Cheikh Mbow

Cheikh Mbow

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Adjunct Professor, Environmental Science
Department of Forestry

Email:

Degrees:
Ph.D. (d’Etat), (2009). Cheikh Anta Diop University and University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Carbon stocks dynamics of tropical savannas.
Ph.D. (3e Cycle) (2000). Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal, Remote sensing and environmental science.
M.S. (1995). Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal, Physical geography.

Current Position(s)

Professor Cheikh Mbow, Director Future Africa Science at University of Pretoria

Phone: +1 202 462 2213 (work);

email: c.mbow@up.ac.za ; cheikhmbow04@gmail.com

Research Interests

  • Remote Sensing and GIS, Sustainability challenges, transdisciplinary, Agroforestry
  • Disturbances of savanna vegetative systems, particularly the impact of bush fires and other land cover changes in rural areas.
  • Climate change and above-ground carbon stock assessments, vegetation inventory the use for carbon models, and the monitoring of vegetative communities.
  • Tropical savanna woodland ecosystems fire dynamics and climate change effects on carbon storage and fluxes.

Overview

Cheikh Mbow is a research Professor and the Director of Future Africa at the University of Pretoria.  Cheikh Mbow served as the Executive Director of START-International in Washington DC and Lead Scientist on Climate Change at the World Agroforestry center in Kenya. He is Adjunct Associate Professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Forestry. He works on Global Change research capacities for developing countries in Africa and Asia. He worked on land productivity and climate change at the Institute of Environmental Sciences, an interdisciplinary institute of the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (UCAD).  At the university, he managed the research team CAREX (Climate Change, Adaptation and Environmental Risks). Over the past 23 years, Mbow has been active to raise funding and develop research and education partnerships. He established and coordinated the GOFC-GOLD Regional Network for West Africa (WARN) and worked in several regional programs such as AFRICANESS, AMMA (FP6), UNDESERT (FP7) projects, for the Global Atlas of the convention on Desertification, the GBO3 and for the GLO. Cheikh Mbow has been a Senior Scientist (Team Leader) on Climate Change and Development at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and supported the inter institutional program CCAFS (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security). He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor at Michigan State University's Department of Forestry where he supports integrated land use systems such as agroforestry.  With more than 120 publications on various sustainability issues, Mbow has proven transdisciplinary expertise on food security and sustainable production in Africa. His work focuses on natural resources management, capacity building and translation of scientific information to decision makers and various stakeholder groups. He is a Lead Author on the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) chapter in the IPCC's AR-5 and AR-6. Mbow is now a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Special Report on Food Security. He served in many Scientific Committees such as the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program-IGBP (2012-2014) and Future Earth (2013-2015). He contributed to many high-level science-policy documents for UN agencies.

Editorial Work

  • Editor: Global Environmental Change (Elsevier) from October 2020
  • Editorial Board Member for MDPI Journal “LAND”: Since 2018
  • Guest Editor: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability: Special Issue on Sustainability Challenges. Cheikh Mbow, Henry Neufeldt, Peter Akong Minang, Eike Luedeling, Godwin Kowero. Volume 6, Pages 1-170 (February 2014)
  • Guest Editor: MDPI Journal “LAND”. Special Issue "Advancing Methods and Models for Implementing REDD+ for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation"
  • Associate Editor: International Journal of Wildland Fires (2008-2012)

Academic Records

Google scholar

Research Gate

Performance Rating and Awards

  • DANIDA Alumni Prize 2018: https://alumni.dfcentre.com/nomination-for-danida-alumni-prize-2018
  • DANIDA Fellow from 1997-2000
  • Bourse D’Excellence 2002 : Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie-AUF, Post-Doc in Sherbrooke 
  • Visiting Scientist Award (2005 START-International), to Michigan State University USA
  • NASA Medal 2008 (LANDSAT-5, 25 Years), as part of the GOFC-GOLD effort in Africa
  • ICRAF Staff of the year: 2014
  • ICRAF best performance award: 2013, 2014, 2015
  • START Ranked 3rd Think Tank on Climate Change and Policy in Northern America 2016 (http://www.thinktankmap.org/NewsDetails.aspx?ID=81)
  • GLP-Global Land Program Fellow since 2017 https://glp.earth/user/301
  • IAM (Institut Africain de Management ) Ndiatigui Honorary Degree awarded on 15th of January 2021

Selected Citations (Since 2015)

  • UNCCD-Joint Research Center (JRC-EC)
  • IPCC-UNFCCC
    1. Mbow, C., C. Rosenzweig, L.G. Barioni, T.G. Benton, M. Herrero, M. Krishnapillai, E. Liwenga, P. Pradhan, M.G. Rivera-Ferre, T. Sapkota, F.N. Tubiello, Y. Xu, 2019: Food Security. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R. Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey, S. Luz, S. Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E. Huntley, K. Kissick, M. Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)]. In press.
  • Cherlet, M., Hutchinson, C., Reynolds, J., Hill, J., Sommer, S., von Maltitz (Eds.), 2018. World Atlas of Desertification. Rethinking land degradation and sustainable management. Publication Office of the European Union. Luxembourg.
  • Mbow, C. Halle, M., Beker, L., Thiaw, I., 2019. Land of opportunities: Framing contextual and practical solutions for lasting peace and prosperity in the Sahel. Background document for UNCCD Bellagio Workshop. 29 p.
  • United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). 2019. The Global Land Outlook, West Africa Thematic Report, Bonn, Germany, Cheikh Mbow (Edt).