Our Projects

Tuwe Pamoja

The PiNC Lab co-leads the Tuwe Pamoja project at ACDI, which aims to support the co-governance of equitable urban nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically the lab is:

  • co-leading the development and operation of a strengthening capacity and research framework across four pilot cities and scaling to African and global networks.

  • co-leading oversight to locally led strengthening capacity activities across four cities: Cape Town (South Africa), Lusaka (Zambia), Accra (Ghana) and Nairobi (Kenya), done by universities, NGOs and CBOs based in these cities

  • co-leading scaling approaches to support sharing across regional and international networks (WP3 co-lead).

Albatross

The PiNC Lab is part of the Albatross research consortium (2024-2027) that aims to co-create innovative climate services to support nature-based solutions in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically the lab contributes to:

  • Exploring needs and opportunities across a diverse set of user types (WP4 lead).

  • Modelling climate change and socio-economic impacts on ecosystems and ecosystem services (WP2 task lead).

  • Co-creation approaches in the Umzimvubu Catchment in South Africa (WP3 hub lead).

  • Development of services for supporting climate responsive decisions for nature-based solutions (Across WP tasks).

TES NbS

The PiNC Lab leads the TES NbS project, which aims to support equitable and sustainable nature-based solutions in southern Africa through greater awareness of the opportunities, constraints and limits of nature-based solutions. Focusing on southern Africa’s areas important for water supply (known as Water Towers) the Lab specifically explores:

  • Water-carbon ecosystem service trade-off and synergies with different types of nature-based solutions and climate change.

  • Constraints and enablers or social equity in nature-based solutions through reviewing and telling stories of past impacts.

  • the challenges and successes of sustainable grazing NbS programmes in Botswana and South Africa.

Climate Change Science Support for Unlocking Finance for Ecosystem-based Adaptation in South Africa

The PiNC lab co-leads the CCSS collaboration between ACDI and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), to provide science support to SANBI's Green Climate Fund programme of work.

Our work ensures that science underpins the development of a portfolio of ecosystem-based adaptation projects in South Africa with a focus on:

  • Disaster risk reduction, water and agriculture.

  • Supporting climate risk assessment processes.

  • Strengthening gender and equity in the SANBI Green Climate Fund ecosystem-based adaptation proposal development and in climate change adaptation research.