ARUA-CD researchers co-develop a short course on landscape collaboration that helps address the gap in training when working towards climate-resilient landscapes.
The short course, titled Multistakeholder collaboration for equitable and climate-resilient landscapes, launched in June 2023 as a free, open-access course aims to boost the understanding and capacity of students, researchers, and practitioners to engage in meaningful and effective landscape collaboration processes.
The importance of landscape collaboration
Addressing complex sustainability issues requires innovative approaches, such as transdisciplinary research, that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and integrate diverse knowledge systems, involving collaboration between science, society, and different stakeholders. Achieving the interconnected sustainable development goals is challenging without this transdisciplinary research. In the 21st century, the ability to collaborate and work across siloed thinking is a crucial skill. However, there is a lack of emphasis on collaboration in formal curricula, leaving a gap in understanding its importance and practical implementation.
“Sustainable and equitable landscape management cannot be achieved without the involvement of landscape residents, practitioners, and decision-makers in finding joint solutions to current challenges,” explains Sheona Shackleton, ARUA-CD researcher and one of the lead course designers.
Landscape approaches which integrate social-ecological sustainability provide an important opportunity to explore collaboration and bridge the gap between science and society.
Identifying gaps in training
ARUA-CD researchers, under the Supporting Partnerships and Networking (SPaN) project, initial efforts in climate-resilient landscapes uncovered a notable deficiency in training, particularly in the realm of landscape collaboration. This recognition spurred the development of a collaborative effort to create a short course focused on landscape collaboration. This course aims to fill the identified gap in training while also addressing critical aspects often overlooked in landscape management and governance processes. By prioritizing these essential components, the short course seeks to enhance expertise in landscape collaboration and contribute to more effective and comprehensive approaches to climate resilience.
“This course involved a large team of experts in both landscape research and the practical aspects of effectively engaging multiple stakeholders. It uses a strong social justice lens to highlight what is needed for fair and just collaboration processes. It is the ideal course for any early career researchers wanting to apply a transdisciplinary approach in their sustainability research,” says Sheona Shackleton.
About the course
As stated on the course website; “This course responds to the real needs of early-career researchers working in landscape management and governance and fills clear gaps in current training and curricula on this topic. Using a social justice lens throughout, and centred on nine key insights from research on landscape governance and management in Africa (presented by Favretto et al. 2021), the course summarises theoretical content and provides practical guidance. More specifically:
Module 1 provides the theoretical and conceptual context and framing for the importance of multistakeholder collaboration in landscape approaches.
Module 2 looks more deeply into the theoretical basis of some of the more ‘social’ principles for successful stakeholder engagement.
Module 3 outlines the importance of contextual landscape assessments and stakeholder mapping exercises and details various techniques for both.
Module 4 takes a more pragmatic approach, focusing on skills not typically covered in academic training, namely: designing, preparing for, planning, and facilitating multistakeholder engagements.”
Access the course here or read more details about the lessons offered
The results of this course were shared at the Fourth ARUA 2023 Biennial International Conference. Learn more about the conference here.
By: Michelle Shields
