Topic Area 1: Bio- and geodiversity of Africa: Current status and challenges in the face of environmental change

Africa is one of the global biodiversity hotspots due to its high geologic and climatic diversity. However, climatic changes, overexploitation of natural resource and a growing population put pressure on Africa’s ecodiversity (i.e. bio- and geodiversity). Loss of ecodiversity and ecosystem functioning has to be expected to negatively feedback not only on agricultural production and, thus, food security but also human health and wellbeing. Understanding the interlinkages and feedbacks between climate change, resource use, ecodiversity and human health is therefore paramount when aiming for inclusive growth and sustainable development as laid out in the first Aspiration of the African Union Agenda 2063. For this topic area we invited talks covering all areas of bio- or geodiversity research in African countries with a focus on climatic or land use changes.

Topic Area 2: Resilient agriculture and resource use in an increasingly unpredictable future

Agriculture provides the main source of livelihood and is a key economic sector in all African countries. Smallholders are often the main agricultural actors but predominately depend on rain-fed fodder and food production and their sensitivity to climate change. Climate change and growing food demand commonly lead to the overuse of African agroecosystems with adverse effects on their productivity and biodiversity. Agricultural practices often lack adaptivity to climate and societal changes which aggravates conflicts between food security, the economic benefits for farmers and the conservation of biodiversity. Alternative approaches focussing on the adaptive capacity of agriculture and other types of resource use have to be urgently identified to counteract social imbalances and unsustainable land use. For this topic area we invited talks from all subdisciplines of agricultural sciences focussing on the adaptive capacity of agroecosystems under accelerating, environmental changes.

Topic Area 3:  Resilient Health and Human Wellbeing under novel climatic and ecological settings

Climatic changes, loss of biodiversity, increasing exploitation of natural resources and increasing social imbalance result in compounding health impacts in humans. These threats massively impact human health by changing the epidemiology of existing diseases and leading to emerging, unprecedented health problems ranging widely from direct impacts, food- and water-borne illnesses and infectious diseases, malnutrition to chronic physical and mental disease conditions. Coupled with health disparities, the African continent is highly vulnerable to the hazardous effects. Interlinkages and feedbacks between ecological, social and political determinants of health and wellbeing under global, environmental changes have to be identified to meet the vision of a prosperous Future Africa outlined in the African Union Agenda 2063. For this topic area we invited talks from all subdisciplines of health and social sciences focussing adaptive capacity of human health and wellbeing in a fast changing and increasingly unpredictable world.

BioGARD was strategically planed to give the participants the opportunity to subsequently join the Tropentag 2023 from the 20th to 22th of September 2023 in Berlin. The annual interdisciplinary conference on research in tropical and subtropical agriculture, natural resource management and rural development ties well to the content of BioGARD. Please find more information regarding the  Tropentag 2023 here.