Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)

Spotlight

In our newsletter “Spotlight”, you can read articles and updates on

  • CDE research
  • project implementation
  • science/policy issues in the area of sustainable development and the environment

Archive

2023  I 2022 I 2021 I 2020 I 2019 I 2018

22 August 2024

Biodiversity: “We shouldn’t just accept continuous decline”

How can farmers be motivated to promote greater biodiversity? Mara Häusler investigated whether Swiss farmers are likely to create bigger, higher-quality, or more varied areas to support biodiversity when they are better informed about how biodiversity is evolving on their own farmland.

20 August 2024

workers sorting coffee beans

Rwanda: Coffee – “the cow that never falls”?

Coffee lovers and traders rave about it being one of the best coffees in the world: a specialty coffee consisting of 100 per cent arabica, cultivated and hand-picked by small farmers – and frequently advertised as “made by women!” But what’s really behind this good-sounding story? A CDE research team took a deeper look.

7 August 2024

Roger Bär

“Not all moors are the same”

In September 2024, Switzerland will vote on an initiative that aims to better protect biodiversity. In the run-up to the vote, supporters and opponents are using different figures to argue their case. But how do you actually measure the state of biodiversity? We put this question to Roger Bär, a scientist at CDE and the Swiss Biodiversity Forum.

3 July 2024

plate with fishbone

Impacts of the soy–meat complex in Santarém, Brazil

Studies on soy production in Brazil often focus on environmental degradation. However, the soy sector also jeopardizes local access to sufficient healthy food – and raises questions of justice, as research results from the CDE and the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro show.

26 June 2024

Ben Jann

“People as social beings should be at the centre of our sustainability discourse”

Ben Jann, Professor of Sociology at the University of Bern, is the new President of the CDE Board as of this year. In this interview he explains how sociology can contribute to sustainable development.

18 June 2024

Mining site, Moramanga

Ecological compensation: more side effects than expected

On closer inspection, it turns out that the largest mine in Madagascar is having a far greater impact on the forest than previously reported – despite the company’s efforts to provide ecological compensation. This emerges from an analysis of deforestation and forest degradation by a CDE research team.

23 May 2024

Chinwe Ifejika Speranza

“Small forests in West Africa are unique in their composition”

Changes in land use are putting tropical forests under pressure. At the same time, the potential of small forest patches to support biodiversity and climate protection is often underestimated. The importance of such forests is highlighted by an ERC research project led by Chinwe Ifejika Speranza.

1 May 2024

Panel discussion with Bernese politicians at Lerbermatt high school

High school students practised being change agents for climate action

How does climate policy work? Young people are particularly affected by it, but they often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the issues and political processes involved. In April, we visited a high school and worked with students to change this. Politicians from Bern also joined in.

26 March 2024

Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel

“Indigenous knowledge can help design new paths to better futures”

Indigenous peoples manage and care for over one quarter of Earth’s land surface. Yet their perspectives remain insufficiently accounted for in debates on conservation of biodiversity and cultural landscapes. Affording this knowledge equal space is the goal of an international Congress in May.