Friday, July 10, 2009

HOORC Seminars

At HOORC seminar presentations this week, three researchers shared their findings of recent studies. The first presentation, Fire, wealth and access to wetland resources in the panhandle of Botswana's Okavango Delta by Dr. Lin Cassidy, focused on understanding the contribution of of wildfires and wealth on people's access to wetland resources, and looked at which types of households are seen to control and benefit most from burning wetland resources. Her findings showed that fires in the Okavango panhandle spread quickly due to the underpopulated nature and remoteness of areas like Nxamasere and Sekondomboro.

In his presentation, Building research capacity in Africa through research methodology training : introduction to EDULINK, Professor Moses Chimbari ,who leads one of EDULINK's funded project partnerships of universities in Botswana, Sudan and Zimbabwe, gave an outline of EDULINK activities. EDULINK's main aim is to fund cooperative projects between higher education institutions and promote capacity building and regional integration in higher education.

The last presentation, coauthored by Professors Vanderpost, Ringrose and Schuran, titled Landcover changes along the Boteti River, Botswana, aimed at finding the causes of riparian cover changes along the Boteti River and establishing biophysical and socio-economic baselines. This project aims to contribute to a long term equitable use of water along the river.

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