The 3^rd International Conference on Geographical Science for Resilient Communities, Ecosystems and Livelihoods under Global Environmental Change (GORILLA) got off to a reflective start on Wednesday 4^th December 2024 as delegates recognized that only 17% of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets are on track to be achieved by 2030. Officially presided over by the State Minister for Environment, Hon. Beatrice Atim Anywar the opening ceremony was also graced by His Royal Highness Jude Mike Mudoma, the Umukhukha of Bamasaba Cultural Institution, Inzu Ya Masaba.

Organised by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), Makerere University in partnership with the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission of Biogeography and Biodiversity, the IGU Commission on African Studies, Uganda Geographical Association, and the International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) African Chapter, the 3^rd GORILLA Conference was aimed at contributing to the realization of the Global Development Agenda 2030. Specifically, the conference sought to provide a platform for conceptual, empirical, and theoretical conversations to address how science can help in bridging gaps and addressing sustainable development deficits.

Overview of the Conference

The National Organising Committee Chair and Deputy Principal College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), Assoc. Prof. Yazidhi Bamutaze and his Co-Chair Dr. Jerome Ssebaduka Lugimira from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) noted that the 2024 Conference attracted participants from over 50 countries. Whereas the first edition of the conference in 2020 attracted 114 participants, the second edition in 2022 attracted 163 participants and this year’s attracted 375 abstract submissions.

The Conference featured twelve (12) themes namely: 1) Geographies of Climate Change, Climate Justice and Just Transition, Spaces and patterns; 2) Biodiversity Informatics, Sustainable Ecosystems, Landscapes and People; 3) Green Growth and Transitions to Land Degradation Neutrality and Net Zero; 4) Water Governance and Transitions to Land Degradation Neutrality and Net Zero; 5) Interconnected Geo-hazards and Disasters in a Changing World; 6) Polycrisis: Migration, Displacement, Conflict and Humanitarianism; 7) The changing Geography of Agrifood Systems; 8) Nature Best solutions for inclusive and equitable development; 9) Emerging and novel technologies for societal resilience; 10) Sustainable Cities and Urban Systems in SSA; 11) Geographies of Energy and Energy Transitions; and 12) Environment and Health.

“What is quite striking is that the area of Biodiversity Informatics, Sustainable Ecosystems, Landscapes and People attracted the highest number of submissions, and SDG 13: Climate action turned out to be the most attractive but, you also have issues to do with SDG 15: Life on Land and SDG 14: Life Below Water” Prof. Bamutaze reported.

He noted that the Conference was desirous of taking stock of technologies, knowledge, innovations and all undertakings at local levels that are imperative in ensuring that the journey to achieving SDGs prioritizes safety. Staying with the SDGs, Prof. Bamutaze noted that despite the large volume of work published by scientists, there was a big gap regarding the utility of this work by policies.

Prof. Bamutaze shared that the Conference was preceded by trainings on how to harness Artificial Intelligence in ongoing work on biodiversity, a Hackathon aimed at tapping into Earth Observation data, a Summer School on Community Resilience and Geo-visualization with field visits to the Mt. Elgon catchment area as well as trainings on scientific writing.

Co-creation key to Social Transformation

In his remarks, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi noted that the glaring sustainable development deficits call for accelerated actions from institutions in Africa, especially since the continent’s contribution to global knowledge output stands at less than 5%.

“We have an obligation to co-create knowledge tailored to environmental and social contexts that is actionable at scale; provide key evidence to policy makers and practitioners to enable them undertake grassroots actions and interventions; as well as co-create innovations that can catalyse social transformation” he shared.

Prof. Buyinza informed conference participants of Makerere’s continued investment in building partnerships that advance national and global sustainability, with specific focus on PhD training so as to improve annual knowledge output from Africa. “Under the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), we have defined core areas/disciplines in which we will collaboratively be churning out 1,000 PhDs annually.”

The Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Systems

Addressing the conference, the Umukhukha Jude Mike Mudoma admitted that he was no stranger to academia, having been in research circles for the last 28 years as an environmental scientist. He therefore appreciated the opportunity to participate in the conference, especially at a time when the geographical area covered by his kingdom is in need of restoration to alleviate recurring natural disasters such as landslides.

The Umukhukha defined TEK as knowledge, beliefs and practices that indigenous people have developed over centuries to manage and conserve natural resources. “Our TEK is based on observations, experiments and spiritual connections with the natural world,” he noted, further adding “For example, our ancestors developed agroforestry systems that mimicked the natural forest ecosystem, promoting diversity and soil fertility.”

HRH Jude Mike Mudoma singled out rainwater harvesting techniques and extensive knowledge of medicinal plants that has been passed down through generations as other examples of TEK. He further outlined the Bamasaba Clan-based Governance that provides a framework for decision making, conflict resolution and resource management as well as the Council of Elders that provides guidance and oversight of matters related to natural resource management, cultural heritage and community development as traditional institutions that play vital roles in TEK. He equally singled out traditional ceremonies such as Imbalu (circumcision) as gatherings that promote cultural heritage and provide opportunities for community members to discuss pertinent issues.

“I want to implore you people that we should help our scientists to document and preserve our TEK for future generations” appealed the Umukhukha to conference participants. “Secondly I want support for community-led initiatives. The whole of Mt. Elgon range is now declared a disaster area because we ourselves have destroyed the environment and recently we lost over 190 people who were buried and we have only recovered 25” added H.R.H. Mudoma.

He further appealed to participants at the 3^rd GORILLA Conference to support the Mt. Elgon region in areas of disaster risk reduction and management as well as environmental conservation and restoration. “Another area is climate change adaptation and mitigation and of course when these are done, we cannot forget community-based initiatives for sustainable livelihoods, which I have seen is part of your discussions here and I want to benefit from your expertise.”

