My research activities and practice focus broadly on human-environment interactions and more specifically on environmental change, development, sustainability, knowledge, inequality, and marginalization. My main interest lies in the theoretical and empirical intersections of political ecology, environmental justice, complex systems science, and participatory research. It is the result of a long-term commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and extended periods of field work and capacity building in West Africa, mainly Senegal and Ghana. I am inspired by new and challenging ways of integrating theory and concepts with real-world practice.

Background:

Ph.D. (2003), Arid Lands Resource Sciences (Minor in Applied Anthropology), University of Arizona
Mag.Phil. (1991), Geography and Economics, French, Karl-Franzens Universität, Graz, Austria

Contact:

315 Walker Building
University Park PA 16802
Phone: (814) 863-9399
E-mail: petra@psu.edu

Research, Grants, and Publications

1) Climate change vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and adaptation

• USAID: Climate Change Collective Learning and Observatory Network Ghana (CCLONG), 2006-2009

This research focuses on enhancing adaptive capacity to climate change in Ghana by building a sound information exchange infrastructure that brings the science of climate change and the implications for people and the environment to a level that is understandable, accessible, and beneficial to multiple parties. Key social actors in this project are small-scale, subsistence land users (farmers, herders, fishermen), agricultural extension agents, regional and national researchers, and policy decision-makers. The main objectives are to understand local perceptions and experiences of climatic changes and extremes, examine determinants of adaptive capacity, and adjust climate and crop models to people's needs for more effective adaptive decision-making. The study follows a social/collective learning approach where project participants engage in learning activities and experiments that, ultimately, may enhance livelihood resilience to climatic and other stressors. This project is a collaboration with the University of Ghana (Regional Institute for Population Studies; Soil Sciences) and the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency. My earlier work on climate change adaptation focused on vulnerability, multiple stressors, and environmental services, primarily in Senegal. Watch the project video.

Tschakert P., R. Sagoe, G. Ofori-Darko, and SN Codjoe. 200-. Floods in the Sahel: An analysis of anomalies, memory, and anticipatory learning. Climatic Change (under review).

Tschakert P. 2008. Do we recognize a climatic shift when we see one? Lessons from the Western Sahel. Proceedings from IPCC TGICA (Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis) Meeting on Integrating Analysis of Regional Climate Change and Response Options, June 20-22, 2007, Nadi, Fiji.

Tschakert P. 2007. Views from the vulnerable: Perceptions on climatic and other stressors in the Sahel. Global Environmental Change, 17: 381-396.

Tschakert P. 2007. Environmental services and poverty reduction: Options for smallholders in the Sahel. Agricultural Systems, 94 (1): 75-86.

Tschakert P. and L. Olsson. 2005. EU climate action in the broad framework of sustainable development. Climate Policy, 5(3): 329-348.

2) Anticipatory learning and livelihood resilience

• NSF (Decision-Making, Risk, and Uncertainty): Anticipatory Learning for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience, 2009-2012

For this new research project, I will be working with Robert Crane (Geography), Esther Prins (Adult Education), Ken Tamminga (Landscape Architecture), and Chris Hoadley (New York University). We hypothesize that cyclical (loop) learning strengthens people's anticipatory capacity in decision-making with respect to climatic and other livelihood stressors. At the core of this research is a resilience-enhancing approach that emphasizes an iterative way of analyzing and learning about changes and uncertainties in the past, present, and future. By focusing explicitly on learning processes and decision-support tools, the aim of the project is to reverse the deterministic notion of presumably vulnerable groups as passive victims of climate change by highlighting people's skills, knowledges, strategic responses, anticipatory capacity, and agency for adaptation planning. I hope that our project will foster people's capacity to influence their future through iterative planning rather than learning by shock. Research will take place in Ghana and Tanzania, in collaboration with partners from the University of Ghana (Geography and Performing Arts), the Afram Plains Development Organization (a Ghanaian NGO), and the University of Dar-es-Salaam (Geography). Please see project flyer for details.

