Staff Profile
| Associate Professor Merle Sowman: Director | |
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Merle Sowman is the Director of the
EEU and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and
Geographical Sciences at UCT. She obtained her PhD in the field of
integrated coastal management from UCT in 1994, and has been involved
in research, consulting and teaching on integrated environmental and
coastal management since 1985. Her key areas of interest are
mainstreaming environmental sustainability issues into sector planning
and decision-making processes, co-management of coastal and small-scale
fisheries resources, and procedures and methods of environmental
assessment.
Over the years Merle has been involved
in a diverse range of research and consulting projects, ranging from
integrating environmental sustainability issues into the integrated
development planning process in South Africa, through investigating the
social, economic and institutional dimensions of the artisanal
fisheries sector in countries falling within the Benguela Current Large
Marine Ecosystem (BCLME), to assisting the FAO prepare technical
guidelines on human dimensions of the Ecosystems Approach to Fisheries
management. She is currently leading a team that is preparing a
Sustainable Development Implementation Plan for the Western Cape
government, the first action plan of its kind in South Africa.
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Merle has participated in a number of
environmental and coastal management policy formulation processes, and
has served at local and international levels on various technical
committees and advisory groups concerned with the management of coastal
and small-scale fisheries resources. Merle has extensive training and
capacity building experience in integrated environmental and coastal
management, and has directed and/or trained on over 30 short courses
and capacity building workshops throughout the SADC region.
Email: Merle.Sowman@uct.ac.za Phone: 021-6502863 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Dr Rachel Wynberg: Deputy Director / Senior Researcher |
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| Rachel Wynberg is a natural scientist
and environmental policy analyst, with more than fifteen years
experience in the environmental field. Since 1992, she has worked
actively on biodiversity issues with a wide range of international and
South African governmental, non-governmental and business
organizations. Rachel's work is focused on issues relating to the commercialization and trade of biodiversity and the integration of social justice into biodiversity concerns. Areas of research specialisation include the commercial use and development of indigenous southern African plants; policy issues relating to bioprospecting, natural product value chains, genetic resources, access and benefit-sharing; intellectual property rights and traditional knowledge; fair trade in southern African products; the impacts of genetically modified crops in developing countries; legal and strategic frameworks for biodiversity conservation and use; and strategic approaches to environmental assessment. She has participated in many policy formulation initiatives concerning these issues, both within southern African and internationally. |
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Rachel holds two Masters degrees, one
in Marine Biology, and the other in Environmental Science, both awarded
cum laude from the University of Cape Town, and a doctorate from the
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, focused on pro-poor models of
non-timber forest product commercialisation in southern Africa. Based
at the Environmental Evaluation Unit, University of Cape Town since
2005, Rachel is also a trustee and founding member of two South African
NGOs, the Environmental Monitoring Group, and Biowatch South
Africa.
Email: Rachel.Wynberg@uct.ac.za Rachel@iafrica.com Phone: 021-6502865 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Maria Hauck: Senior Researcher |
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Maria Hauck has a background in
criminology, having completed her BA (honours Criminology) at the
University of Edmonton (Canada) and her MA (Criminology) at the
University of Cape Town. She completed her PhD in early 2009, with a
specific focus on small-scale fisheries compliance. Maria spent six
years at the Institute of Criminology (UCT) before moving to the EEU in
2002. She has spent more than a decade researching informal (ie:
‘illegal’) fisheries, the compliance discourse and the underlying
social and political dynamics associated with these. This has led her
to explore alternative strategies to reactive law enforcement and thus,
she has gained expertise in the area of natural resource management and
governance. This has largely focused on establishing new approaches and
methods of achieving compliance and instituting partnership
arrangements between resource users and government. Maria’s current
research, which includes international and regional collaborations,
focuses on issues such as social justice, equitable benefit-sharing and
participatory management approaches, and how these relate to enhancing
sustainable fisheries governance.
