Edinburgh Environment and Development Network (EEDN)

EEDN was initiated in early 2018 in order to bring together academics and practitioners working on issues of environment and development from around Edinburgh.

The network aims to promote discussion around topics of interest, a sharing of knowledge and experience, a greater awareness of each other’s work, potential to collaborate on proposals and projects, and just a chance to get to know each other. We meet once a month (except in the summer; June-August) for discussions on topics introduced by members of the network, with facilitation aimed at sharing expertise and experiences amongst all those present.

Sessions take place on Thursdays 16:00-17:30 at ECCI, with refreshments provided.

We welcome all new members and all ideas for topics and formats for meetings, so please do get in touch if you’d like to join or share your ideas: Sam Staddon (sam.staddon@ed.ac.uk) and Clare Barnes (c.barnes@ed.ac.uk).

January - June 2025 sessions

Date and time	Title	Speaker(s)	Location
16 January 16:00 - 18:00	Sustainability Dilemmas: governing landscapes and a changing polity in Nepal	Andrea Nightingale, University of Oslo	High School Yards Teaching Centre (behind ECCI)
13 February 16:00 - 18:00	Art as collaborative practice: Socio-environmental learning with communities	Ana Cabrera Pacheco Cordula Marks Venters Laura Johnson	Conference Room, ECCI
27 March 1630	Screening of documentary Our Blue World followed by a panel discussion including Water Witness International.	EEDN and WSP. As spaces are limited, we ask you to register for this event using this link (places are available on a first-come-first-served basis).	Conference Room, ECCI
15 May 16:00 - 18:00	What role can group farms play in supporting sustainable agricultural intensification in South Asia?	Fraser Sugden, University of Birmingham and Bina Agarwal, University of Manchester	Conference Room, ECCI
19 June 16:00 - 18:00	Exploring Power and Emotions in Human-Elephant co-existence in Kenya	Maureen Kinyanjui, University of Edinburgh	The Pod, ECCI
3 July 16:00 - 18:00	Imminence of Trees: Rhizomatic narrative encounters with indigenous and invasive socioecologies, water, food and livelihoods in Cape Town followed by summer social	Grace O'Donovan, University of Edinburgh	Training and Skills Room, ECCI

Sept - December 2024 sessions

Date and time	Title	Speaker(s)	Location
26 Sept 16:00 - 18:00	Knowledge exchange between international development and Scottish climate, community and sustainability practice	ECCI and EEDN joint event	Training & Skills, ECCI
17 Oct 16:00 - 18:00	Who stewards our forests?	Arpitha Kodiveri	Training & Skills, ECCI
14 Nov 16:00 - 18:00	Partnering with Mongolian herders to enhance forest resilience and productivity to deliver sustainable global, national and local benefits	Pat Hardcastle and Andy Inglis	Conference Room, ECCI

Past Sessions

Our 2023/2024 Spring sessions

Date and time	Title	Speaker(s)	Location
25 January 16:00 - 18:00	Regenerative forestry, what is it and is Scotland ready for it? Addendum in response to Q&A: Look to Ireland for how to move gently towards different silvicultural systems: Landmark Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) Scheme Announced - Pro Silva Ireland	Willie McGhee, The Forest Policy Group	The Pod, ECCI
15 February 16:00 - 18:00	Urbanisation and Environmentalism in Malawian State Building: Turning Tensions into Synergies?	Matt Lane, University of Edinburgh	The Pod, ECCI
21 March 16:00 - 18:00	Christianity and conservation agriculture in Kenya	Peter Rowe, University of Edinburgh	The Pod, ECCI
2 May 16:00 - 18:00	Just transformations: Grassroots Struggles for Alternative Futures	Iokiñe Rodríguez, University of East Anglia	Training & Skills, ECCI
20 June, 16:00 - 18:00	Adapting in Adversity, and EEDN summer social with food provided by Edinburgh Food Social	Sarah Knight and Simon Mercer, Mercy Corps	G02, High School Yards Teaching Centre (behind ECCI)

Our 2023/24 Autumn programme

Date and time	Title	Speaker(s)	Location
24 August 16:00 - 18:00	Why promoting a conservation ethos in Australia is a challenge	Dr Rochelle Steven, School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Murdoch University	Training & Skills, ECCI
21 September 16:00 - 18:00	'Cattle in the Community Forest': Documentary Film Screening & Discussion	James Robinson	High School Yards Teaching Centre Room G.02
12 October 16:00 - 18:00	Supporting community-led conservation in Scotland	International conservation organisation Fauna & Flora, and the community initiatives Edinburgh Shoreline and Restoration Forth will discuss their experiences in supporting and delivering community led conservation in Scotland, including supporting the Coastal Communities Network	Conference Room, ECCI
30 November 16:00 - 18:00	Restoring Peace with Nature - to coincide with 'Lost Species Day' https://www.lostspeciesday.org	Julian Caldecott	Conference Room, ECCI
14 December 16:00 - 18:00	Nitrogen with a social sciences twist	Dr Annie Yang, University of Edinburgh	Training & Skills, ECCI

