Symposium on capacity building at World Conference on Ecological Restoration

This week UNU-LRT held a symposium on capacity building to restore resilient ecosystems in developing countries at the 6th World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Manchester, England. Beside presenting the UNU-LRT programme, two former UNU-LRT fellows from Mongolia and Ghana gave talks on the restoration needs and actions in their countries. Professionals from other capacity building initiatives shared their experiences and views on the needs and effectiveness of capacity building. Diverse issues were covered, ranging from the critical importance of socio-ecological resilience to ensure the welfare of poor people who often depend on natural resources, to the challenges of sustaining institutional capacity in politically unstable states, to exciting new mobile phone technologies that have the potential to increase the success of restoration practices and projects.

The symposium programme can be seen below. Mrs. Esther Amoako from Ghana stepped in at the last minute with a presentation as the presentation from Niger Republic had to be cancelled due to unforeseeable reasons. You can read more about the symposium here.

Change agents of the future: What capacities do they need?
H.H. Aegisdottir, B. Orradottir, UN University Land Restoration Training Programme, Agricultural University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Adaptive capacity needs for resilient ecosystems
S.G. Whisenant, Texas A&M University, Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, College Station, Texas, USA
The need for capacity building to restore resilient ecosystems in Mongolia
B. Densambuu, Green Gold Program, SDC, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Land restoration in Ghana: Capacity building gaps
E.E.A. Amoako, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana
Can mobile phone technologies replace traditional capacity building by sharing information, knowledge and wisdom?
J.E. Herrick1, J. Beniston1, A. Beh1, I. Bouvier2, J. Karl1, D. Kimiti3, N. Ozor4, L. Wangui5 – 1USDA-ARS, Las Cruces NM, USA, 2USAID, Washington DC, USA, 3NMSU, Las Cruces NM, USA, 4ATPS, Nairobi, Kenya, 5RCMRD/SERVIR, Nairobi, Kenya

The photo shows Mrs Esther Amoako presenting at the symposium. Photo: Johann Thorsson.