Climate-induced extreme events like droughts are known to contribute to biodiversity loss, which further threatens ecosystems and the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in the Global South. Moreover, the biodiversity loss hampers ecosystems’ mitigation potential with respect to climate change and their adaptation potential with respect to drought disaster risk.
By adopting a multi-level governance perspective and interdisciplinary approach, this research seeks to analyse the feedbacks between ecological drought risks, climate change and biodiversity loss. The project aims to examine key global policies for protecting ecosystems from droughts, construct a vulnerability index for biodiverse ecosystems, identify hotspots of drought risk, and explore the impact of drought events on the usability of traditional ecological knowledge among IPLCs. Ultimately, the research aims to inform the development of more robust policies and holistic management strategies that can effectively promote drought disaster risk reduction, biodiversity conservation, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Your duties - conduct a literature review and multilevel governance analysis of ecological drought risk and its interaction with climate change agendas
- develop and perform an ecosystem vulnerability and risk assessment method
- investigate the impact of increasing drought risks on the usability of traditional ecological knowledge
- contribute to the dissemination of research findings through academic publications, conference presentations, and engagement with relevant stakeholders