3) Environmental/climatic changes and forced migration

• George H. Deike, Jr. Research Grant: Solastalgia: Environmentally-Induced Distress and Illness due to Climatic Changes among Africa's Poor, 2008-2010

In this body of research, I explore the psychological and emotional distress triggered by slow-onset, creeping environmental changes. Unlike other health-related impacts of climatic changes (e.g. vector-borne diseases), the role of sadness, depression, and desperation caused by significantly altered environments has so far been largely ignored. I am particularly interested in the intersection of internal migration and environmental deterioration. In a case study in Ghana, men and women who have moved from the northern regions to slums and shanty towns in Accra, the capital, are interviewed. Subsequent research will focus on environmentally-induced illness and potential loss of belonging - termed 'solastalgia' - of those who stay behind in increasingly 'pathological homes.' I am hoping to be a James Martin 21st Century School research fellow at the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University in Spring 2009 and to critically contribute to the emerging debate on environmental refugees.

Tschakert P. and R. Tutu. 2008. Solastalgia: Environmentally-induced distress and migration due to climate change among Africa's poor. Prepared for the Proceedings from Environment, Forced Migration & Social Vulnerability, International Conference, October 9-11, Bonn, Germany.

4) Marginalization, contamination, and injustice in small-scale gold mining

• NSF-OISE: US-Ghana Workshop on Resilience in Small-Scale Gold Mining Sector of Ghana, 2007-2009
• NIH - Framework Programs for Global Health: Global Health and Georesource Management in Africa (PI Airhihenbuwa), 2006-2009
• Social Science Research Institute (SSRI), PSU: Building a Research Infrastructure on Human and Environmental Health in the West African Gold Mining Sector, 2007-2008
• Africana Research Center (ARC), PSU: Contaminated Identities: Impacts of Arsenic & Mercury Exposure among Small-Scale Miners in Ghana, 2006-2007
• EMS Wilson Research Initiation Grant, PSU: The Rocky Path to Sustainability: Livelihood Risks and Opportunities among Small-Scale Gold Miners in Ghana, 2006-2007

In Ghana, up to half a million men and women are employed in the artisanal mining sector. Applying a political ecology and environmental justice lens, I examine the links between the contested use of mercury- the only extraction method available to artisanal gold miners - and their marginzalization through large-scale corporations and public and state discourses. I use a participatory research design to map and contextualize the socio-cultural, mental, environmental, and topographical spaces of contamination and to engage groups of men and women miners to explore conflictual aspects from their perspective. This allows me to construct a counter-narrative to the prevailing discourse of criminalization. Recognition of artisanal miners is crucial for environmental stewardship, access to formal registration, and enhanced human and ecological health. In collaboration with Penn State and other colleagues in the US and in Ghana, two interdisciplinary workshops were conducted in Tarkwa, Ghana, in 2008 to identify common academic, policy, and practical interests regarding socio-ecological resilience in the mining sector. As part of a class project (EMSC 470W: Globalization and Sustainable Development in Africa), five Penn State undergraduate students designed a health and safety manual for small-scale miners. So far, approximately 1,000 copies of the manual have been distributed among miners, health personal, governmental officials, and researchers in Ghana.

Tschakert P. 200-. Digging deep for justice. A radical re-imagination of the artisanal gold mining sector in Ghana. Antipode (under review)./p>

Tschakert P. 2009. Recognizing and nurturing artisanal mining as a viable livelihood. Resources Policy (forthcoming).

Tschakert P. and K. Singha. 2007. Contaminated identities: Mercury and marginalization in the artisanal mining sector of Ghana. Geoforum, 38 (6): 1304-1321.

Tschakert P. and N. Laliberte. 2007. Contaminated identities: Understanding human and environmental risks and livelihood options among small-scale gold miners in Ghana. Proceedings from the First International Conference on Environmental Research, Technology and Policy: Building Tools and Capacity for Sustainable Production, July 17 - 19, 2007, Accra, Ghana.

