Center for Development and Environment

The Center for Development and Environment (CDE) is the University of Bern's interdisciplinary center for sustainable development and the environment . In terms of research, it is active in numerous countries around the world in addition to its focus regions Horn of Africa , East Africa , Southeast Asia , Central Andes and Switzerland . In teaching, it offers courses in sustainable development at bachelor, master, doctoral and postgraduate level.

Center for Development and Environment
founding	2009
place	Bern, Switzerland
management	Peter Messerli, Thomas Breu
Website	https://www.cde.unibe.ch/

history

The CDE was founded in 2009 as one of the competence centers of the University of Bern under the direction of the two directors Peter Messerli and Thomas Breu and is one of the leading international institutions in sustainability research and research on land use systems .

It emerged from the department of the same name of the Geographical Institute (GIUB) of the University of Bern, which was headed by the two professors Hans Hurni and Urs Wiesmann. This was launched in 1988 on the basis of the two international research programs Soil Conservation Research Program in Ethiopia (1981–1998) and Laikipia Research Program in Kenya (1984–1997). Other major international research programs followed. These included Terre Tany (1989–2000) in Madagascar, the Eastern and Southern Africa Partnership Program (1999–2015) and programs in Central Asia , the Mekong region and the Andes . There were also numerous mandates such as the environmental mandate for the Directorate for Development and Cooperation of the Swiss Foreign Ministry (1989–2016).

From 2001 to 2013, the CDE headed the National Research Center NCCR North-South , Switzerland's international research program in the areas of global change and sustainable development .

In 2013, parts of the former Interfaculty Coordination Office for General Ecology (IKAÖ) at the University of Bern were integrated into the CDE. The courses in sustainable development and the Bern Environmental Research Prize will continue to be supervised at CDE.

In 2016 CDE Director Peter Messerli was appointed by the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon together with Endah Murniningtyas, the former Deputy Minister for National Resources and the Environment in Indonesia , as co-chair of the scientific panel of experts that prepared the global report on sustainable development ( GSDR) 2019 on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals .

research

The CDE researches sustainable development in the context of global changes and their effects on natural resources - soils, water, biodiversity -, land use systems and the living conditions of different population groups. The aim is, in coordination with the 2030 Agenda, to show ways to sustainable development, to initiate processes for transformation and to make concrete contributions to sustainable development.

Scientists from the natural, social, human, human, legal and economic sciences work at the CDE. The four main research areas of the interdisciplinary teams are:

• Land resources: Use of natural resources (water, soil, vegetation), importance of land (access, distribution, rights) as well as change and adaptation of management (cultivation techniques, conservation, commodification ) for sustainable development

• Socio-economic transformation: global developments, diagnosis of poverty and inequalities, social and technological innovations in the areas of work, production and consumption

• Sustainability governance : interaction of global and local regulatory systems, GIS -based methods to identify different claims to water, land or food, political support

• Education for sustainable development: building skills for transformations towards sustainable development, supporting the University of Bern to implement sustainability in teaching, research and operations

Teaching

The CDE offers a Bachelor Minor and a Master Minor in Sustainable Development with a total of around 400 students. It also advises all faculties at the University of Bern on integrating the topic of sustainable development into their courses.

The International Graduate School (IGS) North-South was also established in 2009 as part of the NCCR North-South . This doctoral program is based on an inter-university agreement between the universities of Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Zurich as well as selected cooperation agreements with universities in countries in the global South and East. The CDE coordinates the graduate school with over 100 doctoral students each year.

In addition, the CDE is a full member of the European Training-Network Coupled , which will enable 15 doctoral students to train as part of excellent research projects from 2018 to 2022.

organization

The CDE is administratively assigned to the Faculty of Science at the University of Bern. The university management gives the CDE a service mandate. The CDE is strategically managed by a president and three board members, in which the main scientific partner institutes of the University of Bern are represented. Operationally, the CDE is managed by a management team.

The CDE currently employs more than 100 people from over 20 disciplines. Nine professors from four faculties are also active as CDE members in teaching and research at the CDE.

CDE's own central services support the center and researchers with services and make the CDE known to the public.

Networks

The CDE maintains a broad national and international network with academic institutions such as ProClim, KFPE, td-net, saguf and scnat , global scientific programs, civil society organizations and the public sector. It hosts

• the international project office of the Global Land Program , a research program of Future Earth
• Direction, secretariat and coordination of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT)
• the editing of the international, scientifically refereed journal Mountain Research and Development (MRD ) and
• together with Biovision the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Switzerland .

Web links

• Official website
• International Graduate School North-South

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Berner Zeitung, Tamedia Espace AG: How the globalization of tomorrow is being shaped from Bern . ISSN  1424-1021 ( bernerzeitung.ch [accessed on August 2, 2019]).
2. ^ Soil Conservation Research in Ethiopia. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
3. ↑ FORSbase. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
4. ↑ FORSbase. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
5. ^ Eastern and Southern Africa Partnership Program. October 9, 2017, accessed July 31, 2019 . 
6. ^ NCCR North-South. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
7. ↑ University of Bern - Coordination Office for General Ecology - Home. Retrieved July 26, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Study programs. April 8, 2015, accessed July 26, 2019 . 
9. ↑ Bern Environmental Research Prize. March 27, 2018, accessed July 26, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Experts, Eminent Scientists to Draft Report on Sustainable Development Ahead of Global Review Set for 2019 | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases. Retrieved July 26, 2019 . 
11. ↑ 2019 edition.:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. Retrieved July 26, 2019 . 
12. ^ Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). October 7, 2019, accessed July 26, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Home. Retrieved July 26, 2019 (UK English). 
14. ↑ CDE board. April 10, 2016, accessed August 2, 2019 . 
15. ^ Members. September 8, 2015, accessed July 31, 2019 . 
16. ↑ ProClim. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
17. ↑ Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
18. ↑ Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences | td-net news. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
19. ↑ Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
20. ↑ Land Matrix - LAND MATRIX. Accessed July 31, 2019 . 
21. ↑ Wocat. Retrieved July 31, 2019 . 
22. ↑ Global Land Program |. Accessed July 31, 2019 .