Our 2022/23 programme

Date and time	Title	Speaker(s)	Location
15 June 16:00 - 18:00	Presentation of a short film showcasing Clare and Sam's recent work with colleagues in Nepal: Collective Reflective Learning for Social Justice in Nepal’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management EEDN annual summer social	Sam Staddon and Clare Barnes	Training & Skills, ECCI
25 May 16:00 - 17:30	"What is 'coexistence'? Considering the case of Nepal's tigers and people"	Bivishika Bhandari, WWF Nepal	The Pod, ECCI
30 March 16:00 - 17:30	"Land for What? Land for Whom? Senses of Place and Conflict in the Scottish Highlands"	Bonnie Vandesteeg	High School Yards Teaching Centre Room G.02
12 January 16:00 - 17:30	"The health effects of air pollution: democratizing models and measurements to inform global policy decisions"	Dr Sumil Thakrar, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota	Training & Skills, ECCI
1 December 16:00 - 17:30	"A clash between project desires and investor desires: Examples from the voluntary carbon market". Discussing the market trade-offs when it comes to scaling up the conservation or restoration projects around the world.	Luke Howard, Plan Vivo	The Pod, ECCI
27 October	"What can Conservation and Agriculture take from Political Ecology?" We aligned with the POLLEN online workshop 'Political Ecology, Conservation & Agrarian Change'; watching some of the presentations and following with a panel discussion	Panelists: Dr Shubbhi Sharma, feminist political ecologist, School of Social and Political Sciences Dr Silvia Perez-Espona, conservation geneticist and Coordinator of Edinburgh Conservation Science) Dr Alfy Gathorne-Hardy, agricultural scientist, Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems	Conference Room, ECCI
12 October 16:00 - 17:30	"Gendered Surplus People, Food Security, and Maladaptation to Climate Change in Northern Ghana", a co-sponsored event between the Centre for African Studies, EEDN, and POLLEN (the Political Ecology Reading Group)	Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong	7 George Square, Room S.1
29 September 16:00 - 18:00	PhD Sharing (...of passion, tips, connections, ideas, solidarity from across the network) Document One piece of advice to other PhD students and to yourself (180.43 KB / PDF)	Anyone wanting to share their PhD-related experiences	Training & Skills, ECCI

Our 2021/22 programme

Date and time	Title	Speaker(s)	Location
23 June	EEDN Summer Social catered for by Edinburgh Food Social, with delivery by Farr Out.
7 April	Document 'Tipping points and deadline-aware climate emergency investments' (3.61 MB / PDF) You can click on the pdf link above for slides of the talk, or watch it here.	Dr Julian Caldecott	Conference Room, ECCI
17 March	Document 'Opening the ‘black box’ of international development projects: methods and opportunities for exploring project practices' (770.65 KB / PDF)	Jack Covey, PhD candidate at University of Edinburgh	Conference Room, ECCI
27 January	Document Water Witness on 'How to solve the global water crisis: five imperatives and the key questions we face' (6.26 MB / PDF)	Gaia Marini and Nick Hepworth from Water Witness	Conference Room, ECCI
18 November	Document Policy making: science or scientists-led? Exploration of the use of evidence in development and environment policy and practice (3.94 MB / PDF)	Yvan Biot	Conference Room, ECCI

Spring 2020

Date and time	Title	Speaker(s)	Location
23 January, 16:00 - 17:30	Document Long-term engagement in Nepal's environmental governance (5.16 MB / PDF)	Prof Andrea Nightingale, University of Oslo, Norway	ECCI
27 February, 16:00 - 17:30 (cancelled due to the pandemic)	UK housing policy learning from former colonies in the global South	Matt Lane, University of Edinburgh	ECCI
26 March, 16:00 - 17:30 (cancelled due to the pandemic)	Indigenous map making in the Ecuadorian Amazon	Aliya Ryan, Digital Democracy	ECCI

Autumn 2019

Date	Title	Speaker(s)
17 October	Document When tree planting damages ecosystems (4.89 MB / PDF)	Caroline Lehmann, University of Edinburgh
14 November	Document Pracademic: bridging the gap between science and practice for disaster management and climate change adaptation (6.33 MB / PDF)	Kate Crowley, University of Edinburgh
12 December	Document Faith in the Forest: the enjoyments and challenges of working for an environmental Christian organisation (5.92 MB / PDF)	Nicholas Warren, A Rocha

Spring 2019

17 January	Coastal livelihood interventions	Mike Riddell, The Landscapes and Livelihoods Group
28 February	Learning lessons from projects, places & people	Clare Barnes, Gary Watmough, Sam Staddon, University of Edinburgh
14 March	Technologies in natural resource governance	Margherita Scazza, University of Edinburgh
4 April	Ecosystems and urban vulnerability: why is research evidence ignored in Asia and beyond?	Jim Jarvie, Thismiafocus

Autumn 2018

25 October	Livelihoods and Rights-based approaches to natural resource management	Peter O’Hara, Participatory Natural Resource Management
22 November	Involving business in conservation and development	Tillem Burlace, LTS International
13 December	Indigenous communities	Peter Branney, a private consultant

Some thoughts from our members

I really liked the dynamic of the EEDN session, nice interaction between practitioners and researchers I thought. Great initiative…nice to catch up with old colleagues and meet new people.

It was a fantastic session, and really great to see you and lots of familiar faces, and of course the students who really bring a lot to it. The presentation and research was really topical and thought-provoking, particularly as I came to the session from designing a similar project ...and so really nice to have a space to step back and think about these approaches.

A quick note to thank you and your team for the event yesterday. A stimulating talk and great to meet people with similar interests. I’m certainly interested in continuing attendance.

This article was published on 2022-10-27