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Zentrum für internationale Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung (ZEU)

Center for international Development and Environmental Research

Human Development: Societies develop in the context of their economic, environmental, political and legal framework. On the regional scale, food security and education are strong determinants of this development. Nationally, the macro-economic setting and the stability of the political system are factors for transformation. Members of the ZEU apply a variety of methods in this Focus to investigate these topics, e.g. in Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Environmental Resources: This focus designs and applies multidisciplinary research methods to investigate the intrinsic interaction of natural, economic and social aspects of resources utilization. We particularly study biodiversity, soils, and water with regard to land use and climate change impacts and effects. Currently, we especially perform research projects in the Caucasus, the Mediterranean region and in East Africa.

Vision: Climate change, protection of resources, food security and water scarcity: today, none of these global problems can be described, treated or even solved in their entirety by one subject discipline alone. For this reason, the Center for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), which has been conducting applied developmental and environmental research on an international scale at Justus Liebig University since 1998, mainly works in an interdisciplinary manner.
Its orientation – with respect to subject and content – towards environmental and developmental aspects is based on the idea that ecological and economic influencing variables are mostly interdependent and should thus be treated in an interdisciplinary way. Who would, today, dispute the connection between poverty and the destruction of the environment? Sustainable solution strategies require a just access to resources for everyone, which can only be realised via the appropriate institutional parameters. Hence, the ZEU's problem-oriented approach focuses on providing an interface between social and natural sciences.