Timing of 3^rd GORILLA Conference Key

Following the moment of silence observed in respect of the recent Mt. Elgon landslide victims, the Chief Guest, Hon. Beatrice Atim Anywar lauded the timing of the conference as befitting, especially as it coincides with ongoing local, regional and global efforts to address pressing sustainability challenges and transitions towards a green world.

Referring to the 29^th Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) she attended in Baku, Azerbaijan, Hon. Anywar took note of the reinforced global climate action through an annual commitment of US$300billion in climate financing. The funding, she added, will help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change and embrace renewable energy.

“As we sit here, I want us to think, how can we prepare as a country for the carbon credit and carbon markets? It is a new discovery, it is a new source of financing, how prepared are we?” Hon. Anywar asked her audience. “How do we have it clearly explained to our people the difference and benefits between organic agriculture and genetically engineered agriculture?” she further added.

The State Minister further urged the academia to always ensure that the community is brought on board during events where research is being disseminated. “In order to benefit them, they must be part of us, and they must understand what we are doing; they shouldn’t be suspicious” she added.

Hon. Anywar concluded by urging participants at the 3^rd GORILLA Conference to use the platform to together cultivate a cohesive knowledge ecosystem that drives forward Agenda 2030, “and this should include the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as stipulated by H.R.H. the Umukhukha” she emphasised.

Insight into Remote Sensing in Africa

The opening ceremony was followed by a Keynote Address delivered by Prof. Moses Azong Cho, Professor at the University of Pretoria and Chief Researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa. His presentation titled Managing Remote Sensing Technology for Assessing Biodiversity sought to describe biodiversity in the context of remote sensing, illustrate some of the work that has been done in the field, and touch on the new era of space borne remote sensing for biodiversity assessment.

“I tell you my African colleagues, if you think that remote sensing in Africa is simpler, you’re mistaken. You’re dealing with a more complex environment; forests are more diverse, savannah landscapes are very diverse and rural areas are quite heterogeneous – the mosaic of different landscape forms and types is crazy on the continent. So, we rather need more complicated remote sensing tools to be able to provide the kind of information that’s required on the continent” narrated Prof. Cho of his experience.

He equally urged scientists and their teams to mind the way they communicate with stakeholders when they take remote sensing products to the communities. “Try to understand the stakeholders and ensure that you will sit down and have the language to convince them what you’re offering can actually help them improve on their services and decision making.”

Prof. Cho who earlier described himself as a Bio-Geoinformatician; one who combines knowledge of Biology, Ecology, Geography, Remote Sensing, and Geographical Information Science to understand biodiversity and ecological phenomena, found himself gradually becoming an Agro-Geoinformatician. This was after their rich biodiversity information and data maps could hardly attract any funding despite the well-articulated need to conserve the environment.

“Our people are dying of hunger, we need to produce food” prospective funders would respond, later adding “and you are saying we should conserve the rich landscape, with 60% of fertile uncultivated land present on the continent of Africa?”

This light bulb moment from this response led to the development by Prof. Cho and his team, of systems that can enable farmers to effectively use small parcels of land to cultivate food, as opposed to nomadic farming whereby exhausted soils are abandoned for opening of previously uncultivated lands, often rich in biodiversity. Smart farming, digital farming, satellite farming, conservation farming and regenerative agriculture are names that have come to define these systems.

“Remote sensing can play a vital role in these systems and so we actually changed the name of our research group from Earth Observation Group to Precision Agriculture Research Group and suddenly, we started getting lots of traction with both Government and Private Sector because we packaged the information that we generate using our remote sensing models into a software called the Precision Agriculture Information System” Prof. Cho shared.

The software enables farmers to access information on soil conditions and the health of their crops on a weekly basis. “We have developed models that can very accurately predict soil organic content, soil nitrogen content, pH of the soil, and soil moisture, because we have taken time to interpret the spectral information” Prof. Cho triumphantly shared.

On the new era of space borne remote sensing that is upon us, Prof. Cho shared that this will provide even higher resolution imagery that can monitor crop stress and relatedly, the impacts of climate change on ecosystems. “NASA is working on new programmes; there’s the PANGEA programme, where I am a Committee Member, where we want to deploy these new sensors within tropical forests in Congo, Cameroon and Ghana to see how we can assess tropical forest biodiversity and change with respect to global changes.”

Furthermore, developments such as the new synthetic radar signal that is not sensitive to clouds enables acquisition of reflected microwave energy both during the day and night, which is critical for the humid tropical regions that experience a lot of cloud cover.

“We need to prepare so that we are not left behind, particularly those of us on the African continent. We need to develop our infrastructure, and cloud computing platforms. We need to develop the capacity amongst our youth when it comes to big data analytics” concluded Prof. Cho.

Summing it all up

The captivating keynote address was followed by a panel discussion that debated; what academia is doing to ensure that it breaks free from the “Ivory Tower” mentality, and how academia and research institutions can contribute to processes that lead to the attainment of SDGs. Furthermore, the panel discussed; what universities can learn from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), what CSOs can do to support Government’s drive to achieve SDGs, and the communities’ experience of progress made on SDG3: Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG6: Clean Water and Sanitation, and SDG13: Climate Action.

Panelists included Assoc. Prof. Justine Namaalwa- Head Department of Environment Management, CAES, Mr. Ronald Kaggwa-National Planning Authority (NPA), Ms. Pauline Nantongo Kalunda- Executive Director ECOTRUST – the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda, Dr. Harriet Rachel Kagoya- Director of Operations Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) and Mr. Moses Nadiope-Chairman/Coordinator Kasubi Parish Local Community Development Initiative.

To learn more about the GORILLA Conference, please visit: https://gorilla.mak.ac.ug