Open Access

Soils are complex, evolving systems that simultaneously shape and are shaped by numerous biotic and abiotic factors in a vast web of interactions that creates the conditions for the propagation of life and the maintenance of human societies. Yet, land use and land use change (LULUC) and anthropogenic climate change (CC) are forcing substantial and rapid alterations into soil’s properties and processes, thus affecting the functions and services derived from it. The resulting land degradation (LD) is now spread, according to recent estimates, over nearly 30 % of the world’s total land, mostly on the population dense and impoverished tropics, a zone predicted to withstand the worst impacts of CC. The Atlantic Forest in Brazil is a particularly vulnerable environment, and the unusual drought of 2014-2017 that hit its Southeastern region is likely the harbinger of a progressively drier future. The way the prelude of what might be an increasingly frequent hazard affected farmers’ livelihoods and natural resources, and the manner in which they reacted to those impacts can thus reveal points of strength and fragility that could be respectively harnessed or addressed to develop a more sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. This master thesis focused on characterizing those impacts and reactions on distinct dairy production systems in two municipalities in Northwestern Rio de Janeiro: Santo Antônio de Pádua and Cambuci. Through interviews and in loci observations, the researcher collected data concerning environmental services (erosion prevention, soil cover and water provision), production variables (inputs and outputs), socio-economic information, farm system management and farmers’ future perspectives. The results show that dairy production systems in the region are heterogeneous and, although they may share common characteristics, drought outcomes were closely tied to the specificities of each farm. Ultimately, outcomes originated from differences in water supply, water demand, and feed availability, their subsequent change by the drought and farmers’ reaction to those changes at each property.

As the number and intensity of environmental challenges increase, more faiths have initiated religiously motivated change within their communities or have been involved in cooperation projects with NGOs or GOs dedicated to conservation. Even though a lot of quantitative research had been done on the correlation of religiosity and concern for the environment, no scientific study dealt about the argumentation lines that drive or discourage believers to get involved in environmental conversation. As a basis for the research the Theory of Planned Behavior of Ajzen was modified into a model. By the means of Semi-Standardized Interview guidelines 15 members and leaders of different church communities in Amman were interrogated to retrieve meaning of and cause-effect-chains between the different components of the model. Their answers were coded and analyzed with cross tables to identify interconnections and their tendencies. The results show that interviewees’ religious convictions about God and the world were the strongest influencer, whereas the community and leaders rarely gave a reason for people to adapt water saving measures. External factors such as governmental, societal, political or economic mostly discouraged people to adapt environmentfriendly behaviors. Approaches by the GIZ have already started catering to those challenges and potentials, however the range of impact did not reach until most of the interviewees.

The post-conflict setting in Colombia resulted after the signing of the peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the national Government at the end of 2016, faces two main problems. On one hand, the environmental degradation and the pressure over the ecosystems now exposed to the economic and socio-demographic dynamics of the country; and on the other hand, the increase of violence in rural areas characterized by the abundance of natural resources. These two problems can be linked through the complex dynamics of natural resources appropriation. Among the natural resources affecting the course of the post-conflict in Colombia, gold appears as one of the most relevant sources of violence and environmental degradation. This condition makes it crucial to understand the complex local dynamics of mining regions in order to propose alternatives for consolidating a sustaining peace. The armed groups, the state, the private companies, and traditional gold mining communities are all stakeholders involved in gold mining and the conflicts around this activity. Nevertheless, communities have been denied as a formal actor. This work aims to give voice to those communities, understanding them as a key actor for peacebuilding. This research seeks to understand the relationship between gold mining and the social-armed conflict in Colombia, to identify which are the drivers for the increasing of this activity during the post-conflict, as well as which strategies developed by traditional gold mining communities can contribute to peacebuilding. Thus, an integrative analytical framework is developed. This theoretical framework integrates 1) environmental peacebuilding to evaluate the possibilities of natural resources to becoming tools for cooperation, and 2) political ecology to clarify, from a multi-scalar approach, the socio-political context in which the conflict takes place. Hence, from a qualitative approach that involves several ethnographic methods is found that artisanal-ancestral miners and traditional miners organized to remain in their territories in a context of dispossession, have developed socio-ecological systems and natural resources management strategies relevant to implement initiatives of environmental peacebuilding that can be sustained over time and aimed to overcome the structural causes of violence and environmental degradation.

Die 10. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung fand am 7. Juli 2017 in Niederkassel bei Köln statt. Etwa 80 Repräsentanten der in dem Förderkreis mitwirkenden (Rück-) Versicherungsunternehmen sowie eingeladene Gäste nahmen daran teil. Im Rahmen der Jahrestagung wurde zum dritten Mal der Researchers‘ Corner durchgeführt, in dessen Verlauf neun der in der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung beschäftigten Wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter je einen Kurzvortrag zu dem individuellen Forschungsprojekt hielten. Des Weiteren führte von Prof. Materne Interviews mit den Herren Lorenz Kielwein und Frank Baumann. Kielwein berichtete über die Anwendung der mathematischen Systemtheorie auf Change Management Prozesse und Baumann aus der Erfahrung seiner 30-jährigen Tätigkeit bei der Gothaer. In drei Sessions wurden jeweils parallel drei Kurzvorträge mit Poster gehalten und im Anschluss diskutiert. Die Heterogenität der vorgetragenen Themenschwerpunkte der Mitarbeiter spiegelt die Verzahnung der Forschungstheorie mit der Praxistätigkeit wider. In den Sessions haben folgende Vortragende in deutscher und englischer Sprache gesprochen: Runde 1 a) Fabian Pütz (M.Sc.) Alternative Capital und Basisrisiko in der Standardformel (non-life) von Solvency II b) Manuel Dietmann (M.Sc.) SFCR: Erkenntnisse zur erstmaligen Veröffentlichung c) Jan Böggemann (B.Sc.) Optimierung des Einkaufs fakultativer Rückversicherung eines Industrieversicherers Runde 2 a) Robert Joniec (M.Sc.) Actuarial Swap b) Lucas Kaiser (M.Sc.) Auswirkung verschiedener Determinanten auf das Rating von Rückversicherungs-unternehmen c) Lihong Wang (M.Sc., FCII) Chinese Automobile Vehicle Recall Insurance Runde 3 a) Sebastian Hoos (M.Sc., FCII) Kritische Analyse der Praxisanwendung der Ereignisdefinition b) Fabian Lassen (B.A.) Beschäftigte in der Rückversicherungsindustrie - Deutschland und USA c) Kai-Olaf Knocks (M.A., FCII) Autonomes Fahren - Evolution oder Revolution ? Dazu ist die Arbeit eines weiteren Mitarbeiters gekommen, der leider aus logistischen Gründen sein Forschungsprojekt an einem Poster aushängen, jedoch keinen Kurzvortrag halten konnte. Posterbeitrag d) Wolfgang Koch (B.A.) Public Private Partnership in Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländern Unser Dank gilt den Fördermittelgebern, die diese Veranstaltung erst ermöglichen und den Wissenschaftlern die Forschung zu ermöglichen.

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