Prof. Joseph Alcamo, Director of SSRP said, “Despite the pandemic and cutbacks in funding Sussex sustainability researchers are accomplishing an amazing amount of innovative research, both locally and abroad. These new research results have potential impacts on climate strategies, agriculture in war-torn areas, and the way we study biodiversity and culture.” 

Sussex researchers active from war-torn regions to the margins of tropical forests  

Eleven different projects were reported on.  

Among the casualties of war in Syria was the termination of the country’s invaluable Agricultural Extension Services that provided farmers with critical technical farming information. Academics from Sussex, led by Dr. Mirela Barbu, together with expatriate Syrian academics, are filling this critical gap.  As part of the “Agricultural Voices of Syria” pilot-project, Dr. Barbu and colleagues have created a successful “virtual” agricultural extension service. Over the past few months they have organised and delivered 15 podcasts to over 500 farmers that convey critical advice on irrigation, fertiliser applications and other aspects of farming. Plans are now to scale up the project to reach more Syrian farmers and develop more tools for them to access. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Dr. Alice Eldridge of the School of Media, Arts and Humanities reported on her work with the Ancestral Kichwa Population in the Amazon forest of Ecuador which has to do with recording the “soundscapes” associated with their livelihoods and experiences in the forest.  Prof. Joseph Alcamo, Director of SSRP said, “Dr. Eldridge’s cutting-edge approach of using sound to document experience and the environment adds an entirely new dimension to ethnological and ecological research; it is providing important new insights to the sustainability of the peoples living in the Amazon.”  

Other projects reported findings on the engagement of indigenous voices in political decision making in Peru, exploring the role of social media use in relation to youth mental health and Covid recovery in Kenya, and the importance of looking at ecology and culture together in forest communities. 

Can planting trees and kelp in the Sussex region help deal with the climate crisis?   

Speakers, including Prof. Dave Goulson from the University of Sussex and Prof. Raymond Ward from the University of Brighton reported on their research in assessing the potential of the region’s landscapes and seascapes in taking up additional carbon.  

Prof. Dave Goulson and colleagues reported on research from a new joint Uni Brighton – Uni Sussex project to assess the potential of the region’s landscapes and seascapes in taking up additional carbon. This work is key to the region’s Net Zero Emissions planning because it is thought that some emissions will have to be compensated by replanting carbon-capturing trees, kelp and other vegetation.   

Reporting on a recent field study he led in Sussex, Prof. Goulson said that there was definitely potential to increase the carbon content of soils in Sussex, and this could be done, for example, by converting agricultural land to grassland or woodland.  Be he also said that there are not yet enough data to estimate the size of the potential for the county. Meanwhile off the coast, Prof. Ward said that there was also the possibility to increase the uptake of carbon in coastal areas of the region by reintroducing seagrasses and kelp beds lost from trawling, dredging, pollution and other causes.  

Dr. Bonnie Holligan of the School of Law, Politics, and Sociology pointed out the many legal and other issues that have to be contended with before projects to boost carbon in soils or the coastal zone can be counted as compensation for carbon dioxide emissions.  For example she told listeners that before financiers invest in “carbon compensation” projects they want to be sure that the amount of carbon taken up by soils or kelp in these projects is “verifiable and long term”.   

As a next step the researchers discussed presenting their work to authorities in the region with the aim to align research at the two universities with plans of Sussex and Brighton-Hove to reach net zero carbon emissions.  

How can students and citizens be mobilised for local and global research on sustainability?   

Sustainability research is a new way of doing science and among its unique characteristics is that scientists frequently work in close partnership with non-scientists and students.   

A panel chaired by Dr. Chris Sandom, of the School of Life Sciences, shared ideas for eventually converting the Sussex campus into a more biodiversity-rich territory. Sussex student Rachel Wilkinson supported “rewilding” of the campus, and another student, Bobby Cross, argued that the campus and surrounding areas should be used by the University to engage with the community on “environmental training and biodiversity surveying”.   

A panel led by Dr. Mika Peck of Life Sciences presented the case for training para-ecologists as a way to provide stakeholders, whom they work with in the Global South, with employment in sustainability research.  The basic idea is to train local community people without advanced education to carry out ecological research.  Dr. Alan Stewart of Life Sciences has trained dozens of para-ecologists in Papua New Guinea and finds that “para-ecologists provide a really useful link between the scientific community and the local community, creating trust around scientific research and becoming ambassadors for science and forest conservation” … a win-win relationship between the paraecologists and the scientists”.  Dr Citlalli Morelos, Director Tesoro Escondido Reserve in Ecuador, and Chris Rosado from the Creative Action Tank in Indonesia also reported on their very successful experience with training and working with para-ecologists in their research. After cataloguing successful experience from around the world, the panel agreed that it was time to globally scale up the idea of “para-ecologists” as a profession.