Email: Maria.Hauck@uct.ac.za
Phone: 021-6502872 |
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| Serge Raemaekers: Postdoctoral Fellow | |
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Serge Raemaekers joined the EEU as a
post-doctoral research fellow in April 2009, after having completed his
PhD at Rhodes University where he analysed the governance approaches to
the abalone and lobster fisheries in the Eastern Cape Province. Serge
is a natural scientist with an MSc degree in bioscience engineering
from the University of Ghent (Belgium, 2003), but has gained expertise
in inter-disciplinary research on understanding and assessing
livelihoods and fishing practices, and while undertaking participatory
ecological and socio-economic research with local rural communities.
Since 2007, he has been contributing his research findings and ideas to
the South African small-scale fisheries policy development process. His
post-doctoral research engages with systems thinking and fisheries
governance theory with the aim to recommend governance models and
management approaches that are more applicable to small-scale fishers
‘realities.
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_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sandra Rippon: Senior Researcher Email: Sandra.Rippon@uct.ac.za |
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| Fahdelah Hartley: Office Administrator | |
Fahdelah Hartley is the EEU's Senior
Secretary and has been with the Unit since February,
2000. Fahdelah is responsible for reception and general
administrative duties namely workshop logistics,
travel and accommodation arrangements for members of
staff, liaising with sub-consultants, and HR matters within
the Unit.
Email: Fahdelah.Hartley@uct.ac.za Phone: 021-6502866 |
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| Aldino Arendse: Financial and Administrative Coordinator | |
| Email: Aldino.Arendse@uct.ac.za Phone: 021-6502883 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Kirsten Scott Kirsten Scott joined the EEU in May 2010 with a focus on
environmental management. She has capabilities in both the social and
environmental aspects of environmental management and is trained in
interdisciplinary thinking. Kirsten’s experience is mostly consulting
and includes project management of a Social Impact Assessment in South
Africa, as well as various socio-economic assessments for Environmental
Impact Assessments (EIAs) in the UK. Kirsten also has experience in the
application of World Bank standards to international projects, social
audits, planning of public consultations and strategies and
sustainability appraisal. In terms of EIA, Kirsten has been responsible
for project co-ordination and management and authoring of technical
elements of EIAs such as assessment of cumulative effects, land use
assessments and optioneering reports. Kirsten has worked in the
industries of waterfront development, regeneration, planning and rural
development, highways, power and waste. In terms of research, Kirsten
has contributed to studies involving natural resource management,
municipal planning, and environmental politics. Email: Kirsten.Scott@uct.ac.za |
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____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Nonhlanhla Philile Mbatha
Email: philile.mbatha@uct.ac.za _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Jaci Van Niekerk
Jaci van Niekerk holds a BSc Degree in Zoology from the University
of Stellenbosch and an MPhil in Environmental Management from the
University of Cape Town. Her Masters dissertation examined the
contribution of the international trade in a medicinal plant –
Pelargonium sidoides, to rural livelihoods in the Eastern Cape Province
of South Africa and the south-western regions of Lesotho. Her work at
the EEU focuses on researching issues related to biodiversity –
particularly the spheres of ‘Access and Benefit Sharing’ and the
commercial use of genetic resources. Kashiefa Parker
Kashiefa Parker is currently completing her Masters (MA) degree
within the Unit. For the past few years she has been working on
regional projects that focus on coastal management, knowledge
management and capacity building within local coastal communities along
the east and west coasts of Southern Africa. Her focus has also been on
co-ordinating and facilitating a unique online Stakeholder
Participation course together with the CPUT (Cape Peninsula University
of Technology). Her Masters dissertation and research focus within the
Unit focuses on the human dimensions of marine protected areas in South
Africa. It takes a particular interest in the relationship between
conservation initiatives and the socio-cultural lives of local fisher
communities. In addition to her background in coastal processes, other
interests lie in heritage preservation, traditional knowledge systems
and writing (she has contributed to various publications about and for
the Richtersveld region, including significant contributions to a soon
to be published indigenous knowledge book). Email: Kashiefa.Parker@uct.ac.za _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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