Prof. Dr. Chinwe Ifejika Speranza

Unit Leader Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management

Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management

Phone
+41 31 684 38 60
E-Mail
chinwe.ifejika.speranza@unibe.ch
Office
109
Postal Address
University of Bern
Institute of Geography
Hallerstrasse 12
CH-3012 Bern
Consultation Hour
by agreement

Research

Areas of professional focus

  • Sustainable Land Management
  • Land use and land cover analysis
  • Climate variability and climate change adaptation and mitigation
  • Ecosystem services / natural resources
  • Agricultural landscapes / agro-ecology
  • Social-ecological resilience
  • Environmental performance
  • Environmental justice
  • Environmental stewardship  / Environmental policy
  • Conceptual and methodological development

​Projects

  • SUSTAINFORESTS
  • Land Degradation and its impacts on ecosystem services in the Nigerian Savannah
  • Exploring pathways for transformation to sustainability using the safe and just operating space concept at the regional level (SUccESS)
  • Food Systems Caravan West Africa 
  • Soil spectroscopy for measuring sustainable land management 
  • Social-ecological systems modelling and Sustainable Land Management (SSLM)
  • Sustainable governance of food systems: optimising the coexistence of large- and small-scale food producers in South America and Africa. Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development
  • Resilient agriculture-based livelihoods and resilient agricultural landscapes? Adaptation to climate change in African agriculture (RESALL)

Concluded Projects

  • Agricultural Climate Resilience to El-Nino in sub-Saharan Africa (ACRES) 
  • Live with Water; Project within the UK DFID Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) Programme 

Teaching

Bachelor

  • Geographies of Sustainability - Lecture and exercises (2020 - )
  • Sustainability in the Anthropocene - Physical lecture/Podcast (2020 - )
  • Integrative Geography and Sustainability - Lecture and exercises (2016 - 2019)
  • Global Development and Environmental issues - Physical lecture/Podcast (2016 - 2019)
  • Initiatives for the restoration of land and land resources - Proseminar (2019)
  • «Land Degradation Neutrality»: Design, operationalisation and implications for achieving sustainable development objectives - Proseminar (2017)
  • Supervision Bachelor thesis of unit Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management
  • Research internship Bachelor thesis

 

Master

  • Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management - Physical lecture/Podcast (2016 - )
  • Sustainability - Forum/Podcast (2016 - )
  • Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management – Land management variables and their applications across scales in Switzerland - Seminar (2020)
  • Challenges in Geography - Vorlesung (2016 - 2020)
  • Methods Seminar on Sustainable Development - System dynamics modelling of social-ecological systems - Seminar (2019)
  • Environmental Justice: multi-dimensional and multi-scale perspectives - Seminar (2018)
  • System dynamics for understanding the sustainability challenges of social-ecological systems - Seminar (2018)
  • Field course Caucasus in Georgia - Field course (2017)
  • Resilience in Sustainable Land Management and Land Systems: The resilience approach to the sustainable use of land and natural resources - Seminar (2016)
  • Alps und mountains - Lecture (2016)
  • Supervision Master thesis of unit Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management
  • Research Planning
  • Colloquium Master thesis

 

PhD

Professional Activities and Services

  • Member, Board of the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)
  • Member of the Scientific Committee of the Future Earth core-project, the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS).
  • Centre for Training and Integrated Research in Arid and Semi-arid Lands Development (CETRAD), Nanyuki, Kenya
  • Member, International Board of Directors of the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS)
  • Member, Independent Steering Committee (ISC) of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
  • The Swiss Society for African Studies / Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
  • African Studies Association in Germany / Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland (e.V.)
  • Member Advisory Board, Bern Society of Natural Sciences (Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Bern (NGB)
  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geographie-Arbeitskreis Subsaharisches Afrika (AKSA, Research Group on Sub-Saharan Africa of the German Geographical Society)
  • Geographische Gesellschaft Bern
  • Geographisch-Ethnographische Gesellschaft Zürich (GEGZ, Geographical-Ethnographical Society of Zurich)
  • German Development Institute (DIE)
  • Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya
  • Network for the Evaluation of One Health (NEOH): Enable evaluations of One Health activities and comparison of initiatives as well as informed decision-making and resource allocation. 

 

Reviewer for

  • Environmental Science & Policy
  • Regional Environmental Change
  • Mountain Research & Development
  • Environment, Development & Sustainability
  • European Journal of Development Research
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 
  • Global Change System for Analysis, Research & Training (START) 
  • IFS, International Foundation for Science, Sweden

  • UK Economic and Social Research Council

 

Publications

2020

Ifejika Speranza C. (2020) Gemeinsam für eine Landwirtschaft, die Zukunft sichert (Together for an agriculture that secures the future). Schweizerische Kirchenzeitung. Ausgabe 04.2020. https://www.kirchenzeitung.ch/article/gemeinsam-fuer-eine-landwirtschaft-die-zukunft-sichert-20393

2019

Tom Arnold (chair); Kees Blokland; Albert Engel; Chinwe Ifejika Speranza; Bruno Losch; Baudouin Michel; Francesco Rampa; Christine Wieck; Mashiri Zvarimwa (2019): AN AFRICA-EUROPE AGENDA FOR RURAL TRANSFORMATION, Report by the Task Force Rural Africa. Agriculture and Rural Development. European Commission, European Union. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/farming/documents/report-tfra_mar2019_en.pdf 

Publications

Publication Year Type