In March 2020, our new FORMAS project on climate stress in Syria was started. The project is a three-year interdisciplinary project for early career researchers, coordinated by Lina Eklund, with Pinar Dinc and Petter Pilesjö as collaborators.
The project starts from the Syria Climate-Conflict narrative, and asks in-depth questions about the affected socio-ecological systems. For example we plan to investigate the following broader questions:
- How did the 2007-2009 drought affect the Land System in Syria?
- What are the experiences of drought and land degradation of Syrian migrants in Turkey and Europe?
- What can we learn about the Syrian drought from the perspective of building resilience and reducing vulnerability in the agricultural and socio-ecological system?
We are still working out the details of the project, but for now (autumn 2020) we are planning the following:
- An annotated bibliography of peer reviewed literature focusing on the Syrian climate conflict narrative as part of our literature review
- An small-scale online workshop on Climate Stress and Conflict in Syria
- An initial publication on the effects of drought on the land system in Syria (discussing implications for migration and instability)
- A survey with Syrian migrants in Sweden, Turkey and potentially elsewhere
On this blog we will post updates about the project and related research, and everything relating to this project can be found under the menu item: Climate Stress Syria.
We look forward to sharing more information as we move along!
Population and Environment in the Middle East 