Professor Dr Muhammad Asif Raza
Guest Fellow, March to June 2022
Publications
Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk and Matthias Schmidt (accepted): Cash crop or food crop? Socioeconomic and geopolitical factors affecting smallholder farmer crop selection in times of crisis in southwestern Tajikistan", Frontiers in Agronomy. DOI: 10.3389/fagro.2023.1228165.
Alff, Henryk &Michael Spies (accepted): Introduction: Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighbourhood. In: Special issue in Eurasian Geography & Economics
Alff, Henryk (accepted): Maize-farming forever? Path dependency and friction in South-east Kazakhstan’s ‘post-Soviet’ borderland agriculture. Central Asian Affairs. Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’
Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Missall, Siegmund & Martin Welp (accepted): Path dependencies of (un-)sustainable land use in Central Asia. Central Asian Affairs. Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’
Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk & Matthias Schmidt (accepted): Is the new path a modified old path? Smallholder farmers’ perspectives to cotton farming in Khatlon, Tajikistan. Central Asian Affairs. Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’
Alff, H. (2022) Post-Soviet Decline or China-Induced Prosperity? Agricultural and Socio-Economic Change in the Kazakhstan-China Borderlands. In: von Löwis, S. and B. Eschment (eds.): Post-Soviet Borders: A Kaleidoscope of Shifting Lives and Lands, Routledge Borderland Series. Routledge: London.
Spies, M. (2022) Der chinesisch-pakistanische Wirtschaftskorridor. Versprechen und Widersprüche für den Agrarsektor Pakistans, Geographische Rundschau 75/4, 16-19.
Zuberi, M., Raab, C., Spies, M. (2022) Landnutzungswandel im Baumwollgürtel Pakistans. Gen-Baumwolle, Agrardiversifizierung und ökologische Herausforderungen im Süden des Punjab, Geographische Rundschau 75/4, 20-25.
Spies, M.; Zuberi, M.; Mählis, M.; Zakirova, A.; Alff, H.; Raab, C. (2022) Towards a participatory systems approach to managing complex bioeconomy interventions in the agrarian sector. Sustainable Production and Consumption.
PDF https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.03.020
Spies, M. (2021) Promises and perils of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Agriculture and export prospects in northern Pakistan, Eurasian Geography and Economics.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2021.2016456
Zuberi, M. (2021) Between Disconnects and Flows: Reflections on Doing Fieldwork in Rural South Punjab during the Covid-19 Pandemic, In: Südasien-Chronik - South Asia Chronicle 11/2021, pp. 521-540, Südasien Seminar der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, pp. 521-540. PDF https://www.iaaw.hu-berlin.de/de/region/suedasien/publikationen/sachronik/sachronik
Spies, M., Schick, A., Karomatov, S., Bakohodzha, B., Zikriyohon, K., Jobirov, S., Bloch, R., Ibisch, P.L. (2021) Adapting a participatory and ecosystem-based assessment impacted by the pandemic: Lessons learned with farmers in Tajikistan. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.750252
Schmidt, M., Steenberg, R., Spies, M. & Alff, H. (eds.) (2021) Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia. (Geographica Augustana 33), Augsburg.
Spies, M. and Welp, M. (2021): Stakeholder-based knowledge mapping for re-establishing agroforestry systems in Central Asia. In M. Schmidt, R. Steenberg, M. Spies & H. Alff (eds.), Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia. (Geographica Augustana 33). Augsburg. pp. 38-48.
Luo, A., Zuberi, M., Liu, J., Perrone, M., Schnepf, S., Leipold, S. (2021) Why common action and interest are not enough for environmental cooperation. Lessons from the Chine-EU cooperation discourse on circular economy. In: Global Environmental Change, 71.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102389
Spies, M., Schick, A., Karomatov, S., Bakohodzha, B., Zikriyohon, K., Jobirov, S., Bloch, R., Ibisch, P.L. (forthcoming) Adapting a participatory and ecosystem-based assessment impacted by the pandemic: Lessons learned with farmers in Tajikistan, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
Alff, H. (forthcoming) Post-Soviet Decline or China-Induced Prosperity? Agricultural and Socio-Economic Change in the Kazakhstan-China Borderlands. In: von Löwis, S. and B. Eschment (eds.): A Kaleidoscope of Re-bordering and De-bordering of the Post-Soviet Space. Routledge Borderland Series. Routledge: London.
