ITCER e.V. and ITCER Kenya are non-profit, privately sponsored partner organisations in the tertiary education sector, focusing on scientific research, teaching and outreach in an international training centre in Siaya County in Western Kenya (see Location)
Background
East Africa’s natural ecosystems are rapidly degrading due to unsustainable exploitation and mismanagement resulting from an unprecedented human population increase combined and land use practices that are not sufficiently adapted to the adverse effects of climate change. Identifying solutions to the environmental problems requires a new class of managers and practical skills that enable timely identification and assessment of current and emerging indicators of unsustainable land use practices, which lead to land degradation.
Kenya has biological and physical resources that are of considerable domestic, international, economic and intrinsic value. It is estimated that the country has 35,000 known species of animals, plants and microorganisms. This wealth is fundamental to Kenya’s prosperity in many ways for example as a source of employment and foreign exchange earnings. Life and economy are based on natural resources such as water, rocks and soils. These and their ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from unsustainable use resulting in erosion, pollution, and depletion. Biological resources, which are sources of medicine, food, income, shelter and fuel, are only assured if sustainably used. The level of institutional awareness is encouraging. There is therefore need to educate and raise awareness of the general public of these matters. To meet the challenges and requirements of protection, conservation, and management of biodiversity, whilst containing and preventing the loss of biodiversity, the government is already addressing itself to specific management policies and measures, enforce current laws and biodiversity, formulate land use plans/ tenures and develop systems for rehabilitation and restoration. Climate change, combined and reduced resilience (amongst other things) exacerbates the already existing challenges and increases pressure on mountain people and ecosystems in Kenya and it’s neighbouring countries. Climate change further leads to flooding, droughts and soil erosion. Hence, there is need to mitigate climate change effect by promoting grass-root actions to build community resilience.
Organizational Structure
ITCER is a regional organisation, registered in Germany (e.V.) and Kenya as an international NGO. Both, ITCER Kenya and ITCER e.V. has a Board of Directors comprised of elected Board members. These Board members include representatives from Kenya and other international experts from different countries. ... more
Within the two Boards of Directors, a Management Committee is responsible for overseeing and reviewing ITCER progress. The Management Committees are comprised of the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary to the Board. In terms of staff capacity, both associations of ITCER together have a team of 20 professional staff headed by the Executive Director.
To offer high quality, use case-based training in environmental sciences for postgraduate students (MSc and PhD level), scientists, and members of various stakeholder groups from Kenya and neighbouring countries. ... more
To …
act as an outreach centre for concepts and materials to implement up-to-date environmental knowledge in tertiary institutions as well as to inform key actors and the local community in Kenya and its neighbour countries
improve the long-term conservation and sustainable use of natural resources
promote community development through resource self-sufficiency
carry out sustainable agriculture planning and development activities within the community
sustainably cultivate indigenous mushroom species and sensitize communities on tree and mushroom conservation, mushroom identification and uses
encourage group farming especially in food crop production, animal husbandry and fish farming and other self-help activities
work in close collaboration and related organizations, village development committees and other NGOs
enhance capacity building of its members by organizing and attending training workshops and conferences
carry out scientific research in related fields to improve production skills and facilities
Environmental Science Research and Training
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: integrate sustainable management of natural to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services for community livelihoods and human well-being.
Climate Change: facilitate regional mechanisms for assessing and addressing the impacts of climate change and promote grass-root actions to build community resilience.
Sustainable Agriculture: work with communities to promote sustainable agriculture.
Strategic approaches
Engaging strategic partnerships and leading players ... more
and facilitate regional collaboration and networking for better environmental, climate and conservation action as well as community empowerment
Development of a regional reference centre ... more
for information on environmental, climate change, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development
Partnering and empowering grass-roots community-based groups ... more
and working on responsible industries and companies to promote corporate social and environmental responsibility
Actions
Many higher education curricula focus more on theoretical aspect and have a gap in teaching of practical skills in newest methods. ITCER will fill this gap ... more
by providing relevant training units that combine theoretical and practical expertise and skills for field sampling, ecological modeling, detection, quantification, sequencing and analysis of environmental variables critical for sustainable ecosystem management. ITCER will launch a locally and internationally accredited training programme and courses designed to address current and future environmental and ecological challenges of the region, such as Biodiversity: Sustainable Use and Conservation; Water Quality and Soil Management; Climate Change and its Consequences; Landscape and Hydroscape Restoration; Human Health and Ecosystem Services; Pollution and Remediation; Environmental Data Management; and many more. In general, the addressed topics are defined around the Sustainable Development Goals and the regional government agenda, including Africa 2063.