5) Terrestrial carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation

My doctoral research on soil carbon sequestration in the Old Peanut Basin, a semi-arid region in west-central Senegal, involved smallholders in subsistence, rain-fed farming systems. Together with three Senegalese researchers (Agatha Thiaw, Djibril Diouf, and AlHassan Cissé), I investigated past and present land use and soil fertility management practices, local knowledge bases, and the impact of historical and current policies on changes in land use and management strategies. In a second phase, we conducted surveys on household resource endowments, took soil and biomass carbon measurements with interested farmers trained on-the-spot, and evaluated 'best' carbon management options, project design, and monitoring.

• USAID and USGS: Spatially Explicit Modeling of Soil Organic Carbon (SEMSOC), 2005-2006

This work involved partner institutions in Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso to assess changes in land use/cover and associated carbon stocks at the national level to propose climate change mitigation strategies through carbon management.

In my position as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at McGill University, I had the opportunity to expand my knowledge on community-based carbon offset projects with indigenous (Emberá) smallholders at the tropical forest margin in Panama. The most challenging elements included the conceptualization of an entire landscape approach to carbon sequestration, built upon effective stewardship of a range of natural resources, conflict resolution between resource users, and strong institutional capacity building through collective learning.

Tschakert P. 2009. Staging smart farmers: Learning partnerships in global change science. In S. Batterbury and L. Horowitz (eds.) Engaged Political Ecologies. Duke University Press (forthcoming).

Tschakert P., E. Huber-Sannwald, D. Ojima, M. Raupach, and E. Schienke. 2008. Holistic, adaptive management of the terrestrial carbon cycle at local and regional scales. Global Environmental Change, 18 (1): 128-141.

Tschakert P., O. Coomes, and C. Potvin. 2007. Indigenous livelihoods, slash-and-burn agriculture, and carbon stocks in Eastern Panama. Ecological Economics, 60(4): 807-820.

Potvin C., P. Tschakert, and K. Kirby. 2007. Land use and land management in Ipetí-Emberá: Estimation of the baseline scenario. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 12 (8): 1341-1362.

Kgope B.S., S. Walker, P. Tschakert, and L. Otter. 2007. Terrestrial carbon dynamics in Africa. In Global Change Processes and Impacts in Africa: A Synthesis, L. Otter, D. Olago and I. Niang (eds.). East African Educational Publishers Ltd and START, pp 173-198.

Tschakert P. 2005. More food, less poverty? The potential role of carbon sequestration in smallholder farming systems in Senegal." In Climate Change and Global Food Security, R. Lal, N. Uphoff, B.A. Stewart and D.O. Hansen (eds.), Taylor & Francis, London, pp 538-568.

Tschakert P. Our carbon is gone; we have to bring it back!: Soil fertility management and social learning in Senegal's drylands. 2005. Arid Lands Newsletter, No. 58, Winter. http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln58/tschakert.html.

Tschakert P. 2004. The costs of soil carbon sequestration: An economic analysis for small-scale farming Systems in Senegal. Agricultural Systems, 81(3): 227-253.

Tschakert P. 2004. Carbon for farmers: Assessing the potential for carbon sequestration in the Old Peanut Basin of Senegal. Climatic Change,, Special Issue: Quantifying Terrestrial Carbon Sinks, 67 (2-3), December (1, II): 273-290.

Tschakert P. and G. Tappan. 2004. The social context of carbon sequestration: Considerations from a multi-scale environmental history of the Old Peanut Basin of Senegal. Journal of Arid Environments, Special Issue on the SOCSOM Project in Senegal, 59: 535-564.

Tschakert P., M. Khouma, and M. Sène. 2004. Biophysical potential for soil carbon sequestration in agricultural systems of the Old Peanut Basin of Senegal. Journal of Arid Environments, Special Issue on the SOCSOM Project in Senegal, 59: 511-533.

