Climate Change, Food Security and Natural Resource Management

Dr. Behnassi obtained his Ph.D in 2003 from the Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences, Hassan II University of Casablanca for a Thesis titled: Multilateral Environmental Negotiations: Towards a Global Governance for Environment. In 2011, he completed a U.S. State Department-sponsored Civic Education and Leadership Fellowship (CELF) at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, USA and in 2014 he obtained a Diploma in Diplomacy and International Environmental Law from the University of Eastern Finland and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Finland. Dr. Behnassi has pursued several post-doctoral trainings since the completion of his PhD.His core teaching and expertise areas cover: environmental change, human security, sustainability, climate change politics and governance, human rights, CSR, etc. He has published numerous books with international publishers such as: Environmental Change and Human Security in Africa and the Middle East (Springer 2017); Vulnerability of Agriculture, Water and Fisheries to Climate Change (Springer 2014); Science,Policy and Politics of Modern Agricultural System (Springer 2014); Sustainable Food Security in the Era of Local and Global Environmental Change (Springer 2013), Global Food Insecurity (Springer, 2011); Sustainable Agricultural Development (Springer, 2011); Health, Environment and Development (European University Editions, 2011), and Climate Change, Energy Crisis and Food Security (Ottawa University Press, 2011). He has also published numerous research papers and made presentations on these at international conferences. In addition, Dr. Behnassi has organized many international conferences covering the above research areas in collaboration with national and international organizations and managed many research and expertise projects on behalf of various national and international institutions.



Olaf Pollmann, Ph.D

Dr. Olaf Pollmann is deputy head of the section "African Service Centers" in West (WASCAL) and Southern Africa (SASSCAL) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). He is responsible for the coordination of the entire process-management of all Africa-related activities. Especially the coordination, arrangements and result dissemination of the consultation results for the final preparation and implementation of the perpetuation of the African Centers by the African partners are essential duties. But also coordinated diplomatic negotiations with WASCAL- and SASSCAL-stakeholders and further actors of the African network are covered by the work of Dr. Pollmann. Beside these responsibilities Dr. Pollmann is also CEO of the company SCENSO - Scientific Environmental Solutions in Germany.



From 2007 till 2010 Dr. Pollmann worked as a post-doctoral research fellow in the field of sustainable resource management, waste reduction and water purification at the Department for Environmental Sciences and Development at the North-West University (NWU), Potchefstroom Campus in South Africa.

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