Alff, H., & Spies, M. (2020) Pfadabhängigkeiten in der Bioökonomie überwinden? Landwirtschaftliche Intensivierungsprozesse aus sozial-ökologischer Perspektive. PERIPHERIE 159/160, 334-359.
https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v40i3-4.06
Spies, M., & Alff, H. (2020) Assemblages and complex adaptive systems: A conceptual crossroads for integrative research? In: Geography Compass 14 (10): e12534.
https://doi.​org/10.1111/gec3.12534
Spies M. (2020) Mixed manifestations of climate change in high mountains: insights from a farming community in northern Pakistan. Climate and Development. 12(10): 911–922.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2019.1701974
Ruppert D., Welp M., Spies M., Thevs N. (2020) Farmers’ perceptions of tree shelterbelts on gricultural land in rural Kyrgyzstan. Sustainability. 12(3): 1093.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031093
Spies M. (2020) Agrarwandel und sozial-ökologische Nachhaltigkeit.
https://www.wissenschaftsjahr.de/2020-21/aktuelles-aus-der-biooekonomie/koepfe-des-wandels/agrarwandel-und-sozial
oekologische-nachhaltigkeit
Alff H. (2020) Review of: Thomas, Alun (2018) Nomads and Soviet Rule: Central Asia under Lenin and Stalin. London et al.: Bloomsbury. Nomadic Peoples 24(2): 352-54.
Alff H. (2020) Belts and roads every- and nowhere: conceptualizing infrastructural corridorization in the Indian Ocean. Environment & Planning C: Politics and Space. Special issue on ‚Politics and spaces of China's Belt and Road Initiative‘
https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654420911410
Alff H. (2020) Re-assembling the Silk Road(s) from a heritage perspective. In: Review forum on Winter, Tim (2019): Geocultural Power: China's Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty-First Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. In: Political Geography.
Zuberi M. (2020) Agriculture in flux: Insights into agricultural transformations and possible scenarios in South Punjab, Pakistan. In: Follmann, Alexander, Müller, Judith und Falk, Gregor C. (Hrsg.): Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge zu Südasien, 10. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 24./25. Januar 2020, Freiburg, Heidelberg; Berlin: CrossAsia-eBooks, 2020, Geographien Südasiens, Band 12), 31-34.
https://doi.org/10.11588/xabooks.796
Publications
Spies, M. (2024): Agriculture and Chinese Agribusiness Investments in the Context of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In P. Abb, F. Boni & H. H. Karrar (eds.), China, Pakistan and the Belt and Road Initiative: The Experience of an Early Adopter State. London: Routledge, pp. 33-51. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032633411-3
Zuberi, M., Spies, M., Ø. Nielsen, J.Ø. (2024): Is there a future for smallholder farmers in Bioeconomy? The case of ‘improved' seeds in South Punjab, Pakistan. Forest Policy and Economics Volume 158. Special issue on ‘Bioeconomy Governance in the Global South: State of the Art and the Way Forward’.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2023.103100
Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Raab, Christoph; Zakirova, Aksana and Mehwish Zuberi (eds.)(2023): Sustainable Food and Biomass Futures? Localised Approaches to Agricultural Change and Bioeconomy. Eberswalde. https://doi.org/10.57741/opus4-837.
Alff, Henryk & Michael Spies (2023): Introduction: Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighbourhood. In: Eurasian Geography & Economics 64 (7-8): 797-810. (Special issue ‚Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighborhood‘)
https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2023.2258150
Alff, Henryk; Konysbayev, Talgarbay, and Ruslan Salmyrzauly (2023): Old stereotypes and new openness: Discourses and practices of trans-border re- and disconnection in south-eastern Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector. In: Eurasian Geography and Economics 64 (7-8): 896-918. (Special issue ‚Coexistence or competition for resources? Transboundary transformations of natural resource use in China’s neighborhood‘)
https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2023.2169184
Alff, Henryk (2023): Maize-farming forever? Path dependency and friction in South-east Kazakhstan’s ‘post-Soviet’ borderland agriculture. Central Asian Affairs 10 (2023): 270-292. (Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’).
