Fall 2024 Harry ’51 and Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series

Register to attend via Zoom.

Abstract

In this talk, Niwaeli Kimambo will share her ongoing work in Eastern Africa that links rural land use change to domestic urban actors. The work uses remote sensing analysis to track the emergence of tree crops (e.g., pine, eucalyptus, and avocado). Remote sensing analysis is paired with spatially explicit fieldwork from Uganda and Tanzania to argue that the rural tree crop boom is linked to new, urban-based land users. Direct involvement of urban-based citizens in rural land use signals a profound regional shift in rural land ownership and land markets. Dr. Kimambo will discuss the implications of this shift for environmental policy like tree-based landscape restoration, local ‘land grabs’, as well as geographic study of cross-scale phenomena.

About the speaker

Dr. Niwaeli Kimambo is an Assistant Professor of Geography and the C.V. Starr Fellow in International Studies at Middlebury College. She is an interdisciplinary researcher interested in teleconnections and rapid land use change. She has paid particular attention to rural East Africa’s tree crop boom of the past decade, spurred by involvement of distant urban dwellers. She earned her PhD and M.Sc. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.A in Geology and Environmental History from Brown University.

Seminar co-sponsor

Institute for African Development in the Cornell Einaudi Center for International Studies

About the seminar series

The Harry ’51 & Joshua ’49 Tsujimoto Perspectives in Global Development Seminar Series showcases innovative approaches to development with experts from around the globe. Each year, the series attracts online registrants from over 45 countries and more than 350 organizations. 

Seminars are held Wednesdays from 12:20-1:10 p.m. eastern time during the semester in 175 Warren Hall. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend in-person or via Zoom.

The series is co-sponsored by the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Integrative Plant Science as part of courses GDEV 4961, AEM 4961, NTRES 4961, GDEV 6960, AEM 6960, and NTRES 6960.