Participatory Research Methods - Empowerment and Transformation

Making research valuable and interesting to the people I work with has always been one of my main priorities. There is nothing more dreadful than spending endless weeks in the field without feeling a certain level of enthusiasm among all actors involved. I am committed to participatory research (PR) as an epistemological framework that promotes critical engagement with marginalized communities (of space and practice) in order to open up alternative routes for 'doing' geography. PR methods allow involving local stakeholders from the initial research design to data collection, interpretation, and final recommendations. Over the years, I have used change matrices, village and resource flow mapping, Venn diagrams, focus groups, group drawings, agricultural calendars, ranking, piling, and scoring, visual household budgets, participatory GIS, conceptual mapping (mental models), hazard mapping, vision mapping, body health mapping, environmental theatre, and, most recently, participatory video. Try it!

Teaching:

My goal for inter- and transdisciplinary learning and teaching is to train environmentally and socially literate students who will be equipped to address complex human-environment interactions in the North and South within a dynamic and equitable sustainability framework. This requires problem-, practice-, and process-oriented learning that crosses disciplinary boundaries. I hope to stimulate students' interests in the theoretical and empirical issues of resilient livelihoods, social and environmental justice, and mixed research methods. I attempt to encourage critical thinking, offer alternative perspectives on the complex and dynamic world we live in, and promote original and independent work while demonstrating ways of fruitful collaboration and intellectual exchange.

Courses:

• GEOG 30, Geographic Perspectives on Sustainability and Human-Environment Systems
• GEOG 430, Human Use of the Environment (Adaptive Management)
• GEOG 497B, Participatory Research and Methods
• GEOG 497U, Living on the Margins (co-taught with R. Crane)
• GEOG 597B, Participatory Research, Empowerment, and Transformation (human geography graduate seminar)
• EM SC 100, Georesources, Poverty and Power: A Close Look at Africa (EMS first-year seminar)
• EM SC 470W, Globalization and Sustainable Development in Africa (co-taught with C. Benner)

2008

"Solastalgia: Environmentally-Induced Distress and Migration due to Climate Change." International Conference on Environment, Forced Migration and Vulnerability (EFMSV), Bonn, Germany, October.

2008

"Creating Contact Zones for Recognition and Participation: A Radical Re-Imagination of the Illegal Gold Mining Sector." Annual Conference on Critical Geography, Ohio University, Athens, OH, October.

2008

"Contaminated Identities: Social and Environmental Injustice in Ghana's Gold Mines." Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA, April.

2008

"Ethical Political Ecology I". Panel Discussion. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA, April.

2008

"Radical Teaching and Critical Geographies I." Panel Discussion. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA, April.

2008

"Mercury in Fish: A Critical Examination of Gold Mining and Human Contamination in Ghana." International Workshop: Small-Scale Gold Mining, Mercury and Environmental Health: Challenges and Ways Forward in Rural Ghana, University of Reading, UK, March.

2008

"Through their Eyes, Tongue, and Skin: Mercury Contamination and Criminalization of Ghana's Illegal Gold Miners." Connecting People, Participation and Place: An International Conference of Participatory Geographies, Durham, UK, January.

2007

"Climate Change Adaptation: Case Studies from Ghana." (Poster presentation). United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference, COP 13, Bali, Indonesia, December.

2007

"Contaminated Identities: Understanding Human and Environmental Risks and Livelihood Options among Small-Scale Gold Miners in Ghana. In collaboration with J. Adjei, J. Lehman, D. Ottie-Boakye, and R. Tutu. First International Conference on Environmental Research, Technology and Policy. Accra, Ghana, July.

2007

"Do We Recognize a Climatic Shift when We See One?: Lessons from the Western Sahel (Poster presentation). IPCC Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis) Meeting on Integrating Analysis of Regional Climate Change and Response Options, Nadi, Fiji, June.

2007

"Staging Smart Farmers: Learning Partnerships in Global Change Science," Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA, April.

2006

"Wetter or Drier? Climate Change Perceptions, Risk, and Vulnerabilities in the Sahel," Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL, March.