem, focusing on the interactions between natural (climate and ecosystem interactions: WP1 and social (human systems in formal and informal institutions: WP2), resource utilization patterns for the delivery of ecosystem services (WP3), and the integration of social and ecological systems, including the technologies used to achieve delivery of ecosystem services (WP4). Additional project details can be found on the website: www.olivertambo.uem.mz.

Description of the research

The focus of the initial 5 years of this Research Chair is to understand the services of ecosystems and local organizations in reducing vulnerability to climate change in the arid and semi-arid zones of the Limpopo Corridor. The research project will explore the potential of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation strategies to reduce vulnerability at the local community level in semiarid regions. The ultimate motivation of the research is to support local and national policies that can improve decision-making processes regarding resilient communities living in drought-prone regions. Although social and ecological conditions vary from one region to another, the methodological framework developed through this research can be extrapolated to other comparable drought-prone regions of Mozambique and Africa in general. The novelty of this research is the integrated approach of socio-ecological processes that enable or limit the climate change adaptation options at local communities and national levels.