Study Project Kenya
March 2018, Kenya
The study project “Rural-Urban Transitions and Sustainable Land Use Management” was a joint course of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Karatina University and University of Nairobi. It received financial support from the Erasmus+ programme and bologna.lab.
Within this study project students jointly planned and implemented an interdisciplinary research project focussing on sustainable land management in rural and urban areas of Kenya. Fields of research were:
1. Land cover and land use changes,
2. Human-wildlife conflict management, and
3. Food supply chain systems.
The project fostered learning objectives related to thematic, methodological and personal skills. A 2-week excursion to Kenya took place in March 2018, together with students from Karatina University and University of Nairobi.
Background:
Rural-urban transition in Kenya has been characterized by exponential urban population growth, increased agricultural productivity and infrastructural expansion at the expense of the natural resource base present in the rural environment. As Kenya's human population continues to grow, the pressure exerted on its natural resource, particularly land resources continues to increase in order to meet its demands. It has observed that the increasing demands of populations in developing countries like Kenya has forced the clearing of trees and vegetation to pave way for farmland, infrastructure development and human settlements further stretching the natural resource carrying capacity and ecosystem recovery.
Contact: eager.trans-net@hu-berlin.de