The 3rd Biennial International CEMEREM Conference on “Sustainable Mining and Natural Resource Management in Africa” successfully took place on 16th and 17th September 2021 at the Taita Hills Safari Resort in Taita Taveta, Kenya. Due to travel constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was held in a hybrid mode with both physical and virtual participation. In total, more than 120 participants attended the conference. While some speakers from outside Kenya including from Ghana, Namibia, Zambia, and Finland attended physically, German partners and speakers from the UK joined virtually. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Ghana accepted the invitation to appear as a guest speaker in Kenya.

The conference was structured into the following six thematic sessions in which speakers provided profound insights into mining and natural resource management:

1. State of mining and natural resource management in Africa: Past, present and future
2. Perspectives on natural capital and resource economics for sustainable development in Africa
3. Policy and technology implications for mining and natural resource management in the post-COVID-19 Africa
4. Revitalising agriculture for enhanced urban and rural livelihoods in the post-COVID-19 Africa
5. Decision support systems for sustainable mining and agricultural communities in the post-COVID-19 Africa
6. Education 4.0 and Mining 4.0: Post-pandemic frontiers for sustainable mining and natural resource management
   

The presentations generated active discussions and engagement from the audience on both days, attesting to the high interest in the sub-themes.

From March 2021 onwards, calls for abstracts for the conference were sent through the university website of TTU, via the TTU May graduation supplement in the main dailies in Kenya and as e-mail invitations to academics around the world. In total 39 abstracts were received. They were double-blind reviewed as anonymous abstracts by the technical committee of the conference. The accepted abstracts, for both posters and oral presentations, were translated into full papers. The latter are reviewed in turn and will be considered for publication in the CEMEREM Journal after satisfactory author responses to the reviewers comments.

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Centre Coordinator Jiangxue Liu TU Bergakademie Freiberg More blogs from this author

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