Cape Town - The Oppenheimer Research Conference (ORC) is gearing up for a fierce return after a two-year hiatus in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC) team’s Dr Duncan MacFadyen and Rendani Nenguda said the ORC would work as a platform to showcase innovative scientific research and foster engagement and dialogue, and by so doing contribute African voices to global conversations on the environment and sustainability.
According to the research council, there is inadequate reporting on the impact of climate change on the African continent, by African voices.
The ORC conference is set to take place in Midrand, Johannesburg, on October 5 to 7.
The OGRC team said that its upcoming conference would reveal the best science out of Africa, and the critical perspectives needed to inform impactful action in some of the regions worst hit by global warming and ravaged by environmental and ecosystem collapse.
A study reported by the BBC earlier this year found that of the 100 most-cited climate research papers over the past five years, fewer than 1% of the authors were based in Africa.
Of the total 1 300 scientists involved, 90% were affiliated with academic institutions in North America, Europe or Australia, according to ORC organisers.
“We hope that this array of research will chart the path towards, and allow a realistic envisioning of a sustainable future for Africa and the world.
“South African marine geologist Andrew Green is quoted as criticising the fact that in, for example, the field of geoscience, although 3 573 high-impact articles a year are published, fewer than 4% have an African topic, and of those, fewer than a third have an African researcher as an author.
“Professor Ntobeko Ntusi, chairperson of medicine in the faculty of health sciences at UCT, has said that equitable collaborations are needed between African researchers and those from outside the continent, for improvement conduct in research.”
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs Barbara Creecy is expected to be the keynote speaker at the conference.
World-renowned paleoanthropologist Lee Berger and noted conservationist Mavuso Msimang will present innovative research in the ORC’s opening days.
Organisers say the week-long event will also be live-streamed, to allow the general public to virtually participate in the conference, which will also address some of the broader questions raised by researchers and policymakers on the post-growth or green-growth alternative development pathways for Africa and the dynamics of who is driving the conservation narrative in Africa.