Edwin Muchapondwa has concluded his two-year commitment as the founding coordinator, and Martine Visser takes over as the coordinator of the EfD Center in South Africa.
The EfD Center in South Africa is known locally as the Environmental Policy Research Unit, EPRU. Since January 2009, Dr. Martine Visser has been the Director of EPRU which is situated in Cape Town. Martine is a PhD graduate from the University of Gothenburg, but has been an EfD research fellow ever since the South African center started in 2007. Her research has focussed on the impact of behavioural norms and social preferences on natural resource use and poverty. She will continue to work on these topics specifically focussing on EfD theme areas such as Climate Risk and Behaviour, Environmental Justice, Compliance in Common Pool Resources and Public Goods Settings and also Urban Environmental Quality.
"I look forward to the prospect of building stronger ties and facilitating collaboration within the vibrant EfD network. We have an excellent opportunity to use the network as a base to connect with both researchers and policy makers on envrionmental issues in the region", says Dr. Visser."Moreover I believe each of our centres will become important regional access points for international academics as well as donor agencies intending to work with development and environment."
Edwin Muchapondwa
At the end of 2008, Edwin Muchapondwa concluded his two-year commitment as the founding coordinator of EPRU. Since inception of the research grouping in 2007 and under the coordination of Muchapondwa, EPRU engaged in high quality activities which can be reflected in measurable outcomes such as peer-reviewed publications and throughput of graduate students. By the end of the first two years of operation the research personnel of EPRU was made up of 5 research fellows, 2 junior research fellows and several graduate students.
"It has been a great honour to coordinate the activities of this emergent force in environmental policymaking in South Africa. In our first two years of operation, my colleagues and I made significant progress engaging with the world of policymaking to ensure that poverty reduction and sustainable development are addressed through the use of environmental and resource economics in South Africa", says Muchapondwa.
"There is still a lot of work that remains to be done to strengthen our engagement with policymaking. I am happy that my colleague and good friend Martine takes over from me to lead us to greater heights in that respect. I remain a research fellow of EPRU and will continue to do research on wildlife conservation & protected areas and the role of local communities in biodiversity conservation."