Unai Pascual has received prestigious research support from ERC Synergy Grant
The study will explore interactions between society and nature in nine mountainous environments in East Africa to find pathways to more sustainable futures.
Unai Pascual García de Azilu is a professor at Ikerbasque and a researcher at BC3, a fellowship through which he will coordinate an international interdisciplinary team together with three other researchers. The initiative is called AFRI–CAN, and Pascual explains the objective as follows: “The goal is to explore the impact of climate change on mountain ecosystems and communities in East Africa to find pathways to the future.”
Climate change, population growth, threats to biodiversity and agricultural transformations are putting pressure on mountain regions around the world, he said. In turn, mountains are often home to ancient cultures, are critical points of biodiversity and act as ecological regulators. “But they don’t get the attention they need globally,” Pascual warns.
From the past to the future
The grant will enable research into a vast mountainous region of Africa that is highly vulnerable to global changes. On the one hand, they will analyse the main contributions of mountain ecosystems to human well-being, such as food, energy and water, for 6,000 years. On the other hand, local communities will investigate the nature of their interactions with nature and opportunities for improvement, focusing on biocultural diversity.
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