Scaling nature-based solutions for climate resilient infrastructure

Role: Co-I in Namibia
Project: Future Landscape Optimisation for peri Urban Resilience and ecosystem Health in Africa
Affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Namibia
ORCID ID: N/A
Email: N/A

Prof. John Mfune is a Full Professor of Ecology and Conservation Biology at the University of Namibia with over 30-years’ research and teaching experience. He is a distinguished ecologist with a PhD and MSc in Ecology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has significantly contributed to academia as a lecturer at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of Malawi and Namibia. His research spans a diverse array of fields, including host-parasite interactions in small mammals across Malawi and Namibia, human-wildlife conflicts near Etosha National Park, and the impacts of bush encroachment on the biodiversity of small mammals and invertebrates. His collaborative research efforts have explored emerging rodent-borne and shrew-borne viruses and the eco-physiological responses of ungulates to heat and drought in Namibia.

In addition to being a PI of FLOURISH, he is currently collaborating with the Institute for Virology, Germany on Future Infections: Linking social-ecological transformation and arthropod-borne infections in Zambezi region of Namibia. Notably, he participated in the Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands (FRACTAL) Project, contributing to the Integrated Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan for Windhoek. A key figure in public policy, Prof. Mfune led the drafting of Namibia’s Climate Change Policy and its associated strategy in 2010. He also spearheaded the development of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2011-2020) at the request of Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism under the UN CBD. His administrative roles have included Coordinator of the MSc in Environmental Science and Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Malawi, and various leadership positions at the University of Namibia, including Head of the Department of Biological Sciences, Head of Department of Environmental Science and Coordinator of the MSc Biodiversity Management and Research Program. Prof. Mfune is committed to mentorship, having supervised numerous students and served as an examiner for postgraduate theses across Southern Africa.