Matt Kandel is a Research Fellow in Environmental Anthropology in the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Southampton. Among other engagements he works on two international research and capacity strengthening consortia projects, both of which are supported by the UK Global Challenges Research Fund: Building Research capacity for sustainable water/food security in drylands of sub-Saharan Africa (BRECcIA, 2018-21, implemented in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi) and Bridging national strategy on sustainable development of water-energy-food systems to local scale needs in Malawi (2020-21). His interests include land and natural resources tenure and governance, livelihoods, participatory research, landscape restoration approaches and strategies/initiatives supporting multi-level stakeholder engagement.
Landscape restoration creates opportunities for securing the land and natural resource rights of local land users as well for improving soil health, sequestering carbon, and enhancing biodiversity. In order to achieve synergies between these interrelated aims, restoration practitioners must carefully consider how projects are managed, particularly with regard to supporting equity in project design and planning—the focus of this blog.
By Matt Kandel, a Newton International Fellow in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS.