DOI: 10.30965/22142290-bja10040.
Spies, Michael; Alff, Henryk; Missall, Siegmund & Martin Welp (2023): Path dependencies of (un-)sustainable land use in Central Asia. Central Asian Affairs 10 (2023): 239-269. (Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’).
doi:10.30965/22142290-bja10039.
Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk and Matthias Schmidt (2023): Cash crop or food crop? Socioeconomic and geopolitical factors affecting smallholder farmer crop selection in times of crisis in southwestern Tajikistan", Frontiers in Agronomy.
DOI: 10.3389/fagro.2023.1228165.
Zakirova, Aksana; Alff, Henryk & Matthias Schmidt (2023): Is the new path a modified old path? Smallholder farmers’ perspectives to cotton farming in Khatlon, Tajikistan. Central Asian Affairs 10 (2023): 213-238. (Special issue on ‘Life in the Province: Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformations outside the Capital Cities – A ‘Global Province’ in Central Asia’).
DOI: 10.30965/22142290-bja10038.
Alff, H. (2022) Post-Soviet Decline or China-Induced Prosperity? Agricultural and Socio-Economic Change in the Kazakhstan-China Borderlands. In: von Löwis, S. and B. Eschment (eds.): Post-Soviet Borders: A Kaleidoscope of Shifting Lives and Lands, Routledge Borderland Series. Routledge: London.
Spies, M. (2022) Der chinesisch-pakistanische Wirtschaftskorridor. Versprechen und Widersprüche für den Agrarsektor Pakistans, Geographische Rundschau 75/4, 16-19.
Zuberi, M., Raab, C., Spies, M. (2022) Landnutzungswandel im Baumwollgürtel Pakistans. Gen-Baumwolle, Agrardiversifizierung und ökologische Herausforderungen im Süden des Punjab, Geographische Rundschau 75/4, 20-25.
Spies, M.; Zuberi, M.; Mählis, M.; Zakirova, A.; Alff, H.; Raab, C. (2022) Towards a participatory systems approach to managing complex bioeconomy interventions in the agrarian sector. Sustainable Production and Consumption.
PDF | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.03.020
Spies, M. (2021) Promises and perils of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Agriculture and export prospects in northern Pakistan, Eurasian Geography and Economics.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2021.2016456
Zuberi, M. (2021) Between Disconnects and Flows: Reflections on Doing Fieldwork in Rural South Punjab during the Covid-19 Pandemic, In: Südasien-Chronik - South Asia Chronicle 11/2021, pp. 521-540, Südasien Seminar der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, pp. 521-540.
PDF
|
https://www.iaaw.hu-berlin.de/de/region/suedasien/publikationen/sachronik/sachronik
Spies, M., Schick, A., Karomatov, S., Bakohodzha, B., Zikriyohon, K., Jobirov, S., Bloch, R., Ibisch, P.L. (2021) Adapting a participatory and ecosystem-based assessment impacted by the pandemic: Lessons learned with farmers in Tajikistan. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.750252
Schmidt, M., Steenberg, R., Spies, M. & Alff, H. (eds.) (2021) Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia. (Geographica Augustana 33), Augsburg.
Spies, M. and Welp, M. (2021) Stakeholder-based knowledge mapping for re-establishing agroforestry systems in Central Asia. In M. Schmidt, R. Steenberg, M. Spies & H. Alff (eds.), Beyond Post-Soviet: Layered Legacies and Transformations in Central Asia. (Geographica Augustana 33). Augsburg. 38-48.
Alff, H. and Spies, M. (2020) Pfadabhängigkeiten in der Bioökonomie überwinden? Landwirtschaftliche Intensivierungsprozesse aus sozial-ökologischer Perspektive. PERIPHERIE 159/160, 334-359.
https://doi.org/10.3224/peripherie.v40i3-4.06
Spies, M. and Alff, H. (2020) Assemblages and complex adaptive systems: A conceptual crossroads for integrative research? In: Geography Compass 14 (10).
https://doi.​org/10.1111/gec3.12534
Spies, M. (2020) Commercialization versus de-intensification? Markets, livelihoods and agricultural change in northern Pakistan. ASIEN.
