Visiting the home of perennial research in Kansa, USA
LUCSUS researchers Elina Andersson, Lennart Olsson and Stefan Schuller, who are all working in the PERENNIAL project, participated in the project’s annual meeting, this time in The Land Institute in Kansas, USA – the place where the very vision of replacing the world’s agriculture from annual monocultures to perennial polycultures was born almost 50 years ago.
In addition to discussing science and planning research, they also visited many of the ongoing perennial experiments at The Land Institute, including Kernza fields and trials of perennializing wheat.
Adressing taboo waste streams in Kenya
Sara Gabrielsson traveled to Kenya for her project, Complicated Plastics: addressing taboo waste streams to promote user dignity and sustainable consumption. She interviewed manual pit emptiers to identify how they manage menstrual waste and the health impacts they face doing this work. She says that their jobs are becoming more precarious and stigmatized than before, since now they also have to manage menstrual blood. Women are left with no other option than to put used disposable pads in latrines because of the lack of city infrastructures for solid waste management systems in urban areas.
– Without these emptiers, the city landscape would be inundated with plastic waste such as menstrual pads. Focusing on their needs and how they are impacted is really important for creating better structures for disposing menstrual waste, but also for breaking the taboos that still exist around menstrual management, says Sara Gabrielsson.
Meeting farmers and workers at the coffee plantations in Colombia
In December, LUCSUS researchers Sinem Kavak and Mine Islar carried out a field visit to Colombia for the Formas-funded project, Unravelling climate change impacts on migrant farmworkers in agri-food production’. They visited coffee farms in Atioquia and interviewed coffee farmers and workers on their experiences with the climate change.
Heat adaptation in Kenya
Maryam Nastar conducted field work in Accra in Ghana for her project entitled, (Mal) Adaptation to extreme urban heat: At what cost, to whom? Her goal is to understand the rationale behind certain adaptive strategies and if, and how, concerns around maladaptation are approached. During her trip, she conducted interviews with actors based on their respective organisations’ involvement in urban climate adaptation strategies. The aim was to find out how concerns related to maladaptation are recognized and considered in heat-related policies and initiatives.
– During our interviews, it became evident that the issue of extreme urban heat has not been given priority on policy agendas, where concerns over floods and droughts have dominated the focus. One of the main reasons for this, emerging from the interviews, is that people, including policymakers, tend to normalise extreme heat, says Maryam Nastar.
Pest management and environmental justice in Uganda
Elina Andersson and Ellinor Isgren traveled to Uganda for their project, Pest management and environmental justice in a changing climate – the case of Uganda. The aim of the field trip was to initiate a study on a program led by the agrochemical industry association CropLife International. The program aims at promoting the “safe use” of pesticides in Ugandan smalholder farming, and trains selected farmers to become “Spray Service Providers” (SSPs), professional pesticide applicators who offer their services to fellow farmers. The idea is that by using trained professionals, pesticide use will be more responsible, reducing the risks to farmers’ health and the environment.
During their visit, they interviewed program managers, conducted a focus group discussion with trained SSPs, and planned for a survey study involving over 100 SSPs across Uganda. The trip was invaluable in laying the groundwork for the final stage of their research on pesticide use and governance in Uganda. It provided critical insights into both the potential opportunities and major limitations of this “safe use” approach. A key takeaway from their visit is the significant challenge of achieving the “safe use” of pesticides in practice, particularly in places where regulations are weak or poorly enforced. This highlights the urgent need to develop and promote alternative pest control methods that reduce the reliance on synthetic pesticides, ultimately making farming safer for both people and the environment.
Studying glacial melt in Nepal and India
The NATURICE project studies communities directly afected by climate change in various glacierized environments; ranging from Norway to Nepal and India. In autumn 2024, researchers conducted fieldwork in the mountain desert Ladakh and in an agricultural region in Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas. Based on their field trip, they identified several adverse effects from glacial melt. These include water scarcity, negative impacts on grazing and farming, as well as changes related to non-material aspects such as spiritual and recreational values.
Project leader Mine Islar notes that it is important to treat every region and community as a unique case study.
– While climate change is a global phenomenon, its effects will always be dealt with on the local level. That is why it is crucial to identify and highlight local knowledges and ways to address change.
Participatory research in Colombia
PhD student Carlos Alberto Hernández-Vélez visited the Vaupes department in the Colombian Amazon, where he worked with Emilio Hernandez, a Brasano Elder, from the Eastern Tukano Speaken tribe, in an intercultural dialogue. The purpose was to understand processes for knowledge transmission related to forest-fauna-human management, and how this knowledge and practices are eroded.