Environment and Society in the Global South

How people manage and use land is central to addressing major sustainability challenges. This includes climate change, food and nutrition security, biodiversity conservation, sustainable energy, and poverty alleviation. We examine how and where land-cover and land use changes occur, the factors driving changes in land systems, the outcomes of land system changes, and how land systems can be governed to help achieve various sustainability goals (e.g., nature conservation, equity and justice, poverty alleviation, food security). Examples of research and teaching areas include: land acquisitions and their effects on local livelihoods; rural-urban transitions; transformations of farming systems; outcomes of sustainability commitments; forest dynamics and the outcomes for local people’s livelihoods and food and nutrition security; land use and climate change interactions.

Urbanization and rural transformation unfold in the interaction between globalization processes and local development dynamics. Within this global-local nexus, we examine the drivers, dynamics and outcomes of societal transformation processes in rural and urban areas – and how rural and urban spaces can be governed for sustainable and inclusive development. Examples of research and teaching areas include the significance of rural-urban linkages for small town development; the interconnections between world market dynamics and rural livelihood changes; the impact of global agro-industrial value chains on regional development; the interactions of human mobility, migration, urbanization and urban spatial transformations. 

The empirical research activities are concentrated in Africa (both East, West and South), South-East Asia and the Pacific. The research group continuously emphasizes to capitalize the interdisciplinary potential which lies in developing research approaches that cut across the key research areas described above.

Ongoing Research Projects

The research group is engaged in projects that are funded through national and international grants. Most of the projects are carried out in cooperation with other research institutions in Denmark, Europe, and the Global South.

The list is organized chronologically, with the most recent projects first:

• Plasticulture Farming in Semi-Arid Regions under Climate Change. Danida 2025-2029.
• Climate Change Mitigation in Agroforest Landscapes through Sustainable Sourcing Policies (CAFSUS). Danida 2024-2029.
• TRANS-AG: Governing Transformation in Agricultural Systems in Vietnam. Danida 2024-2029.
• Urban Encroachment – Untangling Drivers and Dynamics of Land-Use Transitions in Ecologically Sensitive Areas. Independent Research Fund Denmark 2024-2028.
• The Plasticulture Enigma. Geocenter Denmark 2024-2027.
• The Role of Rural-Urban Linkages for Enhanced Climate Resilience in Rural Tanzania (RUL4CLI). Danida 2022-2027.
• FairFrontiers - Fair for whom? Power, Politics and Precarity in Transformations of Tropical Forest-Agriculture Frontiers. Grant from Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Kyoto, Japan, 2021-2026. 
• RurbanClimate - Climate Resilience Across the Rural-Urban Continuum. Danida 2021-2025.

Recently completed Research Project

• BSU 3 - Building Stronger Universities. Program with Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania. Danida 2017-2023.
• TRACE - Plastics from source to sink: Exploring transport pathways and fate of plastic waste in coastal waters. Geocenter Denmark, 2020-2023.
• Beyond the 'Supermarket Revolution Myopia'- Traditional Markets and Sustainable Upgrading opportunities in Domestic Food Value Chains. Det Frie Forskningsråd, Samfund og Erhverv, 2017-2022.
• COUPLED - Operationalising telecouplings for solving sustainability challenges related to land use. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action - Innovative Training Network (ITN), 2018-2022.
• Inspire4Nature -International training at the Science-Policy Interface for Researchers in Europe, for Nature. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action - Innovative Training Network (ITN), 2018-2022.
• Rural-Urban Transformation: Governance, Mobility and Economic Dynamics in Emerging Urban Centres for Poverty Reduction in collaboration with Sokoine Agricultural University (SUA) Tanzania, Danida 2015-2022.
• Sustainable Value-Chains: Aquaponics in Colombia. Danida Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU), 2018-2021.
• SEBEI - Socio-economic Benefits of Ecological Infrastructure. Danida Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU), 2018-2021.
• UNAS – Exploitation of Natural Resources in Southern Greenland. Geocenter Denmark, 2018-2021.
• Organic Cotton for Employment. Danida-FFU, 2015–2021.
• POLICOFA II: Enhancing Productivity, Market Access and Incomes for Small Farming Business in Tanzania - Potentials and Limitations in Contract Farming. Danida-FFU, 2014-2021.
• TGG-N: Transiting to green growth (Nepal). Danida-FFU, 2014-2019.

We supervise Master's thesis projects and we are pleased to include Master students in the work of the research group. Here you can find a list of previous Master's thesis titles which can be used for inspiration or for finding a potential supervisor.

Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (SLUSE)
Building Stronger Universities

International collaboration

The group attracts many young, international researchers and in connection with the FFU funded activities, the group receives visiting Ph.D. students and guest researchers from the Global South for education and collaborative work.

International collaboration is highly appreciated and ensured through a range of other mechanisms such as:

• Planned sabbaticals for permanent staff abroad
• Research capacity projects in the Global South
• Participation in international research networks
• Advisory services to international organisations (e.g. OECD, WB, UNCTAD, UNFCCC)
• Contributing to the platforms in ‘Building Stronger Universities' (Danish Universities)