Vulnerability and Resilience of Social-Ecological Systems

Noriko NARISAWA from Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS), Kyoto University, is the author of the working paper titled "Diversified Livelihood of Peasant Women in Southern Zambia"

The Social-Ecological Resilience Project and Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) held a series of village meetings to provide research feedback at the Resilience Project’s study sites in Southern Province from 28-30 August 2011. A total number of 180 villagers attended research feedback meetings. During the events, key research findings that are of interest to villagers such as variability of rainfall patterns, maize yield and villagers’ health status were explained. Farmers also reflected and discussed their local vision of how to improve resilience of their livelihoods in lively atmospheres.

The Third Lusaka Resilience Workshop, held at the Golfview Hotel, Lusaka, Zambia, was successfully completed on Aug 25, 2011. The central theme of the workshop was "Towards Resilience of Rural Households and Communities". His excellency, Mr. Akio Egawa, the Ambassador of Japan in Zambia, graced this important occasion by personally delivering an opening speech and warmly interacting with participants. Sixty-one attendees from various international development agencies, universities, research institutes, government officials and non-profit organizations attended this special event.

The RIHN’s Resilience Project together with the RIHN’s Oikos Initiative successfully held the Resilience International Symposium under the theme “Building Social-Ecological Resilience in a Changing World” between 18-20 June 2011 at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto.

Dr. Brian Walker, CSIRO Research Fellow and Resilience Alliance Program Director & Chair of Board, gave a keynote speech titled "Putting Resilience Thinking into Practice" at the Resilience International Symposium

Emerita Professor Elizabeth Colson, University of California at Berkeley, who has spent more than 50 years conducting research in Gwembe Tonga of Southern Province, Zambia is the author of this invited paper.

Four project’s members, i.e. Chieko UMETSU, Takeshi SAKURAI, Thamana LEKPRICHAKUL and Shuhei SHIMADA, presented their papers under an organized session on "Resilience of Social-Ecological and Poverty Reduction" at the Japan Association of International Development (JASID) Annual Meeting 2010. The conference was held at Waseda University, Tokyo, between December 4-5 . A large group of audiences of approximately 80 persons attended the session in a lively discussion atmosphere, particularly on the roles of resilience on developments.

GLP Meeting 2010's Participants from the Social-Ecological Resilience Project

Four members of the Social-Ecological Resilience Project, i.e. (from right to left) Tom Evans, Hidetoshi Miyazaki, Kume Takeshi, and Thamana Lekprichakul, presented their studies on issues relating to social-ecological resilience at the GLP Open Science Meeting 2010 at the Arizona State University between October 17-19, 2010. To view abstracts of all four presentations, please click here.

Researchers and policy makers from various countries
attended the Tsunami Workshop

The Social-Ecological Resilience Project successfully held an international workshop on "The Indian Ocean Tsunami: 5 Years Later" at the Hotel Grand Pacific (formerly called the Allson Hotel), Singapore on March 3^rd, 2010. The workshop was attended by researchers and policy makers from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore,Thailand and Japan. Objectives, presenters, paper title and abstract can be found here.

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Professor Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University has become the first female to win the Nobel Prize in economics. The prize is shared by professor Oliver Williamson of UC Berkeley. They won the award for their seminal work in the field of economic governance.

We feel particularly close to Professor Ostrom because of our common interest in resilience research and her past connection with our project. On July 3^rd, 2006, the Resilience Project together with the Society of Commons Studies and Biwa-Yodo Watershed Project invited professor Ostrom to give a lecture on "Developing Methods for Institutional Analysis" at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.

Professor Ostrom was giving a lecture at RIHN

The lecture was well attended by
scholars from various institutes and general public.

Congratulations to professor Ostrom and professor Williamson!!!

The RIHN's Resilience Project together with Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) jointly organized the second Resilience Workshop on the 28th August 2009 at Mika Lodge, Zambia. More than 50 participants from various countries such as Japan, USA, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia attended the workshop in a lively and insightful discussion atmosphere. The workshop was privileged to have Dr. Elizabeth Colson, a UC Berkeley's emerita professor who has studied Zambia's Tonga since 1950s, in attendance to provide comments.

Participants of the Second Lusaka Workshop on Social-Ecological Resilience
(Emerita Professor Elizabeth Colson is sitting in the front row)

Working Paper on Social-Ecological Resilience Series, No. 2009-011 has been published.