Mangrove forest, Thailand. Photo: Joel Vodell/Unsplash
The Development Research School invites applications to the new PhD course: “Nature-based Solutions at the Climate-Biodiversity-Health Nexus: Social and Natural Science Perspectives”.
About the course:
Climate change, biodiversity loss, and diverse health crises are pressing issues of the Anthropocene. They are fundamentally interlinked through shared drivers, mechanistic links and feedback, and pose significant challenges and risks for human societies, health, and well-being. Nature-based solutions have emerged as an umbrella concept to describe actions taken to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use, and manage natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges such as climate mitigation and adaptation, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience, and biodiversity benefits. The understanding of nature-based solutions must go hand in hand with a thorough analysis of human perception, cognition, emotion, and behavior. This course incorporates social and natural science perspectives on nature-based solutions (e.g., environmental psychology, ecology, physical geography, epidemiology, human rights and governance). It thereby aims at broadening disciplinary boundaries and provides a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to the climate-biodiversity-health nexus and proposed solutions within it (i.e., nature-based solutions). It aims at evaluating these solutions critically and fostering an understanding of challenges, trade-offs, and synergies when trying to solve complex global issues.
Course contents:
The course lasts one week and includes two parts: a first theoretical part including introductory lectures and a second applied part including an excursion, group work and discussions. The following will be covered: – Introduction to the climate-biodiversity-health nexus and different disciplinary perspectives – Introduction to nature-based solutions, their limitations, opportunities, and risks – Current research on the climate-biodiversity-health nexus and nature-based solutions in social and natural sciences – Practical examples of two nature-based solutions in Skåne Reading material will be sent out three weeks before the group meets, and the course participants prepare by reading the assigned literature.
Admission:
The course is open to PhD students. Priority will be given to PhD students enrolled in the ClimBEco and Agenda 2030 Graduate Research Schools and to PhD students in (environmental) psychology. Other PhD students will be conditional on places being available.
The deadline to apply is 17 March 2025.
Other enquiries: For any enquiries regarding the course, please contact Maria Johansson () or Marlis Wullenkord ()