Biodiversity in Africa's Human Landscape: A Workshop Proposal

这个研讨会是由社会科学研究委员会与史密森学会和非洲科学院合作组织的，汇集了来自不同学科的非洲和美国科学家来研究这个问题：人类对非洲景观的占用是如何影响这些景观中的生物多样性的？来自生物科学、社会科学和人文科学的活跃研究人员将考虑这个问题的相关性，以及寻求研究方案来回答这个问题的可行性。参与者的具体研究兴趣包括农业与干旱、林业、农林业和牧场管理。非洲与会者来自7个不同的国家，代表了非洲大陆的广泛横截面（尼日利亚、乌干达、津巴布韦、坦桑尼亚、纳米比亚、喀麦隆、肯尼亚）。到目前为止，人类在管理和创造生物多样性方面的作用一直被忽视，而非洲作为人类的发源地，以及这些相互作用的动态影响目前非常明显，是开始研究这个问题的合乎逻辑的地方。关于这一新颖、重要和及时的主题的研讨会将加强国际（美国和非洲科学家之间）、区域（非洲不同地区的科学家之间）和跨学科的合作。＊＊＊

9320483 Featherman This workshop, organized by the Social Science Research Council, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution and the African Academy of Sciences, brings together African and U.S. scientists from a range of disciplines to examine the question: how has human occupancy of African landscapes affected the biodiversity found within those landscapes? Active researchers from the biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities will consider the relevance of this question and the feasibility of pursuing research initiatives to answer it. The specific research interests of the participants include agriculture and drought, forestry, agroforestry, and rangelands management. The African participants come from 7 different countries, representing a broad cross-section of the continent (Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Kenya). The role of humans in managing and perhaps creating biodiversity has been neglected so far, and Africa, as the place where humans originated, and where the dynamic effects of those interactions are currently highly visible, is the logical place to begin examining the question. The workshop on this novel, important, and timely theme will strengthen collaboration internationally (between US and African scientists), regionally (among scientists in different parts of Africa), and across disciplinary boundaries. ***