ITCER facilitates networking of local, national and international players to enhance sustainable development through information and experience sharing.
ITCER empowers it’s network through policy dialogue, capacity building and policy engagement when implementing it’s work. ITCER works with all kinds of organizations including NGOs/CBOs, academic institutions, governments, industries, companies and business.
ITCER’s activities and the ground take an integrated landscape approach focusing mainly and environmental science research and training, protecting biodiversity and enhancing ecosystem services, mitigating impact of climate change, and building shared vision among stakeholders to address threats.
Activities
Educational Concept and Planning
ITCER bases its educational programme on international lecturers, who voluntarily share their specific expertise in particular state-of-the-art methods used in environmental research to students from Kenya and its neighbouring countries. ... more
Courses are short-term and will take place at the training centre including lab and field work. The lecturers will provide detailed information and their courses offered, which will be assessed by a management committee comprising Kenyan and German ITCER members for conforming to the ITCER statutes and for quality control. Interested students are welcome to apply for a certain course and are selected based on their background. For needy students, fee structure may be subsidised based on need and available funds. Accreditation of the course programme by the Commission for University Education (CUE; Nairobi, Kenya) is strongly aspired to issue certificates showing credit points that are recognized by the students’ home universities. Evaluation of the actual course programme and student admission is constantly administered by the management committee.
Programme
The envisaged academic learning programme is three-fold, as we will offer
over a period of 2 weeks and up to 15 MSc and PhD students per course: these training courses will combine diagnostics and measures by conveying skills in newest methods and their application in particular use cases.
and engagement of the local community to encourage participation in ITCER’s work and socially relevant issues of conserving and restoring the natural environment.
In addition, based on demands arising from the targeted training and the cooperation with universities in Western Kenya and beyond, scientific projects may be identified driving the use cases-based training approach to a further, more intense level of capacity enhancement in Kenya and its neighbouring countries.
Examples of Training Courses
ITCER courses offer
training and skills in the fields of vegetation science and conservation, plant
pathology and parasitology, omics-driven microbial ecology, soil science and hydrology,
biological informatics and data management, GIS-analysis and remote sensing.
(cellular, species, and ecosystem levels) will centre around disseminating knowledge on restoration of degraded lands and declining native species, addressing questions related to invasive species and assessment of environmental health and ecosystem services of the existing ecosystems. The training will introduce techniques for quantifying ecosystem functions and structure.
will address soil ecology, engineering, chemistry, and hydrology. Training is intended to provide sustainable solutions to the various forms of pollution and will be designed along biological control mechanisms. For instance, microorganism-bioremediation experiments for controlling plastic pollution in the environment will be conducted using fungi and bacteria to demonstrate the ability of the microorganisms to degrade plastics.
will address mycology, bacteriology and nematology. The training is intended to focus on sample collection from infected crops and plants and morphological, cultural, molecular studies and control measures will be demonstrated. This training will provide solutions to ensure food security and provide basic knowledge on the pathogen biology.
will focus on data integration and management in environmental research. The complete workflows with data pipelines are explained based and use cases and by applying the free open-source software tool Diversity Workbench (DWB) and its various components and particular strength of implementing data standards. The training covers particularly the setting-up of a database from scratch, data exchange formats, schemas and data transformations as well as the DWB GIS tools for working and managing georeferenced data.
