Round 2 - Round 3

Round 1 Awardees

Mohamed Awer Mohamed (Egerton University, Kenya) conducted a comprehensive assessment of the Perkerra River catchment. This study addressed land use changes, water resource assessment including water balance analysis, updated water resource records, and assessed the socio-economic factors that affect the environmental status of Lake Baringo and its catchment basins.

Agnes Babugura from Uganda visited the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. For her PhD, Agnes studied the vulnerability of rural societies to climate perturbations and their ability to adapt to climate variability in two different climatic regions in Botswana. Her study includes climatic research, historical analysis, and household-level participatory research.

Anne Barrable (University of Cape Town, South Africa) pursued her PhD examining the impacts of climate change on soil erosion and land degradation in South Africa. Her research will determine the links between regional soil characteristics and climate change and will propose management plans for highly vulnerable areas.

Dennis Dlamini, originally from Swaziland, used a technique to study water scarcity at the meso-catchment (50-200 km2) scale. This method incorporated not only absolute shortage of water but also addressed adaptive capacity. It was designed to provide a method for assigning a water poverty index to various regions. Mr. Dlamini was visiting with Prof. Roland Schulze at the University of Natal, South Africa.

Benjamin Dovie, originally from Ghana, conducted research linking native woody species diversity and the livelihoods of rural households in Southern Africa while at the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa). His research determined whether diversity and quantity of woody species has been modified in the last four decades and modeled the impacts of access to formal markets and urban centers on species biodiversity.

Francis Mugabe (Midlands State University, Zimbabwe) studied the groundwater resources of a semi-arid catchment basin in Zimbabwe. His research examined how climatic characteristics and land use influence hydrological processes in semi-arid areas. The project will also determined, through hydrological modeling, the effect of changing rainfall patterns and land use changes on catchment hydrology and surface water resources.

Lawrence Ngorora, originally from Zimbabwe, pursued his doctorate in seasonal climate forecasting at the University of Cape Town, a regional center of excellence in this field. Mr. Ngorora’s research focused on identifying the roles of local versus regional and hemispheric climate controls. The project is expected to reduce the spatial and temporal uncertainty in rainfall over Southern Africa and improve seasonal forecasting.

Jane Olwoch, originally from Rwanda, completed her Ph.D. on the impact of climate change on tick-host relationships, a critical disease vector, at the University of Pretoria. The tick genus, Rhipicephalus, occurs mainly in Africa and is responsible for a large number of livestock diseases that significantly threaten cattle production and food security. Ms. Olwoch used multi-variable habitat models and high-resolution climate data to prepare maps of potential tick distribution under climate change scenarios.

Louis Zapfack’s research focused on botanical diversity of the semi-deciduous rain forests of Cameroon. He addressed the botanical diversity present under different land use regimes and quantified the total carbon biomass contained therein while pursuing his PhD at the University of Yaoude. He also designed management tools for conservation of biological diversity and carbon sequestration in south Cameroon.