https://doi.org/10.11588/asien.2020.156/157.15352
Ruppert, D., Welp, M., Spies, M., Thevs, N. (2020) Farmers’ perceptions of tree shelterbelts on gricultural land in rural Kyrgyzstan. Sustainability. 12(3): 1093.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031093
Spies, M. (2020) Agrarwandel und sozial-ökologische Nachhaltigkeit.
https://www.wissenschaftsjahr.de/2020-21/aktuelles-aus-der-biooekonomie/koepfe-des-wandels/agrarwandel-und-sozial
oekologische-nachhaltigkeit
Zuberi, M. (2020) Agriculture in flux: Insights into agricultural transformations and possible scenarios in South Punjab, Pakistan. In: Follmann, Alexander, Müller, Judith und Falk, Gregor C. (Hrsg.): Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge zu Südasien, 10. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 24./25. Januar 2020, Freiburg, Heidelberg; Berlin: CrossAsia-eBooks, 2020, Geographien Südasiens, Band 12), 31-34.
https://doi.org/10.11588/xabooks.796
Selected Posters
Zuberi, M., Spies, M., Mählis, M., Alff, H., Zakirova, A., Raab, C. (2021) Participatory knowledge mapping as a basis of decision making for sustainable agrarian land use systems, poster presented at Landscape 2021 - Diversity for Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture , Berlin, 20-22 September 2021.
Raab, C and Spies, M. (2019) Object-based characterisation of agricultural land use
trajectories in Central Asia, poster presented at 9th Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing: Agriculture, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 16-20 September 2019.
"Bioeconomy as Societal Change"
Network of Junior Research Groups
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
This webpage is maintained by social science oriented junior research groups, including TRANSECT, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the Program „Bioeconomy and Societal Change“. It aims at sharing research results and at informing about ongoing research activities and related events. For detailed information please also visit our individual project websites.
“Environing Infrastructure: Communities, Ecologies, and
China’s 'Green' Development in Contemporary Southeast Asia”
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society,
Ludwig Maximilians University Munich
Environing Infrastructure: Communities, Ecologies, and China’s “Green” Development in Contemporary Southeast Asia is a five-year research project (2020-2025) funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. It is carried out by a team of researchers based at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich. It focuses on the environmental components of Chinese large-scale infrastructure development in Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia, a major target for Chinese investments, is on the brink of numerous ecological crises. There is rising awareness across the region of the potentially devastating environmental impact of Chinese infrastructure projects. On the other hand, China is a crucial economic partner and a model of development.
Environing Infrastructure studies these dynamics by engaging with local communities and Chinese planners through long-term, comparative ethnographic research. Rooted in Social Anthropology and the Environmental Humanities, it explores the nexus of infrastructure development, local ecologies, and China's "green" framing of its global ambitions.
"Roadwork: An Anthropology of Infrastructure at China's Inner Asian Borders"
University of Zurich
‘ROADWORK: An Anthropology of Infrastructure at China’s Inner Asian Borders’ is a four-year research project (2018-2022) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and based at the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Zurich. The project team conducts ethnographic fieldwork along roads that have been designated as key links at the Sino-Inner Asian interface of the China-initiated Silk Road Economic Belt. Archival research and GIS analysis, two further research methods employed by the team, will help to identify social relations and temporalities that are difficult to capture through ethnography, but which nonetheless powerfully affect roads and travel in this region of Asia. The conceptual aim of the project is to propose a novel framework to theorize the social life of roads through a dialogue with the concepts of place and time, and to bring decay and maintenance to the centre of anthropological enquiry.
"China Made: Asian Infrastructures and the 'China Model' of Development"
Center for Asian Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder
and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences
at the University of Hong Kong
Over the past decade, China has invested tremendously in infrastructure development, resulting in dramatic social and cultural changes in both rural and urban regions. It has also promoted an infrastructural development model beyond its borders as part of a newly aggressive foreign policy. China Made is a partnership between the Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKIHSS), and is supported by an Asian Responsive Grant from The Henry Luce Foundation. China Made will explore both of domestic and international dimension of China’s infrastructure development. The project is also meant to shift the academic focus from broader geopolitical and international relations perspectives to a finer grained analysis of the infrastructures themselves and the on-the-ground social and cultural dimensions of their construction. It will involve three academic conferences – two hosted by CAS and one hosted by HKIHSS – postdoctoral and graduate research positions, and the development of online scholarly resources for project participants and the broader academic community.
