The designation of protected areas and of regions of special conservation interest has gained due relevance across the globe, particularly in the past three decades. Territories covered by protected areas are steadily expanding. Within this framework, numerous international strategies define the importance of Capacity Building and Training as the key challenge of the 21st century. The Training Masters in Ecosystem Services Management in Protected Areas (ECOSERVE) aims at developing an innovative practice-oriented MSc programme according to Bologna criteria in the field of protected areas management, and at meeting sustainable development and labour market needs through networking activities. ECOSERVE will be a qualitatively new MSc programme implemented in higher education institutions of the Russian Federation and Mongolia, strengthening their educational partnership with non-academic partners in the field of protected areas management and responding to demands for professionals of public services, private service providers and tourism businesses. It will contribute to adapt land management strategies to the actual changing natural drivers, such as climate, in alignment with global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The program knowledge base, materials and courses in Russian, Mongolian and English, will be continuously updated and disseminated through a network of resources centres of protected areas in Partner country HEIs, promoting inter-regional cooperation in environmental protection, nature and biodiversity conservation issues, and management.

Team

Cristina Vega

The Myanmar Energy and Environment Education (MEEE) project, coordinated by the Finland Futures Research Centre, directly contributes to the development of sustainable and inclusive socio-economic growth in Myanmar by enhancing capacities of Myanmar partner institutions to provide quality education on environment and sustainable energy for growing societal and energy sector development needs. Myanmar is currently in a critical time in its energy transition. To be able to attract investors in the renewable energy sector and to re-investigate the government’s RE targets, enhancing access to energy and electrification, as well as reducing CO2 emissions and environmental pollution from fossil fuels there is a dire need for nationally grounded energy expertise.

Team

Mika Korkeakoski, Noora Vähäkari, Osku Haapasaari, Jyrki Luukkanen

The overall objective of the project is to support Higher Education Institutions in Tanzania, Mozambique and Ethiopia to provide education that promotes sustainable socio-economic development. Application of renewable energy and adoption of energy-efficient lighting products and systems have the great potential to reduce the increasing energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Tanzania, Mozambique, and Ethiopia have large potential of renewable energy and energy saving by applying energy efficient techniques. The project will support the development of much needed technical expertise and experience in the field of energy efficient lighting.

Team

Pramod Bhusal

The overall aim of the project is to strengthen the forest-related higher education system in Laos to improve domestic capacity to sustainably manage forests for the benefit of the people and the environment, while at the same time enabling Laos to effectively respond to the demands and opportunities of international processes such as the Agenda 2030 (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Team

Prof. Markku Kanninen; Nicholas Hogarth, Adrian Monge, Dipjoy Chakma

The project analyses the ways that fragile cities are dealing with societal security, environmental vulnerability and representative justice in the spaces of multi-scale governance. The dimensions to be analysed are: 1) governance of insecurity and creation of accountable institutions; 2) authoritarian legacies and political-representation efforts; and 3) governance of environmental vulnerabilities and claims for justice. The research aims to develop a revised theory of urban political ecology and urban justice to better understand the interlinkages and scalar complexities of societal security, environmental vulnerability and representative justice.

Team

Anja Nygren, Florencia Quesada, Mauricio Romero, Elisa Tarnaala, Kjell-Åke Nordquist

This project focuses on how urban governments and social stakeholders in China’s cities engage with major environmental risks and how they tackle the long overdue transition towards cities becoming more green, liveable and sustainable. The research findings will be published in 2017 as: "China’s Emerging Green Urban Governance - Tackling environmental and sustainability challenges at the city level" Editors: Jørgen Delman, Yuan Ren, Outi Luova, Mattias Burell, Oscar Almén

Team

Jörgen Delman, Oscar Almén, Mattias Burell, Ren Yuan

The objective of the project is to perform a study to inform government policy and identify regulatory changes for improved monitoring of industrial pollution including development of a conceptual design of the State air quality monitoring network in key Oblasts and industrialized cities.

Team

Compared to other official languages of South Africa, with 700,000 speakers S. Ndebele is a small language. Its speakers live close to major cities like Pretoria and Johannesburg and commonly use various other languages. Still, S. Ndebele speakers have been able to maintain their language. We want to find out how this works, and whether we can learn from this as a model for increasingly multilingual everyday lives that we live as Europeans.

Team

PhD Lotta Aunio, PhD Thera Crane, MA Stephan Schulz

Phase I of this project was to understand the business models, governance structures and public perceptions of the the informal and paratransit sectors of public transport in three case study cities: Cape Town, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Phase II, still unfunded, is to provide some low cost solutions or partial solutions to deficiencies identified in Phase I.

Team

Marianne Vanderschuren, U of Cape Town, Romano Del Mistro, U of Cape Town, Dorothy McCormack, U of Nairobi, David Mfinanga, U of Dar Es Salaam, Eric Bruun, Aalto University

This is a joint research of the University of Helsinki’s discipline of Social and Cultural Anthropology and South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council, with funding from the Academy of Finland and the National Research Foundation of South Africa for the period 2013-2016. The project investigates the kinds of social subjectivities and forms of socio-political and economic empowerment that current youth music styles enhance among South African youth. The key questions are what kinds of social, racial, gender, class, religious and citizenship identities and communities are being imagined and created through music-related practices, and what kinds of empowerment strategies and realities they entail.

Team

Ibrahim Abraham, Tuomas Järvenpää, Benita Moolman, Tuulikki Pietilä