The United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) respectfully invites the general public to a two-day seminar. The aim is to share information with stakeholders on research being conducted by three of the Institute’s visiting scholars and a PhD Intern.
Date: 9th -10th September, 2015
Time: 10 -12 pm each day
Venue: UNU-INRA Office, 2nd Floor, International House, University of Ghana campus, Legon, Accra
Details
| Topic | Date | Speaker | Time |
| Assessing the Impact of Climate Shocks on Farm Performance and Adaptation Responses in the Niger Basin of Benin | 9th September, 2015 | Dr. Boris Odilon Kounagbè Lokonon | 10am |
| Use of Multi-Criteria Evaluation, GIS and Optimization Problems in Water Resources Management, Planning and Modelling: Case of Bâoulé (North West Côte d’Ivoire) | 9th September, 2015 | Dr. COULIBALY Naga | 11am |
| Bioenergy Supply and Environmental Impact on Cropland: Insights from Multi-market Forecasts in Great Lakes Subregional Bioeconomic Model | 10th September, 2015 | Dr. Aklesso Egbendewe-Mondzozo | 10am |
| Options for Greening the Concessionary Forestry Business Model in Rural Africa | 10th September, 2015 | Ms. Mavis Boimah | 11am |
Assessing the Impact of Climate Shocks on Farm Performance and Adaptation Responses in the Niger Basin of Benin
By: Dr. Boris Odilon Kounagbè Lokonon, Visiting Scholar, UNU-INRA
This study aims to assess the impact of climate shocks on farm activities and to simulate adaptation policy responses using a recursive dynamic mathematical programming model. Eight types of farmers were identified, and results show that the average farm income declines under climate shocks from 17.43 to 69.48% compared to the baseline scenario.
Use of Multi-Criteria Evaluation, GIS and Optimization Problems in Water Resources Management, Planning and Modelling: Case of Bâoulé (North West Côte d’Ivoire)
By: Dr. COULIBALY Naga, Visiting Scholar, UNU-INRA
This research aims at implementing a decision support tool to facilitate Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Bâoulé basin, a sub-basin of Niger River. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-criteria Evaluation (MCE) with three levels of aggregation, it presents a sustainable water-supply index (SWI) assessment for water availability and demand in the Bâoulé basin, and discusses some optimization problems in water resources management, planning and modeling.
Bioenergy Supply and Environmental Impact on Cropland: Insights from Multi-market Forecasts in Great Lakes Subregional Bioeconomic Model
By: Dr. Aklesso Egbendewe-Mondzozo
By integrating multi-market price forecasts into a spatially explicit bio-economic model of energy biomass supply from cropland, the researchers develop a nuanced picture of land use substitution and environmental impact. Using sub-regional models of crop production choices in central Wisconsin and southwest Michigan, they predict biomass production, land use, and environmental impact with details that are available from national scale price endogenous biomass supply models. The results suggest that sub-regional models with exogenous prices tend to overestimate the supply of land available for biomass production, along with the area devoted to environmentally beneficial perennial energy crops.
Options for Greening the Concessionary Forestry Business Model in Rural Africa
By: Ms. Mavis Boimah, PhD Intern
Dwelling on the “Green Business Model Innovations” by the Danish Business Authority, this study proposes a “Green Business model” for the dominant business practice in Africa’s high forests – concessionary forestry business. Introducing the concepts of both sustainability and green innovation into the “business as usual” forestry practices, the study found that there are many opportunities to make the concessionary forestry business greener and inclusive.
About the Speakers
Boris Odilon Kounagbè Lokonon holds a Ph.D degree in Climate Change Economics from the Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal, under the West Africa Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) program. His Ph.D research was on vulnerability and resilience to climate shocks and adaptation policy responses assessment. He is interested in Microeconomics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Agricultural policy, Climate change Economics, and Applied quantitative methods.
Dr. COULIBALY Naga is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Sciences and Environmental Management at the University of Nangui Abrogoua, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. He is a member of the Geo-sciences and Environmental Laboratory (Environment and Sustainable Development Research Center). He got his Ph.D. in 2009. His current research focuses on issues relating to hydrogeology, hydrology, remote sensing, geo-information and the development of decision support tools.
Aklesso Egbendewe-Mondzozo holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics and a Master of Science degree in Economics from Texas A&M University (USA). He worked as an assistant professor at Michigan State University. Subsequently, he served as a senior researcher both at the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change & Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in Italy. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Lomé (Togo)
Mavis Boimah is a PhD candidate in the department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness of the School of Agriculture, University of Ghana where she is specializing in Development Economics. She holds an MPhil. degree in Agricultural Economics, with specialization in Environmental Economics. She is passionate about issues relating to sustainability, and currently her thesis work is focusing on Green technologies in Agriculture.
Praise Nutakor
Communications and PR Associate, UNU-INRA
nutakor@unu.edu