"ÖkoFlussPlan"
Eberswalde University of Sustainable Development
Preservation of Selected Ecosystem Services in the Floodplains of Naryn / Kyrgyzstan Through Renewable Energies and Short Rotation Plantations, Including Sustainable Land and Water Management and Capacity Building,
In the semi-arid and arid climate of Central Asia, rivers and floodplains constitute important regional biodiversity hotspots and provide relevant ecosystem services. The floodplain ecosystems along the Naryn river in Kyrgyzstan are still in a largely natural state. Over a stretch of more than 600 km, its upper and middle reaches still preserved a completely unregulated dynamic river regime fostering riparian forests of rich biodiversity. The forests provide ecosystem services important for local inhabitants, such as the provision of pasture and fuel wood, recreation areas, and erosion protection. Yet, the persistence of the forests is compromised by overgrazing and excessive fuel wood extraction. In addition to that, planned hydropower plants threaten to disrupt the natural dynamics.
The overarching goal of ÖkoFlussPlan (BMBF 2019-2022) is to preserve the floodplain forests along the Naryn River and to offer and implement sustainable solutions for the local population. The present state of biodiversity will be recorded in one project area. The current use pressure will be reduced by offering alternatives for removing wood: On the one hand, short rotation plantations will be established that can replace the wood from the forests, on the other hand modern technologies for the generation of renewable energies will be displayed as pilot facilities. The project strives for a close dialogue with the local population in order to integrate local knowledge and to communicate the project results back to the local stakeholders. Embedded in a big partner setting covering a multitude of research disciplines and implementation approaches, the activities of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) will focus on stakeholder analysis, stakeholder workshops, and capacity building.
"Bioeconomy as Societal Change"
Network of Junior Research Groups
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
This webpage is maintained by social science oriented junior research groups, including TRANSECT, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the Program „Bioeconomy and Societal Change“. It aims at sharing research results and at informing about ongoing research activities and related events. For detailed information please also visit our individual project websites.
“Environing Infrastructure: Communities, Ecologies, & China’s 'Green' Development in Contemporary Southeast
Asia”
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich
Environing Infrastructure: Communities, Ecologies, and China’s “Green” Development in Contemporary Southeast Asia is a five-year research project (2020-2025) funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. It is carried out by a team of researchers based at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich. It focuses on the environmental components of Chinese large-scale infrastructure development in Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia, a major target for Chinese investments, is on the brink of numerous ecological crises. There is rising awareness across the region of the potentially devastating environmental impact of Chinese infrastructure projects. On the other hand, China is a crucial economic partner and a model of development.
Environing Infrastructure studies these dynamics by engaging with local communities and Chinese planners through long-term, comparative ethnographic research. Rooted in Social Anthropology and the Environmental Humanities, it explores the nexus of infrastructure development, local ecologies, and China's "green" framing of its global ambitions.
"Roadwork: An Anthropology of Infrastructure at China's Inner Asian Borders"
University of Zurich
‘ROADWORK: An Anthropology of Infrastructure at China’s Inner Asian Borders’ is a four-year research project (2018-2022) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and based at the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Zurich. The project team conducts ethnographic fieldwork along roads that have been designated as key links at the Sino-Inner Asian interface of the China-initiated Silk Road Economic Belt. Archival research and GIS analysis, two further research methods employed by the team, will help to identify social relations and temporalities that are difficult to capture through ethnography, but which nonetheless powerfully affect roads and travel in this region of Asia. The conceptual aim of the project is to propose a novel framework to theorize the social life of roads through a dialogue with the concepts of place and time, and to bring decay and maintenance to the centre of anthropological enquiry.