Selected Specific Topics to be Taught at the Centre
Rhizosphere interactions impacting plant response to drought in semiarid environments
Soil and plant-associated mycobiomes — structures and interactions
Complex, adaptive responses of plants to changing environmental conditions
The economic importance of insects in agricultural systems
Interactions between ecosystem functioning and socio-economic needs of local communities
The role of secondary metabolites in plant health and defense mechanisms
Apply for a Course
(Functional as soon as training courses are announced)
Monitoring biotic and abiotic factors that influence biomass production in biodiverse grassland
Recent Publications
The activities within the framework of ITCER research are resulting in first publications: ... more
Kinge, T.R., Jefwa, J.M., Houdanon, R.D., Milenge, H.K., Abdel-Azeem, A.M., Gryzenhout, M., Triebel, D., Weibulat, T., Rambold, G.: Management and publication of scientific data on traditional mycological and lichenological knowledge in Africa, Lichenologist (2023). doi:10.1017/S0024282923000294
Gkoutselis, G.M., Rohrbach, S., Harjes, J., Obst, M., Brachmann, A., Horn, M., Rambold, G.: Microplastics accumulate fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems, Scientific Reports (2021). doi:10.1038/s41598-021-92405-7
Schweiger, A., Ullmann, M., Nürk, N.M., Triebel, D., Schobert, R., Rambold, G.: Chemical properties of key metabolites determine the global distribution of lichens, Ecology Letters (2021). doi:10.1111/ele.13930
Cheng, T., Chepkirui, C., Decock, C., Matasyoh, J.C., Stadler, M.: Sesquiterpenes from an Eastern African medicinal mushroom belonging to the genus Sanghuangporus, J. Nat. Prod. (2019). doi:10.1021/acs.jnatprod.8b01086
Chepkirui, C., Cheng, T., Sum, B.W., Decock, C., Matasyoh, J.C., Praditya, D.F., Steinmann, E., Stadler, M. Skeletocutins, A.L.: Antibacterial agents from the Kenyan wood-inhabiting Basidiomycete, Skeletocutis sp., J. Agric. Food Chem. (2019). doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.9b02598
Okach, D.O., Ondier, J.O., Kumar, A., Rambold, G., Tenhunen, J., Huwe, B., Otieno, D.O.: Livestock grazing and rainfall manipulation alter the patterning of CO2 fluxes and biomass development of the herbaceous community in a humid savanna, Plant Ecology (2019). doi:10.1007/s11258-019-00977-2
Okach, D.O., Ondier, J.O., Kumar, A., Rambold, G., Tenhunen, J., Huwe, B., Otieno, D.O.: Interactive influence of livestock grazing and manipulated rainfall and soil properties in a humid tropical savanna, Journal of Soils and Sediments (2919). doi:10.1007/s11368-018-2117-x
The ITCER facilities are developing with time. While the plot of land was purchased in 2016 and construction of the first building (hosting lab and seminar room) started in June 2018 (both financed via private financial means), the final finishes to the building are expected for mid-2022. ... more
This allows us to now begin developing and arranging for the academic learning programme in collaboration and universities in Western Kenya and responsible governmental bodies. In order to run the courses (the first seminars have taken plase in 2nd half of 2022), first donations are sought for further equipping the laboratory and IT (see Donation).
Location
LOCATION OF TRAINING CENTRE
ITCER is placed in Ng’iya along the road leading to Nyang’oma Kogelo. As such it is located in Siaya County in Western Kenya, 60 km by road from Kisumu at Lake Victoria (see Site map).
The location is characterised by a developed public infrastructure (transport, water, electricity). The site can be reached by public transport, and internationally from the airport in Nairobi and domestic flights to Kisumu. ITCER is placed in proximity to diverse natural ecosystems such as savanna, rainforest, and wetlands, which serve as training grounds for the field work.
The organismic diversity on the site is continuously monitored and the data is forwarded to international platforms. A selection of plants, fungi, animals and other organisms is presented here. It can whet your appetite to go and a plant, bird or insect safari, which can be done and site and in the surrounding area.
ITCER welcomes everyone interested in contributing to the training and communication of environmental science relevant for local communities in East Africa. ... more
As non-profit organisation in the tertiary education sector, ITCER’s functioning depends and donations and a lively community of active, academic and non-academic members and and financial support by the members. Financial resources are required for site management, further construction and equipment, as well as the support of training course participants.