"China Made: Asian Infrastructures and the 'China Model' of Development"
Center for Asian Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong
Over the past decade, China has invested tremendously in infrastructure development, resulting in dramatic social and cultural changes in both rural and urban regions. It has also promoted an infrastructural development model beyond its borders as part of a newly aggressive foreign policy. China Made is a partnership between the Center for Asian Studies (CAS) at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKIHSS), and is supported by an Asian Responsive Grant from The Henry Luce Foundation. China Made will explore both of domestic and international dimension of China’s infrastructure development. The project is also meant to shift the academic focus from broader geopolitical and international relations perspectives to a finer grained analysis of the infrastructures themselves and the on-the-ground social and cultural dimensions of their construction. It will involve three academic conferences – two hosted by CAS and one hosted by HKIHSS – postdoctoral and graduate research positions, and the development of online scholarly resources for project participants and the broader academic community.
"ÖkoFlussPlan"
Eberswalde University of Sustainable Development
Preservation of Selected Ecosystem Services in the Floodplains of Naryn / Kyrgyzstan Through Renewable Energies and Short Rotation Plantations, Including Sustainable Land and Water Management and Capacity Building,
In the semi-arid and arid climate of Central Asia, rivers and floodplains constitute important regional biodiversity hotspots and provide relevant ecosystem services. The floodplain ecosystems along the Naryn river in Kyrgyzstan are still in a largely natural state. Over a stretch of more than 600 km, its upper and middle reaches still preserved a completely unregulated dynamic river regime fostering riparian forests of rich biodiversity. The forests provide ecosystem services important for local inhabitants, such as the provision of pasture and fuel wood, recreation areas, and erosion protection. Yet, the persistence of the forests is compromised by overgrazing and excessive fuel wood extraction. In addition to that, planned hydropower plants threaten to disrupt the natural dynamics.
The overarching goal of ÖkoFlussPlan (BMBF 2019-2022) is to preserve the floodplain forests along the Naryn River and to offer and implement sustainable solutions for the local population. The present state of biodiversity will be recorded in one project area. The current use pressure will be reduced by offering alternatives for removing wood: On the one hand, short rotation plantations will be established that can replace the wood from the forests, on the other hand modern technologies for the generation of renewable energies will be displayed as pilot facilities. The project strives for a close dialogue with the local population in order to integrate local knowledge and to communicate the project results back to the local stakeholders. Embedded in a big partner setting covering a multitude of research disciplines and implementation approaches, the activities of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) will focus on stakeholder analysis, stakeholder workshops, and capacity building.
Research Interests
Curriculum Vitae
Pengshan Pan is a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. His fields are international political economy and development. His research focuses on international development and political economy, especially in Central and South Asia. In particular, he explores the interlinkages between foreign direct investment, nature and conflict. He is broadly interested in industrial policies in post-communist countries and China's footprint in Eurasia.
Aug 2017 – Current
PhD Candidate, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Aug 2014 – Dec 2016
Master of Science, Economics
University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI, USA
Sep 2009 – Jun 2013
Bachelor of Economics, Finance
Sichuan University Chengdu, China
Experience
mid-June /July / August / mid-September 2022
Visiting Fellow, TRANSECT
Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde, Germany
Mar / April /May / June 2022
Research Fellow, OSCE Academy Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Spring 2022
Participant, Economic Research Mentoring Program,
China-Russia Eurasian Studies Center Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Summer 2021
Participant, Virtual Summer School on Socioeconomic Inequality
University of Chicago / Hong Kong University of Science and Techology
Summer 2018
Participant, ICPSR Summer Institute, EITM Certificate
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Sep 2017 – Current
Research Assistant, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Sep 2016 - Apr 2017
Research Assistant, La Follette School of Public Affairs Madison, WI, USA
Conference & Seminar Presentations
Fall 2022 / Montreal, Canada & Fall 2021 Seattle, WA, USA, (virtual)
American Political Science Association Conference (APSA)
Spring 2022
Midwest Political Science Association Conference (MPSA)
Chicago, IL, USA
Summer 2022 / Tashkent, Uzbekistan & Fall 2021 Columbus, OH, USA, (virtual)
Central Eurasian Studies Society Conference (CESS)
Spring 2022
Graduate Students in International Political Economy (GSIPE), (virtual)
Summer 2022
Wisconsin Russia Project Workshop
University of Wisconsin–Madison, WI, USA
Summer 2021
Conceptualizing the BRI and its Effects Workshop
University of Toronto, Canada
Summer 2021
Political Science and International Relations Academic Community Conference
Tsinghua University Beijing, China
+49 (0) 3334 657 198